We got up around 5:30am. After getting out stuff together and eating a granola bar, we headed out at 7:00am. We arrived at Lake Richie around 8:15am. We bumped into the other group that came to the island with the eight people that stayed with us at Three Mile and Moskey. We warned them that East Chickenbone wasn’t all that great of a campground, but I still think that they planned to stick to their agenda. After a ten minute break for water, we were on our way again at around 8:25am.
Along the way we bumped into two guys from Mississippi and the three guys we met on the voyageur who were dropped off at McCargoe Cove. I thought they were canoeing for some reason, but as it turns out, they were fishing and on foot. They told me that they had some luck and caught a couple of fish along the way near some of the off trail lakes, but passed on the idea of fishing at West Chickenbone because it was too reedy to do any onshore fishing.
We got to the West Chickenbone/Hatchet/ East Chickenbone intersection marker at around 10am. After a short water break, it was on to Hatchet Lake. There isn’t much to the first two miles of the hike toward Hatchet. It’s mostly flat and easy. About an hour into the hike is when you really start hitting the incline and rise in elevation. Shelly hated this part of the hike and needed some breaks in between hill humps, but I was unbothered by the extra energy that was exerted. I’d like to take a pause here and say that I am thankful to still be in my thirties. I know I said I wish I could go back in time to my twenties, but really a moment should be taken to be grateful for still being able to conquer any and all parts of Isle Royale without much strain or short windedness. I know as I get older, eventually my heart will have difficulties oxygenating my body due to its inefficiency to pump as many quarts of blood through my heart as it once was able to do when I was younger, something we all experience with age. In turn, things will become more difficult and I may not always be able to conquer the things with ease that I am able to now. Eventually, and taking matters even further, there will be a time where I will not be able to tackle certain things that I was once able to, never mind with ease. So with that said, I am thankful to God for having the healthy body that I have been endowed with. I am thankful to my parents, especially to my father, for inspiring me to live a healthy and active life. I am thankful for all of the things that I have been able to enjoy while being on the island, let alone life in general. My hope is that if I continue to take care of this body that I will still have many years to come where I am able to travel about the island and be a witness to the many beautiful things it offers. We are so lucky with every trip we get to take to the island, and even though I may seem to realize how lucky I am, I know with age it will probably seem as though I took things for granted. I feel as though you can never really appreciate something to its fullest extent until it no longer exists. I know this may sound pessimistic and melancholy in essence, but at least for now; it is these thoughts that allow me to appreciate every second on the island. Perhaps, in the future towards the days of my twilight, I will be comforted by the fact that my kids and their children will still be taking trips and touring around the island when my body does not allow me to make such visits. It will be their experiences and pictures that will rekindle the flames of joy that the island once brought me. I know that was completely off topic, but I felt compelled to share my thoughts as they entered my mind in my moments of reflecting on my last trip. Not to worry, I don’t believe I will be going off track again as I continue with my trip report. Now where was I?
Oh yes, so Shelly hates hills and huge rises in elevation on the trail. The Hatchet Lake path did not get exempted off of her hated list, but she did it. She always does. She pushes through hills, blisters, pain, tears, I am not sure if blood yet, but ya, pretty much almost anything you can think of. She is a much stronger backpacker than myself mentally.
About a half hour after leaving the trail marker that is at the intersection of Hatchet, West Chickenbone, and East Chickenbone; we bumped into a bearded gentleman with a camera. He said he had just come from Hatchet Lake and that two of his buddies were trailing behind him a ways back. He said that on his way into Hatchet on the previous day, he came upon a cow and her calf. It was a 26-minute encounter and they seemed comfortable being in his presence eating. The time was 10:32am when we departed each other’s company. The guy said he was headed to Moskey and his friends were headed to Chippewa Harbor. He was going to spend an extra day there and wait for his friends to meet him at Moskey.
Once we did get to the top of the ridgeline after doing one of Shelly’s least favorite hiking parts of the island, we took our packs off, drank a little, snacked on some trail mix, loaded up on some gummy hydration sharks, and then set off after taking a 20 minute break. Eventually somewhere down the line a little after 11:30am we bumped into the bearded man’s friends. We got to talking about the cow and calf they saw and the wolf at Siskiwit Bay that the guy we had met earlier forgot to make mention of. With further conversation, it was mentioned that I was Rafiki from the Isle Royale Forum boards. Then out of nowhere the guy with the black beard told me he knew who I was and saw my posting about my solo trip report in May. His name of the board is “dominate the trail”, and while he doesn’t post much, he told me that the guy we met earlier does and that his name on the forums is “tightlines”. I made them aware of the fact that I’d definitely seen the name tightlines floating around the boards before. Shortly after we headed on our ways, we bumped into a couple who also recently left out of Hatchet Lake. They seemed like they had a tough first day and did not get into South Desor as early as they wanted to. I forgot where they were headed, but I think it was West Chickenbone.
We got to the Hatchet Lake marker at 2:15pm and by the time we made it to the junction that pointed to the direction of the campsites and to Todd Harbor, it was 2:25pm. We made it to site #2 at 2:30pm. While setting up our equipment we noticed that site #4 was taken by a couple from New York (the Andirondacks). We are not sure if site #5 was occupied at the time, but eventually it would be when we went to scope out the campgrounds.
Here is a view towards the top of ridgeline looking down the path leading to Hatchet Lake:
Here is the map of Hatchet Lake Campgrounds:
In the process of dealing with setting up our tent, we met Dave from site #4 as he passed out campsite towards the trailhead. Five minutes later, he passed our site again as he headed back to his site. We thought that he went to use the toilet. However, two minutes later, he was passing our site for a third time with his wife. I wondered what the heck he was up to, and as if he could read my mind, he stopped to inform me that there was a cow and calf on the trail that led back to the ridgeline of the Greenstone trail. Shelly and I dropped what we were doing and followed quickly behind. Unfortunately, Shelly was not able to keep pace with her sandals, and for fear of losing where Dave and Sue (his wife) were headed; I pushed forward at a faster rate. I thought I almost lost track of them before I got a peak of one of their jackets as they scaled up the hill to the ridgeline. I finally caught up to them as they laid still staring at what was in the forest ahead of them. I couldn’t see anything until they pointed out the cow and calf a far way off. I tried taking some pictures, but they weren’t coming in good with how far the moose were from us. I wasn’t helping matters much either with all the noises my camera was making with each shot I took. Thankfully, I would eventually figure out how to turn off all the digital sound effects that sounded during each picture I took so I would not draw attention to myself in the future.
Here's Mommaz and Babyz, while not the best pictures ever, I like the last one most:
After about 10 minutes Sue and Dave threw in the towel at trying to see if the animals would come closer to us for a better shot. It turned out to be a good idea, because I probably waited for another 20 minutes after that, but the moose only continued to get further and further away until I could barely make them out. On my way back to the campsite, I saw a naked girl from the back, I thought it was Shelly and went to go talk to her. However, I soon realized that the person I was coming upon was not my girlfriend and that the naked girl was talking to another naked girl. Luckily, things became evident before either of them saw me coming their way. And once again, thank god I learned how to turn off the digital noises on my camera if you get my drift
Just kidding!!! The two of them were staying at group site #3. Even though there were only two of them, I guessed they liked that site compared to the #3 individual site. I encountered them earlier when I was trying to catch up with Dave and Sue. They were talking about who farts more or something to the effect, I interjected with a joke about their debate only to leave them bursting out into embarrassed laughter. I never got to introducing myself formally, but you could tell that they were enjoying themselves throughout the evening with their girlish laughter that could be heard at random moments.After Shelly and I had the site set up, I took a tour of the campgrounds. After exploring the area, I hung out with Sue and Dave at site #4 for a while. We talked about how this was their first time to the island. We talked about how we both liked Granite Gear backpacks. We talked about lightweight backpacking and how low we were able to get the weights down in our packs. I think Dave said his pack was 26Lbs and Sue said hers was 20Lbs for a one-week trip. It was nice exchanging thoughts and ideas on how to get even lighter by using different strategies. It was definitely a very enjoyable conversation for me. I have not bumped into many people as eager as we are to lighten our loads and constantly try to think outside of the box with how things could be done better.
On my return to the campsite, Shelly was still half asleep. Once she fully awoke, we made dinner. Shelly’s foot was sour so I took the liberty of washing the dishes and filtering water. Usually our system involves me pumping of the water and her rinsing off our dinner pots. Unfortunately, I had to do my chores in the dark, because we had a late dinner. It did not help that my batteries were starting to die and make my headlamp dim. Shelly laughed at the matter when I got back to the tent, because as we looked at the map to see what our hiking conditions would be like for tomorrow, she asked me why I didn’t turn my headlamp on so our combined light would show the map better. I told her it was on and she said I needed to put in my new batteries, which I did on the following night. It was around 59 degrees when we went to sleep at around 9pm. We would set the alarm early and get up at 4:30am so we could make it to Malone Bay by noon.
Guess the little guy was after our nuts, but granola crumbs would have to do:
Sorry for the delay.
Sorry.
