Planning first trip to IR

[Jfisher387]

Hello all,

Me and 2 friends plan to make a trip to IR to canoe/camp.

Just starting the real logistics of the trip, I believe we are heading there pending ferry reservations, at the end of august.

Think we would leave houghton on a Friday morning. I’ll attach my proposed path. But from what I was reading on here think I expect too much in too short of a time period. Plan is to make it from rock harbor, head north to the north shore over a few portages, then west down as far as the large lake.. can’t recall the name.. siskewe? Before heading to the bay west of there for ferry pick up, or time pending along the south coast back to rock harbor.

Seemed doable on paper, but I’m thinking it’s too far. Planned on leaving rock harbor Friday and getting off the island on Tuesday. If this is too far, is there any recommendations for that length of trip? I don’t mind paddling long days, or long portages. Just want a solid plan.

[Ingo]

Doing that loop in 3-4 days just sounds miserable to me. I'd want more like 9-10 days! But it's probably been done.
Unless you could come over from Minnesota, I'd suggest heading over to the north side and then back. There's a tough .8 mile, up and over the ridge portage between Tobin Harbor and Duncan Bay, but if I take you at your word, you're up to doing it twice (although you may hate me for saying that...). You can go as far as Pickerel Cove without being totally exposed to the big lake, and there's plenty of places to explore. And you can get in a hike up to Mt Franklin from Lane Cove. A big issue with a very aggressive trip is that you're very weather dependent and that adds pressure to put yourself in a dangerous situation in the exposed areas. There's a couple places you need to be careful, esp. heading out to Belle Isle, but most days it's OK. Have fun planning!

[Jfisher387]

I’m really interested in hitting the siskewe lake. Don’t know why, but it just sounds like a really good Goal. Would there be any paths to take that would be shorter that get me there?

Me and the guys are going over the trip plans this weekend all together, so maybe they have there one agenda.

I put this route into your spreadsheet and it didn’t seem overly ridiculous. There’s three of us in one 17’ canoe so we shouldn’t really have to double back for portages.

[johnhens]

If you want to paddle Siskiwit, there are a couple of ways to do it. You could get dropped off at Malone Bay and portage to Siskiwit and do a trip through to Chippewa either through Wood and Whittelsley or through Intermediate, Ritchie and back to Chippewa. Ritchie is having an algae bloom issue, do not take water from there. Maybe wipe your canoe down before going elsewhere. I agree with Ingo, the north side involves some open water paddling, not good in a canoe if the weather kicks up. Do not see your loop btw.

[Bobcat1]

One factor that noone has mentioned yet, is that if you end at Malone Bay campground (By Siksiwit Lake), to get picked up by a ferry there and returned to Rock Harbor would take you three days - first day picked up and taken to Windigo, second day waiting at Windigo, third day picked up at Windigo and taken to Rock Harbor. Then on the fourth day you would wait in Rock Harbor for the take your ferry back to Houghton on Day 5 because the Voyager II ferry and the Ranger III ferry are never in Rock Harbor at the same time, by design. The ferry that picks up at the "outports" (Not Rock Harbor or Windigo) only runs clockwise around the island, 2 or three times a week. The trip you are describing (Rock Harbor to Malone Bay) is doable, but your ferry schedule is complicated and will drive all your timing. I honestly don't think it's possible to do in one long weekend because of the ferry schedules.

Far better, with your limited time, to choose a loop you can do that starts and ends back in Rock Harbor, or utilize the water taxi - not sure if water taxi is even available this year and it needs to be scheduled in advance. If you three are strong paddlers and portagers, and you're bound and determined to get to Siskiwit Lake and back, arriving Friday and leaving Tuesday on the Houghton ferry, I think your best chance is to take the water taxi to Chippewa Harbor, on Friday right when you arrive. Then paddle and portage through Lake Whittlesay to Wood Lake on Saturday, to Siskiwit Lake to Intermediate Lake to Lake Ritchie (don't drink the water, just paddle through) to Moskey Basin on Sunday, and Moskey back to Rock Harbor on Monday. Your ferry leaves RH on Tuesday morning early. If the water taxi is not running this year, then either add more time to your trip or forget Siskiwit Lake. Bear in mind this is a pretty aggressive schedule, and you would need to be competent paddlers and efficient (1-trip) portagers to pull this off in such a short time. Forget the North shore.

Or, forget Siskiwit Lake as an objective, and portage over to the north shore as soon as you arrive on Friday late afternoon. You can be in Duncan Bay that night, spend Saturday, Sunday and half of Monday exploring the 5-Fingers region, and portage back to Rock Harbor on Monday afternoon. That would be a great trip too.

[HoosierHiker1202]

I’m not a canoer (canoeist?), but I was on the Isle in June and we were able to take a water taxi over to Raspberry Island. Not a far distance, but it was running.