165 Miles in 33 Years: Part II

[Nick]

After setting up camp, we hiked the second leg of my undiscovered trails: the trail from Hatchet Lake to the Minong Ridge Junction. We moved along pretty quickly and were back at camp in a couple of hours. After a dinner of my infamous "Camp Sludge" I retired to my trusty Light Wedge and Kat took up a position in her bivey sack several yards away (she claims I snore, although I've never heard it.) Great sleeping night, but I was worried about the .3 mile ascent to the Greenstone the next morning.

44-0608 Waking up at Hatchet Lake.JPG (12.77 KiB) Viewed 3878 times

The Mummy Lives!

On Monday morning, after a breakfast of cous-cous and fruit, it was time to make the ascent up to the Greenstone. For me, it was a tough climb for two reasons: it was steep and I'd psyched myself out. It took me about 1/2 hour while Kat, the hiking machine, waited patiently for me at the Hatchet-Desor junction. We headed for Ishpeming Tower.

Two hours later, Ishpeming Tower appeared through the trees. Kat and I walked hand-in-hand the last 20 feet and touched the base of the tower together. I felt like Rocky Balboa (cue the music). 165 miles in 33 years of visiting ISRO.

47-0608 165 Miles in 33 Years.JPG (15.4 KiB) Viewed 3877 times

After a lunch, we headed out to South Desor. The hike seemed quick and uneventful, although there was a threat of rain. We arrived at South Desor and set up camp just as the soft rain began to fall. We thought we'd slip into the tent for a bit and do some reading (or maybe play a game of Phase 10) before we made dinner. I said to Kat, "I'm a little cool, I think I'll just slip into my sleeping bag and warm up." Kat said, "Me, too." Three hours later, we woke up! After dinner, we settled into the tent together. Because of the rain, Kat decided it was best to sleep in the tent rather than outside in the bivey sack, although she was a little concerned because of my alleged snoring. The rain continued all night long, but we were warm and dry inside the tent and there were no complaints of snoring the next morning.

Tuesday morning saw the rain stop about 7 a.m. But, there was no wind and it was humid although the temperature was in the 50's. We broke camp and were on the trail by 10:30. Surprisingly, this turned out to be the most difficult hike for me. I have no problem with cold weather hiking, paddling, or camping. But, I do not handle the heat well at all and this is what I faced this morning. I was OK on the flats, but found I had to stop and rest every 10-15 minutes when going up and down. It was the first time on the entire trip that I seriously doubted whether I was going to make it to Island Mine. I looked like I just got out of the shower fully dressed---soaked with sweat. But, I'd planned for this and had added an electrolyte supplement to my 2 liter CamelBack. After about an hour and one-half, the wind picked up a bit and the humidity dropped as well. I felt a lot better and we finished the hike to Island Mine, arriving about 2:00.

Now, we had to make a decision. Stay at Island Mine or hike the 6.2 miles on into Windigo. I did not particularly want to stay at IM and Kat did not either. So, my young Sherpa went down to the creek, refilled my CamelBack, and we were off. I'd forgotten how easy the hike from IM to Windigo was. It only took us about two and one-half hours. We set up in Shelter 3, hung out the tent and tarp to dry, made a little soup and tea, then had dinner. We watched a heron feeding on an island in Washington Creek. That island, by the was was not there when I was there in 2002. It was a sand bar and would appear and disappear as the "tide" went in and out of Washington Harbor.

69-0611 Heron at Windigo.JPG (15.96 KiB) Viewed 3877 times

Wednesday morning, I awoke to the sound of thundering hooves in Washington Creek. I did not have my glasses on and I though to myself, "There are two wolves running on the island in front of my shelter." Those two "wolves" were being pursued by a moose. That did not seem right. Fumbling for my glasses, I realized that it was, in fact, two moose calves leading mom up the creek.

After a leisurly breakfast, we headed down to the Windigo Ranger Station. While there, we were invited to sit in on a presentation by Tim Cochrane on the Minong/Ojibway history of Isle Royale. He has written a book: Minong: The Good Place-Ojibwe and Isle Royale and I can't wait to read it. Later that afternoon, we decided to take a day hike out to the Minong Ridge trail. We hiked out about 3 miles.

Thursday morning, we were up and packed and down to the VII dock by about 10:30. We went up to the camp store and looked around and then went down to the pavillion for a little Phase 10 and to wait for the boat. While there, Ranger Shawn did a presentation on the winter tick complete with samples of the ticks. I was amazed at the size of a fully engorged winter tick--about the size of a grape.

The boat arrived at about 1:30, we boarded, and our great adventure came to an end.

PS JohnH, you will be pleased to know that I was soundly trounced at Phase 10 this trip--Kat 8, Nick 1

[upnorthjeeper]

Thanks a lot for sharing this. I have yet to even visit once, I look forward to eventually hiking every trail as you have. Thanks again

[Backpacker534]

Nick, I'm glad to hear that your knee held up so you were able to complete all the trails. Sounds like it was a fulfilling trip seeing that you are now able to say that you've hiked all the trails on the island. Ranger Val has been there on a couple trips I've been on. It's been nice to approach the dock and see her familiar smiling face. My buddy and I have had a couple great conversations with her over the years. Thanks for sharing your trip.

[johnhens]

I am glad you got to spend time hiking with Kat, and I am glad you finshed the hike w/o any problems!!

[Tom]

YAY! (I have the Rocky theme in my head right now... Might have to use that on future trips)

I'm close to fulfilling the same goal - All trails. Seems only the deadends are left. Golly, I hate backtracking..

Thanks for the TR!
Tom

[Nick]

The toughest backtrack was the Three Mile to Hidden Lake hike. To make matters worse, it turned out that the new $350 Limmers I bought and wore all winter to break in, did not perform as I would have expected. First (and last) time I've ever had a problem with blisters that I think led directly to the knee problem I had on that trip.