June 12-Left Ohio took the scenic route to Copper Harbor, Ohio through Indiana through Illinois through Wisconsin, then into the Upper Peninsula. I have to say I have a recommendation for Dinner on the way up. In Houghton stop at Joeys Seafood, we stopped on the way up and it was so good we stopped on the way back, you can’t go wrong. Copper Harbor is basically a two road town, people are friendly but everything at least to us was slow paced.
June 13-Got aboard the Queen and headed to Rock Harbor. Captain Don was great, plenty of scenery to lead us out of Copper Harbor and he really pointed out things as you passed them. Got into Rock Harbor, got an Adirondack (sp) then headed to the snack bar and got lunch. The other leader tried a pasty, a local delicacy; the rest of us had diverse offerings. After lunch went on a short little hike to Scovialle Point, the scouts and the other leader saw 2 moose and an otter, I of course saw nothing since I was taking the sweeper position. Gorgeous hike, gives you a feel for what you will encounter on the trails. The point itself was gorgeous. Came back to shelter to a siesta. Went down to the restaurant for dinner. The food was alright but not worth the money in our opinion. I had the eggplant, first time the cook ever cooked it, it was not very good at all, and they could not give us bread refills since they were running low. The fish was alright basically something you would get at Captain D's. All in all our recommendation is to stick to the snack bar.
June 14-Got aboard the Voyager, aka the "Tin Can" for the five hour ride to Wendigo. If you want a ride that has character then take this boat. The captain was definitely a sea dog, the cabin was loud with the roaring of engines, and the slight smell of cigarette smoke clung inside the cabin. One of the older gentlemen commented that it reminded him of a troop transport. Got to Wendigo, a long boat ride but nice, had no hearing but it was nice. Started toward Island Mine. The three scouts set a pace as if the devil was after them, going 2.5 to 3 miles per hour. Got to Island Mine. As people have stated, nothing really spectacular, bugs were bad; the water was good, had an odd brownish tint to it but besides that it was good. We originally were going to hike from Island Mine to South Desor, but after the blistering pace set today we decided to make tomorrow our long day and hike to Hatchet Lake, we misread the map and though it was only going to be 10 miles.
June 15
Got an early start and started the hike to Mt Desor, it was a grueling hike, there were two places that we stopped and thought we were at the top but it was incorrect finally made it to the top. Unfortunately on the way down to the junction with Lake Desor South, I heard a pop in my knee, painful. We got to Lake Desor South Junction and dropped packs and hiked down to have lunch at Group site 1. Nice gorgeous place to have lunch. Knee was very sore but was tolerable. Got our packs and started hiking up to Ishpeming Tower, halfway up knee was throbbing so bad, took some pain medicine but that didn't help to much. A little further up and I had to use a nice birch stick for a walking aid. By the time we got to the tower I was hurting bad. Told the scouts to go on ahead and get to the Hatchet Lake campground and then come back and meet us on the trail. Halfway down, I collapsed, the other leader splinted my leg and we carried on, still carrying my pack. About 2.0 miles out from the junction I told the other leader I could not carry my pack anymore, leave me here and get to the campsite and bring back the scouts to help you with me. Well apparently he ran into the scouts and two of them went on to the campground and the other came back with the leader to help me. The leader took my pack and we hiked slowly and painfully to where they had dropped their packs. At that time one of the scouts got back and carried the other leaders pack for him. And slowly made our way down to the junction where the final scout was and down into the fiery depths of hell we descended. (Going down into Hatchet is tough, I cannot imagine going back up). Hatchet is a beautiful lake, bugs were bad but the scenery was just gorgeous. Decision was made that I would press on to Todd Harbor with them tomorrow and if we could not get in touch with a ranger then they would leave me there and hike on and get help.
June 16
Woke up early, I was given the lightest pack, helped a little bit going from a 45 lbs packs to a 35 lbs pack. Gorgeous hike around the lake. Halfway to Todd Harbor ran across a group of rangers doing an archeological dig and sampling. They were leaving from Todd Harbor at 3 and I would be boated out then. They were wonderful; they took most of the weight out of my pack and even offered to carry me. I declined as nice as that would have been for my knee someone probably would have gotten hurt. The hike from the Junction of the Hatchet Lake Trail and Minong Trail to Todd Harbor was again just gorgeous, and Todd Harbor absolutely gorgeous place to stay, after seeing it I was a little sad that I was not marooned there for a day. At three the rangers boated me out. They took me to see a washed up lifeboat from a shipwreck, which was a sight to see and then up around the east end of the island for some really beautiful scenery. Words cannot express how appreciative and grateful I was to the 6 rangers on the trail and the two manning the boat for their kindness and generosity to me, if I had the money I would have given them a million dollars each. They took me back to Rock Harbor and put me up next to the rangers’ station to recoup.
June 17-18
As soon as I can wring out some report from the scouts and leaders I will post there trip report for these 2 days. I meanwhile hung out at Rock Harbor recouping and meeting the wonderful people at the snack bar, the rangers were excellent. Meet some interesting people and even though I was ticked off that I couldn't do much, the people made the stay as enjoyable as possible.
June 19
Knee was still sore but tolerable so I figured I would take three mile hiking trail out for about an hour and meet the returning scouts and leader along the trail. Gorgeous scenery but the trail was rough. After 50 minutes I stopped and was resting and around the bend here they come. What take me 50 minutes to do they did in 15, needless to say I was sore and hurting. Was able to arrange for early leave on the Queen and left Isle Royale. I will come back their someday though, it is a gorgeous place.
Injuries:
-Sprained Knee, possible torn cartilage will know more after the MRI is done this week, infected blisters, my fault, blisters happened where I did not duct tape my feet and some massive bug bites.
-Injuries amongst the others a couple of big blisters but overall besides being tired and sore they came out unscathed, a little bug bitten but not bad.
Animals Seen:
-Moose
-Otter
-Loons
-Lots of other pretty birds
-Red Squirrels
-Rabbits
-Toads
-Snakes
Equipment Lost:
-Backpacking Oven-cooked dinner using the backpacking oven next to the ranger station, while I was eating inside the little hut, apparently an animal saw the shiny pans and cover and thought neat, I have to have that for my lair and walked off with it.
Best Campsite:
-Everyone agreed that it was Todd Harbor
Worst Camp Site:
-Everyone agreed it was Island Mine just mainly for the simple fact that it looked like any other camp site around Ohio
