August 26 - 30; Chippewa, McCargoe, Daisy, ThreeMile

[jeastbur]

My first trip to Isle Royale is dedicated to the memory of my Grandfather, Harry H. Johnson, Jr. (Grandpop). At an early age, he inspired in me a love of the outdoors through backpacking trips on the Appalachian Trail, camping trips in his 1960s-era canvas tent, and canoe trips through the New Jersey pine barrens in his aluminum Grumman canoe. Grandpop passed away during my trip to Isle Royale.

Arrival Date: August 26
Departure Date: August 30
Members of the group: Josh (me, Charlotte, NC), Aaron (Oakland, CA), Cliff (Chicago, IL), James (Des Plaines, IL), J. (Grand Rapids, MI -- in absentia. Sadly, he broke his collarbone a week before our trip)

Pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/josheastburn/IsleRoyale2009


Tuesday, August 25
Arrival in Copper Harbor

The members of our group all arrived at the Minneapolis airport for the final flight into Hancock, MI. James and Cliff had a delay arriving from Milwaukee and barely made it onto the plane before the door was closed. We arrived on time at the Hancock airport but quickly discovered that James and Cliff made it on the plane, but their packs did not. Fortunately, one last flight was arriving later that evening and arrangements were made for a taxi to drive the bags up to Copper Harbor before our departure on the Queen the following morning.

Charlie from Copper Country Limo gave us a ride from the airport to the Bella Vista in Copper Harbor. The Bella Vista is quaint and clean, although the furnishings are certainly dated. Not really a concern for us though since it had a beautiful view of the harbor and a very short walk to the Queen IV dock. We quickly discovered that there is minimal cell phone service in CH (Verizon and AT&T) and a lot of the payphones in CH are inoperable.

After a short walk to the docks, we walked along the main street to The Pines where we had dinner. Decent sandwiches for a reasonable price. After dinner, we talked for a bit by the dock and took some low-light photos of the harbor after sunset.


Wednesday, August 26
Isle Royale Queen IV to Isle Royale, Chippewa Harbor

Neil's Taxi delivered the missing packs right on time at 6:30am. What a relief--that would have caused serious problems if two of us were missing packs. We walked back to The Pines for breakfast and then came back to pack up our gear and head for the dock. We had made plans to leave a bag at the Bella Vista while we were on the island, but unfortunately, the office was not open when we were ready to leave at 7:30, so we took the bag with us to the island (we later checked it at the Rock Harbor Lodge office for $3.50/day).

It was an uneventful crossing with 1-3' waves. It was a bit cool on the water, so we stayed inside for most of the crossing, then we sat up on the bow to enjoy the view as the island grew larger on the horizon.

We disembarked and stood with about 8 others for the Leave No Trace talk. Our water taxi to Chippewa Harbor was scheduled for 2:30, so we had some time to kill. The best option seemed to be a hike along the Scoville Point Trail. It was a perfect day (60s and sunny) and the Scoville Trail gave us a good chance to warm up our boots on the trails.
After hiking for about 30 minutes, it was time to turn back to Snug Harbor. A few minutes into our hike back, there was a huge commotion about 10 yards ahead as a cow moose ran off the trail to the right. We gave it a minute until we continued ahead. We stopped the instant we saw her calf on the left side of the trail, just a few yards ahead of us. Not wanting to get between the cow and her calf, we backed up to give them some space. Not a minute later, we heard a group of hikers (Lodge guests) coming toward us. As soon as we were able, we alerted them to the fact that there was a calf on one side of the trail and it's mother on the other side. We expected them to acknowledge this and step back, but instead, they exclaimed "Thank you!" and continued along the trail until they were directly between the two moose. Again, we explained that it was a very bad idea to be between a cow and her calf, but they were more intent on taking close-up pictures of the calf. Fortunately for them, it was a negligent mother that chose not to charge them, but unfortunately for us, we never took the opportunity to get a picture of the only moose we saw during our trip.

Upon our return to Snug Harbor, we loaded our gear into the water taxi and we arrived at Chippewa Harbor 40 minutes later. We were still undecided about whether to stay in our tents or in a shelter, so we took a look at the tent sites (all were nice) and then the shelters. Only shelter #3 was occupied at the time, so we decided to take shelter #1. A group later arrived and took the group tent site, but that was it at the camp site that night.

Taking Keweenaw Bob's advice, we dropped our packs and took a hike past the group tent site. If you take the trail behind the group site to the left, you will come to an meadow where the trail forms a "T." We first went straight ahead which took us to the "Johnson Building" which had some old tools out on the floor. We continued along an overgrown trail that followed the water until we came to a nice view of the mouth of Chippewa Harbor. Then we returned the way we came and followed the other trail at the "T" up the hill where there are some excellent views of Lake Superior, Chippewa Harbor and Lake Mason. It was a perfect day with excellent visibility.
We then walked back past our shelter and down the trail to Lake Mason, which was a bit stagnant, but still a nice, quiet setting. After enjoying the silence for a while, we walked back to the shelter to unload our gear and prepare dinner. After dinner, James and I headed down to the dock to take some pictures of the colorful sky.
The worst mosquitoes we encountered during our trip was at Chippewa, but I still only got a handful of bites.
I had trouble sleeping the first night, but it was peaceful hearing the waves crash at the mouth of the harbor, the graceful call of loons below and the ghostly cry of wolves in the distance.


Thursday, August 27
Chippewa Harbor to McCargoe Cove - 10.6 miles

After a hot breakfast at our picnic table, we packed up our gear and hit the trail for our first full day of hiking. My pack felt pretty good and I was adjusting to using trekking poles for the first time. My total pack weight at the start was 42 lbs, which included 10 lbs of food (which ended up being 1.5 lbs too much for 5 days) and 6.5 lbs for the tent we never used (still essential to have though).
It drizzled lightly for about an hour as we left Chippewa, but that was the only rain for the day. We made a few stops along the way and averaged about 2 mph including our stops. The mosquitoes were swarming a bit in the morning, but they cleared out by the time we reached the junction for Moskey Basin. There were loads of ripe thimbleberries and blueberries along the trail. It took a little practice until I was able to pick the ripe thimbleberries without getting red juice all over my fingers.
When we reached Lake Richie, the temperature was starting to climb into the high 70s and the sun was beating on our backs. Time for some sunscreen and a short break.
The climb up to the Greenstone was a bit of a workout, but from that junction, it was an easy walk down to the West Chickenbone area where we stopped at one of the sites and had lunch and filtered some water. I definitely prefer the taste of Lake Superior water over Chickenbone Lake water.
After a fairly long rest at West Chickenbone, we continued ahead on the trail that followed the west side of the lake. The miles were starting to wear on us as we pushed through the thick overgrowth and the heavy, stagnant air. We knew we were close when we reached the last portage marker and shortly after that, we were greeted by a man at the community fire ring. The whole trip took us about 6 hours, but that included a stop for more than an hour at West Chickenbone. We passed a total of 12 people on the trail from Chippewa to McCargoe.
We were told that McCargoe was packed the previous night, but most of the shelters were open now. We walked up the hill and took shelter #5. It isn't very close to the water, but it has a nice view of the cove.
During the last 3 hours of our hike, I repeatedly told the others in our group that I was going to jump in the water once we reached McCargoe. Fortunately, they didn't hold me to it as the water was obviously cold and it was getting cloudy and windy when we walked down to the dock. I opted to just splash some water on my face which was still very refreshing. A red sailboat came to the dock for a few hours, but it left before sunset. The ranger from Amygdaloid also brought his boat to the dock and he was checking permits and restocking toilet paper in the outhouses.
After making dinner and eating out on the picnic table, it started to drizzle which was the beginning of 36 hours of continuous rain during which over 3" of rain fell. The wind howled through the night. We were thankful for our shelter.


Friday, August 28
McCargoe Cove to Daisy Farm - 8.2 miles

Woke up to more drizzle, and it had definitely rained quite a bit through the night. We had a hot breakfast and then headed down to the dock to filter some water for the day. We loaded up our gear and set out on the trail. My hips were hurting me more than anything else at this point, but the pain subsided as we got into the hike. The entire morning was windy and a progression of drizzle to driving rain and back to drizzle and the temperature never got out of the 50s. The vistas along the Greenstone didn't provide much visibility and we rarely stopped for long since there was nowhere dry to sit. The bare rocks proved to be a bit treacherous in the rain, but the trekking poles certainly helped and saved me from a few falls. The rain let up a little as we took the trail to Daisy Farm. We had considered making the 13-mile trek from McCargoe to Lane Cove, but after our morning hike in the rain, no one thought that was a good idea. Everyone was getting a bit worn down, cold and wet on the trail to Daisy Farm and we were happy when we finally arrived. We only met 3 people on the trail that day in the rain.
Only two shelters remained at Daisy Farm and we took shelter #9. Not much of a view, but we were happy to have anything that got us out of the rain. . .until our shelter developed a leak that dripped from the center beam. We rigged up a paper clip and some clothesline to redirect the water to the side where we caught it in a pot (the pot filled up through the night). We had a snack of wheat thins, swiss cheese and tuna that lifted our spirits a bit. We spent the rest of the day in the shelter and cooked our dinner on the floor of the shelter since even the picnic table under the front awning was getting soaked.
We played a few card games, but I turned in early and slept from 8:30pm until around 7am. I can't remember the last time I slept that long.


Saturday, August 29
Daisy Farm to Three Mile - 4.4 miles

We woke up again to again more rain and drizzle. Since we didn't know how much longer it was going to rain, we made the decision to skip Lane Cove and hike out to Rock Harbor. There was no point in putting on dry clothes since it was still raining, so we put on some damp clothes and began another dreary hike in the rain. The trail from Daisy Farm to Three Mile was very wet after nearly two days of rain. In several spots, the trail had become a formidable stream.
We arrived at Three Mile around noon. Shelter #11 was empty, so we got out of the rain and had our lunch there. After a short rest, we took some pictures (in the rain) on the rocks by the shelter and then started our hike to Rock Harbor. Before we got 100 yards from the shelter, we met a park ranger headed the other direction. We asked him how the weather was looking and he said that while it should clear up in the afternoon, the boats are not going out today, so Rock Harbor was completely full. Since there was a shelter open at Three Mile, we decided to turn around and spend the night there. When we returned to the shelter, a group of guys were moving their things into shelter #11. They offered us shelter #3 on the other side of the campground since they had 8 people and shelter 10 and 11 were right next to each other. Probably not the right thing to say with the ranger right there. They got a scolding from the ranger and were told they might be cited upon their return to Rock Harbor for hiking with more than 6 people without a group permit. Regardless, we let them have shelters 10 and 11 and we took shelter #3 that they were also holding. It turned out to be a nice site. Not the same view of the water, but not a bad setting.
We hung up our wet clothes and waited and hoped for the rain to stop. Around 3pm we stood outside as we watched blue sky roll over us. What a glorious feeling! As the sun shone down, we walked down to the big dock to dry out both our clothes and our waterlogged bodies. Several others came and joined us to enjoy the sunshine after 2 days of rain. We enjoyed watching Merganser ducks race across the water and a bald eagle soar overhead. A group of college students came down and jumped in the lake--the last thing we wanted to do after finally drying out.
It was nice to be able to eat dinner outside again instead of inside our shelter. After dinner, we went back down to the dock to filter water, take some pictures, and chat with a group of kayakers.
The stars that night were brilliant, but it was hard to get long-exposure photographs due to the bright gibbous moon.


Sunday, August 30
Three Mile to Rock Harbor - 2.7 miles
Queen IV to Copper Harbor, taxi to Houghton, MI

We woke up to clear skies and our coldest morning during the trip (mid-40s). We weren't in too much of a rush, so we had breakfast, packed up our gear and left the shelter by 10am. The plan was to take the 0.2 mile cutover to the Tobin Harbor Trail, but we must have missed it because we ended up taking the Rock Harbor Trail all the way back (in retrospect, it looks like we should have taken the trail marked for Suzy's Cave). I haven't hiked the Tobin Harbor Trail for comparison, but the Rock Harbor Trail is exactly as it was described: rocks and more rocks. The kayakers we met at Three Mile left a little after us and waved as they cruised by us on the calm water in the morning.
Upon reaching Rock Harbor, we piled up our gear at the dock and headed over to the grill for some real food. The pizza and hamburgers weren't spectacular, but they were an improvement over freeze-dried food.
As soon as they started loading gear onto the Queen, the line grew quickly. Due to the gale force winds and 11-13' waves the previous day, they were taking back two days of passengers. It was tight, but they were able to accommodate everyone. The water was as flat as glass on the first part of the trip back and I spent most of the passage on the stern watching the island recede into the distance. The waves picked up a bit as we got closer to Copper Harbor, but they were never more than 3'.

Charlie from Copper Country Limo was waiting for us when we arrived and he took us to the Holiday Inn Express in Houghton. After getting showers (and only then realizing how bad our gear smelled!) we took a taxi over to the Library Bar in Houghton. It was an excellent place to wrap up our trip, and we ran into some fellow Queen IV passengers at the table next to us.


Monday, August 31
Depart from Houghton, MI

Charlie took us to the airport at 5:30am in his stretch limo instead of his minivan--it felt a bit odd piling our backpacks into the back seats. Houghton has a very small airport, so they first checked everyone in for the morning's only flight, then the TSA agents moved from the bag check in to the security checkpoint. It took much longer than it should have to get 20 people through security, but we left on time and upon arriving in Minneapolis, we each went our separate ways.


Notes on Gear
Stoves: We brought 2 stoves, an MSR Rapidfire and a JetBoil PCS. The JetBoil was definitely the most efficient way to boil water (2-3 min for 2 cups) and it worked perfectly for my freezer bag cooking meals--just boil the necessary amount of water and pour into the freezer bag with the food to cook.

Trekking Poles: Two of us had trekking poles and two did not. At the end, all four of us were convinced of their merit. They certainly help with hiking inclines/declines, but they were most useful when we were hiking across slippery rock in the rain. The poles saved me more than once from landing on my rear. They are a bit of a nuisance when hiking through dense foliage, but in these cases, I would just hold them together in front of me.

Rain gear: Not everyone in our group brought a pack cover. This has been stated many times in the forums, but I'll repeat that rain gear is essential on IR, regardless of the weather forecast. Some in our group had gaiters, but I didn't buy any. I could see how they would be effective when walking through damp foliage or in light rain, but after a day of hiking in the pouring rain, we all had damp or wet feet.

Sleeping Pad: I've never had a problem with my Thermarest 3/4 length sleeping pad before when sleeping in a tent, but sleeping on the plywood floors of the shelters made my heels hurt. My temporary solution was to stuff my fleece into my sleeping bag to put under my feet, but I'll be looking into a full-length sleeping pad for next time.

Notes on Food
For this trip, I decided to make most of my own food and use the freezer bag cooking technique. Overall, I was pleased with the results. For recipes, I used:
http://www.trailcooking.com
http://www.onepanwonders.com

Some may question the safety of using freezer bags for cooking and whether chemicals may leach into the food, but you certainly can't beat the cleanup. For my next trip, I am going to ditch the mess kit and only bring my camp utensils and a mug/measuring cup.

I made my own freezer bag cozy using a thermal bubble mailer from Uline:
http://www.uline.com/Product/ProductDet ... el=S-11358
which I cut down a bit and added adhesive velcro dots to make it reusable.

Breakfasts
I put 2 packets of flavored oatmeal in a freezer bag along with powdered milk and raisins. On the trail, I just added hot water to the bag to enjoy creamy oatmeal and plump raisins.

Dinners
Pizza in a Pot (http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/pizza-pot)
5/10
Quite tasty and filling, however, since my packet of pepperoni was labeled as "refrigerate after opening," I added more than half a packet of pepperoni to this meal. Indigestion followed.

Thai Peanut Noodles (http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/tha ... ut-noodles)
9/10
My favorite meal on the trail. I added a foil packet of chicken that I heated up along with the noodles. I then drained the chicken/noodles and dumped them into the separate freezer bag that had the peanut sauce.

Alpine Aire Sierra Chicken (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009W7CZK)
7/10
I bought this one instead of making a fourth meal. It was certainly lighter since all of the ingredients were dehydrated, but the flavor wasn't as bold as some of the meals I made myself.

Cheesy Bacon Mashers (http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/che ... on-mashers)
6/10
I followed this recipe and also added some powdered cheese from a mac 'n cheese box. Filling and pretty good flavor. Again, I used an already-cooked package of bacon that was labeled "refrigerate after opening." I shared some of my bacon with the others and still ate more bacon in one sitting than I think I ever had before.

Desserts
Apple Pie Pudding (http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/apple-pie-pudding)
8/10
This was pretty tasty and a good dessert to share.

Rice Pudding (http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/rice-pudding)
4/10
The flavor was very good, but unfortunately, the rice I used didn't cook all the way after sitting in the cozy for 15 minutes. If I make this again, I'll pre-cook and dehydrate the rice first.

Drinks
Pudding Cocoa (http://www.trailcooking.com/recipes/pudding-cocoa)
6/10
Others in my group didn't think this was as good as regular cocoa in a packet, but I didn't think it was bad--definitely sweeter than regular cocoa.

[mihiker]

Thanks for the detailed report.
Nicetouch adding the recipe links.

[jeastbur]

Here is one of my favorite photos from my trip that I took with a friend on the Chippewa Harbor dock. It took a few tries to write the words backwards with a headlamp, but this one turned out pretty well.

[johnhens]

Nice TR, good idea the notes about gear and recipes/food.
It always amazes me that people behave the way they do on the trails when it comes to animal sightings. They were lucky it was later in the season and not Spring with the calf. We have had cows come crashing out of the brush at us when paddling close to shore in Spring when they had a calf nearby.

[fonixmunkee]

Whoa jeastbur, that's an awesome picture! Very very cool!

[DonNewcomb]

It always amazes me that people behave the way they do on the trails when it comes to animal sightings.

But tourists are 10 times worse. In Yellowstone we stopped a kid who was throwing rocks at a moose to get it to pick it's head up for a picture. About as smart as the guy who coated himself with peanut butter and went looking for bears.

[ScoutDad]

Thanks for the report... ditto on always having the rain gear.