Greenstone/Indian Portage June 22-26, 2011

[jerry]

This old man just booked a visit online with the V2.

Name: jerry pesch
email: ojibwa_jjp@yahoo.com
Hometown: Dayton, Ohio
Arrival: June 22
Departure: June 26
Coming from: Grand Portage via VII
Itinerary:

6-22 (W) Rock Harbor to Daisy Farm
6-23 (Th) DF to E. or W. Chickenbone
6-24 (F) Chickenbone to L. Richie or Moskey Basin
6-25 (Sa) On to Chipppewa Harbor
6-26 (Sun) Oh well, leave thru Grand Portage
Notes/other: goal is to finish up the Greenstone and Indian Portage trails

[jerry]

Heading out for ISRO before sun up tomorrow. I'll be hiking, sleeping, etc. out there in 3 more days.

[greg]

Jerry-I believe I met you on the Voyageur II after you were picked up at Chippewah Harbor. If so, I really enjoyed our conversation en route to Grand Portage. I hope your long drive home went well. Your grit and determination, linked to your love of the island, really impressed me. Take care and I wish you well. Greg R.

[jerry]

Greg, I really enjoyed our conversation as well. Enjoy your future trips. I'll try to post my trip report in the very near future. I had a safe drive home. I'll try to share pictures soon. I'm toasting you and all forum members this very moment with an oatmeal stout.

[jerry]

This year's trip had to be a solo one.

I left Dayton at about 2:30 a.m. Monday June 20. Not really sure if I had
slept at all. It was uneventful trip to Ontario, Wisconsin where I stayed at
Wildcat Mountain State Park. Woke up at about 3 a.m. to use the restroom.
Noticed a lot of lightning in the area. Decided to take down the tent and
head for the interstate. At the rest stop between Tomah and Black River
Falls, the radar showed a bad storm in the area. Just got back on the
interstate when the storm hit. It apparently was headed north with me. Not sure
how truckers can travel at 65/70 mph in such hard rain. I drove at about 45/55 through
most of the storm (for about an hour). When I got gas in Superior, Wisconsin the temperature was 45 with a strong wind from the north/northeast. It was 57 when
I stopped for pizza at Sven and Olie's in Grand Marais. I went by the V2’s dock shortly after 2. The storm that I went through in central Wisconsin was impacting Lake Superior. The V2 went from Rock Harbor to Windigo on the north side of ISRO and got back to Grand Portage early. I was told to check back early on Wednesday (June 22) to see if we would go out. We probably would be going out at 4:30 a.m. on Thursday due to the heavy winds and expected high waves. I decided not to get wet at the Marina campgrounds and headed up to Ryden’s. I paid $42.15 cash for a room (includes tax). Got room #1, no one stayed in #2 overnight so I slept fine. I repacked by backpack, made sure my sleeping bag was in a garbage bag. Took out some food, since I’d probably be doing one day less. Drank some beer and read for the rest of the evening.

Got to the dock early on Wednesday. Again, we were told to come back early on Thursday. Went to Ryden’s for breakfast with JerryB (from the forum) and his son. I also went to see the Falls at Grand Portage State Park. I read the rest of the day, had some beer and a great smoked fish wrap. (I came across at least 4 forum members on this trip. Hope to hear all their trip reports. All nice folks.)

Thursday (June 23) got to the dock at 3:50 a.m. We still had drizzle/fog with light winds. We left the dock at about 4:36. The waves were generally 3 to 5 feet. There were about 20 of us. The lake temperature was 38 and the foghorn had to be used from time to time. We got to Windigo in the usual 2 hours. Ranger Sean did the LNT orientation. It was 52 and cloudy at Windigo. Sean pointed out some Sandhill Cranes landing nearby. We left the dock at 7:09 for McCargoe Cove with about 10 of us aboard. Met a forum member that was going to do the Rock Harbor to Windigo hike via the Minong. She was going solo. I look forward to her trip report. We arrived at 9:56 (Central), 10:56 (EDT) at McCargoe Cove. Two guys and their canoe were dropped off too.

It was 57 and cloudy when I got to shelter #6. Dropped my gear and decided to do some day hiking on the Greenstone. One of my goals had been to finish the Greenstone on this trip. Due to the shortened trip, I hiked the East Chickenbone Trail to the Greenstone. There were 33 trees down on this trail. Due to heavy rains earlier in the week, this trail had running water and lots of mud. I covered the 2.1 miles from McCargoe to the junction with the Greenstone in an hour and three minutes. I headed east on the Greenstone Ridge Trail until it junctions with the Daisy Farm Trail. There were 40 trees down on this section of the Greenstone. There was also water on this trail and again some mud. It took 2 hours and 17 minutes to cover the 4.2 miles. There were some nice views. I’ll try to share the pictures. It was 61 and cloudy on the Greenstone. There was fresh wolf and moose scat on both of these trails. Some of the wolf scat had fur in it. There was a group of scouts heading toward E. Chickenbone campgrounds while I was taking a snack break close to their campground. They would be on the V2 on the way back to Grand Portage on Sunday. When I got back to the shelter it was still 57 there. We had a light rain after 8 p.m. The loons made us aware that they were nearby. I slept in my tent inside the shelter. Slept about 5 to 6 hours. Overnight it was windy and rainy. My Thursday round trip mileage was 12.6 miles.

Friday (June 24) It was 56 with a light rain when I got up at 5 a.m. Left McCargoe Cove at 6:08 a.m. with rain gear on due to the light rain. The rain gear, head net and gloves kept the mosquitoes off of me. They were behaving the same way as the day before. It took one hour and 37 minutes to get to West Chickenbone. This was to be my most frustrating day that I have spent at Isle Royale. Due to the trees that were down, I got water in my boots numerous times. I had to climb over, under and through trees. There were some trees that you just had to go around. I did come across a garter snake just before the campground. It took me one hour and 51 minutes to go the 2.9 miles from McCargoe Cove to the junction with the Greenstone Ridge Trail. It was 58 with mostly cloudy skies at the junction. After a ten-minute break I headed down the Indian Portage Trail from the Greenstone. In the next 3.4 miles until I got to the Lake Richie campground I came across 80 trees that were down. The usual climb over, under and through was necessary, with some detours required. One boardwalk had a huge tree covering it. It took me 5-10 minutes to get through that obstacle. Almost lost my water bottle to that swampy area. I used all the cuss words I knew during this hike. About half way between the second portage (LeSage) and the third portage (Richie) there is a nice size stream with a hikers bridge across it. At about 9:40 a.m. I came across a lone wolf. It had apparently just crossed the bridge. It was about 100 feet away. We seemed to see each other at the same time. It immediately turned around, crossed the bridge, ran up the hill and into the woods. This only took about 10-15 seconds. I wasn’t able to get a picture. It’s a dull gray wolf, bigger then a German shepherd, but not fat. As it was running away I stated to no one at all, “That was a wolf.” If the trees hadn’t been down, I might never have seen this animal. A couple of minutes past the bridge I came across some steaming wolf scat. I wonder whom that belongs to? The remaining trees that were down didn’t seem to annoy me as much as the previous ones had. I average 1.2 M.P.H. from McCargoe to L. Richie.

In the early afternoon I came across the trail maintenance crew. The crew supervisor said that 2500 downed trees had been cleared, versus the previous record of 1900. He thought that maybe 1500 more would have to be cleared. The trail from L. Richie to Chippewa Harbor had been cleared. The trail from McCargoe was muddy and had running water in spots. Due to wet rocky surfaces, I fell several times during this day. I made decent time in spite of having a sore knee develop due to the falls and old age. I told the crew they had done a great job clearing the trail. The crew was made up of 4 NPS employees and numerous volunteers from Minnesota. I arrived at shelter #4 at 1:43 p.m. It took 7 hours and 35 minutes to cover the 10.6 miles from McCargoe. It was mostly cloudy was 66. At 5:30 it was sunny and 73. By 6:40 it got up to 76. All the shelters were taken that evening. Two kayakers were in #1 (he’s a forum member), #2 had Ranger Alec Egan and his assistant, and #3 had two canoers. A family of 7 was docked for the evening. At 3 a.m. I had to find the outhouse. Forgot which trail to follow. On the boardwalk to it, I spotted fox prints. My headlamp picked it up and it led me right to the outhouse. I guess every animal has a purpose. The following animals were seen during the past 24 hours: wolf, fox, arctic hare, turtle, garter snake, loons, gulls, butterflies and the usual several squirrels. Friday’s total mileage was 10.6.

Saturday (June 25) thank goodness I put the tent up again. It was 54 and clear when I got up at 6 a.m. I slept about 5-6 hours again. I hiked out to Lake Mason. It took about 20 minutes to get there. I was stiff and sore from the battles I fought on Friday. I didn’t realize there was a blood bank at Lake Mason. They don’t ask for volunteers, they just try to take it. I returned to the shelter for breakfast. I hiked around the area (group and individual sites). Several trees beyond those sites were down so I decided to give up my search for the old building (the school house). The folks on the boat went out fishing. I decided not to go out with them. I read and ate small meals during the day. The woman from shelter #1 showed me that the otters had dug up the turtle’s eggs overnight. The weather was calm usually, mostly sunny and got up to 68 at 1:30. The nice folks on the boat shared some lake trout with me that evening. An eagle flew about 10-15 above some of our heads at the dock at 7:30 that evening. I don’t know anything about boats, but their Tiara 36 sure looked nice. At 8:45 three fishermen from Grand Marais arrived. They too stayed at the dock. Shelter #3 was occupied by a backpacker from Burnsville (near Minneapolis). We apparently had similar experiences on the Indian Portage Trail. He came in from W. Chickenbone and would head back toward Rock Harbor in the morning. The two women in that shelter headed west in their canoe, going out to Wood Lake. Overnight the loons were quite active. My Saturday mileage was 2.0 miles.

Woke up to calm partly cloudy skies on Sunday (June 26). It was 52 at 7 a.m. The otter(s) had dug up some more turtle eggs. Spotted an eagle being chased by sea gulls at about 9:10. Everyone else was gone by 9:30. I still had enough food for another day or two. It was 64 and mostly sunny at 10:00. The Voyageur (V2) arrived at the dock at 10:08. Met another forum member (Greg) and had a pleasant and interesting conversation on the way to Windigo. Lake Superior was pretty calm as we headed toward Malone Bay. The Ranger (Jeremy) came out to pick up his mail as we headed west. We made it to Windigo at about 12:15. I reported my wolf observation to Ranger Cindy. We left the dock at 12:33 and arrived at Grand Portage at 2:35. The sky was sunny. I decided to drive to Amnicon State Park in Wisconsin (near Duluth). Just a few miles north of that park I came across a huge eagle feasting on road kill (deer). Woke up early and headed back to Ohio, having another uneventful day of driving.

Trails completed so far: Greenstone Ridge, Minong Ridge, Indian Portage, Lake Mason, Feldtmann Ridge, Island Mine, Rock Harbor, Lake Richie, Tobin Harbor, Trail from Tobin Harbor to Suzy’s Cave, Lane Cove, Daisy Farm, Mount Ojibway, Mount Franklin, E. Chickenbone, Hatchet Lake, Stoll, Lookout Louise, Rock Harbor Lighthouse, Ispheming and Raspberry Island. I started completing these after I turned 62. I hope to complete the remaining trails someday.

[Vandy]

Great report. We missed each other in Windigo by 30 minutes.
I hiked up E Chickenbone trail the following Tuesday and it was tree free.

[tfoster]

As we were driving up through the rain, I was thinking about you and wondering how you were doing, hoping you weren't getting hit by storms. Our first couple days, I asked solo men we encountered "Are you by any chance Jerry"? None of them were. Happy to hear how much you got accomplished, even with the obstacles.

[jerry]

tfoster, Sorry I missed you folks. Glad to see that you all had a nice trip too. jerry