Isle Royale Forums

September 19th Wednesday

We woke up later than usual. There was no rush to start our day. We didn’t plan to leave for Grace Island until evening when the water would be calmer so there was no hurry to get anywhere quick. It rained a little throughout the evening, but nothing too heavy. When we woke up around 7am, it was 46 degrees out according to the thermometer on our clock. In the process of getting ready, Shelly saw a fox roaming around outside. We stopped to watch it and moved back to carrying on with what we were doing after it disappeared. At around 9am, Shelly was loaded up and ready to leave, while I was ready to go with the exception of having my boots on. She left ahead of me as I finished getting ready. I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to putting my boots on. My right boot was still damp even though my left boot was dry. My socks, while dry for the most part, still felt a little moist. The good news was that while it would stink to put everything initially on, I thought that things would improve along our hike and that most of the dampness would evaporate during our way back to Windigo.



In case you were curious what Cluster Flies look like, check out some pictures of the inside of our shelter that we took before we left:













Shelly had a good 12-minute jump on me before I left, but she waited for me at the bridge that goes over Big Siskiwit River so we could take some pictures. From there we moved along with our rain gear on to avoid wet brush and to be ready in case it got rainy out. Before arriving at Island Mine, we stopped at the actual Island Mine well and the area where the train could be found. In total, we probably spent about a half hour at these places combined so that we could take pictures of the remnants of what was left behind.


The bridge I met Shelly on along with the well and tons of train pictures:





























We arrived at the Island Mine campgrounds at 11:30am. When we got there, we were curious to see if we would observe several caterpillars in the area. When we got to Windigo on 9/10, Ranger Valerie said that there were thousands of them being found at Island Mine and that if you planned to camp there to be careful where you set up your tent, because with so many in the area they could cover your tent in poop within a very short time. While we saw about a dozen of them by a log we took a break at, they by no means were swarming all over the place. I took the opportunity to quickly scan over the campsites while Shelly wanted a couple of more minutes to rest her feet. In sum, the Island Mine campgrounds were pretty beautiful because they were cloaked in by some narrow trees that canopied over the sites. Before we departed, I had to take the Browns to the Superbowl otherwise risk prairie-dogging it all the way back to Windigo. By the time I finished my business, we were headed out at 12pm.



Island Mine campground map and a couple of pictures of some of the sites:











We made it to the Windigo/Island Mine/South Desor trail head at 12:15pm. Along the way towards Windigo, we bumped into a solo hiker named Marc. We exchanged a few words about where each of us were headed to and what we had planned for the rest of the trip before wishing each other safe travels and carrying on.

We arrived at Windigo at 3pm. The thing that grasped my attention most was how the water was looking. It was choppy, but I kept wanted to believe that it was still possible to attempt canoeing. Shelly was a little less certain. When we got to the dock, I looked for our boat. It was not at the pavilion as it was scheduled to be. It was not on the dock either. It was nowhere to be found. Shelly suggested that we go up the walkway to the ranger station to see what the story was. When we got to the door, we quickly realize what the problem was. Unfortunately, due to bad weather involving strong wings and 9ft high waves, the Voyageur was unable to make her trip over to the island today. This meant the canoe was never brought. We went inside to get further details from Ranger Valerie and to pick up our supply bag that we had left with another ranger.

In the process of talking to Ranger Valerie we had found out that Ranger Luke had finished his last day yesterday, but sadly he was not able to leave as planned because he was stuck at Mott Island Headquarters on the account of the Ranger III not making it over to the island due to the poor weather. I was surprised that such a large ship like the Ranger III was delayed, but I guess they like to play things extra safe. Ranger Valerie said that the most daring ship is the Isle Queen IV, but even the captain of that ship probably wouldn’t have been able to leave today if she had been scheduled to. She said that she knew the Voyageur definitely would not be making it over to the island today and was uncertain about what the plan for tomorrow was. Ranger Valerie did say that the weather did not look all that promising for tomorrow though in regards to canoeing and that things only appeared to start getting better on Thursday night according to the most recent forecast.

With that noted, and with the fact known that we had not incurred any charges for the canoe or its transportation as of yet, we took Ranger Valerie’s offer to contact the Voyageur offices on land to cancel our canoe reservation. Our new plan also involved taking the next Voyageur departure back home instead of leaving on Saturday. Our hopes were that we would still have time to do Huggininn Cove tomorrow since it was uncertain whether or not Captain Mike was going to come tomorrow and circumnavigate the island completely in one day and leave to have people back on the mainland by evening. While it was doubtful that Captain Mike would do this, we still were told to hold off on making any plans until seeing how the weather turned out tomorrow and what Captain Mike’s plans were once he arrived to Windigo. We were told to come back at 7am central the following morning to get more news. With that we departed towards Windigo to pick out a shelter and set up camp.

We selected Shelter #6 because it was the closest one to the path leading to Windigo. We set up everything after bringing the picnic table in. The picnic table this time around was harder to bring in the shelter because it was longer and wider than other ones encountered at previous campgrounds. It still fit, but it was a lot heavier and harder to shift around. Once everything was laid out, we decided to walk over to the group sites and see how they were laid out. On our return we started up some soup for dinner. With our bellies only somewhat full, we snacked on some trail mix and dried fruit before calling it a night at around 9pm. I didn’t sleep until 10pm.

September 20th Thursday

I will begin by saying that writing in my journal had become somewhat of a tedious affair at this point in the trip. I get so carried away with writing about every detail that usually around the second to last day of my trips, I take a break from journaling. As it turns out, I would not come back to writing about the remainder of trip until March of this year. Therefore, I will admit that things are a little cloudy and that I do not remember crisp details of events following this point on as I would normally have if I had written in my journal immediately at the conclusion of each of the last two days. Regardless, the general events that took place will be shared to the best of my ability.

So from what I recall…we went to the ranger station at 7am as we were instructed. Ranger Valerie said that the Voyageur was going to make an attempt to leave Grand Portage this morning, but that if things were too ruff, they would turn back. It turns out that the boat eventually would make the trip and arrived at Windigo around 10:30am. Before it came, Shelly and I ate breakfast and hung out at the ranger station instead of going back to our shelter. Thankfully Captain Mike and Captain Don got our message about not needing the canoe, so we did not have to worry about paying for a canoe that would go unused due to the weather conditions. We were told that the plan was that they would stop for a while at Windigo until things calmed down in the water, leave around 12pm for McCargoe Cove to pick up some people that were supposed to be picked up yesterday, stop at Rock Harbor briefly, and end their voyage at Chippewa Harbor in the late afternoon or early evening to pick up some people that were expecting to be picked up at 9am today. The ship would dock at Chippewa Harbor for the night, before making it’s way back to Windigo tomorrow and departing back to Grand Portage.

Being that we were not canoeing anymore, we decided that it would be nice to take a day hike over to Huginnin Cove since neither of us had visited the campgrounds in our past trips. While on our way back to our shelter to pack up and get ready, we saw Kara and Phil down below from the ranger station walking on the trail leading to Washington Creek. They must have been returning from Feldtmann Lake and o their way to Hugginnin Cove. We had a feeling we would see them later today if they followed the itinerary they told us about at Siskiwit Bay.

We also encountered four kayakers that were returning from Grace Island as quickly as possible with the expectations that the voyageur would be arriving at 12:30pm and leaving for Grand Portage at 1pm. To their dismay, they learned that the Voyageur was a day behind schedule and that it would not be leaving until tomorrow after it circumnavigated the island today. It turns out that after I had heard that they had been at Grace Island last evening, I was that much less bummed about missing out on doing our canoeing trip during this particular visit to the island. While I love getting to know new people and seeing familiar faces, it was a big hope of mine not to encounter anyone at Grace Island. It was to be our first canoeing trip together and Grace Island, given its distance and inability to get to unless the weather was perfect (at least for us) made it a huge milestone for Shelly and I. Not to sound greedy, selfish, or inconsiderate, but had we made it to the island, I wanted it to be our island for the day. I wanted a secluded paradise to celebrate our victory on. I wanted a day where we experienced nobody on the trail or at the campgrounds, something that had not happened throughout our trip so far. Knowing that the kayakers were there last night, not only would we not have been the only ones on the island, we probably would not have even gotten a shelter either.

I forgot where the kayakers said they started their trip from, but they did come from Rainbow Cove to Grace Island yesterday, and from what we were told, there were 9ft waves on that day thus why the Voyageur could not make it. They must have been some pretty intense paddlers to travel in such awful conditions. I’m kind of glad we were not able to get a canoe on that note. I probably would have been stupid enough to test my luck and Shelly’s patience with my decision-making. So all and all, I guess it was a blessing that we did not get our canoe for the several reasons I listed above.

We left for Huggininn Cove around 12pm. On the way out of Washington Creek at the Minong Ridge and Greenstone intersection, we saw what we already had known, part of the Minong Trail was closed as of 9/10 due to lightning which caused a wildfire. I forgot to mention us hearing about this news on the first day that we got to the island probably because we did not have the intentions of hiking on the Minong. If I am not mistaken, just as the sign had read, none of the campgrounds were closed because of the fire. However, the 10.6 miles of trail between North Desor and the East Hugginnin trailhead were closed. I know that this would prove to be a problem for Brad and Cindy, the people we had met at Feldtmann Lake and also the same ones we stayed at our first day with at Siskiwit Bay.



The Washington Creek campground map and the sign explaining why the Minong was closed:









Brad and Cindy knew at the time we spoke with them at Siskiwit that the Minong was closed. They had the intentions of going from Siskiwit Bay along the greenstone and cutting over to the Minong trail using the Hatchet Lake Trail to return back to Windigo. They said they were going to go from Siskiwit Bay to South Desor and on the following day go to Malone Bay. There they would get an update on the trail conditions and find out if things had reopened from Ranger Jeremy. If it was reopened, they were going to continue with their plan to cut over to the Minong Trail and make their way back to Windigo. If it was not, they were going to most likely still go to give things a go and hike over to Todd Harbor all while trying to figure out anything they could from the people they encountered. If word got around that the trail was open or if there was an update about the trail being open on the Little Todd/Todd Harbor/Hatchet Lake trailhead, they would continue with their plan to hike the Minong. If luck were not on their side, they would retrace their steps and head back to Windigo using the Greenstone Trail. Obviously, things didn’t pan out the way they had hoped to and I can only imagine what they actually decided on doing. My guess is that they just took the Greenstone Trail back to Windigo, but rather than speculating, I sure would have loved to have known what their final verdict turned out to be.

If I am not mistaken, we got to Hugginnin Cove around 2:30pm. I remember the hike there being an extremely warm one. When we left, the sky was cloudy and dark so Shelly and I wore our rain gear. Eventually the sun began creeping out in the middle of the hike and we had to strip down to a single layer. The hike over to Hugginnin Cove on the west side of the trail proved to be nothing too exciting. The campgrounds and the cove itself looked very beautiful. It had a rocky shoreline that had Superior waters crashing into it.



A picture of the Hugginnin Cove map and some pictures of the campground area:











We found Kara and Phil staying at site #1. As we had suspected, they had made it to Hugginnin from Feldtmann shortly before we did. They took the east path of the trail and planned to take the west path back to Windigo early tomorrow morning to catch their seaplane at 9am. We knew they were fast individuals and did not see this posing an issue for them. We told them about our unfortunate luck with the weather when they asked why we weren’t canoeing as planned. We also explained how the Voyageur had been delayed a day. At the time, I wondered how the seaplane would handle the weather come tomorrow. I didn’t want to be a negative Nancy and suggest that there might be room for concern about the seaplane making it tomorrow, so I kept my mouth shut. Plus I have not had any experience with the seaplane, so who was I to speak on the matter. Regardless, things would turn out however way they would so no need for me to cause any worry.

After talking with them a while longer, we moved onto checking out the campsites and grabbing a snack out of our backpacks. We left Hugginnin Cove at around 3:15pm to find out Kara and Phil were correct about the east side of the Hugginnin Cove trail having some nice views. Shortly after leaving the campgrounds, the path gets narrow as it ascends up and down through a rocky gorge pathway. There are parts that jut out and overlook Lake Superior. It was quite a beautiful thing to witness as we saw the waves from Superior crash into the rocks that laid 30ft below us in certain places. Eventually you end up making a sharp right where you begin climbing the face of a hill that leads you away from Lake Superior. The path more or less begins looking just like it did when we made our way to Hugginnin Cove on the west side. So, while others may not agree with me on this matter, I found the vast majority of the Hugginnin Cove trail to be nothing special outside of the mile leading out of the east side of the campgrounds. I will say that the campground itself is definitely worth visiting and staying at if you have the time.



Some pictures taken while walking along the east side of the trail leading out of Hugginnin Cove:













Shortly after climbing away from the shoreline, it began drizzling lightly. Shelly and I debated on whether or not to put on our rain gear as we hid under the cover of a tree. In the end, we decided to put on our rain jackets, but would take them off soon after things subsided about 15 minutes later. On the way back we stopped at the Windigo mine to check out the old railway. While there was a set of tracks that traveled for some ways, I never came into contact with a railcar or anything that may have traveled on the tracks. With Shelly relaxing back by the entrance of the mine, I didn’t take the time to investigate the area more thoroughly.

Shelly and I made it back to Washington Creek around 6pm and started cooking dinner. When we were finished cleaning up, we began getting our stuff together for the following morning. Last night Shelly and I came to the conclusion that if the Voyageur did not have the intentions to circumnavigate the island in one day and leave back to Grand Portage on the same day, we would without a doubt take advantage of the opportunity to leave the island on Friday (tomorrow). Even if the captain had decided to leave today, the chances were very likely that we would have been on the boat even if we couldn’t take the risk to go to Hugginnin Cove and make it back for its departure sometime in the early evening.

Long story short, we were happy that it was leaving tomorrow afternoon rather than today, because it allowed us to pay a visit to Hugginnin Cove. However, with not much else to do being that we were not canoeing and having already visited Hugginnin and Feldtmann, we had run out of things to do. Also, while the Voyageur would now be shifting over to a back and forth schedule to and from the island on Saturday and Sunday (exactly why we planned our trip at this time, so we could leave on Saturday rather than waiting until Sunday for the Voyageur to circumnavigate the island. Leaving on Sunday would be the biggest waste of time ever, because there was no way we would want to drive all the way back to Chicago in one day so we would make it to work on Monday and there was no way we wanted to have to take off work on Monday to drive back from our vacation) and with us scheduled to leave on Saturday, who was to say the weather wouldn’t turn bad again and force us to stay on the island even longer due to another delay. We thought it best to get off the island sooner rather than later due to Shelly’s job not being as flexible as mine.

Truth be told, and I know this is blasphemy on the forums, Shelly and I were both ready to get off the island. It had been a long and exciting trip, but it was soon getting to the point where we were both getting burnt out. I know I would regret having been in this frame of mind once we were actually off the island. I always miss the place as soon as I am back on the mainland. Shelly can concur with me on matters. Yet, with out plans changing several times, once with deciding to leave out of Malone Bay and again with not being able to canoe on the account of having less than ideal weather, not to mention being uncertain about whether or not the Voyageur would make it back on Saturday should we have happened to leave on our scheduled date; it just felt like a longer trip than it actually was. I remember that even our trip in 2011 where we walked from Rock Harbor to Windigo on the Minong Trail and back to Rock Harbor on the Greenstone Trail not seeming to be as long. It was also chillier than the times where we had come in May and late August. While we loved the total lack of bugs, it’s nice staying in the 50-degree range and not dropping below that. I will say that this definitely affected Shelly more than it did myself. I sleep a lot warmer at night than Shelly and while we have sleeping bags that are good for temperatures as low as 25 degrees, Shelly still felt the need to wear most of her layers at night. Furthermore, it definitely makes it more difficult to want to crawl out of your sleeping bag and get read for a day of hiking when your one degree away from entering into the thirties. Shelly and I still want to pay a special visit in October one day when the Ranger III runs a limited passenger voyage so we can see the colors, but beyond that, it would probably be preferable on both our parts not to go this late in the season again.

Returning back to Thursday evening, after we tided up for tomorrow’s departure, we boiled some water for some hot chocolate and headed over to the ranger station for a presentation about the animals on Isle Royale lead by Ranger Valerie. We were the first ones to get there before the four kayakers eventually arrived. It looked like is was just going to be us until Ranger Valerie said that she was expecting her school group that was staying at the group campsites to come, but decided to start without them when they did not show up 15-minutes after the scheduled start time for the presentation. As it would turn out, they would show up a few short minutes later and we would restart the presentation for them.

Apparently the school that they were from had sent students in two one-week waves. The first wave of students was on the ferry with us on 9/10 when we came to the island. The second of them were supposed to have come on Wednesday (yesterday) but due to the ferry being delayed, they did not get here until today. Shelly and I recall them unloading their things from the ferry today and gathering everything under the pavilion so it could be carted over to the group sites. They had packages of rice krispy treats, chips, chocolate bars, and all types of goodies that children would live off of it were not for their parents pushing more nutritious food upon them. I jokingly told Shelly we should steal their king sized family package of rice krispy treats earlier this morning when no one was near the picnic bench they were placed on and got an elbow in the ribs.

It was enjoyable to watch the kids get excited about the presentation and participate in the parts where volunteers were needed. It was also hilarious to see Shelly get volunteered to answer a question that she had no idea what it was asking, looking over to me for help, getting asked again “If she was a gambling squirrel”, and then have to be told that the reply that was being looked for was “Yes, she was a gambling squirrel.” This all related back to an activity that showed what animals had the opportunity to make in to the island but didn’t, ones that made it to the island but did not survive, and ones that are still on the island to this day. After the presentation had concluded, we walked back to the campgrounds with our headlamps and went to bed after cleaning out our hot chocolate cups. It would pitter-patter on our roof all night.



The sun setting at Windigo and leading into our last evening on the island for this trip:

September 21st Friday

Thankfully the weather turned out to be decent come Friday morning. While it was foggy and gloomy out, the waves did not prove to be anything monstrous. We packed up our things and cleaned out the shelter before heading over to the ranger station around 9:30am. We knew that the Voyageur would not be getting here until around noon, but we still wanted to walk the nature trail that goes around the ranger station grounds, check out the new cabins that Windigo would be offering to visitors next spring, read a little of the Dorothy Simonson journal that the ranger station had a visitor copy of, and turn in and update our permit.

When we got to the ranger station, we saw Phil and Kara. Kara looked very stressed out and frantic. I talked to Phil to see if everything was alright and he told me that the seaplane was delayed on the account of fog and potential for high waves. This proved to be a great bother to Kara because she was to have a very important phone interview for a position that meant a great deal to her. Somehow she was able to get enough reception on her cell phone to check her voicemail and hear about this being the case. Although she knew she would not be lucky enough to get the same kind of reception for an extended period of time should her interviewer call her in the afternoon and they still find themselves on the island. I felt very bad for her, while Phil did the best he could to convince her that the potential employer would understand her given situation, his efforts did not seem to assist with easing the situation.

As we saw Phil and Kara disappear over by the dock, we decided now would be a good time to hike the nature trail. It was a pretty short hike that allowed us to visit the moose enclosure and brought us to the newly built cabins for visitors that hid beside the Windigo concessions/store that was now closed for the season. I could never see myself staying in one the cabins myself. The main reasons why is because there is not any running water going through the cabin, there is no air conditioning, and there is not a private restroom. To me it is just an over glorified shelter with beds. While I will admit, $50 a night compared to the rates at the Rock Harbor lodge seems more than fair. Just the same, I’m an all or nothing kind of guy. If I am going to pay for pleasantries that are offered back home instead of coming to the island to camp when my body is no longer conditioned to hike the trails, I’m sure I’d definitely appreciate things a lot more if air conditioning was included. I already know immediately without even asking Shelly that she would prefer a place with such luxuries, mainly air conditioning Ha Ha Ha! On the same token, if we were not coming in July or August, perhaps air conditioning would not be that big of a deal. Anyways, long story short, it’s not for me, but I am glad they built them for someone who has a partner that would not visit the island unless he or she was afforded such a place to stay.

When we arrived back at the ranger station, we updated our permit with Ranger Valerie, ate a small lunch, and began reading some of the school teachers journal. Neither of us ever ended up completing the journal, but we hope to on a future trip knowing that we each only had a dozen or so pages left to read. If I am not mistaken, we ended up leaving the island shortly after 12:15pm. Shelly and I sat on the back of the boat for the entire trip. It turned out to be a nice day and a smooth ride back. For the majority of the trip, I talked with the gentleman who had stayed at McCargoe Cove with his wife for an extra day on the account of the Voyageur being delayed. I forgot where he was from or what his name was, but he told me that based off of how McCargoe looked on the day the voyageur was suppose to come, he had a good feeling that it was not going to make it to the island. He apparently had a fun trip. I think he said that they went from Malone Bay to McCargoe Cove, which at the time I found to be weird, because I wondered by they didn’t just go from McCargoe Cove to Malone Bay based off of how the Voyageur travels around the island. While I am not completely sure about what their itinerary consisted of, I do know that they got some lovely pictures of a bull and cow at Hatchet Lake.

If I recall correctly, we arrived at Grand Portage around 3pm. As it would turn out, we would bump into Rick and his dog Ruby when we got off the boat. He said he was paying a visit to the marina, because he wanted to move his boat on the other side of the dock given the way the waves were headed into the harbor. As a reminder, Rick was the one we bumped into at Malone Bay who made us cappuccinos. Speaking of people bumped into, we were suppose to bump into Nancy and Mike on Saturday. They were coming in on the Voyageur departure to the island that we were suppose to take back home at 1pm. However, with us cutting our trip a day short and leaving earlier than planned, we never had the pleasure of meeting up with them or wishing them a fun and exciting trip. On the note of cutting our trip a day short, we had some time to spare so we decided to revisit Mall of America. It was close enough to get to today and would make for a good halfway point home. We would spend the majority of our time at the roller coaster park with an all-day amusement pass on Saturday and drive home early in the morning on Sunday. I enjoyed being at the mall a lot more following our trip rather than going prior to it. Although, I do not have any aspirations of going back there anytime soon 



A picture of the Rock of Ages Lighthouse on our return trip across Lake Superior:

Lessons Learned (I dedicate this section to Mark [IncaRoads] since he enjoys reading about personal growth people go through on their trips)

Shelly should always take the lead when we are hiking so we can go at her pace rather than at mine. Traveling in this manner makes us both happier people.

We really need to start dehydrating our own food. It gets expensive eating freeze dried food every day.

Allow some extra luxury room for spare fuel so we can take hot showers on a consistent basis rather than just some barely lukewarm ones.

Know how many calories you plan to eat each day and don’t over pack. Last trip we did a great job on rationing out our food properly. This trip not so much the case with 9oz of dried peach rings, 5oz of dried pineapple, 13oz of raisins, 12oz of dried apricots, 6ozs of prunes, and 14ozs of dried strawberries left over. Lately, during the past few months, I have been weighing out all of the food that I eat and know exactly what it takes calories wise to nourish my body. I need to use these figures to assist with bringing the perfect amount of food on our next trip without going overboard.

I find one-week trips to be ideal. One week gives you enough time to appreciate the island without getting burnt out and carried away. A one-week trip will also allow us to get super light with our backpack weight and probably leave us with 20Lb packs instead of ones that are pushing 30Lbs. While not a big deal, lighter is lighter.

Bushwhacking is not something I want to do unless it is my sole and primary purpose. I had the intentions of hiking Malone Bay to Wood Lake and from Siskiwit Bay to Hay Bay on this trip, but was too warn out from everything else we did to give things an attempt.

The Voyageur is too far away from Chicago for my liking to travel to in one day and Shelly tends to fare better while traveling on larger ships. I think she will love the Ranger III during her first outing on it in a couple of weeks. This is not to say that we will never use the Voyageur. We are very fond of Captain Mike and Don and know that we will take advantage of their inter-island travels in the future.

The seaplane, while it can afford you a quick trip to the island with a view from above that you do not get from a boat, seems to be the least reliable source of transportation. Don’t let the benefits of its convenience out weigh its likelihood to be disabled in poor weather conditions should you be on a crunch with time and need to be back to the mainland on a certain day without any wiggle room.

That about sums up the trip we took together in September of 2012. I hope you enjoyed it. Shelly and I depart for out next trip in less that two weeks from now. While I doubt Ill be able to get our next trip report posted any time soon on the account of the new school year start up a day after I get back, I'd like to think that it would be a nice thing to post around Christmas time when my students and I are on break. Its always nice to read about something related to the island while its closed for the winter season. Keep and eye out

Thanks Tim, enjoyed the read! I know the next one will be in a few weeks (not several months), right?

FYI, the lodge rooms don't have A/C either, except for the breeze off the lake. You do get a private bath, however, for 200+ a night .

Great read Tim. Thanks for posting. Hopefully our paths will cross again on the isle.

Andy


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Really enjoyed your report.
We too were bummed that we didn't get to meet you and Shelly. Capt. Don told us you pulled out a day early.
Enjoy your next adventure and have a little more patience with Shelly!!
Looking forward to your next report.

I like how you don't leave anything out.... " Before we departed, I had to take the Browns to the Superbowl otherwise risk prairie-dogging it all the way back to Windigo. By the time I finished my business, we were headed out at 12pm."

Great report... Cant wait for the next one, have fun!!!

Thanks for all of you hard work in posting this Tim. I really enjoyed it! I too am sorry we missed you as I was looking forward to our meeting. Boy, you guys sure do get an early start in the morning. We rarely take off before 10am.

Just finished reading it. Definitely a Rafiki report Thanks for sharing your experience. I really enjoyed it.

Hey Rafiki! Great trip report again as usual! It was worth the wait and as usual, had the bathroom humor that makes me chuckle!

Cheers,

ETB

Thanks for everyone's kind comments. While it may not seem all that difficult to post a trip report, its takes a while to type everything out (especially if your a rambler like me and have a lot you want to share), load pictures, and think about where you want to place pictures in the report so that they are congruent with your story. Still, by no means should it have taken me almost a year to post this report. Therefore, I appreciate everyone's patience.

Ingo: As far as my next report is concerned, while I know I will not have time to type it out immediately. I am hoping to have it written out slowly but surly over the course of the next few months and have it posted by Thanksgiving or Christmas week. I love reading reports in the dead of winter when we are all missing the island, so I hope people feel like-minded and can appreciate the anticipation knowing that there will be something to read on here other than posts about individuals expressing how much they are missing the island

Tightlines01: I look forward to hopefully crossing paths with you again in the future too

Nancy: You're right. I need to have more patience with Shelly at times. I love her very much and debated on whether or not to share the couple of frustrating moments we had with one another while on our trip. I decided that I would, because I wanted my experience to be open and honest. I wanted to give people the sense that you should always try to be considerate of the abilities of those that you are traveling with. I enjoyed our trip a lot more when Shelly took the lead, because it wasn't a matter of me wanting to travel at an extreme pace, it was just that I naturally have a longer stride and quicker pace to my walk. When I am in front of Shelly, I'm not really paying attention to my altering my natural pace to fall in line with her pace. It is hard to do that when your eyes are forward and you are not able to gauge the pace of the person behind you. In my opinion, the slowest person in your group should always be the person that leads. While this may be frustrating if you are traveling with a group of four or more due to everyone having different capabilities and comfort levels, I still say it is for the best of the group in terms of the overall enjoyment of the trip for everyone. Another thing that could be done in large groups is place people into small groups based of their pace and let the faster ones travel ahead with the slowest person in each group taking the lead. Conducting things is this matter keeps the whole group happy, because everyone is going as a pace that they enjoy without being left behind. Again though, for me, it wasn't even a matter of wanting to travel at a quick pace. I normally just go at a 3-3.5 mile pace while Shelly enjoys a 2-2.5. When she is in front of me, she anchors me down...not in a negative sense...but in the sense that may pace naturally adjusts to her preferences. I think if we would have conducted things this way at the beginning of the trip, there would not have been any indecisive moments on our second day at Malone Bay about whether or not we should take the ferry to Windigo or walk to South Desor. It is my belief that Shelly felt obligated to maintain pace with me and that things became a little overwhelming, especially on the day where we raced from Hatchet to Malone Bay in order to catch the ferry thinking that we could gain some ground and provide ourselves with an extra rest day in case when needed one with our canoe travels that would proceed in the coming days. Again, I cannot emphasis how much better our trip got once Shelly took the lead and you better believe that all future hikes will have her in the lead.

Lucky Chicken: I am glad you appreciate me sharing every detail in the manner that I sometimes do, whether vulgar or not

Mike T: First off, I cannot wait to read your report that you and Nancy took in May. I believe it was suggested that you only gave us a brief taste of our a report shortly after you got back. However, I was under the impression that we would be seeing something lengthy and full of pictures in the months to come. I am not sure if my assumptions were correct or incorrect. However, and not to put the pressure on you, if my estimations were correct, then I am definitely looking forward to your report almost equally as much as I am looking forward to see 50 Lakes 1 Island. As far as us getting up early, we usually call it a night when it gets dark out. This usually occurs around 9am. Couple that with enjoying 8 hours of sleep, it turns out to be the case that we get up around 5am. So ya, I guess we are early birds, but that is only based off the fact of what time the sun goes down

Hooky: Thanks for the kind comments. Haven't seen you around the forums too much lately. Then again that is probably because I have be preparing for my trip in a week from now. Whatever the case or reason maybe for us not crossing paths in the past couple of months, I hope all is well with you.

Ernest: Note to self, more bathroom humor in the next report. Check! Got it! You sent me an email about a week ago, I apologize for not getting back to you. In all honest I have not had the opportunity to check out the VHF radio yet. This is probably not a good thing considering that I am a week out from leaving to the island. I am planning to look over things on Saturday with Shelly. Hope it is not too complicated. However, I gotta pick up things quick because if I don't know how to use it by the time we go, there really isn't a whole lot of difference between not having a VHF radio and not knowing how to use it in an emergency situation

Rafi, all is well here. The boy starts college in 2 weeks so it's been a crazy summer. Unfortunately that has put our island plans on hold. As a result, I'll have to live vicariously through you and your upcoming trip. Have fun, stay safe and watch the stars at least one night. You can always sleep in.

Hey Tim! I know you have to be busy, we are getting our act together as we are off to the Great North in less than two weeks. The radio is really quite straight forward. If all else fails, take the booklet with you in the car and have Shelly read it to you. Have fun and be safe my friend!

Cheers,

ETB