Isle Royale Forums

I want to try something different for my anniversary trip. Is there a small path and how challenging will it be? How is the fishing? Any information would be appreciated. I searched the forum and didn't come up with much info. Hens...is it worth it?

Chris

robin621 wrote:I want to try something different for my anniversary trip. Is there a small path and how challenging will it be? How is the fishing? Any information would be appreciated. I searched the forum and didn't come up with much info. Hens...is it worth it?

Chris

Ah the eternal question...Is it worth it? I enjoy offtrail hiking, you never know what you will find. I also enjoy the challenge of fishing lakes that do not get a lot of fishing pressure. We did ok for the time we spent there. I think with a canoe or the like we may have done better. We have plans to return there to spend more time fishing. We basically took a compass bearing and hiked in. We tried to hike to the small lake South of Sargent Lake and follow the stream to Sargent Lake-I wouldn't go that way.
Coming back, we went a little east of where we came in off the tombolo/"T" shaped area and went back that way. Much easier going back to the Greenstone.

Thanks, Hens! Your info is always appreciated. I just checked my map and know exactly the location you entered. What was difficult about hitting that small southern lake and taking that small stream inward to Sargent?

robin621 wrote:Thanks, Hens! Your info is always appreciated. I just checked my map and know exactly the location you entered. What was difficult about hitting that small southern lake and taking that small stream inward to Sargent?

It wasn't difficult hitting the small lake. The area adjacent to the stream, as is the case along most waterways on the Island, is very boggy, muddy, slippery, overgorwn with small willow and hard to traverse. If you have time, a hike around the little "T" towards the main part of the lake might be more productive.

I had originally planned on accessing Sargent from McCargo Cove for a couple of days this past August on a three week canoe trip. I ended up spending 10 days in Boundary Waters and 10 days on IR so the time frame didn’t allow. I have physically scoped in the past and have topo maps superimposed on satellite photos for a rough guide and my proposed path is about a mile.

I talked to Ranger Carl at McCargoe cove and asked of him the best route and he just smiled. He said that he knew someone who attempted access from drainage river exiting into McCargo Cove and that it was rough going.

I plan to access next summer. Hopefully.

The "small lake" you are referring to is called L. Wagejo.

Head2North and Tampico, thanks for the info! I know a guy in Arizona that hiked to Sargent Lake twice in the 70's. He said it was an awesome place. I'm thinking about one of those GPS units. I mentioned it in the equipment thread and I'm going to do a little research while I have some time off.

Equipped with a compass and infared aerial photo, a partner and I left the greenstone trail about a half mile from the intersection of the the daisy farm trail, headed west to lake wagejo. we made our way through a mature, closed canopy cedar stand, which was mostly opened understory-not too thick. closer to wagejo, it thickened, we came out at the lake on the northern side very near the outlet stream. Looking south across this narrow lake we noticed a slowly moving stump some distance from the shoreline. Then the full set of antlers raised from the water, sparse vegetation hanging, streams of water running from the palms--another isle royale commonplace that completely captures you when you see it.
I slowly made my way atop the beaver dam impoundment and cast, very shortly catching a northern. My friend quickly caught two more, one was 26" i'm pretty sure, but she gladly released it. By this point we had made enough commotion landing fish and the bull took notice. I could tell it was walking way out into the lake and then began swimming in our direction. at that point i felt satisfied enough with our wagejo experience to vacate.
Heading to Sargent we pretty much headed due north going down some half way steep balsam forest terrain which then emptied out into a gently sloped birch stand which led to the lake. We saw another bull standing/grazing? there, amongst the birch. we kept a wide berth and as to not be noticed, hopefully avoiding any behavior like the last one. We came out on sargent at the little T, hiked counterclockwise around the T to where the narrows are. At that point in time -june 2000, the water was exceptionally clear and i could make out a lot of gravel/cobble bottom. To me it looked like it would have been a walleye lake, but according to other accounts, I guess not. there were many, many cedars and balsam hanging at waters edge and in the water, making it difficult to successfully cast. So, we didn't catch anything there. we made our way back to the greenstone trail, a different way than we came, i believe coming up that steep little knob very near the intersection of the daisy farm trail. I remember climbing rock and soil that was near vertical! but just thinking "we're climbing up the greenstone ridge-we must be close to the trail" A topo would have easily pointed us around that obstacle.
That was on my first trip to the island, so I didn't have all the nice things then I do now. And, I haven't been back to sargent since, but I think the future holds a daisy farm base camp with a float tube day-hike in.

Porter did you get any pictures of the area you covered and or of the moose with vegetation attached? Please post if you did.

I like the sound of that! Now...if I can portage a canoe down there. Thanks, Porter.

Chris

jerry, sorry no pics worth posting. I dug my old prints out of the closet to confirm what I thought was the case, my beat up canon ae-1 that I brought with was highly effective at producing lightstruck photos.

Porter thanks for checking. Your trip sounded interesting.

Sargent Lake is one tough mother. The Daisey Farm trail turns into the Greenstone, however, it wasn't marked clearly. Bugs, bugs, bugs and more bugs. The pike were hungry, but I don't think I'll try that again. Too hard to cast because there is so much brush. Cut my trip short there and headed back to Daisey Farm.

robin621,
Would porting a float tube in, make it worth your effort?

I went back and forth on that one...I think I would go with the raft. The only thing is that they weigh 20-40 pounds. I backpacked a Seahawk my very first year to Lake Ritchie. I really need some few backpacking buddies, my guy are out of the game now.