Isle Royale Forums

My wife and I are taking our two teenage sons from Rock Harbor to Daisy Farm in our two 14 foot tandem wilderness kayaks (Open Cockpit). We have wilderness experience in the boundary waters with the same boats plus lots of river trips. I've been on Lake Superior and I understand the dangers associated with the cold water and surf. I have a GPS for heavy fog and I'm equipped with a marine radio. I have some questions about Rock Harbor:

Does Rock Harbor offer good protection against large surf on Lake Superior?
Is it easy to bail out along the shore if the water gets rough?
Do you see a lot of boat traffic along this route?
At a good paced head-wind any idea on paddle time from Rock Harbor to Daisy Farm?

Any other helpful tips would be appreciated.

Welcome to the forums!
Waves in RH, its all about wind speed and direction.
A NE wind, plenty of fetch for the waves to build. Same for East. SE and South the outer Islands will give some protection.
SW, you will be paddling into the Wind/ Waves.
Plenty of places to bail between RH and Daisy Farm.

Boat traffic is generally NPS boats that will give you a wide berth (when possible).

Paddle time to Daisy Farm, figure 2.5-3 hours or so in calm winds, head winds could take much longer.

Sounds good... I'll check the marine forecast before we go. Hopefully we will have good weather conditions but that's up to the weather gods.