Isle Royale Forums

Hey, everyone we went on our first to the Isle in 2011 and it was awesome! We were originally going to go to Glacier this summer but plans fell through and the Isle is calling us back. I was wondering if you guys could give me advice for a second trip? I kinda want to do something different this time and see some other parts of the Isle. We are planning on 6-7 days on the park and possible using the water taxi to see something new. Last year we went from 1. RH to Three Mile 2. Threemile to Daisy 3. Daisy to Moskey 4. Moskey to Daisy 5. Daisy to RH. We also did day trips to Mount Franklin and the Stoll trail the last day. It was good trip but we ended up back tracking a lot and skipping Lane Cove the first day cause the rangers said there was a lot of fallen trees from the storm.

Thanks!!

Instead of the water taxi, you could use the Voyageur II to take you to the other side of the island, and hike back. 6-7 days would certainly allow for a Greenstone through-hike. Then you'd get a good perspective on many parts of the Isle...

Is there advantage of hiking Windigo Harbor to Rock Harbor over RH to WH? We will be taking the queen so we would have to wait til the next day to catch the Voyageur II. I will talk to my girlfriend and see if she is willing to do a thru-hike might take some convincing >.> lol. How strenuous is a thru-hike on the Greenstone? Can you provide me a sample itinerary? Thanks

This is what I came up with but it ended up being 8 days which is still possible at this point.

1. Arrive at RH via the Queen at 2ish then RH to Daisy 7.1
2. Daisy to Chickenbone West 7.9
3. Chickenbone West to Hacket Lake 7.9
4. Hacket Lake to Desor South 8.1
5. Desor South to Island Mine 5.5
6. Island Mine to Windigo 6.9 (I heard this camp site isn't the greatest but might be better than doing the 11 miles straight to WH?)
7. Catch Voyageur II at Windigo 10:30 am and arrive at Rock Harbor at 3:00 pm.
8. Take the Queen back to Copper Harbor at 2:45pm (Scovillie Point in the morning?)

P.s how is the hard trail on days 2, 3, and 4?

Last year was my first time to IR, and we decided to thru-hike from RH to Windigo to try to see as much as we could during our visit. Here’s the report if you are extremely bored…

http://isleroyaleforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1641

Here are a few decisions we made that might help you out…

We traveled from RH to Windigo because our last day was 12.1 miles from Little Todd. We wanted to have empty packs at that point. Your itinerary may dictate which end is better to start/finish at. (Also, your travel days)

We decided to use the seaplane to get in and out of the island because we didn’t have extra days to spend on a boat. You might consider taking the Seaplane one way at least—It should cost about the same as a water taxi and a one way boat ticket combined and minimize travel time (to maximize time on the island). One caveat is that you’d have to return to Houghton instead of Copper Harbor.

Our group really loves Lake Superior. That was the reason we chose to hike the Minong Trail, in order to camp on its lakeshore many nights. The Minong is significantly tougher (allegedly, I have not hiked the Greenstone end to end) but it had a lot of beautiful campsites. You may want to do some research on the campsites you’ll be staying at, because we constantly arrived in early afternoon with plenty of time to relax. I’m sure someone will tell you to skip staying at Island Mine and go straight through to Windigo…

From what I’ve read, hiking on the Greenstone Ridge (or most ridges) is not very difficult. The difficult part is getting on top of the ridge. The section from Daisy Farm up the side of the ridge is steep—as will be any path that travels from water. Every morning, we knew we had to start our hike uphill from Todd, Little Todd and N. Desor campgrounds. If you’re curious about the trail difficulty, I would invest in Jim Dufresne’s book.

Hiking end to end was incredible--I highly recommend you finding a way through all the logistics to make it happen!

P.s how is the hard trail on days 2, 3, and 4?

2. Daisy to Chickenbone West 7.9
3. Chickenbone West to Hacket Lake 7.9
4. Hacket Lake to Desor South 8.1

Day 2: There is a bit of climb out of Daisy, but not bad. Once up on the ridge it's pretty smooth sailing for the hike, with only one or two places that you have a decent up/down, from what memory serves.

Day 3: (Hatchet Lake, BTW) -You have two climbs early on. One, the climb out of West Chickenbone back to the Greenstone. The second starts about 3/4 mile from there, and is a puff up the Greenstone. However, once you're up on the ridge crest, it's a pretty decent hike, with lots of open views.

Day 4: Other than the climb out of Hatchet, this is a pretty easy section, IMHO. The ups and downs are limited, and trail is easy on the feet.

Going that direction, you COULD skip Island Mine if you wanted to, and shave a day. Two years ago, my 11 year old niece did that with us. (No pressure.) Most of the stretch from Island Mine to Washington Creek/Windigo is a soft dirt trail, and in general is a light decline. It's pretty easy on the body.

As Danha1en notes, when camping at water, you typically need to hike 'up' first thing in the morning. Another important tidbit of IR geography: Because of how the land was formed, slopes on the N side of ridges (technically NW) are steep and acute, whereas slopes on the S/SE tend to be gentle. So, camps on the N side of trails (Many on the Greenstone; Lane Cove, etc) have pretty good hikes in and out. Others, on the South (Ritchie, Island Mine, Threemile, etc) tend to be not as harsh. Also, as the Greenstone is the dominate ridge, and water flows off of it, it doesn't go up and down as much. The Minong is more difficult in part because you're needing to climb up and down at each of the points water has eroded an escape path to the big lake.
Both are great trails, with the Greenstone being (I think) quite a bit easier. While the camps are not on Superior, the interior lakes they are on are quite nice in themselves. (Island Mine excluded.)

First trip I took the boat over like almost everyone. Second time I took the Sea Plane. If I am hiking and not taking a canoe/kayak I'll always take the Sea Plane! Much nicer and some of the costs can be offset by less gas and less vacation days. You have much more flexibility in the Sea Plane schedule and can be dropped off on one end of the island and picked up on the other end for no additional fees.

Add that in with a 45 min flight instead of a near 4 hour boat ride from MI and I'd take the plane every time!

As for itinerary, another option I'm thinking of trying some day is the Feltdman Ridge loop. That is supposed to be very nice and would give you very little backtracking if any. You could add in Huggington Cove loop for another night if you'd want another night!

Where ever you go you'll enjoy it.