Isle Royale Forums

Hello everyone,

I decided to stop lurking and register today. I've been combing through the site and have found lots of great info. I would like to throw this out there and see if I can gain any advice. This will our first trip to the island. It will be me and my 17 yo son. Our first 'real" trip together was a week in Yosemite last year, and he did great. We could either do a trip where we fish or a trip where we put some miles in and see more island. Looking at the map, we may have some limited options without a water taxi. We're going in on 5/29.

My question is, what are our options given our limited time? I want to take advantage of our time together on the island.

Thanks in advance.

First of all, welcome to the forums!!
What ferry are you planning on taking?
Given 4 nights, you could do a good backpacking loop.
Paddling, canoe or kayak?
Canoe, you would see more/fish more taking a water taxi to Chipewa and continuing from there so that you do the Ritchie-Moskey portage once and can spend more time fishing.

John

I am imagining that perhaps you are taking the Ranger III since you are leaving on 5/29 (the Ranger's "offical" first day of the season.) Whether or not you are taking the Ranger III or Isle Queen IV is an important piece of information. If you are taking the Ranger III, you will get to the island at 3pm, if you are taking the Isle Queen you will be getting to the Island around 11:30am. Also when you leave on Saturday, if you are taking the Ranger III, you will leave at 9am. If you are leaving on the Isle Queen IV, you will leave at about 2:45pm. I would definitely do a loop like John has suggested in either case. How I would configure my travel upon the loop depends on what ferry you are taking and how ambitious you and your son are. So here are the four plans I suggest: two for the Ranger III (one light and one ambitious) and one for Isle Queen IV (one light and one ambitious).

Ranger III Light Plan:

Tuesday: Get to the Island at 3pm and Hike to Three Mile
Wednesday: Hike to Daisy Farm Via the Rock Harbor Trail.
Thursday: Hike to Lane Cove Via the Greenstone Trail.
Friday: Hike back to Rock Harbor Via the Tobin Harbor Trail
Saturday: Head home at 9am in the morning.

Ranger III Ambitious Plan:

Tuesday: Get to the Island at 3pm and Hike to Daisy Farm.
Wednesday: Hike to West Chickenbone Via the Rock Harbor Trail.
Thursday: Hike to Lane Cove Via the Greenstone Trail.
Friday: Hike back to Rock Harbor Via the Tobin Harbor Trail
Saturday: Head home at 9am in the morning.

Isle Queen IV Light Plan:

Tuesday: Get to the Island at 11:30am and Hike to Three Mile
Wednesday: Hike to Daisy Farm via the Rock Harbor Trail.
Thursday: Hike to Lane Cove via the Greenstone Trail.
Friday: Hike to Three Mile by crossing over the Greenstone Trail.
Saturday: Hike from Three Mile to Rock Harbor via the Tobin Harbor Trail and catch the 2:45pm ferry.

Isle Queen Ambitious Plan:

Tuesday: Get to the Island at 11:30am and Hike to Moskey Basin.
Wednesday: Hike to West Chickenbone.
Thursday: Hike to Daisy Farm via the Greenstone and go down the left leg.
Friday: Hike up the right leg back to the Greenstone to Lane Cove.
Saturday: Get up early enough to Hike from Lane Cove to Rock Harbor via the Tobin Harbor Trail so you can catch the 2:45pm ferry.

Obviously one of these plans might sound great now, but you may realize that while on the trail the plan you picked is not going as planned. It is either too easy or too hard for one or both of you. If this happens to be the case, I'd advise having a backup idea on how you want to manuver yourself back to Rock Harbor. You might determine that you want a rest day where you don't hike at all. You may find that you still have a lot of daylight left upon getting to a certain campsite and that you want to continue on to the next site. Keep all of these things in mind and have a general idea of how you want to handle certain situations. Nothing has to be set in stone, but just generalize ahead of time so you don't have to think things out too thoroughly while on the trip. I hope this helps and I hope you and your son love the island just as much as I and many of us have come to after our first and several visits there afterwards.

Holy pee, Rafiki, did you just have those intineraries in your back pocket? Oh wait, now I know why you have the post about "long text in message box over" in the Web Board tech support threads.

Hooky, welcome to the forums! Like johnhens said, if you can provide us a bit more detail about the logistics of your trip, we might be able to better help. Answer johnhens questions and wait for the responses to pour in...

Thanks for the welcome!

We're on the Ranger, so we'll get there at 3pm on the 29th and leave on Saturday morning. This will be a hiking trip. I'm encouraged by rafiki's 2 Ranger III options.

I only wish we had more time on the island.

I would offer the following alternative:

Tuesday: Get to the Island at 3pm and Hike to Three Mile
Wednesday: Hike to Moskey Basin Via the Rock Harbor Trail.
Thursday: Hike to Lane Cove Via the Greenstone Trail.
Friday: Hike back to Rock Harbor Via the Tobin Harbor Trail
Saturday: Head home at 9am in the morning.

Vandy I wanted to include Moskey Basin in the itinerary, but if Hooky was considering a light plan, I don't think Moskey should be an option. When I say light, I'm talking 4-6 miles a day. Him having to hoof from Moskey to Lane Cove might not be his idea of fun. Some like to experience the island from there campsites, and by throwing Daisy Farm into the mix, they could do the loop between Daisy Farm and the Greenstone while leaving there packs at the shelter. They could even do a day hike to Moskey. The main thing that was my concern was low miles and Moskey in the same plan.

Now if were talking high miles and ambition, then I like you idea. The only question is does Hooky want to see the marvelous Moskey Basin at the cost of having to back track to Daisy Farm? Personally, and this is just my own preference, when I first went to the island I wanted to see and walk along as much of trails as possible. For me, going to someone's favorite site at the cost of back tracking over terrain already walked was an option that took a little excitement away from me. Of course, now I am no longer unfamiliar with the island, so I would definitely want to make it a point to go to Moskey. I threw in West Chicken Bone because it provided a loop that was more techincal in definition than if I would have suggest Hooky to your plan or one that is similar. But, long story short, I will not deny that Moskey is much more beautiful in my eyes than West Chickenbone. West Chickenbone is nice too, but whatever you do, stay the hell away from East Chickenbone I'll let others bear witness as to why.

Big miles don't really worry us ... at this point . We were doing 6-10/day last year in Yosemite with some crazy elevation gains and losses, so I think 6-10/day on the island should be fine. That being said, I don't want to cram the itinerary so full we can't wet a line. Amazon says my map should be here tomorrow, so we'll hunker down with some of these suggestions and see what it looks like. I'm pleasantly surprised that there are this many options.

Well with that noted, Vandy does make a great point, Moskey Basin is a place you should try to fit in. If you don't mind doing a little double backing and are not obsessed with seeing as much of the island at once because you know'll you'll return in the future, then yes plan Moskey Basin somewhere in between it all. And since you seem capable, if it were me, I know I would try to make it to Moskey on your first day. However, I honestly don't think its possible unless you have headlamps and don't mind setting up camp with your headlamps. I'd imagine you'd be creeping up on Daisy Farm just as dusk would be on the verge of setting in. So ya, perhaps Moskey Basin isn't the best first day option. I got it. Here is what I would do, I call this one the Perfect Plan

Ranger III Perfect Plan

Tuesday: Depart at 3pm travel from Rock Harbor to Lane Cove via the Tobin Trail. (6.9 miles)
Wednesday: Depart from Lane Cove travel to Daisy Farm via the Greenstone Trail. (6.9 miles)
Thursday: Depart from Daisy travel to Moskey Basin via the Rock Harbor Trail. (3.9miles)
Friday: Depart Moskey Basin travel to Rock Harbor via the Rock Harbor Trail. (11.9 miles)

I suggest this plan because it will be nice to walk on the Tobin Trail during the first day when you have full backpacks. A lot of people hike from Rock Harbor to Three Mile on their first day and get burnt out with walking over and around all of the glaciated rock. The Tobin Trail will be a lot more easy going on the feet for the first day. On the second day I'd go to Daisy Farm which will be a real easy strech of hiking especially the descent off of the greenstone trail. Obviously keep in mind that just as you will be able to descend off of the greenstone to Daisy you will have to travel up to in while departing from Lane Cove. This will be the only difficult part of the day which shouldn't be too difficult. I always like getting the worst over with first and knowing that everything else is down hill and easy breezy. After that I would carry onto Moskey on the following day, because as you have learned, we all recommend this place for at least a one night stay. The last day at 11.9 miles may seem overburdensome, but at this leg in the race you will have eaten most of your food and you backpacks will be lighter. This will make stetches of glaciated rock not feel as painful on the feet due to the lack of weight on your backs. It will also be a nice long finale to end the trip on. Other suggestions to keep in mind: if you want to stay in shelters and only use a tent as a back up, Lane Cove does not have shelters, so Lane Cove might not be a place you would want to stay at based off of this fact. Also if you feel as though the 6.9 miles you hiked on the first day were not enough to keep you satisfied, you could always skip out on Daisy Farm and travel to West Chickenbone instead. Keep in mind that this would be almost double the miles at 12.9 miles.

I am sure there are other plans you could consider, and others that some will offer, and others that you will brainstorm up yourself, but now that you know which sites we like, you have a map to tell you the distances of campsites relative to each other, and know that you will be getting to the island at 3pm Tuesday and leaving Saturday at 9am, its all just about looking at the facts on the table and planning. At this point, I'd personally like to hear what ideas you have in mind after glancing over the map. I think we could be most helpful with describing what our thoughts are about a plan you have in mind. Therefore, after you have a chance to check on the map and hear a couple more suggestions from others, fill us in on what you have in mind so we can work from there

After looking at options on the map this weekend, I'm strongly inclined to do this one:

Rafiki wrote: Ranger III Perfect Plan

Tuesday: Depart at 3pm travel from Rock Harbor to Lane Cove via the Tobin Trail. (6.9 miles)
Wednesday: Depart from Lane Cove travel to Daisy Farm via the Greenstone Trail. (6.9 miles)
Thursday: Depart from Daisy travel to Moskey Basin via the Rock Harbor Trail. (3.9miles)
Friday: Depart Moskey Basin travel to Rock Harbor via the Rock Harbor Trail. (11.9 miles)

Young hooky has heard that Moskey is worth 2 nights, so he offered up this option (if I think I can "man up" ).

On Wednesday, he wants to push on past Daisy Farm and go to Moskey. That gives us a short hike to lakes Richie and LeSage for a fishing day on Thursday and another night at Moskey.

At this point, I'm really wishing we had a couple of extra nights.

Young Hooky is a wise one. I didn't want to make you guys hoof to hard to get the benefit of 2 nights at Moskey, but since your son came up with the idea and you are not at all hesistant about it, I definitely second the notion. The plan is truly a perfect one after having made the revision to cross-out Daisy Farm. It will be nice to have a rest day too. No setting up camp all over again, just eating breakfast and doing whatever you have your heart set on. I like it. I hope you absolutely love the island and that the trip is just as perfect as the plan

Thanks for the kind words.

We're both pretty excited about the trip. At this point, all we need to do is replace a few odd and ends that got dinged up or used up last year and wait on the new stove to get here. That will leave us plenty of time to change the route about 4 more times.

Well no matter how many times you change your itinerary, you must tell me what the final plan was that took effect once you get back from the island and what things you liked or would do differently on your next trip if you were given the same amount of time to work with. I am really curious to hear about what your first experiences are like. Honestly, hearing about your trip would almost be as great as me going to the island myself. So please keep us updated. Thanks.