Tackling the Minong Trail

[philranger]

My daughter and I are planning on hiking the Minong in 6 days in August. Does anyone have any advice regarding the first day. I would like to know if we should skip McCargo and hike directly to Todd Harbor. OR spend the night at McCargo and then head towards Windigo. sidenote: I love McCargo and this will be my fourth time there.

[MikeT]

You do not arrive at McCargoe on the Voyageur until 1pm. While it is very possible to hike the 6.6 miles to Todd you would be getting in kind of late. You said you have 6 days so, I might think about staying at McCargoe, grabbing a shelter and taking your daughter to the Minong Mine site a mile away then going on to Todd the next day. You will get to Todd early enough to enjoy it and have 4 days to make the trek from there to Windigo. That should actually give you another day off somewhere along the way. I would suggest Little Todd for a relaxing day along the Lake Superior shore in a true wilderness campground. Plus, you can have a nice relaxing fire before the long hard hike to Desor North and Windigo the following days. Those hikes are tough and, in bad weather, really tough. Depending on the trail conditions and your condition, another thing to consider is breaking up the walk from Desor North to Windigo with a "backcountry" camp.

[philranger]

Thanks Mike. We'll probably stay at McCargo the first night and visit the mines during the afternoon. McCargo is an especially beautiful camp. Our last day, I'm thinking of doing the Huginnin Cove loop before getting on the VII for the ride home.

Regarding the possibility of back country camping . . . Let's say the last stretch between Desor and Windigo gets too much, can folks just pull off to the side and camp? How does that work?

[IncaRoads]

You have to pre-register to do off-trail backcountry camping.

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