Isle Royale Forums

How does this sound?

8/16: Float plane to Rock Harbor. Hike to Lane Cove, 6.9 miles
8/17: Hike to Moskey Basin, 11.1 miles
8/18: Hike to McCargoe Cove, 8.6 miles
8/19: Hike to Todd Harbor, 6.6 miles
8/20: Hike to Lake Desor S., 11.6 miles
8/21: Hike to Siskiwit Bay, 9.9 miles
8/22: Zero Day at Siski, unless used before
8/23: Hike to Feldtmann Lake, 10.6 miles
8/24: Hike to Washington Creek, 9.1 miles
8/25: Early fly out from Windigo to Houghton with 300 mile drive home.
74.4 total miles hiked.

I've taken previous advice and given myself a zero day. Might shoot for late flight out on Sunday to afford myself time to drive to Eagle Harbor and visit the monks for yummy Thimbleberry jam.
This seems ambitious, but walking slow at 2 mph average, my longest day is still only 6 hours on trail, plus breaks. My son and I average 3 mph at our normal pace, including last year's trip on the Isle.

Thoughts?

Hey Donk. I love your itinerary. However, that is because I like 10-15 mile days. This is just my perspective. If you want to play it safe, I'd say ditch Lane Cove and shoot straight to Moskey Basin if the plane has you arriving early enough. This will give you an additional rest day if necessary. Sometime as ambitious as we are as backpackers, it's nice to have a relax day and not have to pack-up and re-deploy at a new location. It's also nice to have an additional rest day if it is raining and you don't feel like going out in it. Totally your call though. Go off of what you perceive to be most enjoyable to your preferences and style of hiking. Other than that, I love the plan. I'll be leaving on the Ranger on the Saturday your coming in. Not sure if the plan will get you to the harbor before 9am, but if so I'd love to meet you and your son (I think I read that you have a son in another post, sorry if I have things mixed up.)

Going to probably miss you by 30 minutes. It would have been cool to meet. Although, I've kept my dates open to accomodate when I can actually get a flight (haven't purchased tickets yet so I'll either being flying in Friday or Saturday depending. Looks like we're going to ditch Moskey this year and head from Lane to McCargoe... feedback from my son who wasn't as enthralled with Moskey as I was (the Otters were cool).

McCargoe is my favorite. Moskey is my girlfriends