9/1-9/5 Windigo to RH Itinerary Help

[Memphis901]

Hi everyone,

I will be headed to IR for the first time in less than a month! I am super pumped and have been prepping for a while now. I am doing a thru hike from Windigo to RH, and am having trouble deciding on a final route. Here are the potential options:


1. Windigo > Desor S 2. Desor S > W Chickenbone 3. W Chickenbone > Daisy Farm 4. Daisy Farm > RH

1. Windigo > Desor S 2. Desor S > Hatchet Lake 3. Hatchet Lake > Moskey Basin 4. Moskey Basin > RH

1. Windigo > Desor S 2. Desor S > W Chickenbone 3. W Chickenbone > Lane Cove 4. Lane Cove > RH

1. Windigo > Desor S 2. Desor S > W Chickenbone 3. W Chickenbone > 3 Mile 4. 3 Mile > RH to catch seaplane (contingency plan if flight to island gets delayed a day)

I will be arriving on the first seaplane to Windigo and leaving on the 11 am flight the morning after arriving to RH. While this will be my longest backpacking trip, I am fairly experienced with multinight trips in varied terrain/weather and comfortable with long mileage days (did 18 mi in one day this past weekend on the Manistee River - NCT loop). My pack weight will be around 30-35 lbs at the start, and may dip under 30 as consumables are used up.

My question to you all is, which itinerary would you pick? Things that are important to me are: campsite scenery, remoteness, and low chance of crowds (edit: also best locations to potentially see Northern Lights!); chances to see wildlife; desirability of hiking route. People seem to rave about Moskey Basin, so I am leaning towards that plan; however, that route would bypass some of the points of interest on the eastern end of the Greenstone. Any and all advice, feedback, etc. would be greatly appreciated!

[hooky]

I'd skip Daisy and pick up the Moskey route. Second choice would the Lane route.

I'm just a sucker for Moskey though.

[Memphis901]

Thanks hooky! From Moskey, what are your thoughts on getting back on the Greenstone at DF to see Mt Ojibway and Franklin? Worth the additional mileage to RH?

[dcclark]

I agree with hooky. I'm a fan of jumping up on the ridge to see Mt. Ojibway and Mt. Franklin. Great views, and not too many more miles. You'll still get your fill of the Rock Harbor trail on the way in to Rock Harbor, if you don't want to take Tobin Harbor instead.

[Memphis901]

Awesome, dcclark! Do you recommend Tobin Harbor trail over the Rock Harbor one?

[dcclark]

Tobin Harbor is much easier than Rock Harbor, and if you're coming down off the Greenstone on the Mt. Franklin trail, Tobin Harbor will also be the first trail junction you come to.

But, two things:

1. The short stretch of the Mt. Franklin trail between Tobin Harbor and Three Mile campground is my favorite stretch of trail anywhere on the island. Just beautiful, varied, dark, light, closed, open, rocky, dirty... everything.

2. Rock Harbor trail from Three Mile to Rock Harbor is a really interesting trail. It's pretty flat, but extremely rocky with all sorts of fun and weird things to climb over, around, and along. If you're tired after a long day, that's no fun. But if you're feeling good, it's pretty awesome (in my opinion).

You can decide on the fly, so I'd just wait and see!

[TopCarrot]

I agree with hooky. I'm a fan of jumping up on the ridge to see Mt. Ojibway and Mt. Franklin. Great views, and not too many more miles. You'll still get your fill of the Rock Harbor trail on the way in to Rock Harbor, if you don't want to take Tobin Harbor instead.

^^this

[torpified]

I agree with hooky. I'm a fan of jumping up on the ridge to see Mt. Ojibway and Mt. Franklin. Great views, and not too many more miles. You'll still get your fill of the Rock Harbor trail on the way in to Rock Harbor, if you don't want to take Tobin Harbor instead.

^^this

+2. with a pack lightened by consuming consumable and an 18m day on the MRT under your belt, the extra miles will breeze by.

[hammb]

Only done the island once (a couple weeks ago), and it was the first real trip for any of the guys in my group. However, we followed an itinerary pretty close to what you're looking at, although we had 1 extra day.

I will concur with the group on the Moskey Basin route. The shelters there are fantastic, there is/was a family of otters living/playing off the dock there that was great viewing. There is also some really cool beaver activity happening behind the tent sites there; we didn't catch the beavers in the act (although others said they did see some), but just checking out their handiwork is awesome.

For us the hardest day of hiking was easily Windigo->S. Desor., but the 2nd toughest day was S. Desor->Hatchet. So if you go the Moskey route you're still doing each of those as your longest days. We did both W. Chickenbone & Moskey, but those were both pretty easy hiking days, so by combining that into one day you're combining 2 of the easier days. Whereas your other routes will create a much tougher day (IMO) by going from Desor all the way to Chickenbone, although I will say we greatly preferred the W. Chickenbone campsites (right at water level) over Hatchet.

We only hiked through Daisy going from Moskey to 3M, but in our walk through there I have zero desire to camp there. By IR standards it's a massive campground with a lot of activity going on.

[hooky]

Thanks hooky! From Moskey, what are your thoughts on getting back on the Greenstone at DF to see Mt Ojibway and Franklin? Worth the additional mileage to RH?

I'm in agreement with the advice you're getting from dcclark.

[Buckeye]

I would make sure your choice includes camping on Lake Superior at some point. so I would recommend the Moskey option.
After hiking from Windigo to the Indian portage trail on the Greenstone, I'm not sure I'd hike back up to Ojibway.

If you are flying out of Hancock, we'll be on the same plane into Windigo. There are 3 of us going from 9/1 - 9/7. We are going to Rock Harbor via the Feldtmann loop.

[Memphis901]

What a coincidence Buckeye, my girlfriend and I are flying out of Hancock too. See you on the plane.

Thanks everyone for the advice. We’ve decided to go with Desor S > Hatchet > Moskey > RH. Can’t wait.

[Memphis901]

One last thought…assuming the algal bloom dissipates, would it be worth making it to Chickenbone West on day 2? My thinking is this will shorten the hike to Moskey on day 3 giving us a better chance to secure a spot of our choosing. I’ve also heard the trail down to Hatchet isn’t the best. So the two options would be:

S Desor (11 mi) > Hatchet (8 mi) > Moskey (13 mi) > RH (11 mi)

S Desor (11 mi) > CBW (15 mi) > Moskey (6 mi) > RH (11 mi)

[TopCarrot]

The trail down to hatchet is nice. The trail up is the workload. If the bloom is cleared maybe but chicken nine is a more active campground and the last two miles into moskey are super easy so that day of only six would be really short. I did Desor to moskey in one day which makes anything else seem better.