Isle Royale Forums

Going up with 3 others next week. We've done a few 8-10 mile trips in hilly terrain in preparation, but no multi-day excursions.

I wanted to keep us near filterable water for most of the route. This is also our first trip to the island, so I've kept it to shorter on the Northeast end near our ferry rendezvous.

Day 1
Take Queen IV at 7 AM Eastern Time, 3.75 hour trip, drops us at Daisy farm since the Rock Harbor dock will be closed for maintenance.
Daisy > Rock Harbor (7.1 miles)

Day 2
Rock harbor > Lane cove (6.9 miles)

Day 3
Lane Cove >McCargo (13.0 miles)

Day 4
McCargo > Moskey Basin (8.4)
OR - straight to Daisy farm - 12.5 miles, 8.2 if we backtrack some of the Greenstone

Day 5
Moskey Basin > Daisy (3.9, shelters)

Questions -

Not sure if we should power through on Day 4 or split it up on Day 5. I've read that it's safer to give an extra day at the dock campground in case the ferry has to move around its schedule due to bad weather. I'm not sure how we would be notified of this if we were at a different site.

How hilly/challenging is that 13 mile stretch of the Green stone between Lane Cove and McCargo cove? I've read most of the inland lakes don't have filterable water on the island, wondering if that is anyone's recent experience along this route. We'll each have at least 3 liters filtered at Lane before we embark.

Thanks, this forum has been instrumental in planning our trip.

Welcome! (And, you'll be back! -- so, don't worry about trying to see everything.)

Those days seem long to me, and you don't have a rest day. I *highly* recommend including a zero day. Since you aren't committed to any specific itinerary, you'll be able to move it around or decide to power through if you want to. But having that zero day could be very good if you discover your days are too long, if someone gets injured, if it's rainy (very likely), etc.

The Greenstone is bumpy and can be exposed and hot at the east end, but it's not terrible. The hardest part is getting up onto it (and back down, especially on the north side). That said, 13 miles is a long way on the island. The constant up and down can really wear on you, especially at that distance. So, I highly recommend shorter days.

I would suggest cutting out the Lane Cove spur and focusing on McCargoe and Moskey. Those are delightful campsites. Or, if you are set on Lane Cove, perhaps remove McCargo (the farthest away one) and keep Moskey.

I agree with dcclark about the zero day, and would also skip Rock Harbor the first night. Maybe something like:
Three Mile
McCargoe
Moskey
Daisy Farm
Then take a down day at either McCargoe or Moskey, both are great. This also shortens the longest day to McCargoe a bit I think. The mine near McCargoe is worth checking out, Moskey is just a beautiful place to spend a day with the shelters on the water.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll factor in a rest day.

We did McCargoe to Lane a few weeks back. It’s a really tough 13 miles - the first few miles coming out of Lane have a lot of elevation gain and difficult footing. I’d still choose to do it again because Lane Cove is such a great little site, but I would only recommend that stretch if you’re really looking for a challenge.

We kept the option for a zero day open in our schedule, but in the end didn’t use it. Instead we just alternated between long days and short days. Getting into McCargoe before noon after a short hike from Todd Harbor gave us a lot of time to swim, relax and recover from the previous day. Definitely agree with the suggestions to give yourself some options to adjust your route on the fly.