Isle Royale Forums

My group is going to have a little downtime at Windigo. One member of our group is a swimmer. He wants to know how realistic it would be to swim from Windigo to BI. We obviously know the water will be cold and deep. We’re aware that weather can be an issue. Is that completely out of the question, or if conditions are right…?

If we rented a canoe and paddled alongside, just in case?

Love to hear what the experienced would suggest.

What month? Surface temperatures increase throughout Spring and early Summer, peaking in early August. Washington Harbor is going to warm up more than open water.

He's a "swimmer"?
I'm a swimmer too and a pretty good swimmer, but I would not personally tackle this challenge. Based on that, without knowing a whole lot more, I'm not keen to offer any more ideas that might ultimately encourage the endeavor.

Fair questions. We’ll be there at the end of June. He swam for Northwestern University, which has definitely been a few years, but I know he still swims as his primary means of staying fit. I’m not sure how gung ho he was on this idea, but I know it caught his idea when looking at the map. I think he was wondering if it was something that many people have done, or if the risks were too great. As I’m sort of our trip organizer, I wanted to gather any info I could so he didn’t put himself in a bad spot. Thanks for the reply.

Definitely "doable"
Does he really want to carry a wetsuit for the whole trip though?
That area can also be very busy with boat traffic at times.

I went out to Beaver Is. a couple of years ago. We had a row boat (rental). Going to and returning from that island, we had a lot of wind. Hopefully, if you go, it will be a calm day. We went right, then left and back to the right and then...Not much to see at that campground when we got there. Hiking the island was difficult, why, many trees were down due to (?) a windy winter/spring.

Thanks for all the thoughts. To be clear, this is still very much a hypothetical. We'll have to wait and see what the island offers that day. It would be the morning before we catch a seaplane back, so wet clothes for the trip aren't much of a concern. As for the weather, anything less than perfect and I think we'd all recognize that it just wouldn't happen. Even with perfect conditions, I think we're going to have to wait and see how he feels after 4 nights of hiking and camping. Would make for a memorable swim, though!

This is a bad idea. Meaning dangerous. If you want to swim on IR, do it in an inland lake near the shore. Then pull off the leeches.

Okay, do a few cannonballs off the dock at Windigo and call it a day.

backwoods doc wrote: Wed Apr 09, 2025 9:35 pm Okay, do a few cannonballs off the dock at Windigo and call it a day.

Thanks again for all the info. Maybe he can just hitch a ride on an outbound moose...