Sunday, August 30
Made the long drive, set up camp at Fort Wilkins State Park. What a nice place to stay, except the constant bell noise of the buoy out in Copper Harbor! Grabbed dinner at Harbor Haus. Had the fresh whitefish, it was awesome, and a perfect pre-island meal. Not too heavy!
Monday, August 31
Hopped on the Isle Royale Queen, captained by Captain Don. 1-3 foot waves, a few larger. Nothing too worry about. Bright sunshine (a theme all week). I got out on the bow as much as anyone else, I just love riding on the boat across mother superior. Arrived into Rock Harbor at the usual time, and we set the pace of "we're on vacation, and in absolutely no hurry" right off the bat. Grabbed a root beer at the store, and hit the Tobin Harbor trail on our way up to Lane Cove. 70 degrees for a high, pretty much every day. It was a little warm on the rocky sections, and perfect sleeping weather. Along the Tobin Harbor trail, some mergansers were swimming along the edge of the trail, not 10 feet away. Every break I'd come to in the trees, they were there, doing their version of trolling. What cool birds. We hit the Mt. Franklin trail, and somehow we were dumb enough to mistake the rock outcropping just east of Mt. Franklin as the summit, and we ate lunch there.
I didn't have my boots adjusted correctly, and I'm about 50 lbs overweight (carrying 215 lbs on a 5'6 frame, plus 35 lbs of gear), so on the steep downhill, my toes were crashing into the front of my boots. I was a mess by the time I got to Lane Cove, and dreaded the climb back out. Finally made it into camp, set up our tents on site #4. Had to share with a lovely couple who was nice enough to offer up half of their site. Only night I had to set up the tent the whole time!
Dinner: Chicken A-La-King Rating: 9/10
Tuesday, September 1
Woke up feeling great! The weather was so completely perfect this entire trip, I couldn't believe how little sleep it took to completely re-energize me. We met some new friends in camp, and hiked out with them. I blasted up the hill to the top of Mt. Franklin. We found the actual summit, and saw the whole island, the Canadian shoreline. What an amazing view, way better than I could have imagined! We hung out up there for an hour or so (again on the take our damn time pace). We then continued on towards the lookout tower at Mt. Ojibway. We actually set up our backpacker's hammocks, tieing them to the girders on the tower, and had a nice little hour-long relaxing lunch break. From there, our new friends (who were day-hiking) turned around and headed back to Lane Cove. We blasted down the trail towards Daisy Farm Campground, grabbed Shelter #9, and we found that with the lag eyebolts I brought, we could set up our hammocks in the shelters. I slept the last 3 nights inside the shelters, in my hammock. Couldn't possibly complain about that! I hopped in Lake Superior around 6pm, and it was WAY colder than it was 2 years ago. It was ridiculous, I thought I was going to have a heart attack! We tried to see stars, but the full moon every night was causing far too much "light pollution". That, coupled with IR's perpetual haze, has always had me wishing for better stargazing, but if that's the worst I had to complain about, then you know I did well!
Dinner: "Classic" Barbeque Chicken Rating: 4/10
Wednesday, September 2
We had a short day planned, so we were even lazier than usual. We rolled out of camp about 1230, headed over to Moskey Basin. The trail was typical Rock Harbor Trail. Up and down, lots of scrambling over open rock. At least the first part. Not terribly scenic, but we're so spoiled on IR, I just kind of moved along and "got through it". Haha. The initial plan was to day-hike up to Lake Richie or even West Chickenbone, but once we got to Moskey Basin, and set up at campsite #3 (such an awesome view), and explored the area, we decided to continue the laziness thing and just hang out! What a gorgeous area. We saw otters playing out in the basin, and some rare-ish black ducks. The otters were there in the morning when we awoke, as well. Moskey got fulllll that night, but we were amazed that every time we'd walk into camp late (or what we thought was late), we'd get the best spot at each campground. At least we thought they were the best spots. Anyway, I was glad to camp at Moskey Basin for the first time.
Dinner: Chicken and Rice Rating: 7/10
Thursday, September 3
Waking up after a much warmer night in Moskey Basin, we got an earlier start to knock out the 8 miles to Three Mile Campground. I had been through there before, but I had never stayed there. The trail back to Daisy Farm was easier on the way back. Seemed to not take very long. The trail to Three Mile was as crappy as I remembered it! Always uneven, super muddy from the 36 hour rain over the weekend, and though Rock Harbor is beautiful, the only way you'd ever know is to stop walking, because otherwise, it's a twisted ankle. Three Mile was very busy, but again, shelter #11 was wide open. It was awesome. Right by the small dock. I sat on that dock, on the big dock, met up with our friends again. Had some pretty foul pistachio-mint dessert shared with us by one of them, but we appreciated the effort and the creativity, and downed it with them, and laughed it up. We got a tiny sprinkle of rain that night, and I enjoyed every second. And man, the trout were jumping like mad that night! Jumping clear out of the water for the bugs. Fishermen, you might want to hang out there at night! Two of our old-guy neighbors enjoyed some pot with dinner, and more with breakfast the next morning. I had just commented on who were writing all the stoner graffiti in the shelters. I guess I know now.
Dinner: Lasagna Rating: 6/10 (craaazy gas, save this one for when you'll have a non-pit toilet)
Friday, September 4
We awoke rather early, I think excited for some real food. We blasted along the Tobin Harbor Trail (one of my favorites - yep, I'm all about flat and easy trails!) on the way back, and got back into Rock Harbor around 1030am. I hit a Sprite first, then we went over and got the burger and fries in the cafe. Burger wasn't big (same as I remembered), but it wasn't freeze-dried, so it hit the spot. Then we asked to see rooms in the lodge and housekeeping cabins, for future reference. The lodge was nice, a little bare, but with a nice view. The cabins had a bit more to offer, but I don't see myself ever staying in either of them. IR's not really a place to lounge, if you ask me. You gotta get into the backcountry to experience it. I bought my wife a nice IR pink fleece, stuffed it in my pack, and reluctantly, got back on the Queen and headed home. I sat on the bow for over an hour, alone, and read from Nevada Barr's new book about the killer huge wolf. Pretty dumb, but it's cool to read fiction about IR. I had already read Superior Death, which was a bit better, IMO. The lake was as smooth as is scientifically possible. The Queen had blown an engine a few days earlier, so Captain Ben and his crew couldn't push us as hard, getting us in about a half hour later than usual. We got in the car, headed straight out of town, stayed in a Days Inn in Marquette (mmmmm shower and real bed), and headed home on Saturday!
Dinner: Burger King (ewwwww)
GEAR
Approximately 35 lbs loaded with food and water.
Tent: MSR Hubba
Bag: Marmot Never Summer
Pad: Thermarest 3/4 length 2004-ish backpacker
Pack: GoLite Infinity
Boots: Asolo FSN 95s
Stove: MSR Pocket Rocket w/ 2 small cans of fuel (didn't finish the first)
Food left: 2 Clif bars
Filter: Pur Hiker (amazing!)
Didn't use: 1 pair of socks, some toiletries
Luxury items: Eno DoubleNest Hammock (best thing I've ever purchased for backpacking!), iPod Touch (helped me get to sleep a few nights where I was still wound up) w/ Bose in-ear headphones
WEATHER
Probably saw about 8 clouds the whole week. Unbelievable. 70s in the day, 50s at night. It was perfect.
BUGS
Came home with about 10-12 mosquito bites. Nothing too serious. Mainly energized by the great weather preceded by the weekend of rain.
WILDLIFE
No moose or wolves. Tons of loons, mergansers, black ducks. Otters in Moskey Basin. No camp pests (foxes or mice).
I'll post photos later. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed this trip. It was definitely my best backpacking trip ever.
