Isle Royale Forums

In late August, Haris Subcius and I kayaked 113 miles around Isle Royale. We had rain 5 of the 6 days (3 nonstop) and headwinds the entire way around. Despite the challenges, it was a grand trip that I will be glad to do again.

A slideshow with captions can be seen at http://picasaweb.google.com/Karovaldas/ ... August2009#

Nice photo journal.
Thanks for taking the time to post the pics & captions!

Congrats on the trip, nice pics and I like the weather info at the end.
Glad you had some decent weather!!!

In photo #21, why was the fisheman's village described as, "Not so friendly."

re; "not so friendly fishing village"
The paddlers arrived Fishermans Home [a "private" inholding on IRNP] at the time a potluck evening meal was being enjoyed by all. When one of the invited guests offered to help remove one of the kayaks from the water he was told -don't touch my kayak -and returned to the picnic table. After removing their boats from the water the paddlers walked over to the picnic table and, after introductions, were invited to share the evening meal, including adult beverage. They were then shown an area to pitch tents and invited to rejoin the group after "making camp".
I don't know what they expected from us, a group of friends enjoying each others company, but would suggest that the picture caption "not so friendly fishing village" if not totally inappropriate is at best misleading.
MR

My understanding is that there are no "private inholdings" on Isle Royale. There are families who are allowed to use the cabins their ancestors built in exchange for performing certain services. I'm not an expert on the requirements but was concerned that someone might not be living up to their end of the deal.

I don't know the exact legal term for what the life lessees have, but they do not have to "perform services" in order to stay in their cabins. Dick Scheibe did a lot of volunteer work for the park, but I don't think that was a condition of their keeping their cabin. As far as I know, he did it just because he is a very nice guy. The cabins that are occupied by the lessees are not open to the public. You can't just walk up to the front door and expect to be let in and given a tour. I know nothing about the fishing operations as I have never been to the western end of the island. But a life lessee would not be expected to share a picnic supper with a hiker who wandered up on their porch.

Hi Don,

When the park was created, those folks who held valid deeds were given life leases, that they could put in the name of any family member. Many chose the youngest member they could find. A few of these leases are still in effect (the family member is still alive) and these people have no requirement to provide anything. You are (technically) correct - all that land is owned by the federal government (no private inholdings), but the lessees retain all rights to the property.

For those whose leases have expired, some have been granted Special Use Permits to continue living there in exchange for providing interpretive services for any passing hikers/boaters. This does not include providing meals, beverages, or lodging/camping, but most folks are nice and will be neighborly.

I personally would not paddle up to a group picnicking on a public beach and expect to be welcomed, so I do not know what the expectations were of this group of kayakers.

Bob

Remember that this discussion started because of the "less than friendly" description. That could include anything from throwing rocks to not offering free beer. I was just trying to get a clarification.

It is interesting that one misleading caption on a number of great photo's submitted by Russ has spawned this many responses.

For clarification: There are 3 basic agreements at IR which allow individual inholdings, life lease,special use permits, and volunteer in park. Special use permits [as the name suggests] were issued to those families who continued historic commercial fishing operations under the commercial assessment fishing licence program initiated by Mich. DNR in the 1960's. Volunteer in park permits are issued to individuals who perform unpaid services to the park, eg; interpretive services, maitainence services, etc. In many cases VIP permits are held by individuals who occupy historic family holdings and thereby are considered inholders of the property and buildings. In all three designations, all land and buildings are the property of NPS and the inholders are responsible for basic maintenance of the inholding and have jurisdiction over use of said holdings.

"Private" inholdings are certainly not unique to IR, but exist in many, if not most, of our National Parks. Remember Art Carney who lived in the shadow of Mount St. Helens ?

MR

correction to last post- blame it on a senior moment. Should have read "remember Harry Truman who lived in the shadow of Mount St. Helens". As I recall, Art Carney played the part of Harry in a film about the Mt, St. Helens eruption.
MR

Sorry to not be here to answer to all the speculation. The reason for the caption was that the docks were in very poor condition and there were several "No Trespassing" signs posted. It was the only place on the island we had seen such a sign. "No Trespassing" signs are pretty unfriendly as far as I am concerned.

Rudemarks "story" regarding our visit is a hoax. We did not at any time see the occupants of the property nor did we attempt to land there. We paddled into the bay, snapped a couple of pictures, and paddled back out. We were aware that this location was under some type of life-lease.

Russ;
My apology for what was apparently a case of mistaken identity. To explain: Many paddlers enter the harbor at Fishermans Home, some merely look around from their boats and continue on their way, others come ashore. Within a few days of your visit two paddlers did arrive, come ashore, join us for refreshments, and pitch a tent for the night. In looking at the picture on your post the gentlemen were in the same age bracket as in your picture, and since I do not remember their names I inadvertently jumped to an erroneous conclusion. After reading your latest post I called one of the guests who interacted with the the two gentlemen at some length, and it turns out the two had paddled across from Grand Portage and were planning to paddle back to the mainland. Wish I had made that phone call prior to making my hasty post. To clarify your reference to no trespassing signs, let me assure you there are not any "NO Tresspassing" signs posted at Fishermans Home, perhaps you were referring to the "Private Dock - Owners permission Required" signs posted there [and at other inholding sites] by NPS. Once again I apologize for my error and if you should make another trip, stop in and say hello - perhaps we coul find a "cold one" for you.
Also, in case the gents who joined us for refreshments should visit the forum, sorry for my confusion, hope it hasn't negatively impacted your visit.
MR

Hi Mark,

I don't know if you have previously posted any info on the "History" tab of the Forums, but if not, please do. It would be interesting to hear some of the history of Isle Royale commercial fishing, etc, from someone who has lived through it.

Bob