Isle Royale National Park

My first few months of retirement have been very busy with a whole variety of activities, including catching up on family and household activities, getting used to living in the same home as my wife, re-engaging with the local community, and (especially) sorting out issues with Tricare, VA, VHA, etc.  I sometimes wonder when I’ll feel “retired”!  One of the things I have been thinking about is what happens to this blog.  It started as a chronicle of my mobilization and deployment with the Army to the Middle East, and continued with my experiences during the remainder of my military career until retirement.  Now that I'm retired, I certainly don't think my adventure is over, so I will continue it as a personal chronicle as I move on to more personal adventures.  

Because we are planning to move from Michigan to Idaho next year, I thought that I’d like to visit Isle Royale National Park before we leave.  I’ve lived in Michigan for over 30 years and never been there, so it was now or never.  I chose now.  

I planned it rather quickly, starting in late August.  Since the last NPS ferry off the island was on 16 Sep, I didn’t have much time.  But I was already pretty well-prepared, and everything came together very well.   I had a book already, and picked up a map at REI (National Geographic “Trails Illustrated”, a very good series of maps).  There are a lot of online planning resources available as well:

Map:

http://npmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/isle-royale-map.jpg

National Park Service Website:

https://www.nps.gov/isro/index.htm

Wiki article:

http://wikitravel.org/en/Isle_Royale_National_Park

I planned an eleven-day trip that included seven full days of walking on the island, as follows:

Thu 7 Sep. - Drive to Houghton, stay at the Holiday Inn Express.

Fri 8 Sep. -  Ferry from Houghton to Rock Harbor, then a water taxi from Rock Harbor to the Hidden Lake dock (in Tobin Harbor). Camp somewhere near Lookout Louise.  I planned to  have what they call a "cross-country" camping permit, so I wouldn’t have to use established campgrounds.

Sat 9 Sep. - Visit Lookout Louise, then hike the Greenstone Ridge, turning off at Mt. Franklin to camp at Lane Cove.

The rest of the plan was open, dependent on my ability and the availability of water.  My idea was to hike down the Greenstone Ridge trail to the vicinity of Chickenbone Lake, then head for the north coast of the island via McCargoe Cove.  I hoped to hike from there along the Minong Ridge trail, cut back south to the Greenstone Ridge at Hatchet Lake, and go back north to the inland lakes.  Then I’d head south past Lake Ritchie to the trail that leads up along Moskey Basin back to Rock Harbor.

This was an aggressive, optimistic plan.  I knew that it might turn out that I’d have to cut out the Minong Ridge-to-Hatchet Lake loop if it turned out to be too far for me to walk in the time that I had.

The other problem with this plan was that both Lake Ritchie and Chickenbone Lake had algae blooms and I wouldn’t be able to use the water there.  So I knew I might have to modify the route, even if it turned out that I could do it.  But in any case I’d always be on the northern half of the island, never any further south than Hatchet Lake.

Fri 15 Sep. - Back to Rock Harbor to camp somewhere nearby, probably the campground.

Sat 16 Sep. - Ferry back to Houghton, then drive awhile until I got tired and found a place to stay.

Sun 17 Sep. - Home to Northville.

I ran with this plan and departed on 7 Sep.  The trip was certainly an adventure, but not in quite the way I had planned or anticipated.

My photos are posted here:

Isle Royale Photos on Facebook 

Isle Royale Photos on Facebook Part II


Before leaving home, I had my hiking boot soles re-glued, as they were starting to come loose.  I wanted them completely re-soled, but the local shoe repair shop said he couldn’t get the replacement soles, and there was no time to send them anywhere.  I didn’t want to be breaking in a new pair of boots on a trip, so I settled for re-glueing the old soles.  He said “I guarantee this glue will hold.”  You can imagine what’s coming.

The first day went as planned - I arrived at Rock Harbor about 3 PM, and took the water taxi around Scoville Point to the Hidden Lake dock in Tobin Harbor.  Then I hiked about 1 1/4 miles up onto the Greenstone Ridge to Lookout Louise.  The views were great, and I enjoyed an overnight stay with a beautiful sunset, starry night, and peaceful morning.

The next day I hiked south on the Greenstone Ridge trail for 5 1/4 miles, then turned north for the steep descent and the hike to Lane Cove, for a total of eight miles.  The campground there was completely full and all the sites were already doubled up, so I went off into the woods and bivied overnight.  It was my plan all along to avoid campgrounds, but Isle Royale has different terrain than I am used to, and in many places it is almost impossible to find a place to camp other than where the park service has cleared out and leveled campgrounds.  But I found a space between a couple of trees that was somewhat level and barely wide enough, and got a great night’s sleep on a soft bed of moss.

Unfortunately the day’s hike had been too hard on my boots, and the soles had come loose starting in the middle under the instep where they flexed the most, and progressing towards both ends.  The heels were also coming loose from the back, so there was simply no way to continue without some kind of repair.

Fortunately I had a tube of “Seam Grip” (seam sealer/glue) in my repair kit, so on Sunday I moved into a campsite at Lane Cove and spent a very quiet and peaceful day cleaning my boots and glueing the soles back on.  I used parachute cord to tie the soles on while the glue set, which gave me the idea to tie them on my feet when I walked, for extra insurance in case the glue didn’t hold.

On Monday I made the somewhat difficult climb back up to the Greenstone Ridge.  That was the decision point - whether to turn south and continue the trip as planned, or not.  Unfortunately my field-expedient repair job was barely adequate, and was already coming loose.  I determined to return to Rock Harbor and modify my itinerary.  I spent the rest of the day hiking back there, and set up camp in the Rock Harbor campground.  (As an aside, one of the rangers recommended a company called “Rocky Mountain Resole” to get my boots resoled.  The uppers are in good shape and have a lot of life left in them, so I plan to give them a try). 

(Later edit: Rocky Mountain Resole did an excellent job.  Still using these boots for day hikes  in 2022, although I got a pair of Lowa GTX for serious mountain backpacking.)

Not wishing to give up my plan to see more of the island, I had decided the best way to do this would be to turn the trip into a canoe outing, so I rented a canoe, changed my itinerary, and re-packed my gear for stowage in a canoe.  I set out at 3 PM on Tuesday.  I have canoed on calm inland lakes and rivers, but this was completely different. Unfortunately, I am not a boat person, and within ten minutes on the Lake Superior swells I was already feeling seasick.  I knew that “Plan B” would never work, so I turned around and went back.

Feeling somewhat discouraged, I decided to temporarily suspend my adherence to my austere backpacking menu, and went to the Greenstone Grill for a hamburger and fries, washing them down with several beers (Keewenaw Brewing Company Amber Ale, which was excellent).  This took the edge off my disappointment, and helped make “Plan C” a more palatable option.  Plan C was to simply remain in my base camp at Rock Harbor for the rest of the trip, and do day hikes in sandals from there to wherever I could reach.

I spent Wednesday through Friday this way, hiking to various points within a few miles of Rock Harbor and returning there at night.  It made for a very different trip, albeit still beautiful and interesting.  

Rock Harbor is the hub of activity at the northern end of the island.  In addition to the ferry dock, various services,  and the  campgrounds, there is a lodge where people can stay in relative comfort without camping at all, and eat in one of two restaurants.  So there are lots of people there.  The trails around Rock Harbor are very well-travelled, and you can hardly walk for even an hour at a time without running into people.  Usually it’s more like every 20-30 minutes.

There are also lots of different kinds of people who visit, as is the usual case with National Parks. Most of them “get it”, and have gone there to try to experience wilderness.  Others don’t get it at all, and walk down the trail in tightly clustered groups, jabbering at each other about various subjects and completely missing the point of being on the island.  I quickly developed an SOP for these encounters:  as soon as I heard voices, I would simply step off the trail into the woods and wait until the people passed out of earshot.  Sometimes I was hidden, other times I was simply standing off to the side in plain view, but I was never noticed.  It was kind of remarkable how unobservant some people were, considering how much effort it takes to get to the island.  But it takes all kinds, and I suppose some people just aren’t comfortable with silence.

From this standpoint, I was very fortunate in the campground.  I was able to get the last campsite on the end (lucky #13), so I was isolated down a winding trail, out of sight and with with nobody passing by on the way to their own sites.  People were generally quiet and respectful there, so it was actually very nice.  Not the deep wilderness experience I had been seeking, but worthwhile and rewarding nonetheless.

Isle Royale is a very unique place, well worth visiting if you love the outdoors.  When I was up on the Greenstone Ridge, it reminded me of the Rocky Mountains.  When I was deep in the forest, it was often so moist and overgrown that it made me think of a jungle or rain forest (perhaps something like the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, a place I’ve never been but would like to go).  And the rocky shorelines had their own kind of beauty, reminding me of the Oregon coast or photos I’ve seen of Maine.  The cool part is that this is all contained in one compact area, and you can move back and forth between these environments in the course of a single day.

I took  quite a few photos, and was able to capture some of the beauty I saw there.  But I found using the iPhone as a camera to be challenging when it came to managing the exposure and focus.  It has some controls available, but I think an SLR with a zoom lens would be a much better choice for any really creative photography.  I wonder, though, whether I’ll ever want to carry that weight on a trip like this again.  

Leaving aside the issue of my boots, I can tell that I will need to be more careful of my pack weight.  My base pack weight on this trip was 58 lb.  Food and fuel for eight days added another 18 lb.  I have the capacity to carry 2 gallons of water, but the most I ever actually carried was 5 quarts, when I knew I wouldn’t be able to get any all day.  So my pack weight on the first three days hovered around 85 lb.  I used to do that with no trouble at all when I was in my 20’s and 30’s, but now that I’m pushing 60 those days are long past!  I spent some of my time on the trail composing a mental list of things I will consider leaving behind next time.  :)  I also realized that I did not train nearly hard enough in advance.  Walking 2 miles a day on level ground through my neighborhood didn’t even come close to preparing me.  I should have known better, but now my aching legs and knees are a reminder to make darn sure I put a much more thorough training regimen in place before my next backpacking trip.

I took the book “Natural Navigation” along, but didn’t spend much time reading it.  Although I had glorious weather and slept out under the stars on all but the last two nights, my view of the stars was usually obscured by trees, and I could only catch glimpses of parts of a few constellations.  I saw Hercules, Perseus, Andromeda, Lyra, Draco, Aguila, Cygnus, Aries, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, and Cassiopeia.   I know that other constellations must have been visible to me, but I just couldn’t identify them from the stars I could see.  I also really wanted to see the Northern Lights, but I never did.

I took quite a few of photos of the flora on the island.  I didn’t take my book “Michigan Wildflowers”, but plan to try to identify as many of them as I can from the photos I took.  It was late in the season, but there were still a surprising number of flowers visible, as well as a profusion of lichens and fungi.  

All in all it was a very worthwhile week.  I felt a twinge of sorrow as the ferry pulled away and we left the island behind.   Usually when  trip is over, I can tell myself “I’ll have to come back here someday”, and it doesn’t seem to be a final farewell.   But with so much to see out west, I am unlikely to go back to Isle Royale after we leave Michigan for Idaho next year. 

This is perhaps a bit ironic, considering the song that played over and over in my mind while I was on the island.  It surprised me when it popped into my head, because the last time I remember singing it was at YMCA camp when I was in third or fourth grade.  But hiking on Isle Royale brought the memory to the surface, and the lyrics seem like a fitting way to close my account of the trip:

Land of the silver birch

Home of the beaver

Where still the mighty moose

Wanders at will

Blue lake and rocky shore

I will return once more

boomdidi boom boom, boom boom.

My heart grows sick for thee

Here in the low lands

I will return to thee

Hills of the north

Blue lake and rocky shore

I will return once more

boomdidi boom boom, boom boom.

High on a rocky ledge

I'll build my wigwam

Close to the water's edge

Silent and still

Blue lake and rocky shore

I will return once more

boomdidi boom boom, boom boom.

Mood:  Happy

Music:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlE9uB_23kw