Time to put the trip report together from my trip to Isle Royale from 8/6-8/12.

The trip first came up for Kris and I about 2 years ago during a trip to boundary waters. Since that trip we've done a few other camping trips but have had Isle Royale in mind as our first week-long backpacking trip together. It carries special significance for me because it is where my parents went on their honeymoon almost 33 years ago (they went in Sept).

Trail selection came up for us, and we decided on the Minong Ridge trail. It is supposed to be the most difficult on the island, with lots of ups and downs onto and off of the ridgeline on the northern side of the island. For portions it is more exposed, and it is marked heavily by cairns vs. trail markers. Occasionally it is difficult to find the trail but it was pretty rare that we required more than a slight pause to point ourselves in the right direction. We decided on spending a week on the island, and going from McCargoe Cove to Windigo along the Minong Ridge trail.

We decided to start our trip out of Grand Portage, MN because my parents have a house in Duluth we could use for a home base, and we booked our trip on the Voyager II to ferry us to the island.

Arriving and loading the ferry was completely uneventful. I wish I would've known that I could have brought more food/snacks on the boat with us - I'd assumed all trash we brought would have to be carried all week so we didn't bring much. The boat has some outside seating and some inside - if you're an outside type of person (I am) and the weather is nice, try to head immediately outside when you board if it is crowded, the seats fill up and you'll be either stuck sitting inside or standing for the trip if a seat doesn't open up. It is nice you can move around the whole time you're on the boat though so it isn't too bad. The ferry ride to Isle Royale goes first to Windigo where you visit the ranger station to get your camping permit. This section takes about 2.5hrs or so. Then after permiting we got back on the boat for a trip to McCargoe cove. This took a long time, probably another 2.5hrs which seemed like forever as we were anxious to get onto the island. Here's a shot of the Voyager II loading up:


Our first day we got into McCargoe in the early afternoon - maybe 2pm or so. We could've hiked to Todd Harbor that day but having a week for essentially 4 hiking days we decided to stick around the campsite there. We headed up the hill and got our spot, made lunch, goofed around, made dinner, etc. McCargoe Cove seems to be a good spot to see wildlife, but we didn't see much. There are shelters here to stay in, but there weren't any open - not a big deal really since we were prepared for tenting it anyway. Here's a few pics of McCargoe - the first is tent campsite #3 (#1 looked the best, #2 the worst from what we thought):

So on Day 2 of our trip, our task was to hike from McCargoe Cove to Todd Harbor. It was a 6.7mi hike and we did it in about 3.5hrs. The ridge had a lot of good views and afforded us lots of spots for breaks to check them out. Also on the way from McCargoe to Todd the Windigo mine is off a side trail, and is worth checking out. It was pretty neat to see the remanants of the mine. We stayed at tent site #2 at Todd Harbor - there is only one shelter and it was taken. Later on we found that the group sites are really nice and since there were no groups we should've headed over and stayed there, but no biggie.

The afternoon was spent hanging out on the beach, swimming in lake superior, warming up on the big dock, having a fire, doing some mini laundry, and other stuff. Todd Harbor was probably my favorite campsite - very beautiful!





Kris and I by the group campfire ring (you can see the dock way in the back of the pic):

This is great stuff, Jay. I hope no one expects anything like this out of me...

Day 3 of the trip was set up to go from Todd Harbor to Little Todd harbor. This was another 6.7mile day. We finished it in 2.5hrs as there were very few good views to check out, and when we were down in the woods there were enough bugs that breaks we took were very short so we wouldn't get eaten alive. The forests of birch are really beautiful in this section, and the trail is pretty good although at this time of year it is obsured by brush/grass/weeds in areas so its tough to see what you're stepping on.

We pulled into camp at 11:15am and stayed at Side #1 in Little Todd Harbor. The campsites here are very remote, and although there was another couple at the site we only saw them briefly when we first arrived. After that we couldnt' even tell they were there. The beach here was really nice and had nice rock outcroppings to sit on to filter water and stuff, but Kris was annoyed by the number of bugs (there seemed to be a lot of bees and other varieties of annoying bugs for her). She's allergic to bees and spent a while in the afternoon hanging out in the tent reading/relaxing while I shot photos, gathered firewood, and just goofed around in general. We went to bed as the sun did since the bugs were coming out, and quickly after a storm approached and it rained most of the night (i think, I'm a deep sleeper). I got up and shot some pics of the storm coming in but haven't downloaded them to the computer yet since they were with Kris' camera.

Here's some Little Todd pics (i think this rock pile is the one from dumpryan's group from isleroyaleforums.com):


Prepping lunch on the shore:


Campsite #1/afternoon campfire:


This is about when we hit the tent:

Originally Posted by Stime187

This is great stuff, Jay. I hope no one expects anything like this out of me...

Hehe, thanks. It takes some time/work but our families will like it (i'll probably throw it on my website later)

So Day 4 was sweet. That is all I can say.

It was supposedly the hardest hiking of the trip, and only 5.7 miles total. We took 3.5hrs and not really due to breaks - it just is slower going to be up/down so much.. It is a lot of up/down all day and lots of exposed ridge walking - bring water! The thing is, the views are really awesome and every step was 100% worth it. This was my favorite day by far just for the views. I also like hopping around rocks and stuff and even with the packs it was fun picking our way through rocks on the ridge following cairns and stuff. We ended up at campsite #1 at North Desore Lake. We swam and got a much needed shower/bath, ate, shot pics, watched loons, toyed with the overly friendly squirrels, and did the usual reading/card playing. I'll get some trail pics up soon, but here are pics from the North Desor campground:

Here's Kris in our tent - with an uncharacteristic frown:






The mist on teh lake for sunrise was really cool:

OK, Day 5 of the trip was also really sweet. It was a long day, from North Desor Lake campsite to Washington Creek/Windigo. To Washington Creek campsite is 12.6mi, and another .3 to Windigo.

We got up and got an early start on the day knowing it'd be long. We ended up on the trail for about 7hrs, including a few bio breaks and lunch.

Probably the hilight of my entire trip was on this day towards the last third of the trip. I was leading Kris (I usually am first, she likes to follow), and came over a ridge. Coming over the ridge, there was a 2-3' ledge, and I got there to see a wolf's head pop up and look at me. She stands up, then a bit to her right, I see another wolves head. This one was a puppy! Both of them very very quickly ran away as I got Kris' attention and she got a chance to see both of them. They ran off in the woods and we kept sight of the adult for a about a minute, but they were gone fast. I wasn't quick enough to get the camera, but I will not soon forget about this.

Wolves on IR apparently are very rare to see, and especially a puppy. The rangers later in the trip told us that usually they don't know if there are puppies or not and only guess by listening to pitch of the wolves howls at night and guess if there is a puppy. These wolves were very likely part of Middle Pack according to the rangers, and we were the stars of camp later in the trip once we'd told everybody about the wolf encounter.

Anyway, back to the day - it was a great, long day of hiking. It was tiring, but had a great variety in the hikes. It had some of the previous day's ridgeline hiking, and then some of the earlier hiking through the woods. Overall the trail was easier than the rest of the trail and was quicker hiking, but it was still a tiring long day.

At the end of the day, we got a shelter (#13) at Washington Creek, settled in, and got a head start on our relaxing that we'd be able to enjoy for the next day and a half until we got onto the ferry again. We also hit the camp store and got a snickers ice cream bar to reward ourselves for making the trip.

Overall, at this point we were both in pretty good shape - the trail had been hard, but wtih the exception of the last day of hiking the days were short enough to recover pretty easily by the next one.

Here's pics from that day:
This was our shelter (taken at a later date but you get the idea)



This is where we pooped - every campsite had soemthing similar:

Looks like a great trip Jay and an awesome location report. Can you google map some of these places so I can check them out?

Oh, and nalgenes are bad Mkay... (we still have a few as well)

Originally Posted by thechickencow

goofed around

Originally Posted by thechickencow

other stuff.

I'll do the last couple days of the trip all lumped together. We spent the time in Washington Creek/Windigo. On the first night, we saw a moose (our first of the trip) in the creek behind teh campsite. I was super excited to be able to be so close to it and take pictures of it. On the day before we left we were able to hike the nature walk, goof around Windigo, hung out on the big dock, etc.

Hilights of that day were watching groups come to the island via the Voyager II, and a really nice gentleman on a boat called the Chequemagon let us use his inflatable kayaks to paddle around the harbor for a bit. We were (and are) very grateful and it was fun. We attended ranger's programs both evenings we were in camp, and then another one before we took off from the island. They were about Winter, Mammals, and Moose and were all very good. Hearing history of the island and information on the wolf/moose study was very interesting.

Here's pics from the last couple days:






Here's from the ferry as we go away:

Overall comments on the trip-

We had a blast - the Minong Ridge was a tough trail, but the mileage we did was fairly easy for recovery and we're in pretty good shape. We had no real injuries or soreness that was really bad - I developed a sore left achillies on the last day and my right heel got slammed in teh shelter door which made me a bit of a limper the last day, but it was OK. Kris did great. Id go back in a heartbeat.

We weighed out at teh end of the trip at the ranger's station, Kris' pack was 27# with water, mine was 50#. The extra camera gear adds up, but was worth it (i think it was 10-12# total).

This was my first trip with my new MSR water filter. I love it, moreso than my Pur Hiker since it can be cleaned in the field.

Also the first major trip with our MSR Dragonfly stove. We cooked a lot - 10 backpack meals, ramen, oatmeal, hot cocoa, warmed water for washing, and made cobbler for around 11oz of fuel total. Good thing I brought 33oz total.

Mosquitoes weren't horrendous. I expected very bad, but they are actually worse at the nature preserve at home than they were when we were there. We used 100% deet Repel on our exposed skin and really weren't too bad - maybe 20bites total for me for the week.

The trail was a bit overgrown in parts, but overall in great shape. I can tell the trail crews work hard, especially on erosion control. Trail markers were knocked down but it wasn't too hard to find the trail.

Some of the latrines were very buggy, some had huge spiders. One even had as many flies coming out of it as the guy in the movie Green Mile's mouth in that one part. I prefer the open air thunderboxes in the boundary waters to an enclosed dumper, but thats just me.

We used 15 degree down sleeping bags for the trip. Some nights they were too hot, some nights they were great. I'd hesistate to go much warmer than a 30-40 degree bag for most people even in the summer - it was chilly at night.

Originally Posted by jacobsen1

Looks like a great trip Jay and an awesome location report. Can you google map some of these places so I can check them out?

Oh, and nalgenes are bad Mkay... (we still have a few as well)

The problem with ditching nalgenes is that everything is designed for them - water filter, pack, etc. Plus those dumb replacement aluminum bottles are expensive and silly (and noisy).

I'm working on a google map, it'll be up soon.

I agree 100% on the open pit cans over something enclosed. In yellowstone all the good sites are pits like that (because you're far enough away from people who would care). Plus it's nice to sit and **** and enjoy the view.

Originally Posted by thechickencow

The problem with ditching nalgenes is that everything is designed for them - water filter, pack, etc. Plus those dumb replacement aluminum bottles are expensive and silly (and noisy).

tell me about it. Our filer screws onto one. Our packs can use others but not as well. It sucks. I'd bet nalgene already has replacements that are safe in the same size though, no? We just haven't shopped for anything yet.

I'm working on a google map, it'll be up soon.

awesome.

Here's a google map of the trip - distances I reported are actual, the ones on teh blue line are as the crow flies.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UT...f1c4ea586a56b0

I've got some more pictures done now...

Stream crossing-


Storm rolling in to Little Todd Harbor:




Wind was a bit up after the storm:




Here's Kris on the ridge:


This is a shot of what you're typically walking on all day:


Break time:


Checkin the map:


Walkin the plank:

I have the same spork, except mine is orange. Nice write up and pics. This is a trip I am going to take eventually. Definately planning it slowly. By the way the place where you poop is called a privy.

Thanks for the write up Jay. Much appreciated.
Not only do you have a story to tell your family, but one to share for generations.

Originally Posted by thechickencow

love that shot.

Originally Posted by Donkeypunch

By the way the place where you poop is called a privy.

among other things, sure.

Originally Posted by Donkeypunch

I have the same spork, except mine is orange. Nice write up and pics. This is a trip I am going to take eventually. Definately planning it slowly. By the way the place where you poop is called a privy.

It came in a 4-pack that we got for our wedding - we've got an orange one too! Its a sweet fork/knife and spoon combo for anybody that is wondering.

Originally Posted by thomps6s

Thanks for the write up Jay. Much appreciated.
Not only do you have a story to tell your family, but one to share for generations.

No problem - the link to here has been sent out to friends to check it out.

Originally Posted by jacobsen1

love that shot.

Thanks!

Threw this up on the blog tonight - http://www.jayluikart.com/2010/11/14...p-august-2008/