Isle Royale National Park, MI – September 7 – 11th 2015
The horizon runs straighter than a ruler from east to west. On the bottom, a dark, navy sea, and on the top, a cloudless powder blue. I listen to the soft mini-waves against the shore, slapping the small rocks ever so softly, like a faint whisper that may vanish if an ear does not capture it quickly.
Not too far off, the harbor is shepherded by a thin strip of land, where Balsam Fir and White Spruce filter the blue of the lake and the sky through dense, pine green foliage. To the right of this land is the pencil straight blue on blue, and further to the east, the Copper Harbor lighthouse perched stoically near the opening of the harbor.
A horn blasts from outside the harbor. The Isle Royale Queen IV is coming through the opening in the middle, piercing the blue on blue with a swift, 60 passenger white and black ferry boat. It quickly turns right after passing a series of offshore rocks, blasts another long horn, followed by a short chirp, and slowly meanders its way past our backdoor motel room and into the dock.
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| The Isle Roayle Queen IV on Copper Harbor |
Carolyn and I watch as the passengers slink off the boat in single file, some looking clean and relaxed, but the majority looking bearded, tired and worn. The Queen IV crew hastily unloads backpacks, canoes, kayaks, and hiking poles from atop the storage bin of the ferry, and the group collects their belongs one by one and scatters off to the parking lot and to their lives outside of this place.Tomorrow morning Carolyn and I will board this same boat to start our own adventure on the Island.
Isle Royale National park is the 3rd least visited National Park in the United States and the largest island in Lake Superior. Spanning 45 miles in length and stretching 9 miles wide at its widest point, this transitional boreal and broad leaf forested island sees fewer than 17,000 visitors in its short season, while Yosemite and The Grand Canyon try to maintain a bloated 4 million visitors each year. The only way to get to the island is by float plane or ferry boats, which depart from Grand Portage, Minnesota, or Houghton or Copper Harbor, Michigan.The boat ride from Copper Harbor is roughly 50 miles and takes over three hours. If you want to get away from it all, this is the place you go.
Carolyn and I walk back inside our motel room after we tire of watching the dock. Laying on our bed are several grocery bags full of dehydrated foods, bagels, peanut butter and candy that we need to dismantle, organize, and stuff into zip-lock bags. When all is complete, two large sacks are bulging with high caloric, salty, and intestine blocking morsels of food for two people for five days.
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| King Copper Motel |
We do a mock pack-up of everything to insure our backpacks can squeeze everything in. And in the end, two bloated sausage looking packs lay upright on the 1970s era carpet. Carolyn and I glimpse at each other and smile, and acknowledge without words that we’re all set to go. Now that the chores are all complete, we head out to explore Copper Harbor and the very tip of the Kewana Peninsula of Michigan.
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| Copper Harbor is 11 Hours from Perrysburg, OH, our Home |
The Kewana peninsula juts off the Upper Peninsula of Michigan like a shark fin through water. Up here, sleepy towns dot scenic route 41 north of Houghton, home of Michigan Tech University. The small university reminded me a lot of where I went to college at Clarkson University in up-state New York. It’s hard to believe that 10 Septembers ago I was just starting out as a wide-eyed, bushy-tailed Freshman. I was reminded of how little of the world I knew at that age, and how, after many adventures, much of it was still left in obscurity.
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| Soumi – a fantastic Finish inspired breakfast spot in downtown Houghton |
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| Bike Art in Houghton |
An hour or so north of Houghton is Copper Harbor. There are unsuspecting hills in this region that rise from Lake Superior, some as high as 1300 ft. Copper Harbor is a premier destination for Mountain Biking enthusiasts. A vast, expertly manicured trail system winds up and down these hills, offering thrills as grand as the views. It just so happened that we arrived on the day the big yearly trail festival and race was occurring. Fit, muscular men and women, clad in too-tight spandex, were peppered all over the small city streets getting ready for race time.
Carolyn and I hopped in the car and drove west along the coast on route 26 to find some quiet. We decided to check out the lighthouse in Eagle Harbor which was the next town over. Eagle Harbor lighthouse was developed in 1851 and is constructed of red brick. The numerous lighthouses erected all over the Great Lakes served to warn boats of treacherous rocks and reefs near shoreline. The Great Lakes are notorious for shipwrecks. Many recreational scuba divers adventure to far depths to observe where these fallen giants lay.
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| Eagle Harbor Lighthouse |
This particular lighthouse at Eagle Harbor is considered to be heavily haunted. Story goes that in the 1970s a Coast Guard lighthouse keeper reported many strange happenings, including a sighting of a faceless man with a plaid shirt, the sound of moving furniture, lights flashing on and off, and loud footsteps.
I would like to report that we observed some strange happenings, but the only strange thing we saw was this massive buoy contraption that looked like something out of a science fiction movie set. Plus, we were too cheep to pay the 5 dollar per person fee to actually go in the lighthouse, so we ended up just walking around the scenic grounds outside instead. Haunted places give me the creeps anyway, so i think it was a win-win situation.
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| Buoy or Alien Artifact? |
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| Lighthouse Grounds…non-haunting zone. |
On our way back to Copper Harbor we took the scenic mountain road. It gradually rose higher and higher over worn out pavement, eventually peaking at a spectacular overlook of surrounding Copper Harbor, hills and lakes. Once back in town, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed back to the motel for some sleep before an early 5:30 AM wake up call.
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| Looking out over Copper Harbor |
The morning came too quick. Night was spent tossing and turning trying to get some rest but a viscous midnight storm seemed eager to prevent that from happening. At dawn, everything was grey fog and wet. Mist hung over the harbor in slow moving wisps of heavy air, ebbing and flowing so slowly that time appeared to operate differently.
We packed our non-hiking things into the car and I drove it across the street to park it in the ferry parking lot for the week. With a hop, skip and a jump from our motel back door, we were at the dock, checked in, and eagerly waiting with everyone else to board the vessel. Canoes, kayaks, hiking poles, oars and backpacks were clumped in a bunch near the foot of the boat, as crew speedily slipped them one by one up onto the boat and into the storage compartment. Nalgene bottles, tent stakes, coffee mugs, Crocs, and all manner of other hiking paraphernalia dangled off too-heavy packs like ornaments on a Christmas tree as they were briskly whisked away.
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| Departing towards Yonder |
We were soon off towards the Island after we surrendered our boarding tickets and found a spot inside the boat. Copper Harbor faded into the horizon as we steadily moved forward through the glassy blue interior of Lake Superior.
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| On our way |
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| Copper Harbor this Way |
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| Isle Royale that Way |
In a little over three hours we finally skirted through Rock Harbor and docked on the Island. A brisk breeze coated us as we stepped off the boat and made our way to the end of the pier where all the campers and backpackers circled around a short, stern looking Park Ranger. We were debriefed on the rules of the Island and received refresher Leave No Trace back country ethics training. Part of this discussion surrounded the hydatid tapeworm, a unique hazardous parasite found in the lakes and ponds surrounding Isle Royale. I think they are found in the feces of the wolves of the Island, of which there only remain three (two that stick together in a pack, and one lone wolf), which are the lowest numbers in years and a by-product of rampant in-breeding.
I read on one of the informational placards at Rock Harbor that wolves are actually pretty new to the island, having arrived from the mainland in the early 1940s during a particularly cold year where Lake Superior froze enough to make an ice bridge from Isle Royale to the mainland.
The Park is at a crossroads for how they plan to rectify the dying wolf population. One possible solution is to introduce a few wolves from the surrounding mainland. However, since this is a designated wilderness area, there is much debate as to whether humans should be allowed to step in and alter the course of nature or whether nature should be left alone to run its course. With rising global temperatures, the argument has been made that Lake Superior may not freeze over in time to introduce more wolves to the Island before the population dies out.
The moose, of which there are over 1800 on the Island, appear not to mind so much that their predators are so few in numbers. They have become lazy and bold and have been seen on occasion sun-bathing out in the open and drinking margaritas on the shores of scenic rocky coves. If you are interested in ecology at all, Isle Royale has one of the longest running scientific studies (40+years) on population dynamics between wolves and moose, and a quick Google search can get you to much more information about it.
After the discussion with the Ranger I went into the Ranger Station to fill out our Back country permit and give an itinerary of our stay. I’m not sure why they make you give an itinerary because after you give them the campsites you plan to stay at, they tell you that you don’t actually have to stay at those campsites.
With permit in hand, Carolyn and I had a quick lunch on the pier, asked a nice gentleman to snap a photo of us at the Rock Harbor sign, and started hiking off to our first campsite, Lane Cove, 6.5 miles away.
Day1 – 6.5 Miles – Rock Harbor to Lane Cover
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| Rock Harbor |
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| Tobin Harbor |
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| Lane Cove |
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| Lane Cove Campsite #5 |
Day 2 – 10 miles – Lance Cove to Moskey Basin
After a pleasant night at Lane Cove listening to loon cries, we woke up late to cloudy skies and a breakfast of instant oatmeal and pop tarts. Lane Cove is at the end of a 2.5 mile dead-end trail, so we backtracked back up to Mt. Franklin on the Green Stone Ridge and followed the ridge for a few miles to an overlook tower.
The Greenstone ridge was probably one of the best trails on the Island. The ridge is roughly 400-600 feet above the lake shore, and offers grand views of inland lakes and Lake Superior on both sides of Isle Royale. It also gives amazing views towards the hilly shoreline of Thundery Bay, Canada.
Once we got to the lookout tower we descended off the ridge towards the east shore of the island and made our way over rocky terrain to Moskey Basin, and our campsite for the night. At some of the more popular camp areas the park service has actually built really nice screened in shelters. There are sometime 5 – 10 of these shelters so you have have one all to yourself. We were able to snag one at Mosky that looked out over the still waters of the basin.
Since the sun was out, we decided it might be a good idea to take a swim in the basin. Carolyn hopped in first without issue. Once my toes touched the water I screeched like a 6 year-old school girl at afternoon recess. Yes. It was cold.
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| Greenstone Ridge Trail |
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| Can you see the lighthouse? |
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| Moskey Basin Shelter |
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| Moskey Basin |
Day 3 – 10 miles – Moskey Basin to McCargoe Cove and Minong Mine – 10 miles
We woke up late again after a really goods night rest. A beautiful sun-absent sunrise filled the basin with salmon and goose feather grey clouds. The trail for the day had us weaving in and around several beautiful inland lakes on our peaceful and beautiful walk to the other side of the Island.
We secured a shelter for the night at McCargoe cove and ventured about a mile up another trail without our packs to an abandoned copper mine. A large hole sunk into the earth, and we crawled down and through the small mine looking for treasure. We didn’t find anything more than loose rocks.
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| Morning at Moskey Basin |
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| McCargoe Cove Dock |
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| Minong Mine |
Day 4 – 12 Miles – McCargoe Cove to Three Mile Camp
The following day we got up early for a big day of hiking to Three Mile Camp. We walked around to east Chickenbone lake and up to the Greenstone Ridge. Again, beauty at every turn, especially on the Ridge. We descended back down the other side of the ridge to Daisy Farm camp and walked the remaining 4 miles along Rock Harbor to our last campsite of the trip.
Day 5 – 3.6 Miles – Three Mile Camp to Rock Harbor
On our last day we had a short 3.6 miles back to Rock Harbor to pick up the ferry home. We slept in again and got a late start. We were greeted to an amazing moose sighting right near our camp spot, where a cow and her baby were grazing in an open meadow nearby.
After a pleasant walk along the shore, we arrived back at Rock Harbor around 10:30 and naturally went to the Bar and Grill for some pizza!
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| Copper Harbor looking at the Ranger Station |
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| Copper Harbor Lodge |
The boat finally arrived back at the dock and at 2:45 PM took us back to Copper Harbor. The trip was too short like all trips are, and as the island slowly dissipated into the horizon, I reflected on the beauty and uniqueness of this place. I feel a great sense of gratitude that I was able to spend a few short days on the Island with my wife Carolyn. We had wanted to come here last year in September after we got married, but were unable to make the trip. Now a year later, I am so happy we had a chance to come visit Isle Royale for our anniversary and make fantastic new memories.
I’ve been to over 20 National Parks in my life. As I think about the beauty of each of these places, Isle Royal will have a special place on my list. I really hope to visit the Island sometime again – there is so much more we were unable to discover, learn and appreciate.
Reflections (by Carolyn)
Traveling the trail
This is my path
Immersed in morning sunlight, present, and aware
Surrounded by nature’s bounty, her plentiful gifts
Sacred beauty lines the trail, the pathless path
The plants are beckoning, vivid, and alive
Tall grasses glimmer with morning dew
They dance in the gentle breeze, an unscripted choreography
Birch leaves reflect the sun and take guidance from the wind
My senses tune into the breeze
As if hearing and feeling it for the first time
I awake to a radiant world and make a connection
I become radiant too