ISLE ROYALE BACKPACKING - July 2024

Friday July 19, 2024

The Magnificent Seven are back on adventure.  We gathered at our lake home yesterday afternoon on a glorious day in the Northwoods.  We went out on our boat and toured the Turtle Lake chain.  Lynn and Kent made dinner, and we fell into our easy routine of food prep, giving thanks for being together and then clean up.

One thing this group is good at is logistics!  The planning phase is thorough and well researched!  This adventure is a bit different in that we don’t have a guide, so all permits and logistics fell to us, credit to Tam and Dan that got the permits and booked the flights.  I’d ordered a bunch of dehydrated meals when we started our Ice Age Trail adventure, but we ended up not backpacking, therefore the meals sat in a box with our camping stuff in the basement (they have long expiration dates!).  I sorted through them and found we had more than enough for 4 dinners and 4 breakfasts - so I had grouped them and labeled them for dinners / breakfasts.  We also contributed our two lightweight stoves, two empty gas cylinders (will fill once we get to the island), our cook kit and our SteriPen.  Others bought new or contributed water filtration devices, Tam brought goodies for 4 lunches, Lynn compiled a new first aid kit, etc.

After dinner, we divided up the food and went through our packs comparing what we’d packed and what things we had duplicates of.  It’s a moment of second guessing - especially for me because I’d packed most of what was in my pack about a week ago and started second guessing things - is my headlamps in there, and things like that!

Kent had an amazingly accurate scale that helped us weigh our packs, and even help make decisions about what to pack.  For example, my Xero sandals aren’t that comfortable but they weigh just 0.6 lbs versus my Chacos weigh 1.7 lbs!  Most of our packs topped out at about 35-38 lbs without water, except for Gary’s, which was 52 lbs!  Well, we need to slow him down anyway!

After packing was complete, we lit a fire in our outside pit, enjoyed the sunset, and some of us had s’mores.  Mosquitoes started to come out, so we ventured inside and some of us worked the National Parks puzzle while others showered and drifted off to sleep.

Friday am we were up, showering, forging for breakfast and all were anxious to get on the road.  Lynn and Kent have a RV called an Ekko, an amazing Winnebago.  It had been on order since the beginning of COVID and they finally got it late last fall.  They slept in it last night, and today we were able to load all 7 packs in an underneath storage space, and all rode to the Seaplane port in that - just over two hours from our lake home.

We arrived well before the “check in tent” opened, so we enjoyed the beautiful days, munched some snacks, and I for one tried to not be nervous as I eyed up the little Sea Planes!!  At check in time, two young men drove up and I joked that they were going to be our pilots, but they weren’t this time (they appeared to be as old as the pilots in Alaska!).  They weighed our bags, had us remove external things like poles, sleeping bags and my 1.2 lbs chair.

We were ushered to the dock and met our pilot Mike, and I immediately felt confident with him - an older, tanned experienced looking pilot.  He told us about the Beaver DHC-2 with great affection for the aircraft in his voice.  He said it’s the best Alaskan bush plane.

They loaded all our gear - my pack went into one of the floats!  I could see why they wanted all the external accouterments to come off!  Then we squeezed in, with Mike directing where we should sit based on our size - easy to squeeze in together after all the adventures this group has already been through!!

We arrived on the island, a gorgeous view from the air.  We circled over the island and landed on a protected bay which makes sense versus landing right on Lake Superior!   We taxied to Windigo, a small collection of buildings:  office, store, shower and toilet building, staff quarters.  We were greeted by three rangers, who gave us a verbal preview of what we can expect on the trail over the next 4 days:  bugs, overgrown trails and some rain!!

We stopped in the office to pick up our permit, chatted with the ranger there (same story).  Next stop was the store to have our white gas cylinders filled, bought some cold drinks and ice cream and chatted with some hikers that had just finished the loop we are about to embark on (same story).  

We had to hike just 0.3 miles to get to Washington Creek campground, where we had 4 options for a group site.  It’s fairly luxurious, with a picnic table and two pit toilets.  Tomorrow, when we start hiking, we get to go past the store again, just in case!!

We set up camp and got started boiling the 13 cups of water needed to rehydrate our dinner.  After dinner and dessert, a group of us walked back to Windigo to brush our teeth and use the flush toilets!  Beautiful evening, with a jovial group (boaters or hikers?) on the deck of the store watching the sun creep down in the sky.

The variety of animals is limited on this island - primarily moose and wolves, which are heavily studied in the way their populations fluctuate.  There are squirrels, and we’ve heard of pesky foxes that can be a nuisance at camp (apparently they’ve evolved to hang out by humans and therefore be somewhat protected from the wolves).  So even though there are no bears or raccoons, we’re taking precautions with our food storage.  We brought our two bear canisters, and are hanging everything else in a tree using ropes and a pulley system from Jeff’s many trips to the Boundary Waters.

I had several naps today, but still feel like I’ll sleep well tonight.  Have to get myself in the right mindset to backpack 9+ miles tomorrow with a 40 pound pack and a sore toe (stubbed it jumping off the boat last night).

Saturday July 20

Feldtman Lake 8.8 miles official map, 9.5 actual miles according to my Apple Watch (45’ average).  7 and 1/4 hours total time, 513 ft elevation gain

With the sunrise came the sound of a bird with a beautiful trill, then the sound of zippers and whispers from our fellow adventurers. 

Everyone got up and packed up their tents, then we worked through a few stove mishaps as we prepared hot water for coffee / tea and Oatmeal (I thought the gang would be hungry and made 10 servings but we tossed half of it!).  We cleaned up breakfast and hiked the short distance back to Windigo, where we tossed our trash, bought a little more fuel for the stove, and used the bathrooms to brush our teeth and enjoy the last toilet flush until Tuesday afternoon.  

We headed out at 9am.  We heard/saw the seaplane come in and take off from Windigo, but we didn’t actually see much of the lake today.  After we left Windigo, we saw only one guy hiking all day - out for a day hike to an observation point.

  I packed very few clothes - one pair of “Shants,” pants where the legs zip off into shorts.  It wasn’t about an hour until I decided to zip the legs off.  I kept my long sleeve shirt on, mainly for coverage from mosquitoes.

 The trail was really nice for about the first three miles, but lots of roots and rocks - that, and our heavy packs made for a slow pace with lots of break. We encountered the young man up here doing trail maintenance for a summer job and chatted with him for awhile.  He said they should have a crew of 4 people, but staffing apparently is tough here too!  He also told us they make him haul the clippings way off the trail, so it’s slow going for him too.  The trail he’d maintained so far was fantastic, but at the end of the day now, we’re beginning to realize just how much hasn’t been maintained!

It was a nice morning with thin clouds, actually warmer than I though it’s be!  We heard rumbling thunder all morning, but couldn’t see any weather heading our way (couldn’t see much sky either though!).  We mentioned it to the young man doing trail maintenance and he told us that Thunder Bay (Ontario) has a rock feature that makes the sound of thunder echo out onto the lake - so cool!  I’d never heard of that before, but we sure experienced it today!  Makes sense that it’d be named for that.

The rest of today’s trail was intermittently rough (as we were warned).  In the sunshine, thick patches of thimbleberry occluded the trail, sometimes as high as your head!  Then we’d head into the forest, and that would be better for a bit. The last several miles, Cow Parsnips was mixed into the thimbleberries - a cause for concern because like Wild Parsnips, supposedly the leaves contain an oil that if it gets on your skin, the sun will cause it to burn (phytophotodermatitus).  I learned that it’s true with Wild Parsnips, and I guess in a few days I’ll know about Cow Parsnips as I sure rubbed against a lot of it today!

Mosquitoes were prevalent today, but spray pretty much kept them at bay.  I didn’t want to spray around my eyes and my face, but I have a hat that says it’s made of “Insect Shield” and that worked pretty well, other than it sometimes felt too hot to wear a hat!  Only Dan broke out his mosquito head net for awhile - the rest of us doused in DEET and that worked well.

When we hit 6 miles, it was 1pm (EST) and we stopped for lunch.  Tam brought single serving tuna or salmon, we mixed them with mayo and spread it on sandwich rounds, topped with fresh cucumber slices.  Also a treat to have something fresh while on the trail!  We followed that by devouring a package of Fig Newtons, and I had some warm tea to rinse it all down.  

After lunch, the misery factor increased to about a 7: hot, buggy, overgrown trail (with rocks and roots that you couldn’t see), we didn’t exactly know how much further we had to go, and aches from 4+ hours with a 40 lb pack!  The group got quiet and we trudged along.  I kept my mind occupied by singing camp songs to myself (“we are the U Nah Li Girls, Ugh!”).

We finally arrived at the Lake Feldtman Campsites, and chose one of the two gorgeous group sites with a nice breeze, shade and access to the lake.  The water near the shore was a little silty, so Kent waded out to get clearer water for our purification process - two steps: filtration with a gravity filter, pour the water into 1L Nalgene bottles, then swirl with the UV light for 90 seconds.  We set up an assembly line and quickly refilled all of our hydration bladders for tomorrow and all of the Nalgenes we had in camp.

I changed into my swimsuit top and went for a quick dip in my shorts and undies (1 pair of 2 that I brought).  I would have swum longer, but the young lady at check in told us about leeches in Lake  Feldtman and I was freaked out about that (Kent confirmed he saw one on his last water trip).

I changed into my dry clothes, which double as my jammies:  yoga pants, tank top and lightweight hoodie.  It would have been easy to fall asleep in the tent, but I forced myself to get up and help coordinate dinner.

Tonight we had a yummy Chicken Cashew Curry with Rice, and collectively we finished eight servings.  We followed that with a chocolate bar and a few sips of bourbon from our flask.  We were just cleaning up the dinner dishes when Dan whisper-yelled that there was a moose in the opening where Gary had almost pitched his tent.  We all ran to get a glimpse - he was frighteningly huge!!  He munched on tree and then silently ambled off - so cool!

I brushed my teeth and braved one more walk to the pit toilet, then settled into the tent about 8pm to write and read.  Jeff was outside, and I soon heard him “whisper-yell” from the lake:  “bring a camera!”  I ran down there barefoot - just in time to see the moose enter the water.  He waded out until he must have been swimming (I know they’re good swimmers - I think that’s how they originally got out here).  He repeated dunked his head and then would come up as munch the weeds.  What an awesome site - completely worth the agony of the hike to have an experience like this!  We seem to be the only humans for miles around, submersed in this vast and amazing wilderness.  If we hear wolves tonight, it’ll complete our Isle Royale experience!!

By the way, my toe was about the ONLY thing that didn’t hurt today!

Sunday July 21. Siskiwit Bay

10.2 miles according to the map

Apple Watch:  11.6 mi, total time 7:26, average pace 38’, elevation gain 806 ft!

We awoke again this morning to the sound of birds singing and a loon on the lake.  Being this far west on EST, first light was 6am.  It was chilly overnight, perfect for sleeping nestled in a down sleeping bag.

I dressed, got out of the tent, and headed down to the lake.  Although just a few feet away, it was about 10 degrees warmer at the lake!  The sun had just risen, casting a beautiful glow over the lake.  I returned to the tent to get the rain fly as it was moist on the inside caused by the condensation from our breath.

We set about making breakfast - quite a production with fry bread going in two pans, then scrambled eggs and ham.  By the time we ate, cleaned up and packed up, it was 9am as we were taking our morning selfie.  

It was a beautiful morning, but we knew it’d be wet pushing through the thick brush so I left camp in my long pants and added my tall gaiters just to be sure.  The gang walked nearly a mile before stopping for the first “costume change,” mostly pealing off layers.  I was hot, and I unzipped my pants and tucked the legs inside my gaiters.  At the next stop - nearly 3 miles, I removed the legs and the gaiters.  That stop was at a beautiful waterfall, and since it was hot, we filled a couple Nalgenes out of the falls and treated them with the Steripen - fingers crossed that was good enough!

We started with a couple of miles of overgrown brush, then the trail opened up as we climbed to Feldtman Ridge.  The climb afforded us gorgeous views of Feldtman and the mainland beyond that.  

We encountered two hikers from Tennessee, doing our route backwards.  They gave us some advice to walk the first mile tomorrow along the beach, and also passed on what we’ll hike on Tuesday is more of what they called the “Green Wall.”

We got to Feldtman Tower - the top was closed, but we were able to climb high enough to have an amazing 360 degree view of Lake Superior, Feldtman Lake, probably Canada, Minnesota’s North Shore, and probably Wisconsin!  The gorgeous day afforded an outstanding view.

We hiked another couple miles and stopped for lunch on a large slab of granite.  Tam laid out her poncho and we had peanut butter and honey on pita, fresh Granny Smith apples, and chocolate covered almonds.  After eating, most of us laid on the tarp - could have stayed there an hour - nice breeze, no bugs!

We figured we had three more miles to go, but just like we found last year at Glacier, the mileage on National Park trails isn’t correlated to GPS!  I followed close to Gary and tried to hang with him and be done with the hike!  We went down from the ridge and back into tons of mosquitoes and stopped to spray down again.  We went through areas with birches and large ferns, then back through sunny areas with thimbleberry bushes and cow parsnips occluding the trail.  We pushed through it at a rapid pace - you couldn’t see the trail, but you felt it when you stepped off it.  The bugs were terrible.  When I ate my third mosquito I put on my head net.  The buzzing was still driving me crazy, but at least they weren’t trying to get inside my glasses and bite my eyes!

We hit 10.2 miles, should have been the end according to the park map, but Dan was tracking us with the “All Trails” app and it showed we still had some ways to go.  We plodded on.  The trail brought us through some pretty meadows with fantastic wild flowers, the trail was still quite narrow, but at least it wasn’t shoulder-high foliage!

Finally we arrived at Siskiwit Bay - a mile further than we expected.  We found the camp to be deserted, and the paths also overgrown and not really maintained.  Being a group of 7, we were supposed to camp in the group sites, but the group sites were far from the water.  Instead, we opted for site #5, which had a shelter and was closest to the water.  It was 6pm and we didn’t think a ranger was going to come and bust us.

Jeff and I set up our tent, while the others set up to sleep in the shelter.  Kent set up his water filtration process while some of us jumped in the lake - about as cold as jumping in the North Sea last fall, but it felt good today!  I jumped in with my clothes on to wash them too.  

We set out to make dinner but have a mystery about what happened to it!?  After searching all the packs, we gave up!  Did we not bring it?  Did we accidentally throw it out Saturday morning?  Is it stuck in someone’s pack?  Will this remain an unsolved mystery!?

We had extra breakfast stuff, so we made three batches of eggs, and Blueberry Wild Rice pancakes, with chocolate for dessert - that filled our tummies and all is well.

A quiet night, with the lake almost eerily calm!  It’s cooling off nicely, will be another good nights sleep!!

Monday July 22  - Island Mine

4.3 mi on map, Apple Watch 5.05,  total time 3:10, average pace 39’48”, 731 ft elevation gain

We were in pretty thick trees and there was a layer of thin clouds, so the sun didn’t wake me up this morning … but Jeff packing up his sleeping bag did.  I snuggled into my sleeping bag and wished I could sleep for another hour, but the sound of the others moving around made me get up.  

Made a smaller batch of Oatmeal this morning, remembered my spices and we threw in some strawberries and blueberries that Lynn & Kent’s daughter had dehydrated.  We added some olive oil  (Jeff accidentally burned the top last night so we were trying to use it up) and it was quite tasty - and just the right portion size for our group!  Clean up took a little longer, and we had a few laughs while we were packing up as Dan, who didn’t have a belt along, tried to make suspenders out of rope to keep his pants up!

Three guys came in last night on a boat, we didn’t chat with them then, but did a little this morning when they came up to camp in search of the privy.  They’re from Duluth, up here fishing.  They mentioned it might rain today, but for now it was very thin clouds.  For the second day though, Lake Superior was eerily calm!

By 9:30a, we were packs on and ready to go.  We had some intel from the guys we’d met yesterday, plus there was a sign by the pier describing the best route to the Island Mine trailhead.  That was to walk along the beach as the trail was overgrown and you could also be thrown off by animal trails!

There were two spots we had to leave the beach - one over the Siskiwit River on a rickety bridge, and then for a short cut over the peninsula.  I led that portion, getting a face full of spider webs.  I must have left the mosquitoes in my wake however, because the rest of the group came out to the beach and quickly put their bug nets on!  The rocks on the beach on the other side of the peninsula were prettier, and I quickly spotted an agate!  Most of Lake Superior’s shores are picked clean of agates these days, but I’m guessing few people actually traverse this beach!  Lots of other cool rocks with algae or something that looked like hieroglyphics! 

We had 1.8 miles of beach walk, then turned inland.  I braced myself for more busting through the foliage, but was so delighted to find it was mostly beautiful trail!  We had a packs off break at 3 miles and I unzipped my pant legs and took off the t-shirt underneath my long sleeve hiking shirt.  We’d been climbing and I was hot!!  I sprayed down with bug dope and wasn’t too irritated by them today.

We continued to climb, and most of us took another “lay down on the granite slab break” after a particularly steep climb (which made me feel like lap 13 on last years 29029 challenge!).  We were delighted to come upon the Island Mine campground just after the 5 mile mark on my watch - about 1 pm.  

It was a fabulous group campsite with more than 4 awesome tent sites and a fire ring, but the place was swarming with mosquitoes! We pitched our tents, and started gathering firewood.  Good to get some smoke going to dissipate the bugs somewhat.

Tam brought out lunch and it was different to be eating lunch with a fire going and tents already pitched.  

The guys from yesterday also told us they found a small stream for water about a quarter mile up the trail.  A group of us ventured out there, Dan used his pump filter, Kent filled the gravity filter, and I used the steripen on the full Nalgene bottles.  We calculated how much water we’d need for dinner, breakfast and hiking tomorrow - a lot!  Just as we were finishing up, it started raining lightly.  Lynn headed back to have Jeff and Gary help her set up their new awning.  The campsite has a pretty thick canopy of trees, so not a lot of rain was falling in most spots of our side - just sprinkles on our tent.

Good to have the time to hang around this afternoon.  It’s been hard to visit on these narrow, overgrown trails!   Jeff retreated to the tent for a siesta, and I went in to write and read.  The others stayed outside visiting, even though it was raining harder.  I love being in the tent in a rainstorm!!

Jeff and I emerged from our tent about 5:30p and found the gang had water boiling for dinner.  We shared 3 packets of Ginger Chicken with Rice - yummy, with chocolate bars for desert, plus we finished off our little bit of bourbon.  While we were finishing dinner, we had a visitor.  A guy from Kentucky camping on the single sites with his 17 year old daughter and 12 year old son. They came from Feldtman Lake today - about 17 miles - wow!  They flew into Windigo and are hiking to Rock Harbor then will take the Ranger to Copper Harbor to rendezvous with his wife and younger two kids - hard core!!

Lynn and Kent were nervous about where their tent was pitched so after dinner we moved their tent to under their awning for the evening.  We stood around the fire pit for awhile, stirring the ashes and soaking up the heat, wearing our rain jackets.  We’d expected rain, and thankfully, this was perfectly timed.

Early night, planning on early departure so we can relax and clean up before our plane leaves at 3p EST from Windigo.  The plan is to be hiking by 7am!!

Tuesday July 23  Back to Windigo

6.9 miles, Apple Watch 7.24 miles, total time 3:28, 28’ average with break time, 558ft elevation

The rain tapered off during the night, and it was the coldest night so far.  I used the head mummy function on my sleeping bag which is very rare for me!  It was still plenty dark outside when the alarm went off at 5am.  We dressed and packed up the tent using our headlamps, and when we emerged from the tent you could just see a faint light through the thick canopy of trees.  

Jeff started the stove to boil water - turns out we had too much white gas (fuel for the stove), so he burned some off … but we just didn’t know!  We had hot drinks and granola with powdered reconstituted milk for a quick breakfast.  We cleaned up, finished packing and were hiking out of camp at 7:02am.   The sky was overcast, so in the dull light it was still kind of tough to see - didn’t need the headlamp though!

We hiked 0.4 miles to the junction of the  Greenstone Ridge Trail, then took a left.  We were moving fast, as this gang can do when they’re motivated!  We took several short breaks, and one extended break, and had the fastest average pace of this trip.  With about 2 miles to go, I dropped back and enjoyed the forest.  It was clear we were going to have about 4 hours before our scheduled flight!

The trail was really nice today, hardly any foliage obscuring the trail.  The weather was perfect - nice breeze and thin high clouds.

Jeff had been scanning the ridge lines, determined to see a wolf, but that would be unlikely.  We saw some probable scat, but didn’t hear them at night as I did last time I was backpacking here 25 years ago.

We arrived back at Windigo about 10:30am.  Gary stopped at the store and bought tokens for us all to shower.  I didn’t have clean clothes, other than the yoga pants and tank top I’ve been sleeping in, but I took a hot 5 minute shower anyway and it felt fantastic.

When everyone had showered, we met on the deck of the store.  Most of us bought lunch, I had a nice cold beer with my sandwich.  Then I felt a nap coming on, so I went and laid on a picnic table and fell asleep so hard I had no idea where I was when I awoke!

About then, we got word that our flight was delayed until 7pm due to mechanical issues.  Ugh.  We’re largely a good natured group, and took it in stride, but we sure hoped would not be camping another night!!  

Jeff and I went inside for ice cream.  I turned my phone off airplane mode, and looked at what messages came in.  There is a super weak guest WiFi at the Ranger Station - not enough for beginning to post my blog though.

I unfurled our tent and dried and cleaned it up - it did well in the rain last night, but a lot of dirt had splashed up onto it.  Felt good to have that taken care of!  That spurred a lot of action from our group, opening their packs and drying things out - it looked like a yard sale on the back deck!!

After everything was repacked, we relocated to the front deck to a table out of the sun.  A plane came in about 4pm, and the guys rushed down to the dock to chat with the pilot.  He said the bad news was this wasn’t our plane, but the good news is our plane will likely come tonight!

Tam went into the store and bought a bottle of wine.  We enjoyed the breeze and the view from the deck.  Dan spotted a female moose splashing around in the water along the distant shore - so cool!!  A little later someone noticed a cow and calf in the shallow water!  Intermittently, we’d go back into the store for more drinks and food:  soup, pulled pork sandwiches, snacks - it was cheap and convenient!

At 5:30p, an off duty ranger came to entertain on the deck with his acoustic guitar and some original songs.  The funniest was GIARDIA sung to Van Morrison’s “Gloria!”  We enjoyed the music, and were very excited to see our plane arrive at 6:30pm!  We threw on our packs, for a last hike to the dock.

There we met the pilot, Steve, who like Mike, inspired great confidence!  He explained some of the issues today - weather in Grand Marais, then this plane lost the alternator.  He “dead headed” back to Michigan and changed it out.  Because of the direction of the wind, we taxied out pretty far, then back towards Windigo when we took off.  Fun to see the people on the deck waving to us.

Also because of the wind direction, we flew over the island, which the Park Service discourages.  On this flight, we used the headset communication devices to talk with Steve.  The guys, especially Kent, were really into talking about the engine and the gauges.

We landed about 7:30p, which is actually 6:30p in Wisconsin … off schedule, but the best airplane delay I’ve ever experienced!

Kent drove us back to NorthStar, arriving around 9pm, although it felt much later than that after such a long day and early start.  Tam and I took a sauna, I had a shower and happily fell into my comfortable bed.

Wednesday morning we had eggs, bacon and toast - easier to be cooking in the kitchen.  We lingered around the table, talking about highlights of the trip.  Tam presented us with a large rock - I’d admired it on the beach and unbeknownst to me, she'd picked it up and they’d all signed it with a sharpie … it must have added an additional 5 pounds to her pack!!  Dan read us the poem he’d written for our trip - making us laugh and cry as always.  They all left mid-morning, making me a bit sad another adventure has come to a close, but as always, working on plans for the next one!