The Worst Day Hiking Yet & Cake

What followed from Alaska was a tedious four day drive back to the lower 48.  The logistics of trying to visit most of the national parks in a one year period is difficult.  There are a handful of parks that are best visited during July, August, or September.  Our research yielded some of these parks to be Rocky, Yosemite, most of the PNW parks, all of Alaska, and....Isle Royale.  What the heck is Isle Royale?

A lesser known park to most of us, it is an island in the northern reaches of Lake Superior, very close to the Canadian border.  It is somewhere between 40-50 miles long and about 10 miles across.  It is ecologically significant because back when the lake froze solid, a population of wolves crossed onto the island chasing after herd of Moose that occupied the island.  The intertwined relationship between the two populations has been the subject of much study through the years.  Other than some mildly fruitless copper mining back in the day the island has remained relatively untouched boreal forest.

After a long boat ride. We decided to do the 'big deal' hike along the Greenstone Ridge.  It is 40 miles from one end (Windigo Visitor Center) to the other (Rock Harbor Visitor Center) along the backbone of the island, a good 4 day jaunt.  We couldn't split it into 10 even miles a day because of the campsite spacing, so it went ~11, ~15, ~8, ~7.  Overall the hike was nice, good trails, Adirondack shelters with screens, few bugs, loons calling, and nice scenery.

The sunsets were nice too...

And sunrises...

So why the blog title?  Day two.  The long day. 15 miles.  Which turned into 10 hours of hiking in the consistent rain, with low brush that soaks your pants and boots.  Along a flat trail on smooth (and in the rain very slippy) rock, with no scenery, little elevation change, and very little turns.  It was an endless, boring, soaking, miserable day.  Stacy added to the moisture 3 times via tears throughout the hike. It all began when a toad hopped into the path of her descending boot (squish). #2 waterworks was after more wet miles when she took a fall on said slippy rock, and #3 was near the end when she realized she dropped her Buff and had to backtrack to find it. We were both on a low when we arrived drenched to a flooded campsite, to set up a tent in the rain.  On the bright side, the tent and bags were dry.  Oh! I almost forgot.  Due to tapeworm cysts, we carried all of our water, which meant Stacy's pack weighed 55 lbs (aka half her weight) and mine weighed 65 lbs. So, we vowed from now on when we are having a bad day, to repeat the mantra "...at least this isn't Isle Royale day two...".

Thankfully, day three was warm and bright, and with day four being so short, the worst was over.  We dried our stuff in the morning, and headed out.  We even managed to snag a covered shelter that afternoon and the next night.

Our departure being in the morning of the 5th day, the second half of day four was an additional 5.5 miles (because 40 already wasn't enough) to Scoville Point.

After that, beers in the shelter and soaking up the afternoon sun.  FOCUS.

A small consolation was what happened to the little squirrel that lived above the shelter, constantly yelling at us and shitting on our picnic table...  The morning we are to leave, I am outside tying my boots and a rustling in the bushes turned out to be a sly red fox with a certain plump squirrel in his mouth.  Karma.

 
The hike was nice, I don't know if I would do it again.  It reminded me of the LHHT (Laurel Highlands), elevation at the ends, flat in the middle.  But Isle Royale had more shrubs and less sights.  Still, it is a very isolated place and lovely place.  Oh and a note on the wolves:  Due to climate change, no ice bridges have formed, and the gene pool is sour.  There are only 2 left, and they will not produce viable offspring.  End of an era.  Wah-wah...


Onto the next park nearby, Voyageurs National Park  Rather than an island in a big lake, it is a series of lakes in northern Minnesota that once again borders Canada.  After our 'miserable' hike, we wanted an easy going park experience.  We also wanted to be present in a park for the official 100th birthday of the National Park Service, August 25!  We booked a campsite on an island 3 miles across from the main launch, and loaded Ele up with a new hat.

For 2 nights we would be the only people on Sugarbush Island with a nice weekend of relaxing without having to pack up and move.

The best part was the morning we left, there was cake! The downside was 20 knot winds (good thing we were sugared up with cake and icing)!

But we made it fine and just cut wood for the afternoon so we could have a fire and make tons of delicious mountain pies.

The following day we visited a rock garden (Ellsworth Rock Gardens) built by a retired contractor who owned land in park, before it was a park.  It was a pretty cool place.

We then paddled back to camp and burned more wood and ate more mountain pies.  It is a hard life, I know.  The following morning was a departure to 10 knot winds, so not as bad.  Overall, Voyageurs is a very lovely park for your boat lover or fisherman and it was a lovely place to wind down and eat pie.  Until next time...

-K