​My mornings were now fairly routine as well, wake up around 6, out of the tent by 6:30, breakfast, pack up, and hit the trail by about 8:30.  Was able to add some fresh thimbleberries to my oatmeal since my campsite was completely surrounded by them! This morning I added water filtering to my routine to make sure that I left camp fully topped off.  The nice steps down to the water made that easy.

The hike out of Hatchet Lake starts with a level 0.2 mile section from the campground over to the spur trail up to the Greenstone.  I saw a little garter snake along the trail here.  The spur back up to the Greenstone is only about 0.3 miles but it seems to be mostly straight up, so that was a nice way to start the day;-)

Trail up and out of Hatchet Lake

Early in the morning while pushing through a lush overgrown section of the trail, I could hear some sort of activity in the thimbleberry patch on my left.  I suspected a squirrel, but hadn’t spotted it.  Then all of a sudden about 10 feet in front of me a squirrel popped out of the foliage onto the trail and headed straight at me, a second one appeared in hot pursuit. The first squirrel spotted me after covering about half the distance and jumped back into the bush, however the second’s reactions weren’t as quick and he kept coming my direction.  It finally realized what he was up against and came skidding to a halt seemingly right between my boots – like something you’d see in a cartoon, before jumping back into the bush.  I had a good laugh and then continued on my way.

Found a nice shaded clearing off the trail a little after 11 and decided to have a break and early lunch.  Finally go back on the trail around noon.  This was one of my near 8 mile days and I have been taking it fairly slow as there’s really no rush.  By 3 in the afternoon (Central Time) I hadn’t seen another soul on the trail.  I had stopped momentarily to have a sip of water and from behind me I heard “How’s it goin?” – scared the crap out of me!  The guy was also on his way to W. Chickenbone but had left Lake Desor this morning about the same time I had left Hatchet Lake.  He’d covered about 14 miles in the time I’d done 7 – man I’m slow…

I arrived at W. Chickenbone about 3:45, procured a campsite and proceeded with my evening routine.  Was a good thing I had decided to top off my water this morning as I was nearly dry when I got here.  This is my least favorite campsite so far – it didn’t have anything setup as far as logsrocks for “dining” area or anything and little tree cover so the sun was beating down for a couple hours.  Oh well.  It also was surrounded by thimbleberry pushes that were populated by a number of squirrels and birds that were making noise all evening long.  One of which also decided to relieve themselves on my shirt and pants that I had laid on a rock to dry.  I get it, you were here first, but really that’s just rude.

Some of the flora and fauna that I observed today:

Spider

Bunny

funny bug

Mushroom!

Berries

Frog

Day 4 map: Hatchet Lake to West Chickenbone

​Day 3 began the same as the previous, rolled out of the tent, made some breakfast and broke camp.  As I was wrapping up, I noticed this spider sitting on some peeling bark:

Around 11:30, after 3 hours on the trail, I was more than ready for a break when I stumbled up to the top of the hill into a little clearing which is Ishpeming Point.  There is an observation “tower” built here, but it’s reserved for Park Ranger use and inaccessible which was a little disappointing as I’d had visions of getting a great photo from the top.  Oh well.

Observation Tower at Ishpeming Point

Being roughly the halfway point between Lake Desor and Hatchet Lake makes this a popular lunch spot.  There were three guys from northern Ohio already having lunch when I arrived.  The first people I had seen since leaving the campground.  They had flown into Rock Harbor from Houghton, MI and were doing the opposite route from mine.  They mentioned that they had also climbed from Hatchet Lake so I should have a mostly downhill remainder of the day (turned out sort of true) and that the last 0.3 mile from the Greenstone down to the lake was particularly steep (definitely true).  My neighbors from last night followed into the lunch spot shortly after me – they were obviously moving faster than me as they had still been having breakfast when I left…

I got the pack back on around 12:30 and started the second half of the day towards Hatchet Lake.  I passed one couple going the opposite direction about midway between Ishpeming and Hatchet Lake.  Passed them in an overgrown portion of the trail so I startled them a bit when I said “howdy” and they hadn’t seen me yet.

I arrived at the campground around 3:45 and think I got the last free site.  Also, by far the nicest site I’ve had so far.  It was a split level plus had a nice “dining” area with a nice big flat rock for cooking and some well supported logs for seating.  The route down to the lakeside (seen in the page header if you’re on the stand-alone page for this entry) was a nice rock staircase as opposed to the cliff at Lake Desor.  It also had a flat area that you could actually get into the water if you chose to.

Campsite at Hatchet Lake – the best so far.

My evening has become pretty routine; drop the pack, rest, setup the tent, rest, filter some water, rest, make dinner, crash.  I’m halfway to Rock Harbor, at least by days, mileage-wise I’m still slightly short of midway.  Regardless, it’s the point of no return and I’m having a great time!

Day 3 map

​Day 2 started around 6 am (Central Time) and I finally crawled out of the tent around 6:30. I had a relaxing breakfast of coffee and oatmeal and watched as the few other people in the campground hit the trail – clearly operating on Eastern Time…

By the time I had my gear packed and ready to go it was 8:30 which I think is a perfectly reasonable time to hit the trail while on vacation.  Besides today was slated as my shortest hiking day – just 5.5 miles, so there was really no rush.

I made the approximately 0.4 mile climb up from Island Mine Campground back up to the Greenstone Ridge and continued my northeasterly hike.  Once back on the ridge I had 4.8 miles to go to the Lake Desor junction.

Trail heading out of Island Mine Campground

Yesterday and this morning have been spent hiking mostly under the forest canopy and so it has been pleasantly cool with just some dappled sunlight making it’s way to the ground.  Perfect for hiking!  Especially given that yesterday and day are mostly uphill ascending the ridge – not steep but a steady climb.  Even better is the fact the bugs have really been very mild so far – only around camp in the evening did I need to use a little bug spray.

And the best part of hiking at this time of the summer is that the berries are ripe – in fact the ranger said yesterday that all of the varieties are ripening at the same time this season which is unusual but due to the long spring.  She said that anything that looks like a raspberry is safe to eat and are most commonly thimbleberries.  There are also blueberries and a range of others.  In my haste to get on the trail yesterday I forgot to take a look at the photos of the edible varieties.  In any case, the thimbleberries are plentiful along the trail and you rarely have to reach far to grab a few;-)

At around 11 o’clock after two and a half hours on the trail I was ready for lunch and to get the pack off my back for a little while so started looking for a spot to break.  A short time later I could finally see a clearing in the trees and the next thing I knew I was out in a small clearing along the ridge with an overlook on part of Lake Desor and Superior in the distance.  The perfect spot for lunch!

I ate my lunch and rested for about 30-45 minutes and just enjoyed being in the sun for a short while as I could see the trail headed straight back into the trees.  The clearing was only about 60 feet long with about 20 feet on either side of the trail.  But it was a short rest of the way to the campground.  After about 45 minutes I reached the junction that would take me down to the South Lake Desor campground, 0.3 miles.  I was in the campground at around 12:45.

I hadn’t seen a soul on the trail the entire morning but upon reaching the campground I saw two other groups and a third would arrive later in the evening to take the last of the 4 sites in my area.  There were several more individual and group sites in an adjacent area of the campground.  After dropping my pack I had no desire to scout the other areas. After a short rest I scrambled down the “trail” to the lake to filter some water for dinner and tomorrow.  Carrying my water filter and various bottles was a bit of a challenge given how steep it was, but I made it without injury, but was a bit disappointed.  I had visions of a nice beach to maybe walk out and cool my toes.  However, what I got was a clearing in the trees about four feet wide and nothing but boulders…  Oh well, still a nice view of the lake and I got my water filled.

Lake Desor

The rest of the evening was just relaxation and making dinner then crawled into the tent around 8 as I was fairly tired despite the short trail day.  Was again hoping to catch some of the Perseid meteor shower as tonight was the last best night for them.  While I had a clear view of the sky from my campground the clouds rolled in and so it was not to be.  I fell asleep early anyway…

Day 2 map

​Day 1 on Isle Royale started with a boat ride via Isle Royale Boats aboard the Voyageur II.  I had read the boarding pass last month when I bought the ticket but hadn’t reviewed it recently.  The departure was scheduled for 7:30 in the morning and I arrived at 7:15, plenty early.  Well, everybody knew my name by this time as I was the mystery guy they were waiting on.  I was supposed to be there at 6:45 according to the ticket….  Oh well, we still left several minutes before the scheduled time:-)

It’s a two hour ride to Windigo at the southwest end of the island.  The lake was calm so it was a nice smooth ride, a little cloudy and we had a few drops of rain but otherwise a nice cruise.  The boat runs at a blistering 12 mph, so it’s good to be patient.

Orientation at the Windigo Visitor Center

Finally after topping off my water supply, I hit the trail at 10:30 – or maybe it was 11:30… This is not the first time during a park visit that time zones have become an issue and this would bug me the whole week.  I left Grand Portage, MN which is in the Central Time Zone while the park is in Michigan and therefore is in the Eastern Time Zone.  I operated the week as if I was at home, but depending on where people were from it could go either way.

It’s about a 0.6 mile hike up to the Greenstone Ridge Trailhead from Windigo.  The Greenstone runs nearly the full length of the island and I would be spending most of the week upon it.  From the trailhead to my first camp, Island Mine, was about 5.8 miles.  Then a few tenths off the Greenstone to the campground.  Total distance covered today was about 6.9 miles.  I arrived at the campground around 4:30 in the afternoon.  Was quite relieved to drop the pack – 45 pounds is way too much to lug around.  I would discover I brought a variety of things I would not useneed.  Oh well, live and learn!

About halfway along the trail I had stopped for lunch when I also realized that my left arm was getting numb.  After taking the pack off realized it was also a bit stiff and swollen. Was a bit scared until the feeling came back and the swelling went down.  Guess I had the pack strapped on a bit too tight.  After getting the pack on after lunch, I made some adjustments and didn’t have that issue again the rest of the trip.

The fortunate thing about waiting for my arm to return to normal, was that I got my first view of not one, but two moose.  A cow and calf to be precise!  I heard something coming out of the trees and grabbed my camera and just sat on the log.  The cow emerged from the forest about 20 yards down the trail and turned in my direction.  She stopped when she saw me, turned to get the calf, then back in my direction.  After realizing I wasn’t going anywhere they continued across the trail and into the trees on the opposite side behind me.

All in all, it was a great first day on the island.  I crawled into my tent around 9 pm and got some shut-eye.  Had hoped to see some of the Perseid meteor shower, but this campground was down in a low lying area and under a fairly heavy canopy – so there wasn’t much sky to see.

Windigo to Island Mine