B and D – On the Road

When you land at Isle Royale the pilot hits the water then jumps to the dock. The passengers climb down to the dock then take off hiking immediately. The seaplane harbor is on the opposite side of the peninsula from the lodge so the “bell hop” gave us some instructions on how to find it so we took off up a steep trail from the waters edge. After a couple of turns you come out on a main path above the harbor on the other side. At the harbor you check in with the park service and then you circle the harbor to get to the office for the lodge. After checking into the lodge you get your key and then head up another steep trail to the lodges. Glad I was not carrying my luggage, just my back pack.

We got to our room, relaxed a little while waiting on our luggage. Then we got something to eat and signed up for a sunset boat tour to Raspberry Island. We watched a group of kayakers head out into the harbor. They were on a 4 night/5 day trip out here. They only stayed out about and hour and then they were back.  It must have been their first trip out as the guide was explaining about the paddles and how to use the skirts over the kayak openings.  These guys were prepared, they were all wearing heavy wet suit bottoms and jackets.

It was still a little damp and cold out and apparently the other people out here are wimps, no one else signed up for the boat trip so it was cancelled. Since the trip was off we set off on our first hike up to an old dock at the other end of the harbor. It used to be used before this became a national park and there were lots of private residents in this area. The dock has been rebuild and now is just used for an observation area when out hiking. While on this hike we saw lots of plants.

They have lots of Bunchberries, Thimbleberries and Blue Bead Lilies. They also have lots of lady slippers but they were not in bloom at this time.  Apparently the Thimbleberries can be used to make jam and jelly as we saw some advertised at a roadside stand as we were traveling back to our coach.  They also had a huge variety of mushrooms, lichens, etc.  along the trails.  I guess if you were an expert on mushrooms and berries you could probably survive out here for awhile by eating on them.    We did see a number of squirrels and one rabbit.  We did see and hear Loons several times while out and about and some type of duck.

 

We wrapped up Tuesday viewing the sunset in the ferry harbor then decided if we hiked back over to the seaplane harbor it might be prettier. In the ferry harbor you can see the big ferry in the back.  It comes in and stays overnight.  It appears to be the way they get in most of their supplies as they were busy unloading it when we got in earlier in the day.  There is one very old looking ferry that circles around the island delivering people to different campground and hiking spots.

Unfortunately by the time we got back over to the seaplane harbor it was covered over by clouds.  On our walk back we made a left turn instead of a right turn at one point and went down the wrong trail.   We were walking along talking and I guess not paying real close attention when we turned wrong.   After a little while I commented that I did not recognize a building that was off in the woods on one side.  We then saw what was the maintenance area ahead and realized we were not going in the right direction.  We turned and backtracked to right spot and got on the right trail.  You would have thought some animal would have come to investigate but I guess they did not care for our flashlight.

On the second day, Wednesday, we took off for a hike on the Stroll Memorial Trail. We went up the trail on the the Lake Superior side and came back on the Tobin Harbor side where the seaplane’s land. This was the closest we came to seeing a moose, we saw a moose track along the trail when we were on one of the board walk areas.  According to the notices at park service office there are a couple of bull moose in the area and you should keep your distance. From the mess in a marshy area along the trail it looked like the moose had been shoving each other around.

The board walk is very different from board walks we have been on before.  It really is just a board you are walking across.  When trail descriptions mentioned board walks I am thinking a 3 foot wide wood walkway.  The board is balanced on a piece of log to keep it out of the water.

The hike up on the lake side is the roughest side, marshy areas with board walks, lots of rocks and steep climbs. We were supposed to see some big holes for mining copper but when we got to the sign post we could not spot them. There were not a lot of signs letting you know how far along we had gone. Eventually you get to an area that has a sign saying there will not be anymore signs as you are entering the wilderness area. At that point we cut up and over the ridge to come back down in the Tobin Harbor side. The terrain is very different on that side, still some steep areas but not the big rocks, much easier on the feet. Just as we were getting back to the harbor area we did find another mine that was better marked on the trail. They had wood fences built around the open pits.

By the time we had got back we had covered at least 4 miles.  Not sure how they measure miles, is it as the crow flies or the actual distance you hike up and down to the trails?  We forgot to bring our handheld GPS with us to the island so we could not track everywhere we went.

We got back in time to take a short break before boarding a boat for a trip out to Raspberry Island where we had tried to go the night before.  Bruce must have been really tired, I left him sitting on the foot of the bed when I went into the living room and I came back about 15 minutes later and he had laid back on the bed and was sound asleep.  I hated to wake him but we needed to go to the boat.

We left at 3 to go out to Raspberry Island. It is a quick trip from the harbor and then you have 3 hours to hike on the island. This island is known for the boardwalk through the spruce bog.
The bog is a wetland that accumulates peat and not a lot of nutrients for plants to grow. What you see is lots of carnivorous plants like the Pitcher Plant. We started on the trail through the bog area and it was really interesting. There were hundreds and hundreds of Pitcher Plants. We took several pictures then kept going so a group that was traveling together could take over the board walk through the bog. This board walk was actually a little wider, it was two boards instead of one.  We circled the whole bog then came back to the beginning and took a few more pictures since everyone had cleared out by that time. I decided to get down on my knees to get a really good close up, Bruce had to pull me back up.

 

After leaving the board walk we circled the backside of the bog.  It was very strange walking in this area as it is like walking on a big sponge, not one real wet but still spongy.  Bruce kept making comments about how the ground was sinking overtime I took a step.

After the bog we headed off in the other direction to go to the other end of the island. No longer on a nice board walk, another steep climb up hill. As we got close to the top of the ridge there was a sign post with something on the side so I went to check it out. It was pointing to a side trail the would take you up to a view point. I made the mistake of placing my hand on the top of the post for support as I bent down to try and read was was on the side of the post. Apparently it had been there while and it just fell over, the supports at the bottom had rotted. Bruce managed to prop it back up with some big rocks and made sure it was pointed the right direction. We made it to the top, checked out the view, talked with some of the other people on the hike and then headed on around the point and backdown on the other side of the island.

We guess Raspberry Island got it’s name from all the raspberry bushes and they were loaded with berries.  Many of the hikers were stopping to eat the berries and said they were really good.  We passed on the berries, we have drank enough raspberry tea in the last month that I am tired of raspberries.  We are used to being able to get sweet tea at most places in the south but you don’t get sweet tea here.   The unsweet tea I have tried to get and sweetened has not tasted good so we have given up and usually get the raspberry tea.

We were the first to make it back to the boat so we got comfortable and waited no the others. Bruce even took a 5 minute nap. We then went to the main island and had dinner.

On Thursday we debated taking another boat trip or hiking again and we decided to go for a hike out to a cave. This hike went in the opposite direction from the day before. Again we started out on the lake side and wrapped it up coming back on Tobin Harbor side. Same story the hike up was much harder than the hike back.

We ran into Karen and her husband on the trip up, they were heading down. We passed few other people coming down as we went up. Lots of muddy areas to get through and not all had the board walks over them. It was about a 2 mile hike up to the cave. Again, not lots of signs to let you know where you are along the trail. When we had gotten most of the way there we came up on a very open area of rock with no real trail markings so we wandered if we had missed it somehow. We then found a lady sitting on the rock in the sun having a snack. We chatted for a minute and I asked her if she had made it to Suzy’s Cave. She said no, she gave up after slippy in a big muddy area and getting mud all over herself. She didn’t think she could make it to the other end of the muddy  area so she was relaxing and drying off, then heading back down.

We decided to keep going as we had to be close. She was right it was a big muddy stretch not to far past her but we made it to the other end without sinking in the mud or falling. Bruce took the lead and tested various rocks sticking out of the mud until he could find a stable area for stepping. Between the rocks and using our hiking sticks for helping to balance we got to the other end. Bruce was surprised I trusted him since the last time he led me over a wet area balancing on rocks, I slipped into the edge of the Yukon River in Canada when a big rock shifted (only got my feet wet). For this excursion I did loose a rubber tip on my hiking stick, I guess it is buried somewhere in the mud. The woman we passed might have made it if she had had a hiking stick to help balance herself. Of course she should not have been hiking by herself.

 

 

Shortly after we cleared the big muddy area we found a sign pointing up to the cave. I told Bruce perhaps we should have yelled for the lady to see if she could hear us. We could have told her how close she was. At this point you are already muddy, why not finish the climb. Cave was not that impressive. We climbed the ridge then headed down the other side. Again a much easier trail back down accept it was pretty skinny in areas and if you slipped off to the left you could have slid down to the water. We made it back to the harbor, Bruce carried my backpack the last part of the trip as I was getting tired. In fact he went all the way to our room and dropped off stuff while I waited by the restaurant. No way I was going to climb the stairs to our room.

While hiking I told Bruce I should have been taking pictures of all the scat we spotted since we did not see the animals.  Then we would have known what we were missing.