We really enjoyed our trip to Isle Royale and would consider going again. If we did I would like to go on a guided kayaking trip in the area, not sure I want the 4 night/5 day one but since you come back to your room each night it might not be too tiring.
I might even consider going on a fishing trip. I was impressed with the size of the fish that people were bringing in off the boats. They were catching trout and they were very long fish. I don’t want to keep lots of fish but it would be interesting to catch one of the big ones, especially since they would clean it for you.
I would also consider staying in one of the cabins that had kitchens so I could prepare my own food. Of course if planning to bring food we would have to consider coming on the ferry instead of the plane since we would be able to bring more luggage with us. We would need an ice chest for transporting the cold foods.
Bruce and I discussed the possibility of having someone else come with us. Not sure what friends or family members might be interested. You have to like hiking and being out of contact with the outside world.
We had two regrets on the trip. One was skipping one of the boat trips that was interesting. We opted for a second day of hiking instead of the boat trip as it was a 6 hour trip and we were not sure if we wanted to spend most of the day on one trip. We talked to Big Lens guy and they had taken the trip and gave us great reviews. They went to a wolf research center and visited a historic commercial fishery with the resident giving a demonstration and spent part of the time hiking to a light house. They also saw what is supposed to be the largest collection of moose head skeletons and antlers that someone had been collecting on an island they visited.
Our second regret was not getting up at 1:00 AM to hike back to the sea plane harbor one morning to see the Aurora Borealis. Someone had told Bruce that it was supposed to be a good night for seeing it on the night before we left. We discussed it and decided to not set the alarm as the last two nights had been cloudy and we were not sure it would be worth the effort. Surprise, it cleared up during the night and at least one energetic person went to the harbor and got a few great pictures they were showing around the next morning. I had woke up around 2:00 AM and the thought passed my mind but I could not convenience my body to get out of bed.
At first I was disappointed that I did not see any moose while out hiking but after looking at pictures of the moose in the park news letter I am glad I did not get close to any of them. They are covered with thousands of ticks that are impacting the health of the moose. We did not see any wolf either but I did not expect to see them wandering around where we were hiking. Because the island where we were staying is isolated from the mainland there is a an issue with the wolf population. They are not getting any new genetic stock so the wolf population is having issues. The moose and wolf originally came to the island when there was a severe winter and they were able to cross over from the mainland on an ice bridge.
They are supposed to make a decision this year as to what they are going to do about the wolf, bring in new wolf to help improve the genetic stock or have all of them removed from the island. The issue is tied to the moose, as the wolf population goes up the moose population goes down as that is a primary source of food for the wolf. With the wolf population down, the moose population goes up which causes more damage to the island vegetation. There is a very interesting study of the wolf/moose relationship over the last 40 or 50 years. I had read it before we went to Isle Royale.
We did discover we need new hiking sticks. Ours are probably 15 years old and are starting to show their age. The compass embedded in the tops have broken and after this trip I lost the rubber tip on my stick. Bruce and I have looked at new sticks a few times but never made up our mind what we wanted. We will be buying new ones when we find a good outdoor store, if not we will buy then when we get back to Houston and our favorite REI store.
Bruce also wants a new backpack. He has a big one with a good support structure built in but it was really too big for the half day hikes we were doing so he did not take it with us to the island. Instead he took a very small old backpack that has no support structure built in it. It used to be one that I used until I got a new one 3 or 4 years ago. Mine has more padding in the back but no support structure built into it so it is lighter weight. Anyway he found it very uncomfortable as stuff would shift around and press against his back, which is the reason I had gotten a new one with more padding.