The night was a mild one, and we had no problem crawling from our sleeping bags before the sunrise. Lake Superior was quiet and without a ripple.
We had eleven miles to hike today, and I wasn't sure how long that would take us, so I was anxious to get going. An hour later, we had packed up, made breakfast, and were ready to hit the trail. Our first two miles would be backtracking up and away from Lane Cove. Even with the switchbacks, it was a long, slow go, and we were both very warm by the time we made it to the trailhead.
Today we'd be hiking across the top of the Greenstone Ridge. This meant that we wouldn't have a lot of steep climbs up or down, but the terrain up there still had its challenges. Much of the time the trail underfoot was solid rock, which made actually staying on the trail a little tricky here and there. We made our way along, though, with Dad leading the way.
By 10am, we were at the top of Mt. Franklin, which gave us stunning views of the island and Lake Superior beyond.
When the trail would drop a little bit in elevation, we would be surrounded by full fall-colored foliage. The landscape looked like a painting!
We continued on through the trees, occasionally ascending out of them and hiking across the rocks. An hour later we came to Mt. Ojibway, which offered a fire tower. Of course, I had to climb to the top while Dad fiddled with his gear way down below!
As we made our way further along the ridge, there were definite signs of wolves. Would we meet one today?
The fall colors continued and I was loving it! To top it off, we came to a trail intersection where someone had left a pair of moose sheds. They were heavy! Isle Royale is a National Park, with strict rules about not leaving the island with anything but memories. That means anything found on the island or along the shoreline must stay there. So, sadly, I did not bring home any souvenirs.
When the trail wasn't on top of the rocks, it was generally filled with roots and small stumps, and I encouraged my dad to always use his trekking poles. Mine have saved me countless times over the years, and Dad was prone to tripping. I had to keep a bit of distance between us, because at any given time, without warning, he would poke his poles backwards right at me when he was sick of using them! Look at those dangerous weapons!
Further down the trail, my dad earned the trail name, "Tripper" after he took this little tumble. Use your poles, Dad!
He hadn't hurt anything but his pride, though, and soon we stopped to take a pack break and have a snack. Snacks make everything better!
Eventually, we started to descend toward East Chickenbone Lake Campground, which would be our landing spot for the night. Slowly, things got less rocky and more green and we found a few more sheds, too.
We had made good time to camp, arriving in the early afternoon. This gave us time to just relax for a bit, which was so nice!
Next on our agenda was going in search of water. We were camping at a lake campground, but we couldn't actually see the lake. We grabbed our bottles and went to look for it. The trail down to the lake was steep and long. Like, really far! We were not ready. Haha! Down, down we went, and eventually we made it. The lake water was clear and cool, which was a plus, as we had been warned that several of the inland lakes had algae blooms and the water would not only have to be filtered but also treated with tablets. This water would only require our regular filtering, which was great. We filled our bottles and headed back up to camp. Unfortunately, my dad got stung by a pesky bee on the way back up. Ouch!
Our next order of business was dinner. We were hungry! There wasn't a table, but there were boards and rocks, and we managed to get the surface level enough to cook our meals.
This campground was so quiet and the other campers there were far away, making it seem like we had the place to ourselves. We called it a night pretty early, as we were exhausted from the day's hike. As I was drifting off to sleep, I heard the faint sound of a light rain on my tent.
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