If you send me random videos of far-off places with the dream of someday going there, chances are I'm going to find a way to actually get you there. So, when my dad repeatedly sent me videos of Isle Royale, saying we should go, I asked if he was serious. Because if he really did want to go, I'd get him there. And he was. Let's go!
A few things had to happen before we could actually go. First, I had to find a window of time in my already-booked fall schedule. Secondly, I had to make reservations for the boat, and a hotel, and get all the permits that were required. Thirdly, I had to get my dad set with all of the gear he would need. Lastly, I had to get my dad trained for this trip.
I had already planned a week of backpacking the North Country Trail in Wisconsin at the beginning of September, and a few weeks later I had planned to backpack another section of the Appalachian Trail. That left about two weeks in the middle of September for me to squeeze this trip to Isle Royale in.
Next, I looked into traveling to the island. As it turns out, in mid-September, the ferry from Copper Harbor to Isle Royale only runs on Mondays and Fridays. I didn't think four to five days on the island with two of them being travel days would be enough, so we decided that we'd go from a Friday to a Friday. Eight days. With ferry tickets booked, we just needed a National Parks pass, and because my dad is a senior citizen, he was able to get one for just twenty dollars. Score! We booked one of the only hotels that would still be open that time of year in Copper Harbor for the night before our departure, and all of our reservations were complete.
Now it was time to consider the gear we'd need. After some trial and error of various backpacking items the last few years, I had my gear dialed in. This also left me with a lot of leftover gear. I had an extra backpack, an extra tent, and a few smaller items, too. My dad purchased a few things I didn't have duplicates of and also invested in some quality hiking clothing and new Hoka trail running shoes.
Once the gear was acquired, it was time to get to the training. I encouraged my dad to start walking. Walk with the pack, walk without the pack, just get out there. When we were at the cabin, I took him hiking with our packs on my favorite trails. And then, in August, I was able to find a rogue one-night stay at a campground along the Pictured Rocks lakeshore. Time to test the gear!
We drove to Munising, arriving early enough to score one of the last parking spots at the Chapel Falls Trailhead, and set off. We hiked nine glorious miles along Lake Superior and found our way to a pristine campsite at Beaver Creek, perched high above the lake. The trail was a bit challenging, but my dad did great, and we were pleasantly surprised that there were no bugs of any kind, which is quite rare for that time of year in the Upper Peninsula.
After an amazing sunset, we retreated to our tents and woke the next morning to hike back out of the forest. It was a successful little trip, and I think it gave my dad a taste of what it would be like when we headed to Isle Royale. He had a few tweaks he wanted to make to his gear, including a wider and warmer sleeping pad, and this gave him time to get one before the big trip.
The last month before the trip was filled with packing and unpacking of our packs, considering the exact clothing we'd be wearing and carrying, and the discussion of food. I have never carried eight days of food before, and I didn't even know if I could fit eight days of food into my bear canister. We would have to get creative. We both opted for dehydrated meals for dinners, simple breakfasts of bars and coffee, and then a handful of snackable foods during the day. Our first day of food we'd be carrying outside of our bear canisters to help with space, and also because we'd be eating it before nightfall, and our last day of food would only need to be breakfast, as we'd be back to the mainland by dinnertime. Our canisters were packed to the very brim, and we could hardly screw the tops on all the way, but we made it happen. I sure hoped we had enough calories packed! The island was set to close most of its facilities two days after our arrival, and there would be no access to restaurants or even the camp store. What we had packed was what we'd have to eat, period.
Finally, September arrived. All of the months of preparing had led us here and we were ready to get this show on the road. We met at the cabin the Wednesday before our trip and I helped my dad pack his backpack one last time. Early on Thursday, we drove north. We made a pitstop in Marquette to say hello to Emerson at work and then continued on across the Upper Peninsula. My dad had never been to Houghton and further up the Keweenaw Peninsula, and it was fun to point out little things along the way.
Copper Harbor was quiet when we arrived, and we checked into our little motel for the night. We walked down to the dock, where we got our first glimpse of the boat that would be taking us to Isle Royale the next day. We wandered down to one of three local restaurants and had our last supper, so to speak, and then we wandered back to our motel and got settled. Tomorrow was the big day!
Friday morning was an early one. Check-in for the ferry began at 7am, and we had a loooooooong, 100-yard drive to the parking area.
We dropped off our packs in the loading area, paid the parking fee, and waited with the other passengers for boarding time. Shortly beforehand, the captain gathered us all together and spoke to us about what to expect on the boat, where to sit if we were prone to motion sickness, and other essential information. He did say that the harbor would be a little rough as we were leaving but then the lake should settle down. Perfect. Then we were on the boat! The seats were arranged in booth-style, so half of the chairs were facing backwards. That wasn't for me-I needed forward-facing, please! We chose our seats and settled in. The boat trip was three hours and forty-five minutes long, covering 54 miles of Lake Superior, so we had some time on our hands. The first hour went by fairly quickly, and we chatted we a few people around us to help the time pass.
Unfortunately, the lake did not settle down, as Lake Superior does what she wants, and I started to feel a bit queasy. I went to stand by the door and was happy to find the window open, with crisp air blowing in. This was helpful! Until it wasn't. I needed to get outside in a hurry. The right side of the ship had been getting plastered with waves, so I opted to go out the right side. I was going to be sick, and I didn't want to be wet and sick. I also didn't want puke blowing back into my face! I went toward the front of the boat, grabbed the handrail with both hands to prevent myself from pitching overboard, and puked. Several times. Awesome! At least I felt a little better now. Not better enough to go inside, but better. Until about five minutes had passed and I needed to be sick again. And again. And again. And again. I puked so many times over the next 2.5 hours that I could hardly remain standing. I did catch glimpses of other passengers either hanging out on the deck to also vomit, and some who would come out, vomit, and go back inside. I was freezing out there, but there was absolutely no way I could go back inside. Oh, the best part? I was puking so violently that I was peeing my pants a little every time I wretched. And the peeing got a little worse every time. I got to the point that I wasn't even upset about the puking, but the fact that I was ruining my only pair of hiking pants for the next week was really making me angry. This was not good. I was so embarrassed and so upset.
Finally, we made it to Rock Harbor, where we would disembark this boat. As we were exiting, the captain did say that the lake was a lot rougher than he had anticipated. Oh, really? We made our way over to a ranger who gave us a little orientation regarding our time on the island. Once that was finished, we had to officially check in and present some sort of hiking route plan for the week. It wasn't a strict plan, but the rangers wanted to have some idea of where people planned to be while they were out there in the wilderness. We were given our hang tag and sent on our way. I and my pee pants (which were now dry) made a quick stop in the last bathroom I'd have access to for the next week and cleaned up as best as I could. My dad weighed our packs, and they both came in at 38 pounds. Ouch! Good thing they'd be getting a little lighter each day as we ate the food we had packed.
And then we were off! It was 12:30pm, and we decided to take a seven mile hike north across the island to Lane Cove Campground. We headed out on the Tobin Harbor trail. It was rocky and technical almost immediately.
Soon, we came upon another couple, who told us to keep an eye out for a moose a little bit further down the trail. Just into our third mile, I spotted him! Off to the left, munching on thimbleberry leaves, was a bull moose! He was not bothered by us at all. He just stood there chomping away as we ooo'd and ahhh'd. How lucky were we to see a moose the first hour we were on trail?!
Eventually, we pushed onward. Everything was so green and vibrant! This truly was a beautiful place.
We came to a trail intersection and there was a headlamp lying in the dirt. It looked like it hadn't been there long. I didn't want to take it with me because I had no idea which direction its owner had gone. I decided to hang it on the post in case anyone came looking for it. We continued on, and saw several signs of moose along the way.
Then the trail spit us out onto an area that was more rock than anything else. As we hiked down the path, I recalled the ranger telling us that when we get to that point, we should not follow the ridge but instead follow the cairns that let up the mountain. So, up we went. It was a difficult climb, and we stopped at the top for a pack break. Pack breaks would come to be one of our favorite parts of the hiking!
As we were standing there, we saw a group of three guys who had clearly gone the wrong way and were backtracking. I waved to them and indicated that we were at the top of the trail they should've followed. When they made it up to us, I asked them if the ranger had also told them to follow the cairns and not the ridgeline. She had not. I chuckled a bit. Then I asked if any of them had lost a headlamp. They checked their gear and one of the guys discovered that his headlamp was missing! I told him where we had left it, and his friends waited while he went back for it. I considered that my good deed for the day!
We were up at a higher elevation now, and that gave us our first view of Lake Superior from the north side of the island!
Alas, what goes up must come down, and soon we were headed back down the other side and across more single-board planking that my dad was really not a fan of! Things were so green down at lower elevations, though, and I was loving the view.
The final two miles heading into our destination were very difficult, and my dad declared that these trails were much more challenging than he thought they would be. There were steep downhills, large steps, switchbacks, more uphills, and then back down again. I remember thinking that we'd have to hike those last two miles in the morning to get back to the main trail and I was not looking forward to that!
Finally, we arrived at Lane Cove Campground. This spot offered five separate campsites, and unfortunately all of them had people at them. One of the sites had a lone tent off to one side, so we decided to ask if he'd be willing to share the site with us. Thankfully, he said yes, and we made quick work of setting up our tents and getting settled. The man's name was Jim, and he was from the west side of Michigan. He wasn't too talkative, but we were tired from our day and that was just fine with us.
The sun was shining brightly on the shoreline of the lake, and we still had a few hours before sunset. I decided to give myself a tent bath, aka a wet wipe bath, change into my sleep clothes and then wash my disgusting pants and underwear in the lake. I hoped that if I hung them in the sun, they'd be dry enough to wear the next day. I snuck off to a secluded part of the shore to hang them in privacy. Jim probably thought I was a lunatic! The sunshine was lovely, though, and it was so peaceful on the shore. I sat there a long time, relaxing and reminiscing about the day.
We cooked our dehydrated meals for dinner, lasagna for me and pad Thai for Dad, and then took our bear canisters to the designated bear box on site. Nearly all of the campsites on Isle Royale now have metal, bear-proof boxes to stash all food and smellable items. While there are no bears on the island, this also keeps away wolves, foxes, mice, and other little critters who would love to get at hikers' food. Ultimately, this protects the animals, because once an animal becomes food-conditioned, it often has to be put down because it becomes a danger to people. It's also nice to know when you lay down your head at night that you'd don't have anything in your tent an animal would want!
The end of Day One came to a close as we wiggled into our sleeping bags in our cozy tents in Lane Cove on Isle Royale. It had been a long day, filled with many ups and downs, and we were tired. We drifted off to sleep to the sound of loons calling back and forth across the lake.
