Isle Royale Day 8: Daisy Farm to Rock Harbor

August 10, 2010
Miles: 8.0

Today was our last backpacking day on Isle Royale. We hiked a little over 4 miles to Threemile on the Rock Harbor Trail.

 It was misty and foggy today but that made for some interesting views.

 The Rock Harbor Trail sticks close to the shore and is often on large slabs of  rock.

 We were soon back to Rock Harbor and found an available shelter for our last night in the park.  There was a short trail behind our shelter that led to the lake.

After some time relaxing and reading a book with such a great view, we decided to head to "civilization" at Rock Harbor and we found some pizza. 

Isle Royale National Park is such a special place.  Currently I rank it as the #1 backpacking location in Michigan that I have experienced.  I have yet to backpack Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore which is also ranked highly in many guidebooks.  I have future plans to return to Isle Royale as part of my upcoming NCT/Lake Superior Adventure which I will start on the other side of the island from Windigo.  Pictured Rocks will also be included in this 1000+ mile combination of adventures.

Isle Royale Day 7: McCargoe Cove to Daisy Farm

August 9, 2010
Miles: 8.9

Today we began our return to Rock Harbor.

We had a good climb back to the Greenstone via the trail on the east side of Chickenbone Lake. The East Chicken Bone Lake campsite is one the I hesitate to recommend as it is far from water and less scenic than many of the others.

There were great views and I think that is Canada off in the distance.  Maybe even the Sleeping Giant, but I'm not sure.

After a little more than 4 miles we left the Greenstone Ridge Trail and joined the Daisy Farm Trail for the second time to camp at Daisy Farm.

The views were just as good as our first time here.

This time we managed to get a shelter right on the edge of the beach.

Isle Royale Day 6: Lake Richie to McCargoe Cove

August 8, 2010
Miles: 8.4

We packed up camp and hoisted our packs for another beautiful day on Isle Royale.  We took the Indian Portage Trail and passed two lakes along the way to the Greenstone Ridge:  Lake LeSage and Lake Livermore.

Back on the Greenstone

 From the Greenstone Ridge we dropped down to the West Chickenbone Lake campsite for lunch.

We ended up with this nice shelter at McCargoe Cove.

My brother and I decided to hike a short distance to investigate the Minong Mine. We took the Minong trail for about a mile to reach it.  Sometime I plan to hike the entire Minong Ridge Trail which is said to be the most rugged trail on the island.

The mineshaft

There we great evening views from McCargoe Cove.

Isle Royale Day 5: Lake Richie <->Chippewa Harbor (day hike)

August 7, 2010
Miles: 11.6

Today we decided to journey to Chippewa Harbor and back on with a day hike.

If examined closely, the slime can be seen in Lake Richie.

The early morning reflections

It felt great to day hike without a heavy pack. We backtracked a little and took the trail heading south on the east side of Lake Richie. After about four miles, we met up with the south portion of the lake.  From here we joined the Indian Portage Trail and made our way to Chippewa Harbor.

Lake Richie

The shelters at Chippewa Harbor are situated on the hill.  They were all empty so we claimed one for the afternoon.

We went further down the harbor to get a view of Lake Superior.

We found an old cabin dedicated to a fisherman that was originally built in the 1930s.

After leaving Chippewa Harbor, I made a slight detour on the way back to Lake Mason.

We returned to Lake Richie and actually moved camp our of the group site just in case another group was coming.

Isle Royale Day 4: Moskey Basin-Lake Richie

August 6, 2010
Miles: 2.1

Today was another short hike.


We arrived at Lake Richie and found most sites occupied. There was one site available but it didn't have many views and there was also the group site, but we weren't a group.  So my brother and I decided to go exploring to see if we could find.  We ended up bushwhacking over to the canoe camp.  It was a fun experience and took some time for such a short distance.  We didn't take our packs with us so it was somewhat easier not getting stuck on branches and bushes.  After making it to the canoe camp we had a snack and looked around.  It didn't seem worth it to go all the way back to get our packs and then return so we decided to camp at one of the backpacker sites.

Lake Richie

 It turned out that no groups showed up, so we utilized the expansive group site. Filtering water was challenging here as the water was quite slimy.

We had a nice swim in the lake.

Isle Royale Day 3: Daisy Farm to Moskey Basin

August 5, 2010
Miles: 3.7

Today was a fairly short hike to Moskey Basin. I went ahead to make sure we got a shelter.  My dad found a way to fall on his face, but only scraped it up a little, nothing serious.

 We had a lot of time to relax at Moskey Basin.  The shelter was nice and right on the edge of the water.

 This was my favorite campsite of the whole adventure.

We took a little time to do some laundry and laid our wet clothes out on the rocks to dry.

 We had time to explored the area to see what else was around.

 There were great views from the dock.

As it became evening, the colors began to change in the clouds, giving us a new perspective of this pristine wilderness.