The Story Of Not Going To Isle Royale
So after waking up at 6am to drive to Copper Harbor to catch our boat, we pull into the parking lot where the attendant informs us due to gale force winds the Queen IV was not able to run Sunday and could not run yet this morning. We should check back at 2pm to see if the wind has subsided and if we can go. Motherf&*$er. We chill/nap/hike at the convenient Fort Wilkins State Park and go back at 2pm. No boat today. They will try again Tuesday morning, but all of Sunday's passengers will have priority and the rest of the seats will be up for lottery. Great. We set up camp ON the beach of Lake Superior in Betes Gris, which as it turns out is kind of a stupid place to spend your afternoon with gale force winds. I totally understand and respect the force that is wind erosion now. Sand is great...but it belongs on the ground.
Tuesday morning, we wake up at 5:30am and drive to Copper Harbor...high winds, no boat again. Check back at 2pm. Balls. We nap and explore Copper Harbor, and come back at 2pm...and YES, the boat is going out! Only problem, we didn't win the lottery, we are Wednesday's boat. After some arguing I convince my brother we should rent some mountain bikes and experience the Copper Harbor Trail System. Best idea I had maybe the entire trip. They were awesome and intense. Big climbs, huge downhill sections, and stairway to heaven has to be ridden to be believed. Sadly I didn't have my mountain bike shoes and couldn't attach my feet to my peddles, so I had 2 huge crashes that probably could have been avoided (well maybe not the 2nd one, I never even saw the rock/ledge I biked off of until I was already upside down).
Splattered with some fresh blood, we made the drive south again, this time heading to the Montreal River to set up camp on Lake Superior. Beautiful spot, but I was a little ticked that my bro's estimated 10 minute hike was in fact 30 minutes. This meant we would need to wake up at 5:10am Wednesday. Ugh. And after being sunny all day...it clouded up like 20 minutes before sunset. Lame. The UP wasn't done f^&#ing with us yet though, that's right, when we got up at 5am it was POURING!! And of course stopped raining right when we got to our car. If we didn't go out on the boat at 8am I was going to murder someone.
Well storms are rolling through Copper Harbor, but the boat braved it and we were off. In super choppy water. Wet and exhausted, it was a weird 4 hours. I fell asleep a couple of times, but we went through a massive storm and I woke up when I was airborne out of my seat going over a gigantic swell (thankful yet again that I suffer no form of seasickness). But cleared all the storms about 45 minutes out of Isle Royale and were greeted by the island with a cloudless day.
The Sad Sad Story Of My Bite Valve
One of the most essential items to any backpacking experience is water; both a filter and a means to store it. When I hike I carry a travel coffee mug (duh!!), a 20oz water bottle attached to my pack (usually with a tea bag soaking in it all day), and a 2-liter reservoir to drain while on the actual hike. Of course I didn't forget any of these essential items. I however failed to account the bite valve to my reservoir...you know the thing that stops my water from pumping out all over me with every f*&%ing step. I tried unsuccessfully to buy a valve in both Copper Harbor and at the store on the island. Sold out. Apparently I'm not the only dimwit. Anyways, so how did I deal with a janked reservoir? By drinking a liter of water in the first 10 minutes to back the pressure off of it, then keeping my thumb over the tube opening. Absolutely sucked. On our 2nd day I rigged up a plastic bag with our only rubber band and that actually worked pretty well (despite being a little inconvenient to actually move on and off to drink from, but at least my hands were free and I stayed dry). Of course I somehow frickin' lost the rubber band that night, and never saw it again.
The Story Of Not Catching Lake Trout, But Eating Them Fresh Anyways
We stroll into our site at Chippewa Harbor, pretty standard. Beautiful waterfront, but the campsites have some forest in between them and the water. My bro takes a nap in his hammock, so I wander with my camera out to the dock to get some pics. A fishing boat has just pulled in, and they are pretty hardcore. They're filleting and rinsing these fresh lake trout off in the time I would need to brush my teeth. Impressive to watch. I chat them up, turns out the one guy doesn't fish very often, but had some vacation days from the Baraga State Prison where he is a guard, so why not? Pretty cool, and then he offers me some fillets if I can find a bag. Awesome! I run back to our camp, and after some quick deliberation when I don't find my brother I dump out some of his food and take his now free ziploc ('cuz why would I dump out my food??). Boom, 4 massive caught-that-day fresh fillets! Easily the best meal I've ever had backpacking!!
The Story Of The Beaver That Was Not A Moose
Despite the island supposedly teaming with moose...we never saw one. *tear. Granted due to our shortened trip all of campsites were on the shore of Lake Superior, and we missed out on 2 inland lake sites that were supposed to have moose around. But I was really hoping to see a moose. My coolest wildlife experience came (well besides the 4 snakes I encountered, I really didn't think they were on the island, luckily I don't mind snakes) on our 3rd morning at McCargoe Cove. I woke up at 7am and was kind of just laying in my sleeping bag, not quite ready to crawl out of it's warmth (nights and morning are chilly that far north), but I kept hearing this pretty punctual loud splash in the cove like every 20 seconds. I figured it was the sailboat parked out there maybe clearing water. But curiosity got the better of me and I grabbed my camera and my book and headed down to the water to read for a half an hour or so before I made coffee/breakfast and woke my brother up. I get to the dock and hear the loud splash sound, and this time see that it is not emanating from the boat, but was like 5' off the dock. A beaver is swimming all over the cove and putting on a big show of splashing his tail. And I was his 1-person audience. He played around for a cool and way too fast like 15 minutes, then left me to eat or sleep or whatever the hell beavers do at 7:30 in the morning.
The Story Of A Rock, A Freaking Walking Stick, And My Poor Leg.
On our 4th day, we have a massive 13.2 mile hike up and along the Greenstone Ridge. No water and hot on the ridge. Around the 8-mile mark we came across a cool overlook right before Mt. Ojibway. We snap some good pics and return to the trail. Only now there is a group resting on the path down. One of the girls moves her pack...but leaves her walking stick in my way. No biggie, me and my 30lb pack can just jump down off the rock over that. I'm agile if not graceful. I jump, no problem, hike on. Well within 5 minutes my shin is screaming at me. Shin splint. Massive. Left leg. If I move my ankle up or down, it hurts. I have 2.5 miles of up and down ridge followed by a huge decent down to the shore of Lake Superior in Lane Cove that is another 2.5 miles. Feats of strength. Well somehow I one-leg it to Lane Cove....which is BEAUTIFUL!!! Site is right on the lake, tons of cool looking rocks in the water, Canada in the distance. Alas my leg is not allowing me to explore. The ibuprofin and killing the rest of my whiskey don't dent my shin splint (for the record I'm calling this a shin splint...though I've never had one, it was my shin that hurt, but not to the touch, just when I had to move my ankle. Confused? Good, me too). Also in there I took my brother behind the shed and ran him over with a tractor in cards. It was a massive beatdown, making up for some lame losses earlier in the week. We finally go to bed for our last night, and when I wake up in the middle of the night to pee, my leg still kills. Our last day is only supposed to be about 7 miles back to Rock Harbor, but I'm already dreading the climb out of Lane Cove on one leg.
Well miracles do happen. I wake up in the morning...and my leg is way better. Not perfect, but not shooting pain either. In fact I feel pretty great relative to last night. I haul ass up our ascent and get a nice 10 minute break while my brother catches up (he was taking pics....right).
The Story Of Our Rock Harbor Surprise(s)
My parents were also on the island for the weekend (but stayed in a cabin). We ran into them chilling by the harbor. Turns out my Mom had fallen and broken her wrist on their 2nd day there while hiking on some rocks in the rain. But she is a nurse and knows how to properly care for and baby it. Also waiting for us was an ice cold Keystone Light (which is like my Dad's fave beer), which was absolutely delicious. Then began the 4.5 hour boat ride home, the 10 hour car ride, the getting home at 6am, the having to get up for work at 7am, the working all day in a brand new school in a new (to me) classroom, then I moved into my apartment that night. Ask Kyle, I was delirious and incapable of thought when we went to the grocery store, but I survived. The point is, experience Isle Royale, it is the coolest, most beautiful place in Michigan!!!
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