I had a full group of paddlers for this year's Isle Royale Summer Solstice trip during June 19 to the 22nd.
The trip was sponsored by General Mills of Minneapolis, MN and 2 employees and their spouses came on the trip along with the father of Jon, who was married to Renae. The other couple was James and Heather.
The trip started out with rain the night before at Copper Harbor. The rain continued in the morning with intermittent fog on the 3 hour ferry ride to the Island.
The trip started out with rain the night before at Copper Harbor. The rain continued in the morning with intermittent fog on the 3 hour ferry ride to the Island.
Paddling within the fog bank made my GPS receiver important for
accurate navigating up on the northeast side of the Island
between the Palisades, Merritt Lane and Tooker's Island.
accurate navigating up on the northeast side of the Island
between the Palisades, Merritt Lane and Tooker's Island.
The weather was basically clear when we arrived in Rock Harbor, unloaded the gear and schlepped it to the beach area, ate lunch and then loaded up the kayaks. Our destination was Caribou Island. Within 10 minutes of paddling out of Snug harbor a dark and ominous cloud bank appeared from out of the northwest and promptly poured rain on us. After 10 minutes, within the time it took us to pull to shore and don rain gear, the rain stopped though my anorak felt good with the shelter it provided my wet body from the cool wind.
When we arrived at Caribou Island we were surprised to find out that both of the shelters were already taken... tenting it was our only option unless we wanted to paddle further to Daisy Farm or back to 3 Mile or Tooker's Island. We had just missed out on a shelter that had been taken by 3 fishing brothers from Ishpeming, MI, who we had seen zoom past us from Rock Harbor to Tooker's in their speed boat. I cooked the whitefish alma'den over one of the few fire rings on Isle Royale. I was quite happy to get into my Moss Outland tent rather than the open front shelter as the temperature was rapidly dropping down to what I estimated was the upper 30's.
Our first full day of paddling started in the late morning; we waited for the one shelter to be vacated and moved in our gear. A short paddle to the Rock Harbor Lighthouse, where Jon was very interested in viewing the displays, then over to Edison Fishery to talk to Les Madsen, then one of the group's highlights, viewing the boneyard at the wolf and moose study site at Bangsund cabin. Both Rolf and Candy Peterson were there, so we had a good sit-down talk with them as well as a stand-up question and answer session out in the boneyard with Rolf.
We arrived back at the shelter on Caribou Island after an extended paddle tour outside the harbor area and heading southwest toward Saginaw Point. Tom and Renae elected to head back to Caribou and then we followed a bit later.
The next day we packed up and headed first back to Tooker's Island and then for a fast trip up on the north side of the Island. James and Heather wanted to put in more miles while Tom and Renae decided to paddle with us to Rock Harbor and hang out there. Jon, James, Heather and I then paddled up the outside of the Island and past Tobin Harbor to Merritt Lane then past Blake Point to the Palisades. The temptation to keep paddling west into the 5-Fingers was strong but Heather was reluctant to continue on and a gray bank of fog was moving in on us rapidly from the east. It was a bit of a "slog" in the fog with Heather anxious to not be left behind in the fog (don't worry Heather, we will always wait for you!), but we were finally greeted by Tom as we emerged out of the fog close to his sea-side table at the old Rock Harbor Lodge, where he was having a cup of coffee.
We were all anxious to get back to camp on Tooker's Island so we headed into the thick fog with the GPS orienting us on Tooker's. There was a motor boat seemingly going in erratic movements as we paddled out of the Snug Harbor area southeast toward Tooker's. The farther we paddled to the east, the closer the larger boat's sound grew. I began to feel like we were being hunted and I called for everyone to bunch in close together and I started to blow my whistle as the boat grew very close. Out of the fog it loomed - a NPS cruiser which was indeed zeroing in on us with his radar. The ranger came out of his cabin and asked what we were doing. I nearly asked him the same thing, but said that we were on our way to our camp on Tooker's. He said that we should be hugging the shore, at which I pointed to the fog-dimmed outline of the shore and said that was what we were trying to do. He was concerned that there were some fishermen on a boat who had just arrived at the island and were trying to find a place to dock. He was also concerned that we might be hit by a boat without radar. He also thought that we should have lights on our kayaks in the fog. He had to be the critic on something but finally wished us a good stay on the Island and motored off. We paddled back to our last night on the Island, glad to have a shelter to stay in for the night. Soon after arriving, the fishermen came in and docked for the night. It was 4 young Calumet guys and an older man. They slept on the boat as they hadn't gotten a camp permit. In the still night air I could hear them laughing and talking as they downed their beer and drifted off to sleep to the sound of their urinating into the water from the dock.
When we arrived at Caribou Island we were surprised to find out that both of the shelters were already taken... tenting it was our only option unless we wanted to paddle further to Daisy Farm or back to 3 Mile or Tooker's Island. We had just missed out on a shelter that had been taken by 3 fishing brothers from Ishpeming, MI, who we had seen zoom past us from Rock Harbor to Tooker's in their speed boat. I cooked the whitefish alma'den over one of the few fire rings on Isle Royale. I was quite happy to get into my Moss Outland tent rather than the open front shelter as the temperature was rapidly dropping down to what I estimated was the upper 30's.
Our first full day of paddling started in the late morning; we waited for the one shelter to be vacated and moved in our gear. A short paddle to the Rock Harbor Lighthouse, where Jon was very interested in viewing the displays, then over to Edison Fishery to talk to Les Madsen, then one of the group's highlights, viewing the boneyard at the wolf and moose study site at Bangsund cabin. Both Rolf and Candy Peterson were there, so we had a good sit-down talk with them as well as a stand-up question and answer session out in the boneyard with Rolf.
We arrived back at the shelter on Caribou Island after an extended paddle tour outside the harbor area and heading southwest toward Saginaw Point. Tom and Renae elected to head back to Caribou and then we followed a bit later.
The next day we packed up and headed first back to Tooker's Island and then for a fast trip up on the north side of the Island. James and Heather wanted to put in more miles while Tom and Renae decided to paddle with us to Rock Harbor and hang out there. Jon, James, Heather and I then paddled up the outside of the Island and past Tobin Harbor to Merritt Lane then past Blake Point to the Palisades. The temptation to keep paddling west into the 5-Fingers was strong but Heather was reluctant to continue on and a gray bank of fog was moving in on us rapidly from the east. It was a bit of a "slog" in the fog with Heather anxious to not be left behind in the fog (don't worry Heather, we will always wait for you!), but we were finally greeted by Tom as we emerged out of the fog close to his sea-side table at the old Rock Harbor Lodge, where he was having a cup of coffee.
We were all anxious to get back to camp on Tooker's Island so we headed into the thick fog with the GPS orienting us on Tooker's. There was a motor boat seemingly going in erratic movements as we paddled out of the Snug Harbor area southeast toward Tooker's. The farther we paddled to the east, the closer the larger boat's sound grew. I began to feel like we were being hunted and I called for everyone to bunch in close together and I started to blow my whistle as the boat grew very close. Out of the fog it loomed - a NPS cruiser which was indeed zeroing in on us with his radar. The ranger came out of his cabin and asked what we were doing. I nearly asked him the same thing, but said that we were on our way to our camp on Tooker's. He said that we should be hugging the shore, at which I pointed to the fog-dimmed outline of the shore and said that was what we were trying to do. He was concerned that there were some fishermen on a boat who had just arrived at the island and were trying to find a place to dock. He was also concerned that we might be hit by a boat without radar. He also thought that we should have lights on our kayaks in the fog. He had to be the critic on something but finally wished us a good stay on the Island and motored off. We paddled back to our last night on the Island, glad to have a shelter to stay in for the night. Soon after arriving, the fishermen came in and docked for the night. It was 4 young Calumet guys and an older man. They slept on the boat as they hadn't gotten a camp permit. In the still night air I could hear them laughing and talking as they downed their beer and drifted off to sleep to the sound of their urinating into the water from the dock.
After rain and fog, our world focused into clarity
Banks of fog would rob us of a view quite abruptly,
like in this non-view of Merrit Lane looking outward
like in this non-view of Merrit Lane looking outward
toward Tobin Harbor
Just before we headed out from Tooker's Island to catch the Ferry
back to Copper Harbor. Our group was dressed for the weather!
