It's Not a Walk in the Park... Or Is It? Isle Royale Trip Report 2010

Yes, we made it back... and our trip to Isle Royale was great! :) We had great weather for the most part however it did get rainy and windy at the end of our trip. Isle Royale is definitely worth a visit. There are plenty of beautiful views, trails, campsites, and nature. I have to say the sound of the loons is quite amazing. Unfortunately we did not get to hear wolves howling or see any moose.

I used all the information in my previous Isle Royale Trip Planning blog and it all worked out great. We did not have any issues. We even read pages from the Jim DuFresne book about the history and what we would be hiking the next day and put the waterproof map through the rain test and it passed!

Minong Ridge

 Our Itinerary:

Day 1: Copper Harbor to Rock Harbor via Queen, hike to Three Mile Day
2: Hike to Daisy Farm

Day 3: Take Voyageur to Windigo, camp at Washington Creek

Day 4: Hike to North Desor

Day 5: Hike to Little Todd

Day 6: Hike to Todd Harbor

Day 7: Hike to Chickenbone East
Day 8: Hike to Daisy Farm (originally headed to Lane Cove)
Day 9: Hike to Rock Harbor, Queen to Copper Harbor

 

Relaxing at Todd Harbor

 If you are coming into Rock Harbor you may want to stop in at Lane Cove on night one. This campsite is harder to get to, but you will avoid some of the crowd at Three Mile or Daisy Farm. We meant to hit Lane Cove on the way back, but the 70mph winds and rain sent us hiking for a shelter. The itinerary above is great if you are coming from Michigan, have some time to relax and ease into hiking (and lighten your load by eating your food!), then hit it really hard and experience what Isle Royale has to offer. The Minong trail is beautiful. Very technical in areas but well worth the work. Past cultures called it Minong meaning "a good place".

We debated on taking hiking poles, then decided we would each take one pole. I can't tell you how many times we said we were happy for bringing them. The terrain was rocky and technical with a lot of ups and downs. It was nice to have the hiking pole and it was never in the way or cumbersome to carry.

Blue-Bead Lily

Berries: There are many different berry plants. We went in Aug/Sept and only saw a few thimbleberries and rose hips which are both packed with Vitamin C.

When I was in Windigo I saw a bulletin board complete with pictures and information about the berries on Isle Royale. It was helpful because I was wondering what was edible for the first few days I was on the island. Thanks to an email response from a NPS Park Ranger and the Windigo staff I have the following list:

Edible	Probably Shouldn't Eat	Not Edible
Rose Hips - Prickly Rose	Rose Twisted Stalk	Wild Sarsaparilla
Lowbush Blueberry	Canada Mayflower	Blue-Bead Lily
Thimbleberry	American Mountain Ash	White Baneberry
Raspberry	Red Elderberry	Red Baneberry
Bunchberry

Wildlife: Here is a link to the study of The Wolves and Moose on Isle Royale: http://isleroyalewolf.org/wolfhome/home.html

We were surprised there weren't more animals on the island. We did see a red fox, snowshoe hare, and Red Squirrel, but the island is also populated with bats, america martin, mink, river otter, weasel, beaver, deer mouse, and muskrat. We also felt like we didn't hear many song birds, but here is a link to a list of birds on the island: http://www.nps.gov/isro/naturescience/birds.htm

    

    

Campsites: Shows type and numbers of campsites at each location: http://wikitravel.org/en/Isle_Royale_National_Park

Surprisingly Isle Royale was not as desolate as we had expected. Most of the campsites have tent and shelter sites. Most all of the sites if not all of the sites have pit toilets and some sites have picnic tables. Keep in mind you can only have fires at campsites with a fire ring. On page 6 of the park newspaper there is a listing of what is available at the campsites: http://www.nps.gov/isro/planyourvisit/brochures.htm

    



Dehydrated Food: Our food worked out really well. We packed the perfect amount of food, were satisfied, and had no cravings! We found if you are not in a hurry your food will turn out the best. To rehydrate, boil the amount of water needed to rehydrate your meal.  Take the pot off the stove and add your food. We usually rehydrated our food for 30-45 mins before eating it. Wrapping a towel around the pot kept it nice and toasty and helped the process.

For each day we used a gallon size food saver bag and put our breakfast, lunch/trail snacks, dinner, dessert with a paper towel with all the contents written on it and then vacuumed sealed the bags. This worked out really great. It makes all the food compact and hard like a rock. Surprisingly we even took crackers and they were in great shape when we were ready to eat them, even though they were riding around in the bottom of our packs with all of our stuff on top! Each night we opened the next day's bag and divided up the food, so we each had our own snacks. This seemed to work our really well.

Other Pictures:



     


    

    

    

    

    

    

Isle Royale Trip Planning

Here are some helpful resources if you are planning a trip to Isle Royale.

Isle Royale National Park Website
(Make sure to take a look at the park newspaper under brochures, handouts, and park newspaper.  It includes transportation information and schedules.)

NG Trail Map
High quality waterproof map.

Isle Royale, Foot Trail and Water Routes
Book by Jim DuFresne.  Has information on park history and detailed information on the trails.
Here is a preview of the book: Preview

Mileage Map:  Shows mileage between campsites

Forum/WebBoard: Read trip reports, post questions, etc.

Gear Review: Ursack

Tired of critters doing this to your food bag?
This bag was on a 10ft bear pole when they chewed a hole in it.

Check out these critter and bear resistant food bags!
http://www.ursack.com/

Since we won't be in bear country we just picked up a couple of the Ursack minor bags.  Nathan and I purchased the ursacks directly from their website and were impressed with their quick shipping and bag quality. The bag is very lightweight but still appears to be very durable.

Another HUGE bonus is the bag is not required to be hung from a tree branch or bear pole, you just need to secure it to something so the critters don't drag it away.

Update:  We have returned from a 9 day trip to Isle Royale where we used the ursack minor. Each night we tied the ursacks to medium sized trees at waist height.

-The bag carried about 5 full days of food for 2 people (about 10 lbs.) with a little bit of room left over.
-It is not waterproof but it did not pool water on the inside and appears to shed water when left unprotected on a tree overnight in the rain.
-The first set of stitching appeared to be stressed, from our load on the inside, but there were 3 separate lines of stitching holding the bag together.
-The rope tie is heavy duty and at first it was hard to fully close the bag, but if you pull the ties opposite of each other (but crossing in the middle) it tightened up perfectly.
-We did not purchase the metal liner.
-Machine washed when we returned.


Bottom Line: We are happy with our usack minor purchase, they are durable and gave us peace of mind.  They came back in the same condition as when we left. We did not see any animals chewing on the bags, but also did not wake up to food bags with holes in them.

Hike In My Boots (Lacing Technique)

I just wanted to share a boot lacing technique that works well with boots that have closed metal eyelets over the foot and open hooks up the side.

Starting at your toe, comfortably snug up the laces going through the metal eyelets.  Do not make this area too tight and if your feet swell leave a little extra wiggle room.

Then make a VERY snug double or triple overhand loop (also known as the surgeon's knot). This locks off the top from the bottom and keeps your heel snug in the boot.  Keeping your heel in place will prevent sliding around which in turn prevents blisters and you won't bump your toes in the front of your boots when going down hills.

  

Now tighten the laces fairly tight going through the open hooks, if you feel it is slipping you can add a double overhand loop between these as well, however I do not. Another variation at this step is instead of going up and over the hooks the normal way... you can go down over the hooks.

Once you reach the top do another double or triple over handloop to keep the knot in place and tie a double knot bow.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan's Upper Peninsula has spectacular views.  It is located on the shore of Lake Superior and is a GREAT place for backpacking. I highly recommend spending some time out there and if possible hiking the entire 42 miles.  Pictured Rocks is part of the North Country Trail and is located between Munising and Grand Marais.  The sightseeing is amazing!  From sandstone cliffs, sandy beaches, rivers, bald eagles, and the ever so beautiful backcountry.

Must see links if you are planning a trip:

Park Website

Maps and GPS coordinates

Mileage Map

Google Earth Tour of our Hike:

Gear Review: Sea to Summit X-Bowl

Tired of carrying a plate and a bowl, and having to pack all your clothes and gear around it?
Check out the X-Bowl!

OK, seriously this thing is awesome.  It is a collapsible bowl that is also a cut resistant plate!  It is the perfect size for a meal and easily tucks away into my pack.  I have carried this for a few years now and still really like and recommend it!

Product information: Sea to Summit X-Bowl
$14.95 at REI: X-Bowl

Dry Food For Thought

In preparation for our hike across Isle Royale, Nathan and I have been dehydrating a lot of food.  I am amazed how easy this is and how well it tastes dry or re-hydrated!  We are dehydrating meals for many reasons including:
-Reduced weight
-Space savings
-Food Preservation
-Healthier meals

Some of our favorite dehydrated items are:

-Apple chips and apple sauce fruit roll ups!

-Zucchini chips

-Pineapples, strawberries, watermelon... Yes,  I said watermelon!

-Beef jerky

-Peppers

-Hamburger

-Pizza sauce

-Cooked and dehydrated noodles (dehydrated noodles is not the same as uncooked noodles. Cooking before hand saves a lot of fuel, since you are not boiling in the field for 10 minutes)

Resources:
There are a lot of resources for meal recipes, meal plans, dehydration techniques for different foods.
One link we really like is: http://www.backpackingchef.com/

There are also a lot of different books on the subject.  I rented all of these from the library and used different ideas/recipes from each.  I purchased the dehydrator bible because it shows how to dehydrate almost everything you can think of, plus provides recipes for backpacking as well as car camping and home cooking.
The Dehydrator Bible
Backpack Gourmet
Simple Foods for the Pack
Trail Food
A Fork in the Trail

Dehydrator:
The dehydrator we are using is the Nesco Snackmaster Encore.  I purchased 4 extra trays and some extra fruit roll sheets to maximize use of the dehydrator. You can buy this online from Nesco or at Bed Bath and Beyond or Meijer for about $65. If you want something bigger and more industrial you should check out Excalibur.

Pack it in, Pack it OUT!

We spent the weekend at Nordhouse Dunes, it is about a 1.5 mile hike in from the Nurnberg trailhead.  It rained for most of the day on Saturday but we made the best of it and tested all of our rain gear.  The beach was absolutely gorgeous and we went for a swim despite the rainy cloudy day.  Later that evening a couple more of our friends met us and hiked in to pitch their tents.  We rehydrated one of our home made dehydrated meals and it worked great!  Sunday was warm and sunny, another great day for swimming.

I have to say I'm honestly amazed at how inconsiderate some people are with their trash. Some guy came running through our camp while we were having breakfast.  We thought it was weird, but later realized he dropped this large heavy bag of garbage in the woods.  We later saw him and confronted him about it. He admitted it was his and said he would get it soon since they were on their way out.  Obviously they didn't.

Even if you don't care about other people enjoying the same area, please at least respect nature.  If you pack it in, please pack it out.