Isle Royale Backpacking 2022
I have backpacked on Isle Royale [1] twice before in 2017 & 2018. I decided to go back for a trip this year and my son, Brenden, decided to go with me. He had never been to the island and hadn’t backpacked himself in years. He ended up buying a new backpack and sleeping bag. Otherwise, I had most of the gear needed.
Note- more photos at link [14] at the end of the article.
Now is a good time for a discussion on gear.
Tent: Hammocks would be difficult to use there due to the nature of the campsites. I have a 1–1/2lb solo tent, but for the two of us I needed to carry my three season two person REI tent much like the one in the link [2] below. The tent has a full rain fly so we can pull the backpacks underneath outside the doors during inclement weather.
Sleeping: I have a 20F rated Kelty sleeping bag [3]. Brenden bought a similar one at 50F. I also use a Cocoon COOLMAX Mummy Liner [4]. I also have an REI self-inflating sleeping pad.
Backpack: I have an Osprey Aether 70L [5]. I also carry a backpack rain cover.
Water: I use a Katadyn Hiker Filter [6] though I saw numerous other styles on the island for getting good drinking water.
Cooking: Normally, I use my MSR Whisperlite stove [7], but we got to Cadillac on the expressway north and I realized I forgot my fuel! DOH! After a couple stops at sporting good stores, I bought an Olicamp ION Micro stove [8] to get us by, but I was quite impressed with the 3 minute-to-boil performance! I may buy one for myself. I gave this one to Brenden when we were done hiking. In fact, the gas container fit into one of the two pans that come with my MSR cooking kit that we left on pot behind. Didn’t need it since we were only boiling water. I also carry a lightweight cup for coffee (Starbucks Via instant coffee) and a long spoon for eating out of the food pouches. Also, stormproof matches.
Food: My first trip I used a freeze-dried brand I won’t name, but it was awful! No flavor at all. During the trip a guy camped near me, tore open a pouch, poured the hot water in and the smell was delicious and I decided to change my food brand. Then, in March 2018, I was staying at hiker hostel in Dahlonega Georgia for a gravel road bike race and lots of hikers were there getting ready for a northbound hike on the Appalachian Trail. I met a hiker whose family owns Good-to-Go [9] and I have used that ever since. I had to order the single-serve versions from REI online since the store mostly carries double-serving packets. This is necessary since I am a vegetarian and Brenden (or Joni) are not. However, these foods are really filling! We almost couldn’t eat the single-servings we had! I may bring a bowl on my next hike to only eat half a packet and reseal it for a meal another time. Tip: for the granola or oatmeal breakfasts, they could really use sugar. For my next trip, I will either carry some sugar packets to tear open and apply, or open the food packets in advance and just add some sugar and reseal for the hike. (I would have like a bit of red pepper in the marinara pasta dish, but that’s me). We actually didn’t eat meals every day. We brought enough packets for three breakfasts and three dinners each day but found we were not that hungry and just skipped. Note, you also may want to pack a few snack bars readily accessible while hiking.
Traveling to/from Isle Royale: We drove up the day before and got a motel. The boat from Copper Harbor, ISLE ROYALE QUEEN IV [10], is $150 round trip per person and is just under four hour ride. It departs at 8:00am. If you carry white gas type fuels, you need to put your canisters in a special milk crate for storage while in transit. The Olicamp fuel does not need to be stored and can stay in your backpack. The crew also pulls all luggage and backpacks up on top of the boat for storage during transit. The boat departs at 2:45pm each day back to Copper Harbor so you need to plan your hiking accordingly. If you need to park, the boat company does have a lot in which to park your car for $30. (You can also take other boats out of Houghton, Michigan. These boats take about 6 hours to cross vs 3–3/4 but also stop on the west end of the island).
On the island: Once on the dock, the park rangers divide the passengers into two groups: Those that are back packing and those who are lodging at the harbor and day hiking. They go through a ‘leave no trace’ and safety orientation. For us backpackers, once this is done we go to the ranger station and get a backpacking itinerary card. You tell them your planned trip as well as all your other information and they put the card in a plastic bag with a twist tie. This pass should be visible when you are camping each day in case rangers come to your campground. Note you also have to have an annual National Parks Pass [13] which is $60. Since I am over 60 years old, I got mine now as a lifetime pass and won’t ever need to get another. The pass is good for up to three people including the pass owner.
Wildlife: The rangers will give you a briefing, but the recent newsletter for the park said there were about 1000 moose on the island. We didn’t see a moose on this trip though I did my first two trips, once coming face to face with a bull moose on the trail in 2018! The park also imported 28 wolves a couple years ago. Trail cameras and GPS indicate that 17 of the wolves have separated into two packs and have had pups. The other 11 are solo. Rangers also said some wolves have deviated from past behavior by swimming to outlying islands. They are all also less skittish about people and have been known to not yield the trail to hikers without some shouting and clapping.
As an aside, I strongly recommend getting the National Geographic Isle Royal National Park map [11] for $15. It is laminated/waxed material and will not disintegrate when wet. I have had mine now for six years.
Our itinerary was as follows (see map):
Day 1- hike to Lane Cove
Day 2- hike to McCargoe Cove
Day 3- hike to Daisy Farm
Day 4- hike back to the harbor
The Hike
DAY 1 Friday Aug 26 Rock Harbor to Lane Cove- 7.1 miles. 4 hours
We departed the North Port motel [13] Friday morning and went to the dock to park our car. We then waited to board the boat. We arrived at Rock Harbor about 1130 am Friday Aug26, after check-in began hiking about 1230pm. We took the Rock Harbor trail west to Suzy’s Cave (Brenden in the cave below) and then cut north to Tobin Trail.
Rock Harbor Trail and Tobin Trail both go west out of the harbor except that Tobin is on the north side of that peninsula inland and has less traffic than Rock Harbor. We then up to Mount Franklin crossing the Greenstone Ridge trail down to Lane cove arriving 430pm. Any hike up to or down from Greenstone Ridge Trail is extremely difficult in spots and always strenuous. The Greenstone Trail itself is fairly flat as it has worn down over thousand of years at the top of the island. Ascending or descending, especially on the north side means going up and down smaller parallel ridges separating inland lakes and streams.
We crossed the area burned by the recent fire which had closed the trails down there. Had they still been closed I would have had to organize a different route.
Lane Cove is on the north side of the island and while along the water, has no dock. Kayakers and those in canoes sometimes camp there or just pull in for a break. We found campsite #1 open and set up camp. Brenden opted to wade into the water as I replenished our Nalgene bottles with drinking water. After that, we just relaxed.
I am recording our mileage and hiking time for my Strava records [12], so someone else’s times may be different.
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DAY 2 Saturday August 27 Lane Cove to McCargoe Cove- 13 miles. 8 hours
Some really rugged up and down, as before, leaving Lane Cove. As expected the hike across the island on Greenstone fairly flat until the last one or two 10ths of the route as it angles north . Then the route toward McCargoe Coveve gets gnarly up and down. This was our longest hike of the four days.
We got to the top at Greenstone Ridge Trail and began our westward travel, pausing at Mt Franklin and then again at Ojibwa Tower. Ojibwa Tower is a fire tower which you can climb up to the third of four levels and take photos. We met other hikers and chatted here while taking a break. We began our descent toward the north shore, at one point passing beaver destruction. They had taken down three big trees! Amazing what those little guys can do.
Later, trouble started! About eight miles into the 13 mile hike Brenden began to not feel well, light headed. We got to the intersection of the trails which lead to East and West Chickenbone on our way to McCargoe and he had to vomit and rest. There were two pretty long boardwalk bridges in the next half mile so I carried one backpack over to the other side each time, then came back for the other backpack so he could cross on the boards without a pack. The second time also meant climbing up a 20 foot escarpment and carrying the backs to the top.
At the intersection of the Lake Ritchie campgrounds trails and the one we were taking north to the cove, we met a guy asking about the nearest water source. He was camping at Lake Ritchie, however the water in Lake Richie & Chickenbone Lake were NOT allowed to be used due to a cyanobacteria algal bloom which is harmful to ingest. Boiling or filtering will NOT get rid of it. You cannot eat the fish from these lakes either. These lakes had the same conditions when I was there five and six years before.
We finally got to the campground and he was depleted. He laid on a mat in the shade sipping water as I refilled our water bottles and set up camp on a site in the group campsite area. There is an area for single tents, but this is my second time to McCargoe and I have never been to these. They are up and to the right in the hills above the cove as you look at the land from the dock. The group sites are up and left and more readily accessible.
Brenden recovered a bit and we went to the campsite which had a picnic table. About 5pm I was sitting at the table facing the backside of the campsite which had trail going out and WOOSH- dashing down the trail almost into our campsite was a fox! Beautiful! He made an instantaneous pivot and ran up and around the campsite and into the hills! Awesome. First time seeing a fox on the island.
Saturday night we had a light rain. Nothing heavy.
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DAY 3 Sunday August 28 McCargo to Daisy Farm -5 hours. 8 miles.
After about 12 hours of rest and sipping water, Brenden was fully recovered. What we determined was that he had been adding a sugar powder flavoring to all his water bottles and simply got dehydrated and heat exhausted. Sugar is not hydration material. Lesson learned, though I was really concerned for quite a while. There is no ready rescue on that island for illness or injuries.
The trail was rugged trail coming out of McCargoe, but easier being freshly rested. About 1230pm it began to rain steadily and we quickly pulled our backpack raincovers over the packs and got our rainjackets on. The rainshower only lasted about an hour.
We reached the beaver destruction we had passed on the way in and went up onto the trail to our right and out onto a large rock outcropping. We began searching for the trail all around the huge couple-hundred foot long rock face to no luck. Odd! After about 20 minutes, we decided to backtrack to our last known trail intersection marker near Chickenbone but before we got there, as we reached the beaver destruction another group of hikers was going through. I asked if they had come off the Greenstone and they said yes pointing backward. I then realized my mistake. Coming through beaver destruction we made a right turn onto the trail that took us to the rock outcropping but should have gone straight onto a boardwalk to continue on the Greenstone. Direction now corrected, we proceeded east to the first trail that led down to Daisy Farm on the south shore of the island.
Daisy Farm has a dock and also a picnic pavilion. Since it was still dripping rain, we unloaded our packs on a picnic table and set up the tent. The sun soon came out and we hung gear up on a line to dry. We went to the dock to refill water bottles and met several other campers, some of whom and taken use of the lean-to shelters rather than camp.
Here we saw a pileated woodpecker chiseling away on a log. Pretty big bird, actually. In the photo album link below [14] is a video of him going to town.
We saw a beaver swimming, a large rabbit and the fox, but did not see moose on this trip.
Nearing dark, we climbed into the tent to sleep. Sunday night, a thunderstorm complete with lightning roared in, though I slept through most of it. But the night got odd, according to Brenden and the people camping next to us. A youth moose came into the site and was tugging on the neighbor’s tent lines until he yelled at which point the young moose took off, followed quite noisily by mama moose pursuing her child through the campsite! Then, later while Brenden was awake, two people came into our site and Brenden confronted them. They said they were looking at the stars. Uh? We were under tree cover! They’d have been better at the dock on the lakeshore. Weird.
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DAY 4 Monday August 29 Daisy Farm to Rock Harbor- 7 miles 3.5 hrs
We woke up an hour earlier than our 7am alarm and opted to just get up and get started. Taking down the tent, eating a pasta dinner for breakfast rather than the oatmeal. We began our hike toward the port about 730am with expectation to arrive about 1230pm. The boat departs at 245pm.
The first half of this seven miles was tough, clambering up and over rocks along the lakeshore. We finally reached Three Mile Campground, so named as it is three miles from Rock Harbor. When we got about two miles out at an easy pace a guy going west said that the boat was leaving early — at noon! WHAT!!?? We can’t miss the boat. How are we supposed to know that? So we began speed hiking back to the port. Within the last mile it got to be an easy trail and we got to the docks about 1130am. Shortly past 3 mile campground guy hiking west told us boat leaving noon! Power hiked last 2 miles arrived 1130am.
Sure enough, due to possible 10 foot swells on the lake coming soon, the captain wanted to leave as soon as possible. He had radio’d ahead to the rangers to post notice. The boat arrived at 1130am or a bit later and everyone disembarked and went to their orientation. Meanwhile, those of us exiting lined up to get on the boat and load our gear. Just after noon, the boat was loaded and the captain checked the passenger list. We were missing two people. AND- those two people had JUST ARRIVED for a day hike and were told NOT to go far! So we all got off the boat, the captain telling us to stay close. If the two missing persons showed up by 1pm he would blast the ships horn three times quickly to announce to get back on board. However, that never happened and we departed as usual at 245pm.
So the boat will NOT leave a passenger on the island if for some reason the captain wants to leave early. He will wait- at least until 245pm and then he WILL depart and leave you, which is exactly what happened to the two missing people.
The trip back got wild! The boat was rolling a LOT! Often, sitting by the window, I’d be looking at the water, then the sky, then the water. Numerous passengers were puking. But the captain steered well and we made it back to Copper Harbor to which we all gave him a huge applause.
Same motel for Monday night as last Thursday, then the long drive back to Grand Rapids after a quick coffee visit with my friend Pam in Houghton. It was a great trip, trying on day two, but successful and I am happy Brenden enjoyed it.
[1] https://www.nps.gov/isro/index.htm
[2] https://www.rei.com/product/168433/rei-co-op-passage-2-tent-with-footprint
[4] https://www.rei.com/product/649745/cocoon-coolmax-mummy-liner
[5] https://www.rei.com/product/208486/osprey-aether-65-ul-stuff-pack-bundle-mens
[6] https://www.rei.com/product/830746/katadyn-hiker-microfilter
[7] https://www.msrgear.com/stoves/liquid-fuel-stoves/whisperlite-stove/11782.html
[8] https://olicamp.com/ion-micro-titanium-stove.html
[10] https://www.isleroyale.com/
[12] https://www.strava.com/activities/7742598513
[13] https://store.usgs.gov/pass
[14] https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10167452507600500&type=3
