Ever since moving to the upper peninsula we've had a goal of checking out Isle Royale National Park...and we finally made it! Labor day weekend we packed up our bags and headed off to visit the park and simultaneously attempt our first back packing trip with the kiddos.
Friday morning the adventure started early with us leaving Houghton at 6am to make the one our drive up to Copper Harbor. From there we took a 3-4 hour ferry ride to arrive on the east half of the island at Rock Harbor. We were very fortunate in that it was an incredibly calm day on Lake Superior so the ferry was very smooth.
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Waiting for the ferry to take off from Copper Harbor.
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Our seats on the ferry
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Once we landed in Rock Harbor and got settled we hit the trail! Our itinerary ended up being as follows:
Friday --> hike from Rock Harbor to 3mile and camp (3miles of hiking)
Saturday --> stay at 3 mile and hike partially up towards Mount Franklin (shown in yellow on the
map), (~2miles of hiking)
Sunday --> hike back to Rock Harbor and camp there (3 miles of hiking)
Monday --> hang out at Rock Harbor and catch the boat back in the afternoon
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| Our hiking route is in red and yellow, the two pink triangles are our camp sites, and Suzy's cave is marked with a red/pink star. |
Having a snack on the trail on Friday. I am absolutely certain this is Friday because bunbun in June's hands is still a pristine white. By the time we left on Monday that was one dirty bunny!
A picture of the trail and trees. In some places the trail was very rocky or had lots of tree roots, in other places it was fairly smooth. There was a lot of understory growth and in some ways it reminded me of the Pacific Northwest, except the trees were MUCH smaller.
Looking out into Lake Superior, you can see some of the smaller islands dotting the viewscape.
Home sweet home for Friday and Saturday night! These shelters were great, and because it was end of the season we didn't have to share. We got lucky in that there were almost zero bugs, but in July these things are probably pretty vital for comfort. I liked them because they contained the children, but it still felt very open to the outside. One of my favorite memories is how every evening we heard loons calling.
Saturday morning's coffee. When June sees us with coffee she says "Kaka!"...which makes my inner twelve year old giggle every time.
Suiting up on Saturday for the day hike!
Aspen on one of the boardwalks on Saturday. When the hiking trail would cross boggy areas it would turn into an elevated plank to hike on, some of which were quite long (100m?). Also, I can't say enough good things about this little girl and hiking. She hiked the whole trip on her own and totally rocked it. Yes, we had flagging moral at times, but she (and we) figured it out and kept going. Turns out breaks for playing, lots of story telling, and the occasional chocolate chip wrapped in a piece of tortilla did the trick. This is my mom brag, but she is only four and did an awesome job.
This is a picture that Jamie took. One of the things I really liked about Isle Royale was all the small vascular plants, mosses, and lichen that covered everything. (Incidentally, the island is a bit of a biodiversity hotspot for lichen with over 600 species present.)
On Sunday morning we started our trek back to Rock Harbor. There had been a strong rainstorm the night before so the rocks were wet and slippery so we had to carefully pick our way down.
Looking out at the water.
The trail home.
About half way between Three Mile and Rock Harbor is Suzy's cave. We had promised Aspen that if she hike to Suzy's cave she could play for a while. After eating she promptly climbed up onto a big rock, declared it was a space ship, and spent time travelling to three different planets to collect moon rocks on each one. If you ask her about Suzy's cave she will also proudly exclaim that she "climbed up a tree and an avalanche and didn't even fall down!" during her explorations. June tried to follow her as much as possible and got a little cranky when we occasionally curtailed her activities.
Back in Rock Harbor we spent Sunday evening in another shelter, but this time we were near the lodge and splurged on pizza rather than camp food. It was a nice relaxing end to the trip.
Finally, there is definitely a deficit in pictures of Jamie (mostly because he was the one with the camera). However to make up for it, we did end up with lots of pictures of mushrooms. Especially pictures of the mushrooms we were going to eat! Here are the oyster mushrooms and chanterelles Jamie found for dinner on Friday night.
For Saturday night we had porcinis, chanterelles, and hedgehogs. The bouquet is courtesy of Aspen.
Overall we had a great trip...now we just need to decide where our next backpacking trip will be!
