Today was a big hike day. We had booked a ride on The Sandy, a local tour boat, to take us from Rock Harbor to a dock at Lost Lake, one cove west of Rock Harbor. The ride took about 45 minutes. The destination was about one mile from the lodge “as the crow flies,” but close to 8 miles on the water. The morning was foggy, wet, and chilly. There was a stiff wind fetching up 2-foot swells during the “open water” part of the ride.
After arriving on Lost Lake, we and the other 38 tourists of all ages and the captain walked about a mile up to the ridge line and Lookout Louise. There was a view of Duncan Bay, another cove over from where we started. Betsy and I, and the couple we met last night from Texas, decided to walk back to Rock Harbor, which turned out to be just over 10 miles more.
The Sandy, at Lost Lake.
Monument Rock, on the way up to the Lookout.
View from Louise Lookout into Duncan Bay.
The next 5 miles was along the Greenstone Ridge Trail, literally along the spine of the island. Note, Isle Royale is a series of ancient, tilted, basalt layers that were eroded by ice age glaciers, and then surrounded by water, leaving a number of parallel islands with bays in between. The Greenstone Ridge Trail is less used than the main backpacking routes and very overgrown. Consequently, we “swam” through the tall grasses, thimbleberry and wild sarsaparilla. It being wet, we got soaked. Grasses can hold an amazing amount of water. Our socks were sloshing and our boots squishing. The other issue was swarms of mosquitos – we broke out the mesh face nets, which worked surprisingly well. When we weren’t fretting over the soggy gear or the vicious mosquitos, we were admiring the wildflowers, many of them species new to us (e.g., Wood Lily, Red Baneberry, Thimbleberry, Fringed Bindweed, Red Tasselflower, and White Paintbrush). We also heard but did not see White-throated Sparrows (very melodic and identified by the Merlin App), a Warbler, and heard and saw Loons on the lake surface.
We climbed up to Mt. Franklin, about 500 verts. We took a break on a large flat rock, eating some snacks after taking off our boots and setting them in the sun. We squeezed out our socks and insoles. After our break, we put everything back on – it felt better, though not fully dried.
We descended from Mt. Franklin, walking along several long board walks, to Three Mile Camp (fully occupied with campers in screened sleeping shelters). By this point, the day had turned warm and sunny, so the camp areas were festooned with gear hung out to dry. We then plodded our way along the rocky Rock Harbor Trail back to the lodge. We made a brief stop at Suzy’s Cave, an eroded arched cave the size of a garage.
Suzy's Cave.
We were “home” by 5:15 pm and celebrated our 11.1-mile hike with draft beers. We cleaned up and went to the Grill (the second of two eating establishments at the lodge). I tried to connect to WiFi at the one place it is available in the area but was unsuccessful. Curiously, while on the ridge during our hike, I was able to get a cell signal on my phone, so I got caught up with e-mail. Altitude is always a good thing.
Too bad you can't send some of that wetness back to us in Oregon
ReplyDeleteWow, white paintbrush! We've never encountered it.
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