A Royale Palace - Trip Report

“The showers might have been hot, but some luscious babe before me used $6 worth of hot water...”

“LS, sounds like you got "scolded" too much on that trip! :)

Note to self: Never go to IR without the dramamine. (I'd certainly be one of those who got sick on the boat....)


I wondered how many recreational boats you saw out there. The people I had gone boating with from Houghton to Marquette said they go to IR often. Aren't they trying to keep the boat traffic to a minimum?”

“Le subtil, "babe" problems weren't something I experienced on IR, but that certainly adds another dimension to the trip, lol. Sounds like the boater babe was already in the early rut and her bull was ready to repel potential suitors. Glad you didn't have to go head to head with him. As for shower babe, I'll just presume you were being a gentleman by not contesting the unfair consumption of a precious resource.”

“Great trip reports! Thank you very much! We all need to get together for some drinkie poos so I can hear what really happened..:) j/k..”

“HEY! That lucious babe didn't have any hot water, either! lol

SG - I think I fared worse on the ferry ride back to CH. I spent 3 1/2 hours on the back deck focusing on the horizon... always on the verge of letting it all spill. Not fun.”

“Just in case it didn't come through in the trip report, I had an excellent time with some excellent people. I've been there before solo, and the trip was so much the better for the company.
You guys rock!”

“After seeing soooo much water,kayaking ineviatably came up. Gets me thinking about next time. Though I must say some of the portages were long. I bet that paddling all of rock harbor to moskey and checking out the islands would be a great time too.

Getting back to work was a bummer today. It went fast but geeze it was hard to get motivated.”

“Yeah, Birch,

It was on Isle Royale that I first became interested in kayaking. After my first kayak experience last Saturday, I've got my tax return spent already. Yep, I'm planning to get a kayak next Spring and I'm hoping for a May trip to the Island. As for the long harbor and lengthy portages, you've seen my arms and shoulders. I'm definately up for the gig. Let's start planning!!”

“Wednesday, 8/26

Woke up after a nice sleep. Yam's blisters were real, real bad. I'd NEVER seen blisters that bad before, and she didn't complain once about them, but judging by the condition of her feet, it looked like we'd a.) have to amputate, or b.)consider a less strenuous route. LTBP'r, Birch, Sass, Yam and myself, thought of an alternative plan at the last minute. Yam and I were to take the ferry to MacCargoe Cove, bypassing the Minong Ridge as a preventative measure for her feet. I'm positively sure that she could have toughed it out and made the hike, but it made more safety sense to bypass it. I wanted to do the ridge, but the thought of being able to explore areas more thouroughly, bushwacking, relaxing, and the fact that the rest of the group have hiked Isle Royale beofre, yet hadn't hiked the Minong Ridge, and Yam's great company of course, led me to volunteer to accompany her to MacCargoe.

The ferry ride from MacCargoe to Windigo was very nice. I was amazed at how beautiful the Canadian shoreline looked. From Thunder Bay (known for it's vicious hockey team in Slapshot)to the eastern edge, Canada's shoreline offered views of jutting ridges and large exposed rocks. Yam and I had great conversations on the ride, and arrived at MacCargoe around 2:00.

We secured a shelter. Yam wanted to rest her feet and read some so I decided to get going on my agenda of bushwacking and checking out the history of the island first hand. I hiked 2 miles to a mine site on the Minong Ridge. The copper mine was active in the 1870's according to my map. I bushwacked in a field for about an hour prior to the mine and found many piles of "waste rock" from the mine as well as several artifacts. (Ever since my trip to Colorado, I have been very interested in discovering artifacts from the areas that I hike in, and it made my trip all the more worthwhile). I hiked back to the Minong Trail, and eventually found the spur that led to the actual mine. There, I came across many more artifacts including huge piles of rubble. Since I don't know much about mining, I assumed that the copper there was strip mined due to the lack of dicovering a shaft. I found many rusted metal artifacts, and an old well, but never a mine shaft. However, I found out from other groups at MacCargoe that there was indeed a mine shaft that you could walk into (very dangerous), so I was kinda bummer I couldn't locate it.

On my hike back to camp, I grabbed 5 small birch/cedar blowdowns and hiked them back to the fire pit for a fire (the surrounding area was barren of blowdowns due to "overpicking" of wood, so you had to hike out to get it). Checked on Yam who was reading/relaxing and enjoying herself. She seemed psyched about the fire (there are only a few places that fires are allowed on the island).

One of my goals during this hike, as with all hikes, was to meet new people. With a group of 5-7, it's kinda hard beacuse we are not as easy to approach, and in contrast, we would talk to each other, not venturing out to meet others. The fire brought most of the people camping that night out, so Yam and I enjoyed the company of some really cool folks!

It seems taht there were many father daughter trips going on that week. We met Jim and Leslie (aka Foxfire - ((She may post here, and is not a troll, so I'll vouch for her), a fellow union brother from Detroit and his college aged daughter. We also met a husband and wife and sister-in-law group, and a Franklin TWP. police officer and wife as well. It was a great bunch, and we all exchanged stories of our trips around the fire.

Thursday, 8/27

It was very cloudy in the morning. We had lucked out thusfar, having near perfect weather, but it was about to change. Yam and I were supposed to hike about 7 miles over 2 ridgelines to Lake Ritchie. The plan was to meet at Chickenbone campground to confirm plans and make sure nobody got lost (Yam didn't have a map). At chickenbone, it was evident that it was going to rain. We were both worried as to what that would do to Yam's blistered feet, so we decided that I'd hike to Moskey Basin and secure a shelter in order for us to dry out, and allow her to tend to the dogs.

About 30 minutes after I left, the downpour came. It was a nice hard rain/shower. I loved it for it cleaned my greasy hair, yet hated it because it fogged my glasses. I pretty much ran the 6 miles in order to secure a shelter.

When i arrived at Moskey, I found all 6 shelters were taken, so I set up camp during a break in the storm. I'd backtrack3ed to the beginning of the campground to leave arrows for Yam when I ran into a soaked dude. Told him that all the shelters were taken, but he could share our tent-site (all tentsites taken too). He informed me that he had a shalter to himself, and invited me and Yam to share! Cool! We shared the shelter, and it turned out to be one of those unexpected treasures of the trip.

Our sheltermates name was Kevin, his alias "Tennessee". He's section hiked the AT, been a memebr of the peace corps in Korea for 5 years, and worked as a Physicians Asst. in a VA hospital. He also was an amatuer folk singer/songwriter and a great conversationalist. When Yam finally arrived (much to my relief), we all kicked back and had a great conversation.

We also ran into a dude from backpacker.com that night who we'd seen before on the boatride, named Topoman. He was solo-hiking the Greenstone Ridge, and was a very affable, nice dude.

TBC..................”

“Lots of pics here, folks. But, well worth the time it'll take to get through them.

ENJOY... I sure did!

Album One



Album Three ”

“Album One was right...

We'll try the other two again:

Album Two

< a href="http://community.webshots.com/album/88786015vhHMMO"> Album Three ”

“Phew... Good night!”

“Nice pictures!”

“Just checked out all the pictures...

They are great! I especially like the morning mist, sunrises, sunsets, and pictures along the lakes........

How long did you hike along the one ridge trail?”

“Adventurist - We hiked the entire Minong Ridge Trail, 22.5 miles.”

“dang Tara! Great pics.
my measley amount of pictures will pale in comparison to yours!”

“Great trip reports. I can't imagine a trip that this group would take not being Fabulous!”

“Its funny who you meet on the island. I met a solo hiker at Daisy Farm who coached football with my uncle in Flint.

I'll get to those pictures later today....time to go play outside for work!”

“"I met a solo hiker at Daisy Farm who coached football with my uncle in Flint."

When I was in the Boudary Waters up in Mini-soda a group saw our Ohio boat sticker and asked where we were from. we said north of Dayton (we don't even tell people Piqua because no one knows where the hell it is). She asked, "Oh yeah? Do you know where Piqua is? I have a brother that works at Hartzel Propellers.".”

“What great pics! Damn, I love digital cameras! Tarabull has some real keepers. That sunrise at Moskey is tops.”

“should be sunset at Moskey and of course I posted after only looking at the first two albums. I submited that above post, then clicked on the third and have been blown away again!”

“Great trip report guys, and nice pictures too.”

“Great pics, tara. I loved seeing the birch stands again...very mellow environment to hike through when the sun is filtering through to the thimbleberries, etc. beneath. Also like the "golden glow" shot of you and Yam greeting the sunrise on the shore.”

“One thing that I did notice was how small all of the trees were. I relize that the place was logged long ago, but I would have thought they would be bigger. I suppose Isle was not part of the reforrestation project like the rest of Michigan and surrounding areas.”

“Actually Q there were some of the biggest birch and pines I've ever seen there. It not only was logged but also suffered a fire that burned much of the island. Some trees that apear to be virgin are still there. I think I took a few pics of them, hopefully they turn out well.”

“GREAT PICS T!”

“What the others said, sweet pics Tara!”

“Hey Sunsnhine, glad to hear you're gettin a kayak! You'll love it and you've got the best location by far for paddlin!”

“AWESOME PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!

Here's my favorite one though.”

“here's my few amateur photos:

IRI

and

IRII

~~hey walkindude--I like that pic, too :-)”

“BTW,,,,,Is that St. Pauli beer girl???”

“GREAT pictures! I hope to pick mine up on the way home from work today, and send them to webshots tonight.

Man, that was a fun trip!!!”

“ Isle Royale 1

one more to follow....”

“YAM! That evening shot of the moose is awesome!! I'm gonna make it my wallpaper.”

“thay are great pic and a great trip report. glad you all had a great time!!”

“Great trip report and pics! Sounds like a good time was had by all!”

“i like the pic of the "gong" on the ferry! (lol)”

“9 Days! Yall kick ass!!!
So how many total miles did yall do.

Hope your blisters get well soon Yam!”

“Wow, even more super pics. Keep em coming! My favorite is Yam's moose silouette. I like Walkindude's choice also.

It sure looks like the "gong" had a great time.”

“walkindude - due to officer fish splitting up the gong, we all have different mileages for the trip. Mine was 93 miles.

9 days rocked. when we got back to the ferry, i was ready for 9 more.”

“Sass, thanks for the great pics, especially the "Sweet 16" expedition graffitti -- as the father of a teenage daughter, it brought a couple tears to my eyes. That dad must be a great guy wherever he is. What an adventure to have with your offspring at that age.”

“Pekka, As i read and reread and reread that "sweet 16" thingy I couldnt help but think of my daughter in the hopes that one day she will have the same appreciation for all things wild that Sass and I have. It choked me up a bit also. One of me favorite things about IR is reading graffiti in shelters, though I would consider much of it to be folk art as opposed to mere grafitti. It was cool too that we found signatures in two shelters from LeSubtil on other trips.”

“birch, I have to get my slides out and find the one graffitti shot I have from back in late 70s in a Rock Harbor shelter -- I'd try to paraphrase it, but I'd mess it up. Great reading when relaxing at the end of a day on the trail.

BTW, tarabull, looking at your poor taped toes and reading the comments about the rocky, rooty trails on IR, reminds me of my brother's comments when I took him BPing there after his return from years out west, where he learned to BP in Yosemite and the Sierras -- before hitting the trails, he kinda pooh-poohed hiking in Michigan. After the Rock Harbor trail, he said the IR trails were a lot tougher on the feet than anything he had hiked in the mountains. Fortunately, not every mile is so rough -- I loved the cruising sections on the Greenstone Ridge.”

“I saw the post on Tara's blurry moose and then saw the rest of the pics. Nice bunch of folks on that trip... and then I saw Sunshine's short shorts. Dang! WooHoo! :)

Funny thing... my bud saw some of the pics over my shoulder. Damn if he's not right but BB and I look like brothers with a visor on.”

“Geez, gong, cut a chick some slack! ;) You all don't know how late I was up working on getting those pictures up on webshots, (3am).

Phil, Joe and I both appreciated how special that expedition record was. I got tears in my eyes too. I sure hope our little girl will enjoy backpacking, or even just hanging out with her folks at 16.”

“Nice pics all! I'll have mine up by the end of the weekend.

LMAO Rockman, we are brothers dude!”

“Well, my friends took better and more photos, but here are mine too.”

“le Subtil, your pics are great too. Nice silhouette shot on Mt. Franklin. Views of Lake Superior are one of the reasons IR made me feel a bit spoiled when I went hiking on mainland trails after that.”