Devil's Kettle Falls
The trip started with 4 of us departing from my home in Big Lake, we drove to Judge Magney State Park, north of Grand Marais, and camped for the night. Great sleeping with temps these first two nights right at 40. Arrived early enough to hike the nearby Devil Track River and view the Devil's Kettle Falls that evening. This photo above that I took is exactly like the one on one of the SHT posters, same viewpoint and water flow level. The mystery is that the fall on the left goes into a hole, with no visible sign of where the water then flows......it's going into the Devil's Kettle.
Day 2 - We arrived at the dock in Grand Portgage for 8 am departure on the Voyaguer II for the 2 1/2 hr ride to the southern end of Isle Royale, at Windigo. On the trip over we got acquainted with 8 women on a paid adventure trek, led by the only Minnesota lady, Ann, from Duluth. The ladies were from all across the US, they went on over to Rock Harbor, northern end of Island, after a brief stop to let us off at Windigo, and listen to Ranger Val's talk about the Island, what to do and not do. The entire Island is a National Park with the expected rules and regulations. There are pros and cons to being a Ntl Park, there are outhouses vs latrines as the SHT and BWCA have, yet few places where campfires are allowed, even in wet conditions, due to the protection of resource issues. Ranger Val was entertaining, when our boat pulled up to the dock she was jumping up and down, waving her arms as if we were the first folks she'd seen all Summer, hardly the case we all knew, but a great, fun greeting.
We gave our itineraries to the Ranger as requested, and took off for the nearby Huginnin Cove campsites. I guy from New York was hiking solo and joined us, interesting guy who was completing visits to all Ntl Parks in the US.
Voyageur II not the most impressive vessel, but darn sturdy to take on all that Lake Superior offers, as we later discovered.
Our group (Michelle, Virginia, me and Kurt)
Fully loaded for the week-long adventure
Huginnin Harbor on Lake Superior, many of these harbors were used in the late 1800s to load timber and copper mined on the Island, taken by boat to the Mainland.
Day 3 - Kurt and I split from Virginia and Michelle to trek the Minong Trail ridgelines. Kurt wanted to do high miles per day, 15 or so, and Virginia and Michelle wanted fewer, wanting to be down some days, day hikes, then explore the Feldtman Loop. So we split, agreeing to meet back at Windigo Saturday for our Sunday trip back to civilization.
Kurt and I's first day took us up the Trail falling off and climbing back up onto numerous high, narrow rock ridgelines, many great vistas of the Lake and Minnesota's far north shore, and Canada. We agreed to compromise with long days Tues and Sat, of about 13 miles, and shorter 6 -8 mile days the other 3 days. The ridgelines were just amazing, hiking from one cairn to the next, they are small piles of rocks to show the trail path as there is no other way to follow it when hiking on rock. When in the thick vegetation off of the ridgelines, the blueberries, raspberries and thimble berries were numerous and tastey, a late season as it has definitely been, and very little evidence of changing tree colors yet. We arrived at Lake Desor's northern shore campsites for the night, it is one of the two inland lake we would camp on, very nice lake with many islands and clear water.
Day 4 - finished up the Minong, camped at Little Todd Harbor. This evening one of the Park Rangers, Robert Bell, and his son Seth, came into the site beside us. We invited them over for supper and spent a couple of hours visiting. Seth was hiking for a week with his father, who occupies one of the Ranger cabins at Daisy Farm for the summer, no electricity but solar power for one 120 v outlet. This was his first season as a Ranger. Being an EMT and trail runner his "speciality" is rescue. If someone is injured, another from their party has to get to the nearest ranger station, then then notify Robert, he prepares a small pack and trailruns to the injured person. This entire process can take a couple of days. He has a radio, but with limited reception. The task is to then get the person out, typically to the nearest harbor where a NPS boat will take the person to one of the NSP harbors, or directly in. My first visit to Isle Royale was many yrs ago for a day boat ride over and back with my family. When we arrived someone from our boat needed medical attention, a helicopter landed on the Windigo dock as we all watched, airlifted the person down to the Duluth Hopsital. Robert said most injuries are broken limbs, 2 this summer, and burns, from spilling boiled water. These two had hiked the entire ridgeline from Huginnin Cove in one day, about 20 miles, that took Kurt and I two tough days. This was the only campsite Kurt and I encountered that allowed campfires. Yes we made one while talking with Ranger Robert and Seth.
Day 5 - the day of rain. I expected many days of rain due to the time of year, however, we were very lucky to have only one on this trip. This day we made it into Hatchet Lake where the 8 ladies happened to camp beside us. We expected to see them on our return down teh Minong as our departure was the same day. All soaking wet and tired but Ann said their spirits were good, many laughs could be heard from their site, a good sign. Kurt and I spent the afternoon under a tarp drinking hot coffee, tea and cocoa, plus a few cigars, little else to do when camping in steady daylong rain.
Day 6 - Hatchet Lake to south Lake Desor, our only close encounter with wildlife. Isle Royale is known for many moose, 600 some, and wolves, no bear. We heard a moose near camp during the night, and the next morning at sunup it was grazing nearby, but due to heavy vegetation we couldn't see it clearly, or get a photo. Interestingly enuf, on this area of the Island we saw very little moose or wolf scat (waste droppings), yet others who also hiked different parts of the Island saw moose and wolves that were too friendly, Lisa, a friend who was also on the Island' s other side, and Virginia and Michelle who were on the south side saw wolves and moose. Lisa is a tough lil cookie who chases away bear from her family's home near Duluth, on her trip she chased away a wolf from their camp, brave soul she is. The moose were starting rutt, mating season, so their activity picks up. We could occasionally hear moose in the woods in the afternoons. Ranger Robert said on warm days like this, over 60 is warm for moose, they stay low in the swamps under the cedar trees staying cool, feeding at dawn, night and dusk. Also, this day we got into camp early at 1 pm, ample sunshine to dry all gear rainsoaked from the prior day's rain. I could easily see that if a person hiked, setup and took down camp, that in two or three days of rain, how demoralizing it could become trying to keep all gear, and oneself, dry.
drying all gear, the ropes were very handy this day
Day 7 - down the Greenstone to Windigo, long flat trail stretch about 12 miles this day. Vastly different ridgeline from the Minong as this was wide, flat, tree covered. These last two days we leaped frogged with the women's group as we both traveled down the Trail. By this time my hips and legs were hurting quite a bit but taking more frequent breaks I made it back fine. The women had split up into a slow and fast group, easy to guess which group I gravitated to. The sweep, co-leader of their group, was a lady from Utah, an Aussie. We started talking about triathlons, I asked her what distances she'd done, "all." "All?" Yes, including Iron(wo)man distance. So that conversation took my mind off the tedious trail trek, the sore hips, blistered feet, the mileage, and to plans for next summer's tri season.
The view of Lake Desor from the Greenstone Trail above the south Desor campsite. A steep climb up to the Trail from the campsite, but then fairly flat treking all the way down to Windigo.
The shelters available at the campground next to Windigo, little cabins with one side screened, nothing inside but a wood floor. Nice to have shelter, however my worst night of sleeping of the entire trip, the floor was too hard even with the Thermarest pad. Some campsites around the Island have shelters, but on the loop Kurt and I took we saw none.
A large fallen Cedar ( I believe) note the twist going up the trunk
The only boardwalk on the Minong, the Ranger described it as "rugged" which it was compared to the Greenstone which goes up the middle of the Island. This boardwalk was 6 - 9 feet above the muck, tallest boardwalk I have ever crossed.
Cairns - placed by past travelers to show others where the trail goes as one follows the ridgelines
Each ridgeline got steeper as we hiked further up the Island on the Minong, northeasterly. This is as steep as it looks, Kurt on the top.
The Greenstone, flat easy hiking, much downhill, but then again we were heading south............
The "rugged" Minong included this log bridge, two logs side by side, one decayed and fallen, our only way to cross this creek, careful footing required. During the weeklong hike I often stumbled, but fortunately never fell. When one falls with a 63 lb pack there is little you can do but hope for a safe landing, I have only done it a few times.
Re-entry..................Sunday the winds were forecast to be 20 - 30 knots (roughly MPH) out of the north. The boat left at 9 am rather than the noon scheduled departure as the seas would only build. What a ride ! The first 1/4 of the trip was the roughest as the waves caught the entire stretch of Lake from the north, as we neared the mainland, leeward, the land blocked the wind more resulting in lower waves. The captain would occasionally drop the boat speed quickly and turn 45 degrees to diagonally ride the crossing waves when larger ones would come. It was easy to tell who had taken seasickness meds as they were peacefully asleep on the inside boat floor as we ventured back, or maybe it was all the hiking. I love this type of weather, stayed in the back visiting with a guy who used to fly airforce jets landing on aircraft carriers across the world. He told many stories and made this trip seem like a walk in the park. I countered with a few sailing stories. These conditions would be fun to test a strong sailboat in, will sails mostly reefed, size reduced. Once one gets into a sailing rythm in these conditions, wave heights, windspeeds are sailable, with caution.
One of the larger waves, amplified by our wake, but large non-the-less.
Back to the Cities with brunch at the Northern Lights Roadhouse near Silver Bay. Salmon and glazed ham..... that didn't require re-hydration................wow !
Another Day in Paradise ends at Huginnin Cove.
