Isle Royale National Park, Michigan 2002

Part III

Friday we decided that if we were going to compete with all these maniacs and try to get a shelter, we'd have to get going much earlier. We didn't bring the alarm clock, but a fat, snoring, farting, canoeist in the next site over was enough to wake us up.

We had a quick breakfast and set off on the trail a bit after 7, I think. It was a good walk up through the center of the island, away from Lake Superior now. We passed by a couple of nice, sandy lakes - Lake Richie and Chickenbone. I have a feeling these would have been great spots to try out our fishing poles, but unfortunately, we were on a mission. At this pace, we were hoping to get to McCargoe Cove around 12 or 1. A couple other things to note, we saw a pretty fresh wolf track somewhere between the lakes, and also a HUGE birch tree off the west shore of Chickenbone - didn't go up to it and could tell it was over 3 feet in diameter. It was big, anyway.

Well, we lucked out and had nice weather all day. Were feeling pretty good when we got to the McCargoe Cove campground. The good feeling didn't last long; we soon found that all the shelters were occupied. McCargoe is a pick-up/drop-off stop for the ferry, so a lot of the people were probably waiting to catch it the next day. For the first time, we were actually able to get an individual tent site (instead of a group site), so that was one good thing. It was half spoiled by the fact that the sites were up a HUGE near-vertical hill from the lake. Not the funnest to ramble up & down with sore feet after a day of hiking. Eventually we decided that our stench alone was enough to get us down to the lake to wash up. Oh, it was a bit CHILLY, but definitely refreshing - we jumped in down by the dock. Andy made an instant friend (leech). Washed up a bunch of our clothes and headed back up to the site to hang stuff up. Had a good day, with time to lounge since we'd gotten in pretty early.

Later in the afternoon, we were ready to head down to the lake again when a kid came running up to tell his parents (in the next site over) that there was a bull moose down in the bay. Made it to the lake to find everyone sitting about watching the big bull feed out in the middle of the water. He'd put his whole head under, so that only the ridge of his back was showing, and root around. Then he'd raise his head, look around, chew a bit, and dunk again. We watched him for quite awhile, and then it was back up the hill to our site. Ate & got ready to retire.

Seemed to be getting pretty windy that evening. Weren't sure if it was because we were near the lake again, or if something was moving in......?

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