Superior Hiking

After the two days and three nights at Oshkosh, Beth and I headed up US42 through Green Bay, Iron Mountain, and finally ended up at Copper Harbor, MI for the second half of our vacation. It took us a little over 6 hours to make the trek across the UP, and it was a deserted drive. It really reminded me of the road between Sudbury, ON and Timmons, ON...nothing but some lakes, camps, and a few small villages connected by granite outcroppings and endless pine forests. Finally, we arrived in Copper Harbor on the Keeweenaw Peninsula. It is a collection of summer cottages and run-down motels, typical of that area. We stopped for some hot dogs at the general store in Copper Harbor and headed for our campground (Fort Wilkins State Park). The people at the ranger station were EXTREMELY discourteous and unprofessional and basically bit my head off when I questioned the reason for paying an $8 fee twice. Given that my night would be spent in a building of cloth construction, I figured that the prudent thing to do was to pay the $8 and forget about it. Beth & I wandered around the historic fort, which was remarkably well maintained and read all the plaques. Apparently in the 1870's, there was a small population of people up in the UP, even women! Beth had to agree that even Coshocton in the winter would not come close to Copper Harbor in the winter:). After hotdogs and showers, we headed out to find a laundrymat and to view the beautiful sunset on Superior.

The morning found us breaking camp and carefully packing our backpacks for the trip to Isle Royale. We made our way down M-26 to Calumet, where we ate lunch at the Michigan House Brewing Company, a really nice place to have a brew and a sandwich. It was hot (about 95 degrees) that afternoon, and we lugged all our gear over to the Houghton Int'l Airport terminal, to sit and wait for our seaplane ride to Isle Royale. At about 3:00PM, the pilot came out, looked at us and asked "What are your names?" I responded "Wiley". He looked astonished. "Where the heck were you this morning?" Apparently, a highe mixup and totally my fault, but for some reason I misread the boarding pass and showed up at the complete wrong time. Well, of course, there were absolutely no free spots on the airplane for the coming week, and I just felt sick inside. It wasn't cheap to fly, and we had planned this vacation around Isle Royale, and now we couldn't even get out there. Ugghhh... We waited around the airport until the end of the day, and the pilot came back and suggested that we try to book a ride on the NPS boat "Ranger III" that was leaving the next morning (Tuesday). We called to make sure that they weren't booked, and made plans to go out the next day. After all the tension and the heat (record 104°F) in Houghton that day, we decided to live it up and head for the Holiday Inn Express. I don't think that a swimming pool has felt quite that good in recent memory. (Well, there was that rooftop swimming pool at Charleston Place in SC with the cold Heinekeins that was pretty stinkin' awesome). We stayed the night in a really crappy bed, watched cable TV and slept well after Oshkosh.

It actually turned out okay, because the next day when we were boarding the RangerIII, we learned that there had been a fantastic T-storm the previous night, 70mph winds, torrential downpour, etc. All of our gear would've gotten soaked, and we would not have enjoyed our "roughing it" experience quite as much. The ride on the RangerIII out to Isle Royale is a whole-day experience. The 150ft boat tools along at about 15-16 knots and takes about 6 hours from departure to arrival at Rock Harbor in Isle Royale.


Upon disembarking the boat at 3PM, Beth & I loaded up our packs and started off down the trail. Given the spectrum of people on the boat (none of which we were super keen on sharing a campsite with), we thought it best to make haste and establish a camp soon. Given the proximity of Three Mile, we decided to head over the Greenstone Ridge and go to Lane Cove (about 7 miles away). After about three hours, we made it to Lane Cove and set up camp in the last campsite. A Backpacker's Pantry meal later, and we were fast asleep. The next morning, we awoke to a beautiful morning, and everybody else packed up camp and booked out early. Around 10AM, we explored the campsites and chose Site #2 (the best), which had a wonderful access to the pebble beach and was spacious and far away from other campsites. We liked it so much, that we just stayed there all day and decided to leave for Three Mile the next morning.



After going to bed that night, I was awakened by some loons calling out over the water early, early in the AM. I got up and looked out at the sky. It was just speckled with stars and texture and was one of the most amazing sights I have seen in recent memory. Periodically, meteors would streak across the sky and I got an awesome sense of God's greatness, and true wonderment at his creation, just how vast and awesome is our God, who made everything that I saw "ex nihilo" or out of nothing. Here I am, just a small man a speck on the face of this wondrous creation, and God cared so much for me that he sent his Son to die for my sins. Amazing love, how can it be? It was truly humbling and just puts the right mindset on my whole experience at Isle Royale.

The next morning, Beth & I awoke to our goal of getting out and establishing a new home at Three Mile before heading out the next day. We got on the trail by 8:15AM (awesome job, Beth!) and had hiked 4 miles by 10:15AM. We were hiking just as fast as the college kids right behind us. It made me feel good, that even though I'm approaching 30, I can kick it with those scrawny kids, but it also hurt. Beth was like a drill sergeant, pushing us along. We hiked 3.5miles south along the Greenstone Trail to Mount Ojibway, where we took a look off the observation tower there. Then it was 3.5 miles down to Daisy Farm, where we picked up fresh water. Daisy Farm was really a nice, not crowded campground. We decided that on a future trip, we would probably stay at Daisy Farm. After 15 minutes, Drill Sergeant Beth prodded us along the final 4.2-4.5 miles or so to Three Mile. We were both about ready to collapse at this point. What made matters even worse was that there were no available campsites! Crisis Time! I scouted around until I found a campsite where the residents had OVERSTAYED THEIR WELCOME! They were not scheduled for that site on their backcountry permit, so I figured that possession is 9/10ths and I squatted on their campsite. They got a little nervous and came over from their swim (I think that they were worried that someone was going to steal their stuff). Nope, we were just setting up our tent. It worked out very well, because they were a middle-aged couple that appreciated the fact that we were not rowdy teenagers, and we appreciated that same fact about them. After some Turkey Alfredo, Beth grabbed a handful of M&Ms, crunched them twice, opened her book and promptly fell alseep mid-munch. It was a long day and 11.5 miles with a pack was a tough day. Do I have a backpacking champ for a wife, or what?:)

The next day, we made our way over to RockHarbor, where Beth had a Diet Coke and we finished up our trail mix and waited for the seaplane to arrive and take us back to civilization. It was a fun trip, but perhaps the best part was to be able to finally share this backpacking adventure with my beautiful wife. It was a memory that I will treasure forever and hopefully we will have many more memories like this in the future. Now, we just need to get that Cessna 206 Amphibian on order....