Minong Ridge
You may have noticed the absence of new material over the last few weeks at the Bushwhacking Fool. It is not due to me being lazy (though I am). Or frantically writing a screenplay for a major blockbuster motion picture based on the website (that would be entirely absurd). Or even bed-stricken with a debilitating disease (although many have suspected a case of mental illness for years). Actually, the absence was entirely the result of a two and a half week long hiking trip to Isle Royale National Park.
Isle Royale National Park is a national park in the state of Michigan. The Park consists of Isle Royale, the largest island in Lake Superior, and about 400 islands located nearby. The main island is about 45 miles long and 9 miles at its widest point. The entire Park is 894 square miles, but only 209 of those square miles are above water. The Park is infamous for the study of the predator-prey relationship between the wolf and moose populations.
Rainbow Cove
My trip consisted of driving for two days to Copper Harbor, Michigan, followed by a boat ride aboard the Isle Royale Queen IV across an angry Lake Superior. I spent 15 days on the island, from the afternoon of August 29 to September 12. The hiking portion of the trip circumnavigated the entire island via the available trails for a total of approximately 120 miles. The main trails used on my trip included the Minong Ridge, Feldtmann Ridge and Greenstone Ridge Trails. Some of the most interesting places visited included McCargoe Cove, Little Todd, Rainbow Cove, Siskiwit Bay and Moskey Basin.
Unfortunately, the trip included very little bushwhacking. The small amount of off-trail navigation was typically to see views and/or features just off the trail. Several longer bushwhacks were planned but the long days, inclement weather, minor but nagging injuries and incredibly arduous terrain combined to cancel all but these very short off-trail sojourns.
Moose
Despite sticking to the trails there was more than enough to see and experience. I met some awesome people, saw four moose (including a cow and calf that insisted on following me), identified wolf tracks and scat, and observed sandhill cranes, bald eagles, gray jays and a black-backed woodpecker, just to mention a few highlighs. Unfortunately, I never saw or heard any wolves.
Keep an eye out for the articles describing my Isle Royale trip to appear sometime in early autumn after I finish chronicling my Oven Lake trip in the northwestern Adirondack Park from earlier in the summer.
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