Little Todd trail marker with moose antler
My trip to Isle Royale National Park last summer was unusual in many aspects compared to my typical backcountry jaunts.
Most of my trips take me into the Adirondack backcountry; not only due to my love and lifetime relationship with the area but because of its close proximity; after two hours of driving I can be immersed in the vast forests, wetlands and beaver meadows of northern New York.
Isle Royale was entirely virgin territory for me; I had never journeyed there before. Although I did almost visit the island back in the summer of 1996, at the end of a summer of doing ornithological field work in north-central Minnesota. That plan never reached fruition unfortunately, as a couple day training trip lead to feet riddled with festering blisters, which were totally inappropriate for the long distances required for Isle Royale.
The travel time to get to Isle Royale was exorbitantly greater than my typical sojourns into the Adirondacks. It not only required driving more than over 900 miles, but an approximately 55-mile ferry ride across Lake Superior. Although the scenery along first portion of the drive was not particularly spectacular, the portion along Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was very pretty and reminiscent of parts of the Adirondacks.
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