Lake Livermore

My route today brings me into contact with several lakes as I navigate the Indian Portage Trail much of the way to Moskey Basin on Isle Royale. During my time on the Island, I heard more than few praises for this place, including on my first day and during my rest day at Windigo. Soon I will be able to judge whether it is worth all the accolades, or just another example of the usual hype.

First, I need to drag my butt out from under my tarp at campsite number one (point #104), and get it on the trail. Although waking early, I held off climbing out of my sleeping bag as the sun is still struggling to breach the horizon, quickly overshadowing the poor moon, which is still out in a last minute attempt to get its due.

When I finally manage to muster the necessary energy, I emerge from my sleeping bag and immediately start packing up my campsite so I can get an early start on my day’s hike to Moskey Basin for my second to last night on Isle Royale.

Unfortunately, I manage to fart away a good deal of the early morning with cooking an oatmeal breakfast and taking as many photographs with my camera as my dwindling disk space and discharging battery allows. I keep hoping that the battery makes it through the next few days or part of my trip will be without any photographic evidence whatsoever, and it will be necessary to describe the events with words alone.

Section Stats:
Date: September 10, 2011
Length: 2.4 miles (2.4 total daily miles; 103.4 total trip miles)
Difficulty: Easy

Unlike the night before, the wildlife is taking a break this morning. Only a pileated woodpecker and a blue jay are calling nearby; I hear no other birds calling despite the sunny conditions, with nearly no clouds in the early morning sky. A duck swims within the vegetation along the western shore of the lake, the shadows and dense Equisetum make it impossible for me to identify it to species, even with the help of my compact binoculars.

By about eight in the morning, I make a mad dash to the toilet on my way out of the campground. While sitting in the rather roomy toilet, at least by Adirondack Park standards, I notice a rather tattered informational posting about common loons on the door opposite my face. Many parts along the edges are ripped off, apparently used as impromptu toilet paper for the unprepared backcountry adventurer. At least they were considerate enough to only rip off those parts without any text.

After taking care of my morning business, it is time to set off on what promises to be a rather short day, with plenty of interesting lakes along the way. This is in stark contrast to my hike tomorrow, which may be the longest, and most arduous, of my entire Isle Royale adventure. It seems fitting that my last full day should be the longest and most difficult, but good luck trying to convince my poor, blistered feet that. Thankfully, my left groin feels better than the previous morning, or I would be one hurting puppy.

While at the West Chickenbone Lake campground map post, just before starting to climb over the Greenstone Ridge, I hear what sounds like a blue jay with a serious sinus infection. Scanning the surrounding forest with my binoculars, I finally spot a very dark gray jay, seemingly imitating the blue jay. As I watch the gray jay go about its business, I spot a blue jay hammering away on some nut (acorn?) on the very top of a paper birch snag. So, was the gray jay imitating the blue jay, or was it just the blue jay calling with his beak full of nut? I still do not know, and probably never will.

Chickenbone Lake

Early morning at Chickenbone Lake

The trail is quite steep, so I take my time climbing back to the Greenstone Ridge intersection (point #103), not wanting to aggravate my left groin. It takes me about a half hour before I reach the intersection, where I stop to brush my teeth and take a couple ibuprofens to make sure any groin pain stays away. I brush my teeth here, far from the campground, since most of the camping sites are surrounded by a white film, the residue of toothpaste from many different hikers over the summer, the dry conditions making sure the residue never fully washes away.

Ripped up Loon Sign

With my personal hygiene complete, I leave the Greenstone Ridge behind, and head down the Indian Portage Trail toward Lake Richie. The trail descends moderately for a short distance before leveling out as it goes through an area heavily impacted by a wind event sometime in not-too-distant past. Quaking aspen and paper birch logs are plentiful along the trail, as are snags within the surrounding forest. The snags represent the past forest, but today they are the remains of the bole of the trees, their canopies snapped off by the strong storm. Thick regenerating aspens and other species grow surrounding the snags, taking over for their dead ancestors now that they have been freed to enjoy full unobstructed sun.

The trail enters a muddy, wet area. This is one of the few muddy areas I have encountered on Isle Royale that is truly still muddy. Apparently, the nearby Lake Livermore has supplied the area with ample moisture. Extensive and convenient planking keeps my boots from getting completely muddy. On both sides of the planking is a plethora of tracks in the mud, moose and wolf being the most plentiful. With the wolf scat observed along the Greenstone Ridge while approaching the Indian Portage Trail yesterday, and the tracks today, it appears wolves are more plentiful and/or active in this area as opposed to the other areas I have visited thus far on Isle Royale.

Wolf track in mud

When the main trail intersects with a short portage down to the shore of Lake Livermore, I find myself unable to resist the urge to head down for a quick peek (point #105). The lake is a sliver of a water body, stretching out to the northeast from my location at its western end. The sun rising off to the east illuminates the northern shore, reflecting the forest within its tranquil waters. Much single-stemmed aquatic vegetation (some type of Equisetum?) lines the shoreline, especially along the western shore. Extracting my camera from its case, I take several photographs, immortalizing the morning view of the lake.

Whoa! A large, shark-like fin emerges from the water just offshore amid the plentiful vegetation, momentarily shocking me. Instead of taking a photograph, I stare in amazement, watching the large fish thrash about in the shallow waters. By the time I regain my senses and grab for my camera, the fin disappears within the water, not returning even after a wait of several minutes.

From the portage, the trail climbs steeply for a short distance, through more wind thrown aspen and paper birch forest, before reaching the top of a level ridge. Soon, the trail descends into a low area, surrounded by dense mature spruce, balsam fir and northern white cedar, sometimes on wooden planking, seemingly unnecessary given the dry ground.

Northern shore of Lake Livermore

Western end of Lake Livermore

When the trail reaches the intersection with a short portage trail (point #107), I head down to take my first look at LeSage Lake. LeSage Lake has a weird shape, with a thin long northern section, oriented southwest to northeast, almost a mirror image of Lake Livermore. A narrow channel centrally located along the southern shore of the northern section leads to the southern section of the lake. The two sections appear as if they were once separate water bodies with a thin ridge separating them. This portage leads to the northwestern corner of the lake, while another is present along the southern shoreline.

Unfortunately, the early morning sunlight obscures most of the lake to me. The sun is shining directly in my eyes as I attempt to look northeast over the lake, making any chance of getting a photographs of its northern part all but pointless. Hopefully, I can get some good photographs at its southern shore portage. Too bad there is not a canoe in my backpack, I must hike my way around the oddly shaped lake instead.

Planking along Indian Portage Trail

Moose antler

After leaving the portage, the main trail returns to the conifers and its planking, often as unnecessary as it was before. The terrain changes little, except for the occasional short ups and down, with intermittent planking in some wetter areas. A moose antler lays next to the trail, shed a long time ago by its owner. On one long section of planking, I surprise a snowshoe hare perched on the planking. I attempt to get my camera out of its waterproof case at my hipbelt as quietly as possible, but the hare bounds off into the surrounding swamp long before I can even get it unzipped.

Indian Portage Trail

A short and steep climb up a rocky trail brings me to a narrow, open ridge, running southwest to northeast (point #108). Along the ridge, a piece of blue flagging hangs on a nearby tree limb off to the northeast. Hmmm, I wonder where that might lead. Although alluring, I continue as the trail begins to descend immediately from the ridge top. A common loon yodels off in the distance, be it from Lake Livermore, LeSage or Richie, I cannot tell.

Upon descending the ridge top, the trail reenters a quaking aspen/paper birch forest, although not as heavily wind-thrown as the other similar forests since the Greenstone Ridge. This forest does not last long though, as the trail reenters a wet area surrounded by northern white cedar, with frequent sections of planking. Moose tracks are plentiful in the mud next to the planking; apparently, moose do not appreciate the planking like hikers do.

The wet area is brief, as the trail ascends slightly through aspen/birch again. Interspersed within the larger trees are a plentiful number of young balsam firs. A northern spring peeper calls off in the forest as I negotiate around a dime-sized American toad. Obviously, toads must be emerging from the surrounding water bodies before the cold weather sets in later in the year.

Stream along Indian Portage Trail

Although the aspen/birch forest continues, evidence of windstorm damage becomes more apparent again as the trail turns east around LeSage Lake. Suddenly, the trail enters a small, open, rocky area (point #110) for a brief instant before reentering the forest again. A flock of pine siskins flies overhead while I am standing in the open surveying the surrounding area.

The trail enters a forest with a sparse aspen canopy, under which is a dense young balsam fir understory. The aspens stand tall, towering over the firs that with eventually take over the entire forest. After crossing a small rocky stream, the trail intersects with a portage heading north to the southern shore of LeSage Lake, while the main trail turns south toward Lake Richie.

What to do? Hike north over a ridge to LeSage Lake, for a few photographs without the sunshine in my eyes. Or, proceed directly to Lake Richie to the south on my way to Moskey Basin?

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