View from Mount Franklin
It is hard to imagine beating the views of Isle Royale from the Mount Ojibway fire tower. Now there is only a single chance to do so at Mount Franklin, all the way on the opposite side of my last stretch of the Greenstone Ridge Trail. The heat and humidity is not going to make it easy getting there, but now it is the most direct route to my final destination for the night: Rock Harbor.
With it past noon, it is time to leave the fire tower behind and head northeast toward Mount Franklin, since there are still many more miles to go. I swing my backpack, now light due to nearly exhausting the food and fuel, onto my back and start hiking along the Greenstone Ridge Trail, slowly inching closer and closer to Rock Harbor.
Unfortunately, there are so many different trails leaving the fire tower in the general direction of the northeast. Why did I not take more time to look around when I was in the fire tower? I take the one that looks most traveled, but unfortunately, it starts to peter out almost immediately, so I double back to the fire tower feeling somewhat defeated. What a great bushwhacker I am, I cannot even follow a damn trail!
View Day Fourteen, Part Three in a larger map
The middle-aged guy, now near the top of the tower, yells down, totally unbidden, and directs me down the proper path. With a yell of thanks, I head off once again, the trail now apparent, with an originally unseen cairn marking the way. Fortunately, the feeling of embarrassment from my momentary confusion following the trail fades quickly away.
Section Stats:
Date: September 11, 2011
Length: 2.8 miles (8.4 total daily miles; 115.7 total trip miles)
Difficulty: Moderate (due to heat & humidity)
The Greenstone Ridge remains rather open along the trial toward Mount Franklin, completely unlike its southern portion, which typically lies within a mature forest. Views are nearly continuous to the southeast and northwest, although the mid-day haze limits them somewhat. The leaves on the scattered and stunted trees maintain their different shades of red, orange and yellow, just as they were back at the fire tower.
At one point, a side trail leads up a slight incline over bare rock to a USGS elevation marker. It is nearly impossible to read the elevation on the old marker now, probably due to too many people placing their feet on it. According to my map, it should be about 1076 feet above sea level. With Mount Franklin only a few feet higher, the way back to Rock Harbor is mostly downhill from here on out.
In numerous places, it is necessary to watch for cairns to maintain the trail, although there are no more incidents of losing the trail like there was back at the fire tower. At first, I take my time and enjoy the open views, but as time goes by, and my nervousness of reaching Rock Harbor before sundown increases, I find my head down more often and my sore feet moving increasingly quicker.
It grows hotter and hazier as the afternoon progresses, with the haze limiting the clarity of the views to a large degree. It is hard to believe I was freezing nearly a week ago at Windigo, while on my rest day. Fortunately, a nice breeze blows over the ridge to cool me off occasionally; otherwise, the long, exposed hike would be much more uncomfortable.
Several, good-sized, wolf scats are located along the trail. It appears even the wolves used this trail to get around on the island too. Given all the scat along the trail since leaving Chickenbone Lake the previous day, I wonder whether I am following a pack of wolves over the last few days. Catching a glimpse of a wolf would truly make my Isle Royale trip a complete success. One can only hope.
The views to the east are especially interesting, seeing many of my initial sights along the Rock Harbor Trail, but from a very different distance and angle. Seeing the Park Headquarters at Mott Island specifically brings back memories of the boat roaring through Rock Harbor from my first day hiking. Familiar sights like this strike me as an appropriate way to close out my final days on Isle Royale, culminated with my return to Rock Harbor later in the day.
View from Greenstone Ridge
View back to Ojibway fire tower
Mount Franklin
USGS marker
The views northeast are equally spectacular, if not more so. Multiple rows of brown ridge tops lie separated by green valleys across the northeastern portion of the Island. Beyond the main island, multiple rows of thin islands, ancient ridge tops, pierce the Lake Superior waters, with such names as Amygdaloid Island, Captain Kidd Island, Belle Isle and Burnt Island. In the far distance, across a stretch of Lake Superior, the Canadian shoreline looms largely within the haze.
A slight feeling of melancholy seizes me, since this part of the island remains totally unexplored on this trip of the Island. Perhaps, this gives me an excuse to return for either a bushwhacking or canoeing trip sometime in the future.
While continuing along the trail, a moose antler lies on some open rock, appearing completely malapropos in the grassy surroundings. Obviously, the wolves are not the only large mammals using the trails to travel about the island. Perhaps I will be lucky enough to see another one of these large herbivores before departing the Island tomorrow afternoon.
Northeastern Isle Royale
Northeastern Isle Royale
Middle Islands Passage
Mott Island Park Headquarters
As I drew closer to Mount Franklin before me, a broad, forested bump before me along the ridgeline, a series of wetlands appear through the treetops to the northeast. I scan the plentiful open water below the steep ridge with my binoculars, looking for the owner of the antler along the trail, or one of his cousins. Unfortunately, there is none around.
After a short climb, I finally arrive at Mount Franklin. There are no wide-open views here; just a single view through the trees to the northeast revealing the many different rows of islands sighted earlier on my hike. On one of the islands, a large dock sticks out of one of the many islands, marking the location of the Belle Island campground. Numerous whitecaps appear and disappear along the edges of the different islands, revealing the violent nature of Lake Superior along the northern shore of the Island.
I am not alone on Mount Franklin. A group of mostly young people is taking up the majority of the open area on the mountain. They are especially hogging all of the available shade, leaving me exposed to the hot afternoon sun. Overhearing the talk, they are either a church group or a religious school’s field trip as I hear many references to God and other pious topics. In addition, talk of the tragedy of September 11, 2001 reminds me today is that event’s 10-year anniversary.
Moose antler
Wetland below Greenstone Ridge
While enjoying the beautiful scenery, numerous Turkey Vultures fly overhead, spotted first, and incorrectly identified by the church group accompanying me on the mountain. It always strikes me how large these birds are until I get a close-up look.
The hot sun and the feeling of my flesh burning on the back of my neck forces me to move on after a short while, in search of a nice shaded place for a leisurely lunch. I decide the intersection with the Mount Franklin and Lane Cove Trails would be a perfect place for lunch, where I could rest my sore feet before descending from the Greenstone Ridge and starting the penultimate stretch of trail, with the Tobin Harbor Trail being the last.
After descending slightly from Mount Franklin, the intersection appears, complete with a nice large log in one corner completely under the shade of the surrounding trees. The location is perfect for lunch, I could not imagine anything better.
View from Mount Franklin
View from Mount Franklin
After shedding my hiking boots
I spread out, setting up for a comfortable, relaxing and satisfying lunch. This is most likely my last rest before reaching Rock Harbor, where I will spend my last night on Isle Royale. And, I am going to make the most of it.
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