Leslie and David's Wanderings: August 2023

Monday, August 28, 2023

23-27 August 2023 Isle Royale National Park

Our final park in the lower 48 States to visit for the first time, Isle Royale National Park, seemed like a distant dream 6 years ago. We have been looking forward to this excursion all year. We left the Wanderer parked in Ontonagon and drove up to Copper Harbor, near the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula, the day before our ferry ride. The trip started out on a fun note. When we punched in the address for the motel in Copper Harbor, the Behemoths navigation system gave us some route options. We chose a route that looked like it would keep us near the coast for possible views of the lake. About ten miles into the route, the road turned into a gravel road, then into dirt roads, and finally it tried to take us down an over grown logging road! So we reprogrammed it to get us to the nearest pavement! The route went down to a couple of ruts before it finally ran into a larger dirt road. We came up behind another vehicle which was slowly muzzling along the dirt road for a few miles with nowhere to pass. We followed along and it eventually pulled off to the side to let us pass which is when we found out it was a game warden on patrol! Were sure she was wondering why these crazy Texans were on these back country dirt roads in Michigan! We pulled into Copper Harbor about 5Pm. We stayed at the Minnetonka Resort. We don’t think the “resort” has been renovated since the 1960s. We had dinner at the Harbor Haus, which bills itself as a German Restaurant. It did not live up to its reputation, but did have beautiful views of the lake. Next morning, we were up early to park the Behemoth and board the Isle Royale Queen 4 for the ride out to the Island. We were both tired as the bed and pillows were very uncomfortable. One reason why we wanted to have our RV was we did not want to drive around the country and stay in hotels because hotel beds SUCK!

The cruise over was a long 3.5 hours and we were in fog and mist almost all the way across. We lost cell phone signals about an hour into the cruise and did not get them back until an hour out on the way back. We arrived at Rock Harbor around 11:30. The hotel picked up our bag at the boat and took it up to the hotel (and later to our room). We were lucky, and our room was ready when we checked in. After dropping our packs, we stepped out on the deck behind our room to find a gorgeous view of the lake and islands (we would spend many hours sitting on the deck and taking in that view!). We headed back to the front office to see if the line for check ins had finally gone down so we could check on booking boat tours. We were in luck and they were ready to book tours. So, we booked the boat tour for that afternoon out to Rock Harbor Light House and a Sunset Cruise for the next day ($31 per person for each). We then headed over to check out the dining options. There are two restaurants on the island, both run by Aramark. One is the Lighthouse Restaurant and Greenstone Grill. The Lighthouse is only open for breakfast and dinner. So, we ate lunch at the Greenstone Grill. The food was very bland which set the tone for dining during our stay, subpar. We went back to the room and changed before heading for The Sandy, our tour boat. While we waited to board the Sandy, a black fox with a white tipped tail darted out of the woods and ran down the trail before disappearing into the woods on the other side of the restaurants. Captain Joe and his first mate Chris, took us down Rock Harbor to the Edisen Fishery. There we docked and were met by a Park Volunteer who told us about the fishery and explained our hiking options. We first headed up to the Rock Harbor Lighthouse. The Lighthouse was built in 1855 to guided copper ore ships. The light was extinguished in 1859 after the copper mines on the isles closed. Then relite in 1874 when copper prices went up and the mines on the islands reopened. Just to be shut down again in 1879, never to be relite. After the Lighthouse tour, we went over to the headquarters of the Wolf and Moose Research Study since 1960. There we met the two researchers, now in their 70s, that have been coming out to this remote camp every summer since 1960 to study the interaction and health of the moose (over 900 on the islands) and wolves (between 30 and 40) populations of the islands. There are over 400 islands (not including rock isles) in Isle Royal National Park. It was fun to talk with the two researchers, the Petersons, and learn about the moose and wolfs. We then went back to the fishery to explore the buildings and talk with the park Volunteer. She and her husband have been volunteering at this remote location every summer for the past 13 years. From late May to late September, they take care of the fishery and greet guests. We then hooped on the slow boat back to the lodge as clouds and fog moved back in. Our second day on the islands, we woke to drizzle and fog. Not wanting to risk slipping on wet rocks or getting drenched, we hung out on our deck and enjoyed the view. Later in the morning, the clouds cleared out and the sun came out. We thought about going for a hike, but decided to go to the Ranger station after lunch. We checked on the weather and saw there was an increased chance of rain, so we got our passport stamp, bought our park cup, hat, and post cards before heading back to our room. Sure enough, the clouds rolled in and the island got drenched by heavy down pours for a couple of hours, then again cleared out. It looked promising for our sunset tour. The island runs Northeast to Southwest, so to see the sunset, we have to go out around the furthest point to the Northeast to be able to see west and the sunset over Canada. As the Sandy slowly chugged out of the harbor and to the point, we could see clouds building to the north and west. When we came around the point, the waves picked up and we could see the rain and clouds on the western horizon. Captain Joe hung around as long as he could, but the clouds to the west toward Sleeping Giant Mountain in Canada did not break up, so we would not get to see the sunset. Meantime a wall cloud headed toward us out of the north so Captain joe headed us back to the lodge with fog and rain chasing us the whole way. We managed to get back to our room before the skies opened up. As we were pulling up to the dock, First Mate Chris was warning everyone to watch out for moose as they liked to walk the trails between buildings and campsites at night. Saturday the sun was out and the temperatures were in the 60s. Perfect for our hike out to Scoville Point via Stoll trail (5 Miles, 187 feet of elevation gain, 1608 calories burned). We had seen the point from the Sandy when we went out on the sunset cruise and were happy to see it from land. The trail broke out of the trees frequently on the Rock Harbor side leaving nice views of the islands and lake. The trail back along the Tobin Harbor side was back in the forest so we did not get to see a lot. But we kept our eyes open for Moose! The next morning, we packed our bag for the bell hop to pick up and headed out on Tobin Harbor Trail (we made a slight detour to the Sea Plane harbor). We only hiked 3.2 miles (177 feet of elevation gain, 987 calories burned) of the trail to be back in plenty of time to catch the ferry. We ran into one lady who said she saw a wolf dart off the trail in front of her. We only saw a few squirrels. The tour boat ride back was long and boring. We arrived back at Copper Harbor, loaded up the Behemoth and headed back to the Wanderer (100 mile drive). Along the way, we stopped at a McDonalds to pick up some dinner, which turned out to be the best meal of the trip! Our only regret was that we did not get to see a moose. You would think with over 900 of the things on a contained island, we would have seen at least one! But everyone we talked to said the same thing, none of them had seen a moose. Talking with folks in the restaurants, boats and tours, there were a lot of couples about our age that were in the high 50s or just at 60 national parks visited. This was our 57^th.

Isle Royal Entrance Sign at Rock Harbor

Isle Royal Queen IV

View from our deck

Rock Harbor

Black Fox

Moose Antler Collection at Research Station

Rock Harbor Lighthouse

Sunset Cruise

Sunset at Rock Harbor

Almost back to the mainland

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

21 August 2023 Porcupine Mountains State Park

We had heard good things about Porcupine Mountains State park which is only 15 miles down the road. We really did not know what to expect when we drove into the park. We were surprised to see many more trees starting to change colors already. The visitor Center was closed for construction, so we just drove into the park and looked around. We followed the road along the coast until we came to a manned pay station. There, a ranger provided us a map and some suggestions on what to do as well as took our payment ($11). We drove to the end of the road and took the trail there to the overlook for Lake of the Clouds. The view from the cliff top was beautiful and we could just imagine what it would be if the trees were all changing color. We then drove around to the Presque Isle River section of the park and visited several water falls along the Presque Isle River. When we got home, David researched the Presque Isle River and was surprised to find out the headwaters of the river is a lake that he and his parents used to go fishing on in the summers when he was young. Serendipity.

Entrance Sign

Lake of the Clouds

Water fall

Waterfall on Presque Isle River

20 August 2023 Iron River WI to Ontonagon MI

The 145 mile drive from Iron River to Ontonagon Michigan primarily followed US2 across the top of Wisconsin and into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We didn’t take the most direct route due to some road closures due to construction. The roads up here could use some help! We are staying in the small town of Ontonagon on the shore of Lake Superior. We had wanted to stay closer to Copper Harbor, but there were no RV parks on the peninsula that could take our big rig. We are at the River Road RV Park ($30 per night, no discount).

18-19 August 2023 Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

When we researched the Apostle Islands, we found that the majority of activates center around having a boat to be able to get out to the islands. But we found that the lower shoreline, outside the Red Cliff Reservation, had some trails that led to overlooks from the tops of cliffs above various sea caves. We considered getting out our kayaks and following the lake shore, but the previous two days there were gale warnings on this part of Lake Superior, so we figured it might be a bit rough on the big lake in our little kayaks. We drove over to the parking are for Meyers Beach Sea Caves and hiked the trail all the way to the far side of the Bowl (5.22 miles, 318 feet of elevation gain, 1676 calories burned). The first mile of the trail is on board walk through the forest. Once you reached the cliffs above the sea caves, there were peeks at the cliff faces and caves undercutting the shoreline. But there were a lot of trees along the cliff edge that limited the views of the beautiful cliffs. We saw a lot of people on guided kayak tours using sea kayaks that are made to handle the bigger waves of the big lake. But today the lake was pretty quiet. After our hike, we drove north to the visitor center and Sand Bay. There we learned about boat tours around the islands that leave from Bayfield. So we drove over to Bayfield to check out the little harbor town and have dinner on the waterfront. We decided to take one of the tours the next day. The ranger had recommended the late tour for the better light. So we took the 4:30 tour and got there a couple hours of early to explore the shops and get an early dinner. The tour took us out on Lake Superior on a route that would allow us to see all the islands. Unfortunately there was a lot of smoke from Canadian wild fires that have been burning all summer. So, some of the islands were blurry smudges. But we did go out to the furthest island, Devil’s Island, to see the incredible sea caves on the outer most shore and the light house on the island. It wasn’t the greatest boat tour we have had, but we can say we have seen all the Apostle Islands.