By John Keefover of Keefography
Isle Royale National Park
Backpacking Trip Report May 24 - June 1st 2021
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DAY 2 - MAY 25 2021
Rock Harbor to Lane Cove: 7.3 miles
We met Ben back at the airport in the morning. He said while he was driving up the shore there was quite a bit of fog over the lake again... We once again loaded up the Isle Royale Seaplanes Cessna, but this time before flying we waited for the conditions to improve.
Hours went by... Windigo was completely socked in with fog still. The other pilot once again said the Rock Harbor side of the Isle was clear though. Just to get us out there and not further delay their other flights after us, they offered to fly us to Rock Harbor now and to pick us up at Windigo instead when we return. We jumped on the opportunity, anxious to get to hiking after being in a tiny airport for a day & half. It means our route was going to get flip flopped which was fine since we had to alter it anyway after losing a day already.
For the fourth time we were up in the air! Much nicer skies this time around. Blue skies and sunshine lit up the boreal forests below us. Then we got to the cloud cover on the lake. It was thick, but we were able to fly above it. A sea of clouds all around us was a little unsettling knowing below it somewhere was miles and miles of water. The enormity of the fog and cloud cover on the lake is really put into perspective from above.
Above the fog & clouds over Lake Superior.
While we’re flying over Lake Superior a quick note about our pilot, Stuart. He’s an awesome guy and it was good getting to know him a bit while we had been waiting. For the last 6 years he has been flying in Juneau, Alaska and is now flying us around on what was supposed to be his day off! We were in good hands. Speaking of hands, he gestured down below saying Windigo Harbor was somewhere below us in the fog. He says we’re going to continue on along the length of the island to find a place to punch through the fog.
Isle Royale partially enshrouded in fog.
The skies started to open up around Rock Harbor. We circled around it looking for a proper opening and landing spot on the brilliant turquoise waters below. It was so cool seeing the fog lingering amongst the long fingers and ridges of the Isle. Stuart finessed us down onto the water to our cheers. We still had to taxi quite a bit with our only open landing spot being far away from the dock, but we finally made it!
The sun was shining and it was much clearer over by Rock harbor.
We unloaded the plane and said goodbye to Stuart as we were greeted by the National Park Rangers. They went over Leave No Trace principles, history of the island, and helped us figure out our new route now that everything changed from the original plan. We decided that our first night will be up to Lane Cove. Before we set off though we had to go pick up fuel canisters at the store for our camp stoves since they’re not allowed on the plane. We bought 4 of them just to be safe. Found out that they’re $10 each, and of course you can’t bring them back on the plane with you so you have to return them once you’re done, or give them to some new arrivals on the island.
Our pilot, Stuart, after arriving at Rock Harbor.
We were finally ready to hit the trail! From Rock Harbor there’s two trails to Lane Cove. You can take the Tobin Trail which we were told is pretty flat and easy going, or the more rugged Rock Harbor Trail. We decided on the later for more of a challenge after being cooped up in an airport forever! We followed the trail along the foggy shoreline making a quick stop at Suzie’s Cave. It’s a relatively small cave in the side of a rocky outcrop, partially caved in with a small opening at the backside. It was a nice stop especially taking off our fully loaded packs for a bit.
Foggy shoreline along the Rock Harbor Trail.
Eventually we got to Threemile campground after, you guessed it, three miles... Shortly after that we came upon a swampy area where Ben spotted a cow moose off in the distance. Even from far away we could see it had a collar around its neck. They must be studying it for something. Moose on day 1! Then we went up to the Mt. Franklin junction and down to Lane Cove. The spur to Lane Cove was quite the trail. The sign read 2.3 miles, and the map says 2.4 but it seemed much longer than that! It just kept going and going with lots of elevation changes and big downed trees to slow you down. Some of them were due to beavers chewing them down even though they were comically too large for them to move. Have to give them credit for their dedication though.
One of the many boardwalks on the way to Lane Cove.
We finally made it down to the campground and went with site #1 right in the shallow cove thinking it would be our best bet to see moose. Nick wasted no time, stripping down and running into the water buck-naked to cool off. Chad followed after. Me and Ben just kept on setting up our tents… After what seemed like a long hike here with bags full of food we finished our camp chores and made dinner. We checked out site #2 which had a better chill area and a nice view of the sunset. You could see Canada off in the distance now that the fog cleared up a bit. Site #3 was the only other site occupied with a father/daughter pair we would meet later the next day. Besides them we saw 6 other people on the trail all day. That was what we thought our experience would be most of the trip but as we were soon to find out with the Memorial Day weekend coming up, the Island was “packed” the rest of the time....
Sunset directly across from campsite #2 at Lane Cove.
We looked at the map to study what would be our biggest hike of the trip tomorrow at 13 miles over to McCargoe Cove. The day started off hot & humid, but now the wind was picking up off of Lake Superior and it was cold. We retreated to our tents for an early night just after sunset.
Trip Report from backpacking the 42 mile long Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Trail. It follows sandy beaches and dramatic cliffs along Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.