The ferry boat, the Isle Royale Queen IV, is 100 feet long. Bags on top deck, rows of seats inside with a snack bar, room to sit on a kind of raised deck area on the bow as well as standing room there, and a few seats and some standing area on the stern.
Robin and I elected to sit on the raised deck in the bow. Lots of fresh air. The ride over was not rough at all. There was a storm front we passed through at about hour 2 of the 3.5 hour transit. It was really interesting. From far off we could see a front of clouds perpendicular to our direction of travel. As we neared it, we could not see passed it. It was like a curtain. We saw some flashing within the clouds and the captain told us to get off the bow....we were already on our way in. As we passed beneath the front the captain told us it was quite unique. It was very defined. Only about 500 feet from start to finish...piled up clouds on the front line, diminishing toward the back. Lots of wind & stirred up water...no rain at all. The front extended to our right and left as far as we could see. It reminded me of those weather maps on tv that show a front pushing through...it was just a band of weather....on the other side, sunny and clear.
We arrived in Rock Harbor and again everything was handled very efficiently. Lodge people were seperated from campers. Each were given a different kind of orientation to the park. Our orientation was primarily centered on 'Leave No Trace' practices for camping in the back country. Once that was done, we were permitted. We all lined up at the visitor center where we gave the rangers our itinerary and they gave us a permit. This process went quickly, although some folks clearly weren't sure what their plans were. I benefitted greatly from reading 'Beth's Place' on line which inspired me to come here in the first place. Her site may be down now. Once permitted, we went to the Lodge office to check our one suitcase which had clean clothes for our final night stay at the lodge, and our trip back on the ferry. At the office, I mentioned that we'd reserved a water taxi and the lady asked when we wanted to go....I said we're ready to roll, a man who'd been leaning on the counter stood up & headed out a back door....the lady says to me....that was the captain...go meet him on the dock ... A man of few words I thought...
Our taxi boat captain asked us about our itinerary. I told him we planned to stay at Moskey Basin (where he was dropping us off) then hike back to Rock Harbor over the next 2 days. He comments to a dock hand...'Hey Joe...here's a couple of back packers who know how to do it!!'. Well that made me feel good. He said way too many folks come up to 'Conquer the island'. He proceeded to describe a plan that was identical to mine and that really confirmed in my mind that we had a good plan. The one thing he modified was the second half of our last day. He recommended we take the Tobin Bay trail back to Rock Harbor out of Three Mile rather than the Rock Harbor trail...more on that later. The taxi ride out was a bit rough at first as the wind was rising. As we got out of the Rock Harbor main entrance and into the lee of the barrier islands on the way to Moskey, the ride smoothed out a bit.
We were dropped at Moskey at about 2pm? The ranger who permitted us had told us the best shelter to stay in was toward the end of the line of shelters, having a view back up the bay. There were 8 shelters and the first 3 were taken. I'm beginning to think...man! I hope we get one. At the 4th, Robin sat down to hang onto it just in case. I walked in further & found the rest open. We found the one she'd told us about ... #7. It was awesome. As promised, our site had a wonderful view out onto the lake & up the basin.
We un-loaded our packs, had lunch (sausage, cheese and trail mix), then strapped on our lightened packs with water, some lite snacks and rain gear for a day trip to Lake Richie. This was a 4 mile round trip, and served kind of as a shake down walk for us. The temp was pretty warm...maybe 85, and our packs were relatively light...even so, I was pretty tired when we got back to camp. Robin did extremely well on this trip, but I am clearly out of shape. Robin spent the next few hours trying to keep me awake. I was beat. It reminded me of the first night of our backpack trip in the Sierras. I think my body needs a day to adjust to the exertion or something. Anyway, we had our dinner and spent the next hour or so reading to each other from a book Robin brought. We went to sleep before the sun fully set at 9pm or so, with the sound of approaching thunder in our ears. Perhaps an hour later, I was awakened by the loud thunder and the beginning of the rain. All that night it seemed, there was lightning, thunder and torrential rain. Thank God we had that shelter. I'm sure our little tent would have been inundated & we would have had wet sleeping bags for the rest of the trip if we'd been tenting it. During the night, a couple of groups came in looking for shelters....we didn't offer ours.
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