4 days on Isle Royale.
Having a chance being on Isle Royale, even a short period, is going to be the resume point of my blogging. I did it once, but my blog server had so tiny international bandwidth together with my extremely indolence forcing me to quit. So.. Where on earth is Isle Royale ? An island in lake Superior, not a favorable as Grand Canyon, Alaska, or Yellow Stone, even most Chicagoans' never heard its name. Soo.. why the Isle ? Well, at first, the plan was Grand Teton + Yellow Stone by flying to Salted Lake, renting a car and driving there 300 miles to minimize travel cost, however, just before we started booking tickets, my utility and geico bills unexpectedly arrived completely messing everything up. Isle Royale on the other hand is drivable from Chicago, 470 miles to Copper Harbor or 600 miles to Grand Portage and the more important thing, not many chances we do have to spend on the island which is good for our small budget. 
In the labor day period, since we acted in the last minute and I didn't know where those humans came from, they booked all seats to Isle Royale of all habors in Michigan. Fortunately, on the other harbor, Grand Portage, Minnesota, still had some seats for us. Ticket is also cheaper and it's just 3 hours from island. The only disadvantage is we had to go further, however, I don't think it's a bad choice, thanks to the beauty of MN Highway 61, it paid every cent of gas. 
My girlfriend, Nok. She looked like a seal in this shot... Haha.. 
The sky was clear, the water was smooth, no sign of rain, great! 
It's been proven, sleeping on boat is a favorite activity. ![]()
Arrived at Windingo, orangish color on rocks are quite banal in many spots next to water. 
As you can see, within 4 days, we could visit only small portions of the whole island. Immediately, after the home room of rangers and some paper works we headed to Huggin cove because it looks easies t without knowing that it's real tough, tons of slope, especially on the left side of the circle, and not much to see Green Green Green and Greeeeennn... Hiking 5 hours getting only 5 miles is nothing surprise of these trials. 
I didn't have a wide angle capable of capturing the beauty of the cove. Camp sites are set up along sides of the cove, it seemed like we were circling an exciting thing in the center, I had imagined meese swimming in the center of it, but in fact nothing was there... just a lonely beautiful cove. 
In this island, clean water is only available from the visitor centers or provided taps, others are claimed to be unsafe. The ranger suggests to boil unsafe water for at least 2 minutes or filter it with a XXXmicron filter, sounding insane to me.. Actually, the filter is available in grocery stores in the island which costs around 30-60 bucks, so you should bring yours from the mainland. Boiling is not effective since, you have to get dirt free water, boil it, let it cool down, and it's usually not enough. However, as far as I saw, the water in the lake around the island is real clean, but we have to grab it a little further from the shore, otherwise it will contains dirt. At that time, we didn't have any filter and boiling is not effect, so what we did is just drinking it, it tasted great. 
This guy, Ocean, he brought twelve bottles of Gatorade and many bottles of water to avoid any change drinking lake water, making his backpack almost 35 pounds. He's too paranoid.. Most campgrounds on the island prohibit campfire inorder to prevent forest fire and preserve the wilderness, the only heat they allow is from propane or others form of concealed fuel. 
Another activity besides hiking is kayaking, you can rent a kayak from the grocery stores if haven't brought from the mainland, many prefer it to speed boat because they can leave it anywhere without docks which are not available in many exquisite spots. In the Grand Portage, I met a guy from middle of Michigan who was going to kayak around the island, he said it's easier to start from Windingo than doing it from the Rock Harbor, I'm still wondering why!? 
Meditating woman at the cove. 
Mushroom / berries are abundant, the only problem is we don't know which one is edible or not, mushroom / berry guide book should be very useful when your food is eaten out. 
In the morning, I could catch some dew under the giant mushroom, it's cold in the dark (around 40F) and quite hot in the day in this early September, however, the water is really cold all the time, not many lake fish could stand that condition. 
We stayed only one night in the cove, even though we wish we could stay long, our schedule was so tight, we needed to keep going to complete the circle. 
Being bored with e300, I picked up my OM-2s with my pride, it's equiped with Ilford XP2 400. 
In the second half of the circle, there are numerous interesting places, not that green green GREEEN like the first half. 
At last we could get back the visitor center and camp at a shelter in Washington campground. Although, this campground is not far from the harbor, it's unspoiled and sit along a small canal where birds feed. 
When I woke up at 6am., a heron was hunting, I was able to setup my tripod and the great tamron 80-200/2.8, but was fooled by the E300 LCD, compensating too much light which made most closed up shots over saturated. Here are some usable images. 
The fatigue from the fist two days hiking told us to rent a motor boat to explore mini islands and the open water instead. 
We stop at the shipwreck site, I don't know if it's made up or not, the visitor center claimed about 20 middle-size boat were going down the lake in this same spot in the 18s. There's also a legend attached to the door of the rest rooms, anyone pooping there will enjoy reading it. 
The best way to enjoy the shipwreck is to scuba diving, many do. Our next stop is Grace island, no camp site here, uniquely beautiful. 
Nothing special for this flower, I just love the bokeh of the image. 
The end of the day, we headed to Beaver island, it's the only island in this area that has campsite and motor boat accessible. 
The mini island has no beaver, but really gorgeous, shelters mixed very well with wilderness here. 
We were not supposed to set up a campfire there, but we didn't know we shouldn't at that time, sorry for rangers who cleaned our mess. We were also not supposed to feed wildlife animal, BUT this blue bird was so irresistable !!! 
He came serveral times, holding given food, flying back to his nest. We guess he's having babies, please excuse us.. 
In the morning at Beaver island, I was able to capture beauty of main island. 
It's pretty cold, sympathy to Ocean, he has to walk with his sleeping bag around body. 
Another heron cought in the air. 
This is not squirrel usually found in the mainland, I don't remember how they're called, they're much smaller than squirrel and can generate high pitch noise when stranger trespasses to their territory . 
The next day, we headed back to Grand Portage. 
There are two ferry to the isle from Grand Portage, Voyager II and Winonah. 
Nok indulged herself on this new sweater with my money.... :0 Noo! On the road back, we stopped at Grand Marias for ice cream and a good dinner. (had been eating only noodle cups all 4 days in island.) 
Grand Marias is a lovely city, actually various placing along the MN 61 are so special, but we were hurry back to work, hadn't stopped anywhere else. 
Statistic shows the number of visitors to Isle Royale throughout a year is less than the number of visitors to Yellowstone within a day, but it has the highest number of returning visitors of all national parks in US. A ranger told us the island has magic bringing people back, now I understand what she meant. Places on the island have their own highlight, are not easy to explore, and getting there is at least half of the fun, this feeling makes visitors curious and brings them back. I hadn't encountered a massive moose in close range(just saw one swimming a mile away on binoculars) and been only in slightly parts of the Isle, probably, I'll give another try next year. Oh don't forget to bring a good binoculars, it's will make difference on Isle Royale.
In the labor day period, since we acted in the last minute and I didn't know where those humans came from, they booked all seats to Isle Royale of all habors in Michigan. Fortunately, on the other harbor, Grand Portage, Minnesota, still had some seats for us. Ticket is also cheaper and it's just 3 hours from island. The only disadvantage is we had to go further, however, I don't think it's a bad choice, thanks to the beauty of MN Highway 61, it paid every cent of gas. My girlfriend, Nok. She looked like a seal in this shot... Haha.. The sky was clear, the water was smooth, no sign of rain, great! It's been proven, sleeping on boat is a favorite activity. As you can see, within 4 days, we could visit only small portions of the whole island. Immediately, after the home room of rangers and some paper works we headed to Huggin cove because it looks easies t without knowing that it's real tough, tons of slope, especially on the left side of the circle, and not much to see Green Green Green and Greeeeennn... Hiking 5 hours getting only 5 miles is nothing surprise of these trials. I didn't have a wide angle capable of capturing the beauty of the cove. Camp sites are set up along sides of the cove, it seemed like we were circling an exciting thing in the center, I had imagined meese swimming in the center of it, but in fact nothing was there... just a lonely beautiful cove. In this island, clean water is only available from the visitor centers or provided taps, others are claimed to be unsafe. The ranger suggests to boil unsafe water for at least 2 minutes or filter it with a XXXmicron filter, sounding insane to me.. Actually, the filter is available in grocery stores in the island which costs around 30-60 bucks, so you should bring yours from the mainland. Boiling is not effective since, you have to get dirt free water, boil it, let it cool down, and it's usually not enough. However, as far as I saw, the water in the lake around the island is real clean, but we have to grab it a little further from the shore, otherwise it will contains dirt. At that time, we didn't have any filter and boiling is not effect, so what we did is just drinking it, it tasted great. This guy, Ocean, he brought twelve bottles of Gatorade and many bottles of water to avoid any change drinking lake water, making his backpack almost 35 pounds. He's too paranoid.. Most campgrounds on the island prohibit campfire inorder to prevent forest fire and preserve the wilderness, the only heat they allow is from propane or others form of concealed fuel. Another activity besides hiking is kayaking, you can rent a kayak from the grocery stores if haven't brought from the mainland, many prefer it to speed boat because they can leave it anywhere without docks which are not available in many exquisite spots. In the Grand Portage, I met a guy from middle of Michigan who was going to kayak around the island, he said it's easier to start from Windingo than doing it from the Rock Harbor, I'm still wondering why!? Meditating woman at the cove. Mushroom / berries are abundant, the only problem is we don't know which one is edible or not, mushroom / berry guide book should be very useful when your food is eaten out. In the morning, I could catch some dew under the giant mushroom, it's cold in the dark (around 40F) and quite hot in the day in this early September, however, the water is really cold all the time, not many lake fish could stand that condition. We stayed only one night in the cove, even though we wish we could stay long, our schedule was so tight, we needed to keep going to complete the circle. Being bored with e300, I picked up my OM-2s with my pride, it's equiped with Ilford XP2 400. In the second half of the circle, there are numerous interesting places, not that green green GREEEN like the first half. At last we could get back the visitor center and camp at a shelter in Washington campground. Although, this campground is not far from the harbor, it's unspoiled and sit along a small canal where birds feed. When I woke up at 6am., a heron was hunting, I was able to setup my tripod and the great tamron 80-200/2.8, but was fooled by the E300 LCD, compensating too much light which made most closed up shots over saturated. Here are some usable images. The fatigue from the fist two days hiking told us to rent a motor boat to explore mini islands and the open water instead. We stop at the shipwreck site, I don't know if it's made up or not, the visitor center claimed about 20 middle-size boat were going down the lake in this same spot in the 18s. There's also a legend attached to the door of the rest rooms, anyone pooping there will enjoy reading it. The best way to enjoy the shipwreck is to scuba diving, many do. Our next stop is Grace island, no camp site here, uniquely beautiful. Nothing special for this flower, I just love the bokeh of the image. The end of the day, we headed to Beaver island, it's the only island in this area that has campsite and motor boat accessible. The mini island has no beaver, but really gorgeous, shelters mixed very well with wilderness here. We were not supposed to set up a campfire there, but we didn't know we shouldn't at that time, sorry for rangers who cleaned our mess. We were also not supposed to feed wildlife animal, BUT this blue bird was so irresistable !!! He came serveral times, holding given food, flying back to his nest. We guess he's having babies, please excuse us.. In the morning at Beaver island, I was able to capture beauty of main island. It's pretty cold, sympathy to Ocean, he has to walk with his sleeping bag around body. Another heron cought in the air. This is not squirrel usually found in the mainland, I don't remember how they're called, they're much smaller than squirrel and can generate high pitch noise when stranger trespasses to their territory . The next day, we headed back to Grand Portage. There are two ferry to the isle from Grand Portage, Voyager II and Winonah. Nok indulged herself on this new sweater with my money.... :0 Noo! On the road back, we stopped at Grand Marias for ice cream and a good dinner. (had been eating only noodle cups all 4 days in island.) Grand Marias is a lovely city, actually various placing along the MN 61 are so special, but we were hurry back to work, hadn't stopped anywhere else. Statistic shows the number of visitors to Isle Royale throughout a year is less than the number of visitors to Yellowstone within a day, but it has the highest number of returning visitors of all national parks in US. A ranger told us the island has magic bringing people back, now I understand what she meant. Places on the island have their own highlight, are not easy to explore, and getting there is at least half of the fun, this feeling makes visitors curious and brings them back. I hadn't encountered a massive moose in close range(just saw one swimming a mile away on binoculars) and been only in slightly parts of the Isle, probably, I'll give another try next year. Oh don't forget to bring a good binoculars, it's will make difference on Isle Royale.
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