Isle Royale Info

Isle Royale Journal - Spring, 2013

This journal details a trip to Isle Royale National Park, in the Spring of 2013, through words, pictures and videos.

This is a preliminary outline of what I hope to be a full movie one day featuring videos, pictures and narration of the trip. This was truly a unique trip and, most likely, a once in a lifetime experience on the island due to the conditions.

Day Six: Thursday, May 9th

10:07 am:
Brrr… it is a cold morning. Not so much temperature as wind chill. There is a strong north wind blowing right on the front of the shelter. I would guess 15-20 mph with 30-35 mph gusts. It is cold! Luckily we have the front covered well with our extra tarp. At least up to the door and it makes a big difference. We can still feel the wind blowing, but nothing like outside the shelter. We slept in today and I have finished making our coffee. I did not even start coffee until 9:30! There was no reason to open the tent to the cold air and we actually stayed up kind of late sitting in our chairs.

At this point, I do not think we will be paddling today. As Nancy says, "If we do, we may be paddling in circles". I'm thinking we will just stay here and maybe go on a "Moose hunt" and, maybe go to the west point. We know there at least were moose on the island. We will have to see what nature gives us.

1:50 pm, 45° in shelter:
Well, we have been hunkered down in the shelter due to the wind, but the sky has finally turned to blue so, I am at least going to set a camera outside. It is still windy, but we will see how cold it is. I at least am kind of enjoying being out of the wind, relaxing and staring at the world through the door. We are not getting the big gusts now, it is just constant. Our tarp is still always billowed. We definitely will not be paddling over to the fishery today. The wind is just too strong. I can only imagine what it would be like paddling through Middle Islands Passage in this wind and with the currents there and it would be scary.

2:30 pm:
We have decided to go for a walk towards the eastern end of the island on a "Moose hunt". It is still cold and windy, but the sun is out and it should feel better when we start moving around.

6:00 pm:
We are back from our "Moose hunt" with no success. We walked east close the south shore of the island for about an eighth of a mile until we came to a big hill that had some very deep snow. There were foot prints all over, but we did not see any moose. We came back to get warmed up in the lee of the shelter out of the wind before going to the west side of the island with the same results. I went all the way out to the point, but it was cold and windy and I did not stay long. We came back and have moved the picnic table from the front to the west side of the shelter and it is not bad out of the wind. It sure does look a lot nicer than it is temperature wise, but as long as we stay out of the wind, it is pleasant.

7:00 pm:
We are still sitting on the table on the west end of the shelter. We just finished heating up water for dinner and put them in the "oven". We are going to gather up some wood for a potential fire one of these nights. I doubt very much it will be tonight unless the weather changes drastically, but hopefully one of these nights. There is plenty of wood around close by as there are a lot of trees down from the winter. Especially by the tent site, where it looks like a mini-twister went through. The site and table are buried in wood. I would not want to stay in the tent site here in any kind of wind because there are many other trees with potential to fall.

8:10 pm, 43°outside, 29.50" steady, rising:
We are just about to eat our dinner and listen to our daily contact with the outside world in the form of the "Near shore marine forecast". We are sitting on the picnic table on the side of the shelter out of the wind. We gathered a good pile of wood before that. Surprisingly, it looks like there will be a sunset of sorts. The wind is still blowing very hard, but the sky has a good amount of blue in it.

The forecast: a slow moving front will bring high pressure tonight and high winds ending and colder temperatures for Friday and a chance of rain and snow showers for Saturday with northwest winds of 25 mph and gusts of 35-40 mph. Current conditions at Passage Island: 39° North wind at 13 knots gusting to 18 knots.

8:45 pm:
We are all done with dinner and are sitting on the picnic table watching the sun start to sink lower in the sky.

9:03 pm, 45° outside, 29.50" steady, steady:
The wind is starting to die down with just the occasional gust, but the gusts are not near as strong as even an hour ago.

sunset views - 9:53 and 10:13 pm.

9:45 pm:
Nancy is cold so, we are going into the shelter so she can get into her warm sleeping bag.

10:30 pm:
I am in my sleeping bag and ready to close up the tent. We did not accomplish a whole lot today due to the weather, but it could have been worse as it could have been raining or, even snowing. Hopefully tomorrow, the weather will cooperate and we can go on a mission. This marks the halfway point of our trip. We will be leaving a week from today (Thursday). Hopefully we can get to where we want to go once we get picked up on Sunday. Goodnight.