Edison Fisheries and Peterson's Wolf Study, Isle Royale

Isle Royale continued:

After a few days of stormy weather Monday dawned clear and bright. We headed back to the Kemmer cottage to finish what we could of the boat house. It was not an easy job as the building sat on a rocky slope, and maneuvering the ladders and getting them level enough to work from was quite a chore. We ended up running out of paint before we finished.

Bob reaches up to the eaves. I worked on the green trim.

This is as far as we got the boat house. The second crew did some roof work and replaced rotted soffits and finished painting.

After lunch, four of us newbies took an hour boat ride down to the Edison Fisheries and to the Peterson's place, home of the decade's long wolf study. The Petersons have been studying the connection between the moose and wolves on the island, as controlled a study as is possible thanks to the confined nature of the island. I will not go into a lot of detail about their work, but you can visit their website/blog to learn all about it: www.isleroyalewolf.org  They are currently on the island doing their winter study, which is about the only time they can determine how many wolves are on the island, which last I heard was up to ten or eleven.

Map showing relation of Dassler cabin to the fishery and Peterson's.

It was a gorgeous, calm afternoon and we had a pleasant ride. We had to dock at the fishery as there was no room to dock at the Peterson's. We spent a little time exploring the buildings.

Edison Fisheries.

Alan chats with a Park Ranger while Liz and Annika look around.

I had to get a shot of these old motors. I grew up on a lake and I remember
there being one or two in the old boathouse.

There were some curiosities along the way, including this:

Sign on a picket fence that ringed a small area off the trail.

The Peterson's place was not really "their" place. Like all of the structures on the island it belonged to the Parks, and was known officially as the Bangsund Cabin after the family who last lived there. I love the cherry red paint and colorful window boxes.

Bangsund Cabin, headquarters of the Isle Royale Wolf-Moose Study

One of the things the Petersons have done is to collect moose bones. They send several teams out every spring to bushwhack the backcountry and bring back any bones they find. The result is an impressive collection, which can be studied to determine age, health and cause of death of these huge animals.

Collection of leg bones, lower jaws to the left.

The sign says, "Yes, They grow new ones every year!"

A few of the more impressive skulls were displayed separately. The tag reads: "Found by EarthWatch volunteers SW of Wood Lake, 2001.Moderate periodontitis. BIG! - metatarsus 404 mm."

This one was out there for a while!

We had the privilege of speaking to Candy Peterson for a while--Rolf was busy working on the roof of one of the buildings. She was gracious and a wealth of information. Of course, we had brought them cookies....

We left after about an hour as we needed to get back in time for dinner. It was a remarkable experience, one I didn't think I would enjoy but ended up finding quite fascinating. During one of our rainy days I had read over the copy of the 2013 Winter Study that someone had purchased and left in the cabin, and that helped pique my interest.  Oddly enough, I would run into Rolf two more times on this trip, once on the trail with Candy and another fellow, and once on the Ranger III returning to Houghton.

Next: my last night at Dassler and a hike up to Mt. Franklin

Rain and Fog, Isle Royale NP

Isle Royale continued:

After our day off and my very enjoyable hike to Rock Harbor with my new BFF Mary, I slept like a baby. John had caught wind of my chilly nights and gave me a wool blanket--what a difference! I woke at 6 am, and lay in my bag for a while enjoying being warm. I waited too long, though, and it started to rain. Not hard, but in a tent any rain sounds like a downpour. I crawled out of my bag, got dressed and donned my rain gear, and headed to the cabin for breakfast.

The rain never amounted to much, so I spent Saturday working with Mike, Jim and Bob at the Kemmer cottage, painting the boat house.

Mike behind the Kemmer cottage. Mrs. Kemmer, who wintered in Hawaii, kept gardens at her cottage, which are now overgrown.

Jim paints the boat house. 

We got a full day of work in, although by the end of the day a light rain was falling along with the temperature, and I could see my breath. After dinner we had a brief, heavy rain, and we started a fire in the fireplace to knock the chill back. Out of nowhere the wind started to howl. The sun had come out and we were taken aback by the sudden gusts. I grabbed my camera and ran outside. The wind was blowing up Tobin Harbor from the southwest, and menacing clouds plowed across the sky to the north and east.

Storm clouds pass to our north.

It was still clear to our west, so the sun lit the small islands, producing a beautiful juxtaposition with the grey sky and steely water.

As quickly as it had come up, the wind died back down. I sat and watched the weather for some time before fog started to roll in from the west, dimming the sun. Big swells were pushing in from the northeast, indicating weather and wind far out over Superior. It was eerie, since the surface of the water had calmed, but the swells were crashing against the rocks below me.

Fog and low clouds obscure the sun.

Just like that, visibility dropped to less than a half mile. I was struck by how quickly the weather changed, so dynamic near such a large body of cold water.

Scoville Point across the cove from Dassler cabin in the thickening fog.

Fog descends on the Stack cottage on Minong Island.

The bench overlooking Tobin Harbor, the Dassler cabin in the background.

Finally, around 4:30 Sunday morning, the storms caught us. Lightening flashed and thunder boomed, and I lay there trying to remember if there were any trees nearby large enough to reach my tent. By the time I got up at 6:30 the storms had passed and the sky was clearing.

Dawn from my tent.

We headed back to the Kemmer cottage Sunday morning. John was talking about sending us newbies over to visit with Rolf and Candy Peterson, who have been studying the wolves and moose on the island for nearly 50 years, after lunch. But I didn't have a warm and fuzzy feeling about the weather--it felt unsettled to me--and the morning forecast confirmed a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. I told John to count me out.

We worked on the boat house until lunch, then returned to Dassler. The sky began to darken, clouds chasing us across the harbor, and it started raining around 1:30 pm. It didn't let up until nearly 4:30, so no more work got done that day, and no one went to see the Petersons. We decided we would try for Monday afternoon.

Storms loom over Tobin Harbor, with the old pilings for the Dassler dock in the foreground. Due to the location of this dock, it was constantly getting ripped apart by ice and waves, and so has not been replaced.

After the rain passed I went down to the cove to fetch water to filter. A pair of Spotted sandpipers were making their way around the steaming rocks, which were now warming in the sun.

Scoville Point after the rain.

Spotted sandpiper looking for goodies.

Trees near Dassler cabin.

It was not long, though, before the fog pushed in again, thicker than the day before. I stayed in the cabin for a while, writing in my journal and sketching the layout of the cabin as well as a map showing the immediate area with the names of the small islands. (My plan, though I may not get to it, is to set up a page with my journal entries and I'll include those sketches there.)

Fog around Scoville Point

Next: Finishing the Kemmer boat house, and a trip to visit the Peterson's

On the Stoll Memorial Trail, Isle Royale NP

Isle Royale continued:

Thursday dawned as clear and bright as the first two days on the island, and after breakfast Liz and I took a short boat trip to Minong Island to do some painting at the Stack cottage. What an amazing place that was (but for some reason I did not get any pictures!). The house sits on the very tip of the island (see map below) and has amazing views of the end of Tobin Harbor and the great expanse of Lake Superior beyond. It is a castle compared to the other dwellings on the island--huge living room, three sizable bedrooms and a great big kitchen. The whole place is full of big windows, with a whole wall of them on the east side, and a covered porch off the kitchen. It would be an amazing place for the Artist-in-Residence, except for two things--it's on an island, so one could easily be cut off for days in bad weather, and there are no pit toilets, due to the thinness of the soil on Minong. That means chemical toilets only, which require more care, and I suppose they don't trust folks to take care of them properly.

Map showing Dassler and Stack dwellings and the Stoll Trail.

Liz and I worked on one of the two outhouses behind the cottage. Before we arrived the roofs had been removed, and while we scraped and painted the exterior on one outhouse, a few of the guys were busy replacing the roof on the second outhouse. The interior was empty, its floor having rotted out some time ago, but there was still a roll of tissue hanging inside, under this really cute folk art fish. We did not touch the interior.

Outhouse artwork at Stack cottage.

Friday, our third full day on the island, was our day off. Mary and I had decided to take a hike into Rock Harbor, maybe take showers, get some lunch, and do a little shopping at the gift store. It was another glorious day, and we were on the trail by 9 am.

Black duck in the cove near Dassler--another new bird!

Zack and Liz decided to spend their day off hiking from Daisy Farm, where they were dropped off, up to Mt. Franklin and back to Dassler, a jaunt of about 12 miles. That seemed much too ambitious for me, although I would undertake a similar hike later on.

Zack, Liz, John and Allen in our skiff.  Just look at that beautifully calm water! 

The views from the Stoll Memorial Trail, which runs from Rock Harbor to Scoville Point along the south side of the peninsula, were just stunning. Every view of the water and landscape was magical.

Dassler sleeping cabin from Scoville Point. The main cabin is hidden in the trees on the end of the point.

Up on Scoville Point

Stoll Memorial Trail. It amazes me that trees can grow in such a harsh climate in such thin soil.

We stopped a lot to watch birds and examine flowers. It took us over two hours to hike the two miles to Rock Harbor!

Calypso orchids. June is orchid season and I saw quite a few on the island.

Stoll Memorial Trail--yes, that's a trial that zigs to the right a bit.

Mary and I stopped here for a snack.

The whole hike was pure eye candy. I wanted to melt into the scenery.

We did finally make it to Rock Harbor, and had a wonderful lunch at the cafe. I devoured a veggie burger. I don't think there's anything better than a burger when you're really hungry. We were both shocked to discover that tokens for the showers were six bucks, so we decided to wash our hair in a bucket back at camp, even though we'd dragged towels and clean clothes with us.  I picked up a few T-shirts at the gift shop and had another ice cream sandwich before we started back.

Rock Harbor with the Isle Royale Queen IV at the docks. That boat sails from Copper Harbor, at the tip of the Keewenaw. It is therefore a shorter boat ride as it eliminates the hour the Ranger III spends in the canal, but it's also a longer drive to get there, and a smaller boat to take across Superior. Bigger is better, if you ask me!

We found John and Allen sitting on the patio outside the restaurant, enjoying their own ice cream, and we joked about how long it took Mary and I to hike two miles. As if to prove our point, not 20 feet down the path, and still within sight of them, I spotted this crossbill perched on the top of a spruce. Of course I had to stop and take pictures, and I could hear them laughing.

Female Red crossbill, another first! You can just see the hook at the end of her bill.

We had a close encounter with a Kestrel on the return hike. We were just entering a clearing when this bird flew towards us across the open space, and went to land in a tree near the trail. It appeared to spot us at the last moment and veered off, landing in a snag perhaps 30 feet off the trail. I thought at first it had a stick in its talons, but it turned out to be a black snake, whose head the bird had apparently already bitten off. He watched us watch him for a while, then he flew off.

Male Kestrel with a black snake, on the Stoll Memorial Trail.

Then finally, near the end of our hike, I was able to get a decent shot of a Yellow-rumped warbler. These little guys where everywhere, but I did not have very good equipment with me so getting a good shot was not easy. I had lent my small travel binoculars to Mary since I had my camera, and she was really getting into watching the birds the time we reached Scoville Point. She stood for some time admiring this bird, and declared that I just might have made a birder out of her!

The ubiquitous Yellow-rumped warbler.

Back at the cabin everyone was taking bets as to when Liz and Zack would make it back. It was after 8:00 before they staggered into the cabin, so I estimate they spent nine or ten hours on the trail. Of course, we'd taken seven hours to go four miles (although we were in Rock Harbor for over an hour). I cooked my last meal of the trip, a big pot of black bean chili. Mary made cornbread and fixed a salad, and we had quite a feast.

Next: Weekend weather delays

Hike to Lookout Louise

Isle Royale continued.... 

Day two dawned clear and bright. I had spent a rather restless night in my tent, surrounded by unfamiliar sounds. The White-throated sparrows had sung well past 11:00 pm, and started up again before 4:00 am. Loons woke me several times, their haunting calls floating up from Tobin Harbor. My biggest problem, however, was that I was cold most of the night. In spite of having and insulated pad and a down bag rated to 15 degrees, and wearing wool socks, long johns, a mock turtle and hat and gloves, I was uncomfortably chilled. I also kept sliding off my pad, and would find myself either on the ground or with my head up against the tent wall. I had to pull my backpack up against the pad to help hold me on--and to hold some heat in. I don't know how cold it got at night--there was never any frost, but I would guess into the upper 30's several nights.

Our daily ritual went like this: We all met at the Dassler cabin in the morning. Coffee was on by 7:00 am (I don't drink the stuff), breakfast at 8:00. Alan would sit at the table with his walkie-talkie and get the weather forecast for the day. Then we were off to work by 9:00 am. Lunch was at noon, then back to work by 1:00 pm, then we'd be done with work at 5:00. Dinner was to be served at 6:00, then we'd have the rest of the day to ourselves.

Mary was our primary cook, serving up breakfast and lunch, so her work duties were at the Dassler cabin. I was slated to cook the first three dinners, and I had planned three vegetarian dishes that were essentially one-pot meals that cooked up fairly quickly and made a lot of food. The kitchen at the cabin is small but well-stocked, and has a propane refrigerator and stove top with an oven. There is a sink with a drain to an outside cistern but no running water. A full compliment of pots, pans and dishes is available too.

My duties for the day were to work with Liz, another first-timer, and Alan the boat man, picking up trash that had already been bagged at the Kemmer cottage. Kemmer is where the Artist-in-Residence program was first housed. It's a much bigger dwelling than Dassler, with a large living room, kitchen and two bedrooms, as well as a guest cabin and huge boat house in back. There are also solar panels for electricity and a couple of 250 gallon propane tanks.

There were logistical issues with using the cottage due to it's location on the far side of Tobin Harbor. To get to Rock Harbor, one would either have to paddle across Tobin Harbor, which is sometimes impossible, or hike all the way around, which is at least seven miles. The Dassler cabin, on the other hand, is at the end of a two mile trail to Rock Harbor, so residents were much less likely to be stranded.

Kemmer cottage.

I found a better map of the area that shows the entire northern end of the island. I don't know exactly where the Kemmer cottage is located, so this is a guess.

Map of the northern tip of Isle Royale

We made two trips to Kemmer to load trash and then take it all the way around to Rock Harbor, a trip of at least a half hour, so we easily spent two hours in the boat that day. We loaded trash into huge dumpsters at Rock Harbor, which would then be loaded onto the Ranger III and taken back to Houghton. After our second trip we stopped at the store for ice cream.

Dinner went well, and afterwards I walked down to the dock to write in my journal. Around 7:30 four of my fellow camp mates came down to the docks to paddle across the harbor to the trailhead for Lookout Louise. I was exhausted but jumped at the chance to go. I really wanted to see as much of the island as I could. We paddled down past the dock at the trailhead and pulled the canoes up on shore near Hidden Lake (see map inset, above). The trail wound steadily upward, past Monument Rock before reaching the overlook, at about 875 feet.

Zack and Mike take in Monument Rock

As we neared the top the trees opened up onto this high meadow. The moose keep areas like this free of trees, allowing grasses and wildflower to flourish.

Meadow near Lookout Louise

As we climbed up through the meadow movement in the nearby trees caught my eye. I asked everyone to stop so I could get some photos. Turns out the birds were Gray jays, a new bird for me!

Even with all the time I spend in the U.P. I'd never seen a Gray jay before.

The view from Lookout Louise was spectacular and well worth the mile hike, regardless of how tired I was. The small bays and islands on the west side lay sprawled before us, and in the distance, Canada was visible.

Duncan Bay (near) and Five Finger Bay from Lookout Louise.

Duncan Bay in the foreground, with Thunder Bay, Ontario on the horizon.

Lookout Louise is situated along the trail known as the Greenstone, which runs the length of the island. Hiking the Greenstone is a feather in the cap of many backpackers who come to the island. It's a tough hike--distances between campgrounds can be challenging, there's not a lot of water up on the ridge, and when it's wet, the rocky trail can be extremely treacherous.

New leaves on the aspens on Grass Point, across Duncan Bay.

We lingered as long as we dared, knowing we had to return to Dassler before dark. Mike and I talked art and photography, and we all bathed in the warm evening light. Then we hustled back down the ridge to our boats.

Looking at this image makes me want to go back!

As we paddled back across Tobin Harbor the sun slipped below the horizon, and lit the bottoms of the clouds.

Sunset over Tobin Harbor

Then we noticed the moon, just a sliver in the evening sky, and we all decided our first full day on Isle Royale could not have been more perfect.

Yes.

Next: Days three and four on Isle Royale