Cake Art Upper Michigan

Sunday July 13th/Monday July 14th

2008-10-07T12:32:00.000-07:00

Our first moose!

This was our last long hiking day (8 miles) to Windigo. My feet were beat and hurt starting in the morning-it was going to be a long walk, plus it was a cold day. Our very first moose sighting came at 9am Ethan ran up to camp and said there was a bull by the lake drinking. He stood for the camera for about 5 minutes. Once he took off he disappeared into the woods quickly. The last 8 miles only took from 10- 2:30 - of course the boys got in before us again.
When we went to the museum the ranger handed us a bag of food Bill had left in case the boys needed more :) It was a slow day -all of the shelters were open so we didn't need to set up tents.
I spent the day wandering around looking for strawberries but couldn't find any ripe here. This night I saw our 2nd moose - a cow eating weeds in the lake waters.
It turns out moose don
't sleep at night -they were eating all night long in the river that ran in front of the Adirondack shelters. If it wasn't so bloody cold at night I might have gone out to take a look with the flashlight, but nothing, not even 100 moose would have removed me from my sleeping bag. BRRR.

Saturday July 12th

2008-10-07T11:59:00.000-07:00

Sherilyn's "My feet are killing and I am not amused" face.

Sun again! We could actually see across Bay and wow-there was actually a peninsula across from us that we didn't see the night before. WE had a late start this morning. I woke them up at 7:15, but they were finally getting out of their sleeping bags at 8:15. So I spent some time picking wild strawberries and hoping the grass would dry before long (it took until noon). Got on the trail around 10 am and had to push our way through a long straight stretch of overgrown trail. It was very easy to twist an ankle since you couldn't see under the 4 foot high weeds and grasses.
The top of Feldtmann Ridge was extremely windy -strong enough gusts to push me off the trail occasionally. By the time we got to Feldtmann Lake campsites I almost couldn't put my feet on the ground-next year I am getting waterproof boots, not just spraying waterproofing on boots. (9.83 miles ) From here we could hear Lake Superior crashing against the shore, so there must have been high waves again. For being July it has been so cold that none of our clothes are drying quickly and our socks are wet. We still haven't sighted a moose ,although some of the boys kept saying they might have seen one far away (right).

2008-10-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

Friday July 11th

2008-10-07T11:19:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the trail (WHAT TRAIL-THE BOYS ASKED!!)

Today was the toughest day yet. It started cold and rainy and we walked 10.6 miles- Our feet killed! At least we got an Adirondack shelter because a huge thunderstorm came in at night. THe kids that didn't bring raingear were frozen when they got to Siskiwit Bay and some crawled into their sleeping bags to warm up for a bit. A bit of fire in the fire pit helped for a while, but we got rained out in about an hour. Sherilyn and I put up a sheet of Tyvek to block the wind in our shelter and hoped the boys wouldn't freeze too badly in the wind in theirs. We went to bed at 6:30 -talk about an early night.
Of course, in between thunderstorms we could hear the boys outside laughing and talking , so they weren't too frozen!

July 10th

2008-08-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

We had a little rain during the night, so 1 pack got damp from being left out and open. The mosquitoes were awful all night - I got very little sleep and was up by 7am. We were busy with breakfast and forgot to try to check in with Bill on the radios. Lots of squabbles over nothing between the boys all morning.
First thing for the mornings hike was a huge hill and then more huge hills alternating with straight ridges. We could feel ourselves losing weight. It was a very pretty hike with lots of overlooks, but really long day at 9.7 miles. The cell phone worked sporadically on top of 1 mountain right under the tower.
When we got into Lake Desor South it was a long downhill, but a beautiful lake and even warm water, sandy beach and no leeches- just a chilly wind. This was our favorite campsite during the whole trip. My toes hurt to bend , I think my boots were a little too small.
By this day the boys were craving "real " food like hamburgers and pizza, fries and lasagna!
When the boys were getting water filtered we saw a red fox chase a red squirrel through the brush next to our camp.

2008-08-26T09:43:00.000-07:00

Messy little boys!

We left Todd Harbor at 2:30 , about 15 minutes after the boys. We did really well- our muscles were finally adapting to trail life because we caught up the the guys before they even got to camp. Talk about surprised looking !
This was the buggiest place during the whole trip. Cody and I had our hammocks attached to the 2 dead birch trees that were the only options . Luckily they held up all night. I do have to say the outhouses here were about as full as they could get- somebody will need to dig new ones next year! The lake here is very rocky bottomed, but we found 1 spot the boys could jump off a rock into a deeper area. I was finally able to wash my hair, as long as I kept a lookout for leeches.

July 9th

2008-08-26T09:31:00.001-07:00

My leg muscles were tense on this morning- glad we only had 4 miles to hike. It was a very cold morning- the campsite allowed all of Lake Superior's breezes to blow right through (right through my hammock also BRR. I was glad I had an extra blanket(although I woke up 1 time with it wrapped around my head and suffered a bout of claustrophobia!) . I woke up at 7:15 and poked around the woods waiting for the boys to wake up on their own. They decided to get out of bed at 10am , but it didn't matter since we were waiting for Bill's group to catch up. A few of the guys were afraid they would run out of food if they didn't lift some from Tony and Bill's packs.
Andrew led the group in , all pink from the sun so we caught up on all the news. Their buddy system wasn't working too well since their whole group came in 1 x 1 except Bill and David. We ate some great BBQ venison jerky that they had received from a guy for helping him portage his canoe,backpacks, and lots of other junk that the guy's girlfriend had refused to help move.
We went to look at the warm waterfall coming down the small creek from Hatchet Lake. I am very glad I didn't have time to sit in it because Jake came out all covered with mini leeches EWW.

Pictures of Todd Harbor

2008-08-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

This field was 1 of the 3 group camping sites. Nobody had used it yet and it was a field of wildflowers.

Filtering more water, again.

Todd Harbor

2008-08-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

The boys are very messy. A few squirrels were looking at the unpacked food and gear. One by one a few of the kids would come up the hill from the fire pit where they were making their walking sticks and put away their items. Glad there were no foxes at this site or some of them would have lost their food bags!

July 8th

2008-08-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

Workers on the barge started their diesel engines at 7 am sharp. :( After such a long day the day before I would have liked to sleep more.
We got a late start in hiking this day -I woke the boys at 7:15. When Sherilyn checked again at 8:15 they were still sleeping, insisting that I had just been there a few minutes before! Finally around 10am we got out of there. We kept running into the boys during the first few miles , but sore feet and backs kept slowing us down. We did get to the next site at Todd Harbor by 3:30. The group sites here are up this huge hill, but the views of Lake Superior are excellent.

2008-08-04T13:15:00.000-07:00

Sherilyn and I walked into camp at McCargo Cove(9.6 miles) with sore feet at 5 pm. The boys were already eating. During the hike that day there was 1 time that Caleb fell down and his buddy didn't notice, but Jonathan came back to see where he was. Caleb also was stung in the eye by an insect and it swelled up for 2 days.
The barge in the picture was replacing the pier- they had been there about a year.
Again we luckily got 2 Adirondack shelters , although at 10:30 pm - 11pm a few campers came in by boat and there was a lot of " is this one used? " well after we were asleep.
The highlight of the evening was the wolf howling close by the campsites(the next morning they said " did you hear the dog last night?" )

2008-08-04T13:10:00.000-07:00

After lunch I found out my 2nds camera memory didn't work in my camera(error,error,error), so I spent some time deleting junk photos.

2008-08-04T12:52:00.000-07:00

After this milepost the boys took off and we didn't see them until their lunch break on top of the ridge.

July 7th

2008-08-04T12:36:00.001-07:00

Day 2 started early for me- 6 am after I couldn't sleep any more on the hard floor of the shelter. The boys slept a bit later -I finally woke them at 7:15 and told them to be ready to go by 8am. After they left their shelter we found it full of trash and had to again explain the leave no trace, pack it in pack it out ethics of wilderness travel.
THe first few miles we kept pretty close to the boys- their late night (12:30 ) did them in . Our aches and pains and the rubbing of our packs on the wrong areas started at 12:30 , so we took more breaks.
There were lots of mosquitoes in some of the swampy areas, but on the ridges the wind tended to blow them all away.

2008-08-04T12:27:00.000-07:00

Pushing and shoving on the dock-somebody was going in to see how the water was in this part of Lake Superior.
They all went in eventually. In and immediately out again, that is! True 36 degree Superior water.

2008-08-04T12:17:00.000-07:00

Filtering water and admiring the scenery- Jim and Ethan.
Cody ,looking half asleep filtering water.
Water filtering was almost a full time occupation- at least to hear the kids talk it was!

2008-08-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

After the ferry docked around 12:30 we got our "how to" on the island speeches ,weighed our packs after the water had been added (the smallest boys had 30 + pounds ,most had 50 pounds, I had 63 pounds, and Tony and Bill had over 70 -Ouch).
Our group consisted of me and Sherilyn (as crew leaders-her first big trip), Cody,Jim,Jonathan,Ethan, Caleb, and Shane. The small group was Tony and Bill (crew leaders), Andrew, David, Jake, and Mike. Our first night stop was to be at Daisy Farm- 8miles. Within the first mile of up and down terrain my knee folded on a huge step up- a 60 pound pack was a bit much ,so Sherilyn took about 5 pounds for her pack to even ours out more . That helped a lot , but Bill's group still caught up at 3 mile where they were camping the first night. We continued onward, pretty much dying of heavy packs , steep terrain, and tripping roots. We must have looked pretty sorry because Bill and a few of the boys followed without their packs to see if they could give us a hand. Being stubborn women we of course refused-we were going to make it in on our own steam or not at all! After many breaks and lots of huffing and puffing we arrived at camp.

We were able to use 2 of the Adirondack shelters the first night which saved on the setting up of tents. The boys stayed up late in theirs ,although they quieted down a bit after my 3rd trip down to tell them the time (10pm is quiet time in the wilderness).

2008-08-04T11:39:00.000-07:00

It was a breezy 3 1/2 hour trip across with 3-4 foot swells. 8 of the 10 boys turned a beautiful shade of green on the way across. My son's loss of his breakfast caused a whole chain reaction on the back of the ferry- glad I only heard about it second hand. I found out I haven't got a problem with sea sickness, Thank God!
Here is the Island coming up on the left.

2008-08-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

Waiting patiently for the 8 am departure of the Island Queen ferry to Isle Royale.

2008-08-04T11:20:00.000-07:00

Supper before turning in for the night. It turned out to be a warm ,dry night so we let them sleep in the next morning until 6 am .

2008-08-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

Even Sherilyn went in to be splashed.
Since the waters of the small bay were not as cold as usual (48 degrees instead of 36 degrees) Bill took Cody ( my son ) and Jonathan ( Sherilyn's son) for a brisk swim to some rocks in the middle of the harbor. I am glad I didn't know anything about this until they were already gone and only needed to worry for about a half an hour once I did hear what they were up to. 3/4 of a mile is a long way in Lake Superior.

2008-08-04T09:24:00.000-07:00

I hate the cold water ,but it didn't seem to bother the kids any at all.

2008-08-04T09:20:00.000-07:00

Andrew says it is a bit chilly!

2008-08-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

We found them swimming across from the lighthouse in Lake Superior- BRRR!

2008-08-04T09:10:00.000-07:00

Small river at Fort Wilkins state park.
Wild columbines next to the small river.
Sherilyn, Bill and Tony at the old bridge.

2008-08-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

Two of the other crew leaders Bill and Tony taking a look at the lake in search of the boy's swimming hole.

2008-08-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

The flowers were in full bloom on the shores of Lake Superior. I couldn't resist getting a picture of a tree that was hanging on for dear life from the banks of the lake.

Fort Wilkins Saturday July 5th

2008-08-04T08:56:00.000-07:00

We got on the road at a pretty good hour Saturday morning, stopping at Walmart for last second dinner food. The boys all made a last minute dash into Walmart right when we were coming out with our purchases. Our van arrived at Copper Harbor, MI (Fort Wilkins state park) around 3 pm eastern time. Everyone's tents and hammocks were set up and the boys took off to find a swimming hole.

Isle Royale food shopping

2008-08-04T08:45:00.000-07:00

14 year old boys on a food shopping trip- really fun!

High Adventure in the UP

2008-06-17T17:14:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the first day out for the Norway High Adventure kids. After 8 miles of backpacking around Fumee Lake they are getting a small taste of what Isle Royale will be like in July. Next overnight hike we will be adding in Fumee mountain (more of a glorified hill) to get them used to a few upward and downward hikes.