Here is our route back to Daisy Farm, starting at the red arrow and ending at the purple arrow. Our planned camping area, Moskey Basin, is about at the halfway point.
Along the hike, I try to look out for interesting natural features, like these mushrooms growing on a a decaying log.
We saw these swans on a lake. I think that they are mute swans, but without binoculars, it's hard to tell.
There are only two wolves left on the island (at that time - I think that there are six as of this writing.). We didn't see a wolf, but we heard them howling, and I am pretty sure that this is wolf scat. I showed the photo to Rolfe Peterson that night, and he thought it was promising enough that he thought he would hike six miles each way to collect it the next morning.
When you see people in a canoe gliding along, it looks so much easier than carrying all one's gear. Yet here is the other side of it - if you want to hit some of the inland lakes on Isle Royale, you have to portage your boat and gear. I snapped this photo of a large pile of gear, and trust me, it is heavy.
Just before we reached Moskey Basin, we had to cross through a swamp. We could hear a moose splashing around in the swamp, and caught the briefest of glimpses, but mostly he or she stayed out of sight. The moose is the largest deer in the world, and can weigh over 1,000 pounds, but when they don't want to be seen, they might as well be about the size of a chipmunk.
We got to Moskey Basin before noon, and it was incredibly beautiful. No one was currently camped there and we had our pick. This is the view of the basin from shelter #7.
And here is the view back to the shelter from that spot on the lake. What a gorgeous place!
It was time for a group discussion and decision. I paid for a detailed weather check using my inReach, and it didn't sound good. We already knew from the discussion with the ranger yesterday that a big gale would be moving into Lake Superior the following (Thursday) afternoon. The inReach forecast foretold of heavy rain and high winds starting about 1:00PM Thursday and continuing - and worsening - all night, with a 40% chance for rain Friday morning. For the first time, we wondered if the ferry could run Friday. We really had two choices. The first was to camp here as planned, and get an early start for Three Mile Campground Thursday morning, trying to get there and get a shelter before the 1PM rain. Then, hike about 3.5 miles back to Rock Harbor Friday morning in time to hopefully catch the 2:45 ferry back to Copper Harbor. The other choice was to hike on to Daisy Farm for the night, and hope to get a shelter. Then, hike 7+ miles Thursday to Rock Harbor, try to get there before the rain, and hopefully get there in time to snag a shelter to wait out the coming storm. Camp there for the night, and hang around Friday until the ferry leaves - if it is even running that day.
Moskey Basin is incredibly beautiful. It was the prettiest spot so far, and shelters seven and eight were at the very end of the trail, and had magnificent locations. I favored option 1, but told the group that we would go with the majority rules. If we were tied 3 to 3, I'd break the tie as group leader. We had a clear majority to hike out to Daisy Farm and try to get to Rock Harbor in time to get a shelter before the gale. And that is what we did. I did resolve to camp here if I ever am lucky enough to return.
The hike back was, as every place we hiked here, beautiful and interesting. Here is evidence of the large pileated woodpeckers, which we saw several times during the week.
Here is an inland bog. It looks like a field, but I bet you would get plenty wet trying to cross it.
In this photo, the group hikes along the trail in a high, rocky spot. Somewhere along the trail, I saw a beautiful red fox, and one of the women saw a marten. Both of these small mammals were too quick for a photo.
Unlike last Saturday, Daisy Farm was fairly crowded. Two of us shared a shelter with a solo hiker who had been dropped off that day by the Voyageur, the ferry out of Minnesota. The other four snagged their own shelter. The rules are more or less, if you are a group of 1 or 2, or even 3, you cannot have your own shelter if others need it, especially if the weather was bad. It was kind of funny, though. We had this big shelter for just three people. When we hit the sack, we had about 4-5 feet between us, but when I woke up in the middle of the night, the guy in the middle was practically on top of me! He must roll around a lot at night, eh?
Since it was Wednesday night back in Daisy Farm, the Petersons gave their talk again. I enjoyed hearing them again, and showed Rolfe some photos from the trail. Rick showed Candy his moose picture, and she said that it was a nice looking bull, and that his black nose was a sign of high testosterone.
She didn't have a wolf skull, but she had a cast of one. My, what big teeth you have, grandma! This animal is perfectly adapted to chasing large prey, killing them, and eating them, crushing bones to get at the marrow.
We all said goodnight fairly early, and resolved to be on the trail early. The goals for Thursday were to get to Rock Harbor early enough to (1) beat hiking in the heavy rain and (2) get a shelter for the six of us with the big storm coming in.
Prior story: Hanging out at Chippewa Harbor
Next story: Hiking back to Rock Harbor
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