Isle Royale - On to Chippewa Harbor

None of us slept well that Sunday night.  It was too warm.  But my inReach said that much cooler weather was coming in, which was welcome.  In fact, it was going to be cooler by noon that it was at dawn, a decent day for hiking.  We were going to go by some lovely scenery, essentially hiking from the north side of the island to the south side, from the red arrow to the purple arrow at Chippewa Harbor.

The day (September 17) started with a distant look at a cow moose across the bay from the dock.  We also heard a bull calling her, trying to tempt her into a rendezvous, perhaps.  After three of us getting the close and lingering encounter with the bull the previous day, it was good for the entire group to start the day with a moose sighting.

The words for the day of hiking were lakes and moose.  We hiked for several miles past several beautiful lakes, such as Chickenbone Lake shown here.  And I, hiking in the lead for part of the day, almost blundered into another large bull moose right in the trail.  He ran like a racehorse before I could get my camera out.  Another moose went crashing through the woods in the opposite direction.

Here are the six of us on the trail, taking a welcome pack off break.

The second nice lake of the day was Lake LeSage.

That was followed by Lake Richie, which has camping areas.  We had a discussion about camping there.  In the end, the weather being really nice for hiking, we decided to keep going to Chippewa Harbor, and stay two nights there.

It was the perfect spot to rest and eat lunch.

One of my favorite trees is the white birch, a true northern tree.

I also noted some cool mushrooms along the trail.

Soon enough, we had reached Chippewa Harbor, and got a shelter.  A couple of the women decided to set up their tents rather than have another night with six in the shelter.  It was a beautiful spot.  It also had a nice dock.  A young girl amused us by running along the dock and leaping into chilly Lake Superior, as it was not a super warm night.

Everyone went to bed pretty early, but it became clear that we were going to have a nice sunset, so I got up and went out in my bare feet to snap a few photos.

Prior story - Hike to McCargoe Cove
Next Story - A Day Around Camp