We did two separate camping trips to Isle Royal National Park over the years. The one I will describe here was the second and took place a few years ago. Isle Royale is the most remote and least visited of the National Parks. Accessible only by boat it is isolated in Lake Superior.
Our meet-up place was Dave's wilderness residence on Harriet Lake in northern Minnesota. Dave professed this desire to live "off the grid" in a remote place far from civilization. Harriet lake filled the bill being in the arrowhead region of Minnesota near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Superior National Forest. To get to it required driving for miles and miles on gravel roads with almost no signs of human habitation. The trouble was that this location had a handful of neighbors and they all loved Dave and came to visit frequently. Dave, in turn, loved them and visited them frequently. This same situation existed of his other wilderness address at White Swan Lake, also in Northern Minnesota. The same state of affairs for his non-wilderness location, 145A.
So Dave and I met at the Harriet Lake residence and headed off to Grand Portage which is at the very tip of the Minnesota arrowhead. From there ferry service takes you to Isle Royale. There are on the island two ranger stations, one on the far side and one on the near. Our trip took place at the end of October when the park is officially closed. The weather was terrible: it was cold and very windy. We were informed by the boat captain that the trip would be canceled because the waves were too high. A little later he said he would give it a try, but we may have to turn back. We got there, but it was the roughest boat ride I have ever had. After a bit it was fun, like a carnival ride. On board the boat were a small collection of adventurers. All but one got off before us, for we were headed for the far side of the island. That one was an unemployed actor who seemed to be insane. He seemed to be challenging himself with a week of isolation.
After getting off the boat I was warned by one of the crew that there was a fox just over there who would take the first opportunity to steal some of my gear. It was Frankie the fox who always greets the arrival of the boat. Losing one of my hiking boots would make for a long week. The boat now departed and would not return for a week. We were on our own. Thankfully the crazy actor hiked away on his own although we noted that he seemed poorly skilled and equipped. Our plan was to settle into a lean-to as our base and then day hike from there.
The island is home to a large moose population which is kept in check by a wolf population. Many other animals, bears, for example, have never made it to the island. So moose sightings were common, but wolf sightings were rare. Moose are very large animals and mostly ignore the presence of puny humans. Nonetheless one of our hikes got a diversion because a moose positioned himself in the middle of the trail and chose not to move.
The crazy actor realized his shortcomings and on day two came back only to camp in the lean-to adjacent to ours. Fortunately they are not in sight of each other. We were not happy about his return.
Frankie the fox stayed at our camp all week almost always in sight. When I saw Frankie mark territory I had to rename her Francine. On the next to last day I heard terrible crying and commotion. It sounded like the crazy actor was killing Francine. I rushed to save only to find crazy actor watching a fox fight right in his camp. This was a sight of incredible violence. The fight went on for some time but at the end both Francine and the invader seemed unhurt; it was a ceremonial fight and Francine lost. The invader was now the new resident of our camp.
For the week we were incommunicado - no cell phone reception in camp. Would the boat come back? It was a relief when it did and our adventure was over.
Here are some photos.