BEST DAY OF THE TRIP. We left the cabin early (the temperature was
in the high 30s) and began a fairly long drive over to the Upper Peninsula of
Michigan.
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Btw, this is what it looks like at 4:15am. |
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Our cute cabin at Park Point Resort (Cabin #3) |
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View from our deck |
First stop was just pass Duluth in Superior, WI where we
stopped at a Kwik Trip, which was equally awesome to a Quick Trip in TX which
made us wonder if the two were somehow related.
We drove on and stopped at another Kwik Trip just after we
crossed into Michigan (MY 50TH STATE!) – I think were in Ironwood,
MI. Another two hours to go to
Houghton. About 20 minutes outside of
town, I finally told the kids the “surprise” – that we’re traveling via sea
plane and not ferry! Houghton is
beautiful! It sits on one side of the
“river” which is really just Lake Superior. Hancock, MI sits on the other side. We ate lunch at a Jimmy Johns then walked
down to the Houston Visitor Center (I wasn’t sure there was a visitor center on
the island or if there was, that it would be open). We took a picture in front of kind of a
shitty national park sign which sucks given it’s our last on in the contiguous
states. We bought hat pins and magnets,
stamped the passbooks and Ryan got a pin for Ben.
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Done w/ the lower 48! |
We then drove across the bridge into Hancock and parked our
car at Isle Royale Seaplanes. We got
there really early – like 2:30 – but didn’t have to be there until 3:15. It was
such a long drive that I just wanted to be sure we didn’t miss it.
They weighed our bags and then we waited. The weather was perfect – and that’s the big
unknown with getting on/off the island is there can quickly be bad weather or
dense fog. But not today – it was
genuinely perfect. Our pilot Billy was
awesome. The plane held 8 people
including the pilot. Nick got to sit
shotgun and the kids and I sat across the way back.
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The plane |
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Nervous Me |
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Coming in for landing on Isle Royale |
I was a little panicked that I’d either get
sick or have a panic attack just because the plane is SO small. The kids and I were shoulder-to-shoulder,
barely all fitting on the back row. Some
luggage is packed into the back of the plane and some goes into the
pontoons. I was also a little worried at
first because there were like 14 people waiting and just one plane but then the
second plane showed up.
We left right on time at 4 and got the island around 5 and
all I can say is spectacular. It was a little scary at first but then it was
magical. There was a couple on the row
in front of us and a solo lady who worked on the island and was on the team
that has been helping to replenish the wolf population. She was interesting to listen to. She also showed the couple a cool map on an
app on her phone which I quickly downloaded and found useful on our hike
(Gaia). It was a short walk to the white
tent where we signed ourselves in (you had to pay the entrance fees in advance
and provide the receipt #). It was
another very short walk to the Rock Harbor Lodge, where we stayed. Our room was directly on the water – no cell
service, no TV, nothing.
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View from room 12 of Rock Harbor Lodge of Lake Superior. |
Ryan got really
upset when she learned we didn’t have service because her last text to Ben was
on a plane. She was sad for a while then
she rallied.
Pretty quickly, we got situated, emptied our backpacks (we
all left our suitcases in the car – Ryan opted to bring her roller bag) and
loaded up to take a 4ish mile hike (Scoville Point Trail). We ran into the café and grabbed sandwiches
for later because they closed at 7:30 and we wouldn’t be back by then. Then we headed out on the trail.
And wow!
The bugs were bad but nothing compared to Voyageurs. If we’d done the parks in reverse, we
would’ve been complaining about the bugs but Isle Royale was bug-light compared
to Voyageurs.
The Gaia app came in handy because there were several places
where the trail was hard to find but this app works off GPS satellite so didn’t
require service. Along the was to the
Point we saw what looked like giant rabbit pellets. We hung out at the Point for a while and
talked about where we all wanted to live when the kids got older – it was
sweet.
Then on the return, a giant jack
rabbit ran across the trail in front of us.
I think I was the only one who saw it but it was so damn big that at
first I thought it was a doe.
Then we came upon the moose!
A baby moose…as we got closer, a second baby moose…and as we were
passing by, a mama moose. The kids and
Nick were scared and kind of lost it so I don’t have any pictures of the mama
but I clipped one from the funny video that's too long to post.
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Two baby moose |
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Mama moose (image screen shot from video) |
We returned to the Lodge around 8:15, officially dipped our
toes in Lake Superior, then ate our sandwiches at the table in our room,
overlooking the water.
It was just an incredible day. I wish we were staying here longer!