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!
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