Huginnin Cove to Island Mine

1 Aug 2024

I thought I woke up bright and early (the sun was barely awake!), but my phone said it was already 0615… then I looked at my watch- 0515.  Apparently, at some point yesterday before I dropped my phone into airplane mode, it connected to something and switched to Eastern time (Isle Royale, despite being just off Minnesota’s coast, is actually part of Michigan and therefore runs on Eastern time).

I rolled out of bed long enough to snap a picture of the sunrise, then went back to bed:

By the time I (finally) rolled out of bed, it was after 0800 and everyone but the hammockers in site 3 had left.  So I enjoyed a scenic breakfast:

Visited the baño:

What a terrible place to celebrate a birthday! But as far as pit potties go, this one was alright- smelly, yes, but minimal bugs.

And hit the trail:

Today I’m headed east to Island Mine, however, it’s already starting to get warm and I’ve heard water availability is sketchy at Island Mine, so I’m planning on taking a short detour back to Washington Creek to refill my water bottles.

I repacked my bag and moved my food to the lower/middle part of my pack, where it carried so much better.  I did not fall off this boardwalk:

The first of many inclines today:

Back across my bridge- that building to the left is the gauge station (though I don’t remember what it was measuring- water levels maybe?):

With my water bottles filled, I started along the Greenstone toward Island Mine:

Precariously balanced:

What you can’t really see in these pictures is just how uphill this stretch of trail is:

Unfortunately, today was pushing 80 and with no breeze from the lake to keep them away, the mosquitoes are BAD!

I see why everyone else got an early start on the day. Will definitely need to start my days sooner and get the majority of my miles in before it gets too warm.

Not gonna lie- I struggled today. This stretch was like 4-5 miles of straight up hill. My pack is still full of food/water and is therefore super heavy, and has been riding awkwardly on my right shoulder. Plus, there were very few berry bushes so no little pick-me-ups along the way.

I tried to celebrate the little things, like this cute pancake-looking mushroom:

and making it to the top of Sugar Mountain:

I’m on top of the world!!!

But the best part about being at the highest point on this stretch of trail means I finally get to do some downhills! There was a part of me that wanted to keep going onto Desor, but I definitely didn’t have 5 more miles in me, so off to Island Mine we go!

Down this very muddy stretch:

Across a not-so-babbling brook:

and back uphill again:

…so I actually struggled a bit trying to find this site. According to both my maps and my GPS, I should have come across the campsite without having to go up that incline, but there was no sign of any sort of site:

so I dropped my pack, went up the incline, and then found the campsite sign:

No, this picture isn’t crooked, it’s laid out in a way that matches the camp layout in relation to the trail.

then had to go back down to grab my pack and lug it back up hill, but I was so exhausted I didn’t want to carry it uphill if I didn’t really need to.

All the sites here are hard-packed dirt and none of them had much of a breeze so I set up camp at the #1 so I could make a quick exit in the morning.

This is one of the few sites with fire rings and each site had very generous seating areas around their ring, but oh, the bugs! I stayed out long enough to cook my dinner, then brought it inside to eat:

So many mosquitoes on the back wall of my tent! There are WAY more than you can see in the picture:

I’m very glad my tent has two doors!

Tonight was another dull night- I worked on crossword puzzles and read on my phone til it was dark enough to sleep.

Have you ever heard the the phrase, “don’t quit on a bad day”? Today was a bad day. Between the heat and the uphills and the heavy pack and the struggle to find this place… today was not fun. I really hope this is not how the rest of my trip goes, but I’m optimistic it’ll get better from here. I will eat through food and my pack will get lighter. My trail legs will come in and these miles won’t be quite so hard.

Right?