West Chickenbone to Moskey Basin

5 August 2024

Good morning from Chickenbone Lake!

Love the fog rolling off the lake!

Even though today is another shorter day, I still hit the trail by 0730 (it would have been earlier, but there was a bit of a wait at the privy).  Farewell, Chickenbone!

Today, I’m leaving the Greenstone and headed back to the coast, to Moskey Basin:

There were some serious uphills climbing out of camp (as with most of these sites by the lake):

The first part of the trail was wooded, a bit mosquito-y and in a bit of disrepair:

Then I spotted this stack of planks a bit further down the trail:

I don’t envy whoever has to install these new boards, but I’m thankful for them!

Lake LaSage:

Another site with stellar moose potential, but no moose, just tracks:

A nice wide boardwalk:

with pretty orange flowers:

Lake Richie:

A moose would look so majestic swimming through here!

I might have to come back and stay at the campground here- the views of the lake are stunning!

I figured most of this trail would be through the forest, but I was pleasantly surprised when the trees parted and the rocky bluffs appeared:

Boardwalk into Moskey:

Look at these views!:

Ducks in the “swamp”:

Look how clear the water is!!!

The guys who gave me their site back at Chickenbone recommended shelter #8, but all the hikers I passed today warned that Moskey was quite busy. One told me shelter #7 was, and I quote, “the bomb diggity.”

However, when I hiked through, all the shelters were taken. Shoot. That means I either have to tent camp and store all my food in this wolf box:

which will keep the wolves out, but the holes in the side of the cage are definitely big enough for mice and squirrels to get in, and while my stuff’s in odor proof bags, I’m not sure about everyone else’s food…

Or I could just push on to Daisy Farm and hope to find a shelter there. But I’ve heard Daisy Farm is a zoo- it’s always really busy, because it has a dock for boaters and is a short-ish hike from Rock Harbor, so it’s a popular site. Ugh. Not my kinda place…

Fortunately, as I stood to the side of the trail debating what to do (it’s still early in the day, I got to Moskey around 1030) the guy staying in shelter 7 came by- he’s taking the 1pm shuttle back to Rock Harbor; I can have the shelter after he leaves (we stuck my permit under his so no one else would claim the shelter between him leaving and me coming back)!

So I wandered around, taking pictures of the beautiful landscape here:

I mean, seriously, does it get any better than this!?

Then camped out on this bluff where, even if you can’t see it from the pictures, I could see the dock and watch for the ferry while eating lunch:

Fritillary:

Around 1230, I heard him shouting from across the way that the shuttle was on the way; shelter’s all mine!

The hiker I passed earlier today was right- this shelter rocks!

It even came with a femur:

I named this sauna rock:

and hoped that little pool would be warm, but nope- ice cold and home to a frog:

(still didn’t stop me from soaking my feet- the cold felt great!)

Back to good Lake Superior water:

Rinsed out my clothes:

And, in addition to a bird bath, also dunked my head in the lake:

I’m clean!(-ish) Lake Superior is far too chilly for me to actually submerge in, which is probably a good thing because in the oh, maybe 3 minutes I spent “bathing”, this leech attached itself to my foot:

EW! Fortunately it was just a little guy and, even though he was slippery and hard to get a grip on, I was able to just pull him off.

I spent the rest of my afternoon sitting out on sauna rock, watching for wildlife, but the most exciting thing I spotted was this unstaked tent, which caught some serious air and landed in the lake:

Fortunately, it sounded like none of the poles were damaged.

Lots of gulls in the area:

Snail:

Duck:

This little sandpiper was walking along the shore, but the rock was slick with algae and he kept slipping!

Dinner with a view:

Later in the evening, a ranger came around doing permit checks. I asked him for a weather update- when I left, there was rain in the forecast for today, but it sounds like that’s been pushed back to Thursday or so. He did warn that if it rains the rocks of Rock Harbor trail would be slick, so take Tobin Harbor trail instead. I also asked if mice would get into my shelter at night and he said that while the shelters are pretty sturdy, mice are sneaky; if I’m worried, then just set up my tent inner inside the shelter, which is what I did:

My shelter didn’t have a great angle on tonight’s sunset:

but the opposite view… neither of my cameras could quite capture the colors:

Goodnight, Moskey Basin!

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So I’ve gotten pretty decent at identifying sounds from my tent, but shelters have their own set of sounds and it’s really hard to tell what’s coming from inside or out. Shortly after the sun went down, the skittering of little feet sounded on my shelter’s screen. So glad I’m “safe” inside my tent, but what if a mouse chews its way in!? I heard him skitter up and down a few times and lit him up with my headlamp each time, and each time, he was on the outside of the screen.

I decided I wouldn’t panic too much until I heard the pitter-patter of little feet on the floor, which, fortunately, never came. The breeze off the lake was chilly (it got down into the mid-40s again), so I snuggled into my quilt and slept quite well.