Isle Royale-lots of Loons & no Moose

Right now, Thursday; August 1st, we are in Thunder Bay, Ontario.  This may be my last blog for almost a month. We leave tomorrow for anchoring along the North & East coast of Lake Superior, where there is not any big Marina's.  We may have spotty cell service but no Wifi.  

Back tracking to catch up:

Left Grand Marais on Sunday morning, July 21 @ 7:15 AM. Jacque & Garry saw us off. Hugs all around. We wish them a safe & comforting journey. They plan to be gone for a week, visiting & helping Garry's Mom. Super calm today with blue sky & sun!

Rock of Ages Lighthouse

Air temp 49, water temp 38. The big lake Gitchee Gumee is being kind to us another day. Clear skies, can see 25 miles and super calm water but cool. We r in the pilot house again. We have only had 2 bridge days this whole trip so far. 

We arrived @ Isle Royale & entered Washington Channel to Windigo Harbor. A Ranger named Steve Martin helped us in, (already a family thing, one of Doug’s bro is Steve Martin). There are 2 boats @ the dock, one is a Bertram, park boat. The other a visitor from Red Rock Ontario. We registered for 8 days for a total cost of $64.00, $4.00/person/day.  That charge is for just being on the Island, whether docking or anchoring. The lodge/office has 2 big framed pictures of Doug's maternal great grandparents O'Neil & grandma Blanche. We told them Doug was related & they were excited & wanted to know more. Doug's grandma Blanche was the first white woman born on Isle Royale, back in 1890.  His Great Grandfather was a copper miner there for 2 years. This is a Doug Martin's family tour.

We put our kayak together on the nice big wide dock. The dock is where a couple of ferries come in at different times. There is the ranger station, bathrooms, pay showers, laundry & a small store. A fuel with pump-out dock is also nearby. There is a camp area w/ lean to's close & quite a few trails that leave from here. There is not much room on the big dock for transient boats. 

After we looked around, got the kayak up on the bridge, we left & anchored behind Beaver Island. We could see the Windigo dock, but not any detail from our anchorage but it has good holding & is nicely protected. We kayaked after dinner back to the bathrooms & saw a loon. Have been hearing them & our up north bird since arriving.

The moon was almost full, it had warmed up once we arrived, up to 70, but the evening was quite cool. We sat out & watched the sun set & the moon rise. Then we went in & played sequence. Doug beat me 2 games. 

Rained during the nite. Slept in. Had big breakfast, showered & kayaked over 2 dock & hiked for 5 miles. Saw a loon right near shore, big & beautiful.  There is a nesting loon nearby. Saw a scrawny fox, squirrels, butterflies, one turning into a butterfly. Doug saw an otter yesterday.  The thimbleberries are getting closer, the flower petals have fallen off & I saw some starting a pink tinge. We sampled another type of berry.  This island does not have any poison weeds or berries, that's nice to know. Our hike was fun, we were high enough @ one point to have a view of a small river & a distant view of superior. There are many species of trees & plants. We saw a moose print in the mud. 

We kayaked home & had a leisurely cocktail hour on the bow, where the sun was. Had a great dinner of lamb chops & sweet potato.  After dinner we watched the full moon rise, mosquitoes were pretty bad, Doug got his net out, it worked great. Played Rummikube, Doug won.

covered by thimbleberry bushes

ripening thimbleberries

Hiked 6.5 miles to another lookout area. Forest was beautiful.  We kayaked 2 miles. Total hike & kayak @ Windigo was 11.5 miles hiked & 6 miles kayaked. 

ripe thimbleberries-yum

Mama with her leg out to baby

 

Weds morn 44 degrees out but sunny. Pulled anchor @ 7:30, headed to a different spot on Isle Royale. Cruised 4 hours along the northwest shoreline. 

We entered Mc Cargo cove, a bit tricky. We are by ourselves except for mom dad & baby loons. Hiked 2.5 miles to mining pits. Total of 14 miles in 3 days.  There are a lot of hiking trails from this spot. 

Minong mine pit

Thursday, we started out by dinghy, we hoped to go to Lane Cove & Belle Isle but it was too rough on Superior plus the fog was moving in. We explored the channel & Birch island & lake. A loon came very close & then began to sing/laugh/cry. Not sure which. Later we were entertained by 4 loons hanging out together, Doug thought it was boys night out. We were out a couple of hours. It is cool and over cast. The rest of the day & evening we stayed in the boat. 

Fri. Still cool & overcast. Actually used our indoor shower. We are running the generator 2.5 hours in morn & 2.5 hours in evening. Doug has resorted to sleeping in pj's. & me too. We hiked 6.5 miles today around Chickenbone Lake. Watched movie, Moby Dick with William Hurt, weird movie.

Sat. See some blue sky today & even a little sun. 57 degrees. We kayaked the channel & Birch lake. 4 miles. No moose but Doug saw 3 huge dark fish along the bottom in about 4-5 feet water. About 4 feet long. Prob pike or sturgeon & no he didn't have his fishing pole with him. He has casted some from the boat using a lure. Watched Tinker, Taylor Soldier, Spy movie. British spy movie, took lots of concentration. 

Sunday, rained all nite & is still raining @ noon. 50 degrees.  We feel very lucky to be warm & comfortable in our super boat. We have things to do & plenty to eat. Today definitely  called for grilled cheese & tomato soup for lunch. It did stop raining mid afternoon so we put the kayak & dinghy away in prep for moving tomorrow. Just at sunset, the skies cleared & we had a beautiful pink sky. The stars came out & it was sooo calm. Doug thinks this is the most protected calm anchorage we have ever been in. Every day we were visited by Mom & Dad & baby loon. We heard the song of the loon echoing up & down the channel even through the night. Spoke by Sat phone (Garry gave it to us, so we could communicate & hook back up), Mille, Garry's Mom had quite a substantial stroke with her right side & speech affected. She is now stable & currently in the hospital rehab for intensive therapy. Garry & Jacque were able to take care of details & feel good about where she is. They arrived back to Grand Marais today & plan on heading to Isle Royale in the AM. 

Monday morning, pulled up anchor @ 7:30, 42 degrees air, brrr. Sun & clear blue skies & calm waters. We will meet up with Waterford back in Washington Harbor, Windigo dock area @ the Beaver Island anchorage, where we started out last week. We have been conserving water in order to see if we will be able to make it through the North & East shore for possibly 25 days. We are averaging 13-15 gallons of use per day. We hold 300 gallons. Hopefully as it warms up, we will be able to use the lake water for bathing some, use more paper products, so less dish washing & we will buy some 5 gallon water jugs for drinking. That should do it. We have been @ anchor 8 nights so far. We will anchor 2 more nights, then head to Thunder Bay, Ontario for water, supplies & do laundry. 

We pulled up to the fuel dock for a pump out, even thou we called ahead, no one was there to meet us. We did a great job of docking ourselves. We anchored back behind Beaver Island (still haven't seen a beaver here).. We are by ourselves till Waterford gets here this afternoon. The sun is heavenly. We layed up on the bridge & read. Waterford arrived, got their dinghy down, came over & picked us up & we went to the Rancher Station so they could register. $4.00/day/person. Some campers had spotted a moose in the stream. 

Hopefully, not the only Moose we see

Tuesday, we kayaked 6 miles to the wreck of the America ship that ran from Duluth to Isle Royale to Thunder Bay in the early 1900's. More about that when I have a good connection. Got to 60 today.

Hiked 4 miles (total 24 miles @ Isle Royale) (15 miles kayaked total) along the shore, into the forest & to a lookout of a small pond & long stream, we were hoping to see a moose in the stream, but to no avail. We did find some ripe thimbleberries, so Garry & Jacque were able to sample the real thing. I'm sure they were tired of me raving about them. We each found a handful of ripe ones, there is a ton to ripen yet. Someone spotted a moose with twin calves last evening, not far from our boats, but we didn't see them-Drat!

Just missed seeing the Mama Moose & twins

Isle Royale

Wednesday, we pulled up anchor & headed to Thunder Bay to reprovision, do laundry and get ready to be out for possibly 25 days without wifi, marina or civilization.  So if you don't see an updated blog, not to worry. Please don't give up on us, I will catch up when we hit the Soo Locks & civilization.  

Love & miss you!  Doug & Jan

Hitting our 1,000 mile mark, between Silver Bay & Grand Marais, Minnesota

Left Silver Bay on Friday, July 19 @ 7:30. After a full day of fog yesterday & a night of  storms, we are lucky to have blue, clear skies & 70 degrees. We had a slight surge going, but a great ride with the beautiful blue waters of Lake Superior.  We rode along the beautiful shoreline of cliffs, trees and waterfalls.  It's nice to be able to see this beauty without the fog.  Locals keep telling us that they are experiencing more fog and cooler temperatures than normal but at least we have had calm water and not the scorching heat, our friends are experiencing @ home. We won't know what to do without seeing and smelling all the beautiful lilacs.  

                     


                Manitou River Falls

We passed a ski resort, not sure of the name, but it is located in the Sawtooth Mountains.  Definitely know why they have been christened Sawtooth. 

We arrived @ Grand Marais, Minnesota around 2:30.  We were in the lead today, so we entered the Marina first.  It is small and a part of a campground.  We are on the end of a dock run and Waterford is on the end of the other dock run and we both are hanging off some. It was a bit tight maneuvering around the docks, but both able Captains did wonderfully.  Everyone is very nice here.  We use the campground's facilities. 

Garry received a phone call from his Mom, telling him that she is in the hospital with a mild stroke.  The fact that the call came from her and she was able to talk to him is good news but Garry being the only child and a loving son knows he needs to be there for her. Jacque & Garry will leave Sunday and fly to Illinois. Waterford will stay in Grand Marais while they are gone. We wish Mille a full & speedy recovery. 

Grand Marais is a small artsy Harbor town. Almost everything is walking distance here except the IGA.  There are art galleries and lots of restaurants in a one light, one block area.  Tourists are filling the sidewalks.  We met Jack & Danna, who live & work here; they have a classic Grand Banks here in the Marina and he offered us his car to take to the grocery store.  That means so much to us because we really need to provision for the next 2 weeks; my refrigerator is pretty empty.  Thank you Jack & Dana (not sure how she spells it, because it's not pronounced Dana, it's pronounced like you say Dan and then put an "A" on it).

We will head out tomorrow to Isle Royale.  We will not have wifi or a cell signal and we probably will be there for at least 10 days, waiting for Garry & Jacque to meet back up with us. 

The fish actually sings, brings back memories

Look closely, see the ugly cell tower, that's why Copper Harbor doesn't want cell service

Silver Bay, Minnesota: ATV's, fog, a Bonfire & more lilacs

On Monday, July 15th, we left Duluth, Minnesota with an overcast sky and calm water.  On our way to Silver Bay, fog set in (so what else is new?). Super calm water and our air temp 51, water temp 37, yes 37 degrees not a typo and water depth of 600 ft.   What's new, is that water temperature, can you believe it? Then dense fog set in, then pea soup fog came next.  Darn, we missed Split Rock Lighthouse along the Minnesota coast line 40 miles out of Duluth.  Supposed to be a real beauty of a Lighthouse. The dense fog was a challenge @ times, Waterford was in the lead and did an excellent job. We actually passed small fishing boats out in this stuff.  They were within 1/4 mile of us and we only saw one of them visually, the other 3 showed on our radar. Waterford led us into the Marina without incident and what appeared before us is a pretty spot with birch trees, beach, great docks and awesome rocks. We traveled 46 intense miles today, for a cum of 983 miles.

The city of Silver Bay was created by the Mining Company in 1952.  There is still mining today and there is a big Taconite (processed iron ore) loading facility on the Lake. The city is over 2 miles away from us, inland and uphill.   

The Marina is very nice with floating docks and the building appears fairly new. Since arriving in the fog, we didn't see the island attached to the break wall till the next day. 

Doug, Garry & Jacque attempted to ride their bikes to town the afternoon of our arrival, but returned after about an hour and confessed they did not make it to town, due to the long, uphill trail and being too close to "docktail" time.  I stayed home & did laundry. 

The next day, Tuesday, July 16, we awoke to sun and warmth, the fog had lifted.  We walked about a half mile and rented 2 ATV's for a couple of hours to see the sights.  There are many trails for snowmobiling & ATV's here with a lot of woods, hills & ravines. The trails were a tad wet, which Doug & Garry enjoyed: like boys splashing through mud puddles. Jacque & I rode behind, which was very comfortable; we even had backrests.  The scenery was pretty, but the only wildlife we saw, was a slow moving grouse & a chipmunk.  

Do you think he's having fun?

Our boats behind us

Supposed to be toasting marshmallows 

Around the Marina is a nice park area, so we decided to have a cook-out with a bonfire for dinner on the beach across from our boats.  We took J-villes and all the fixings and the guys started a really nice fire and we even had s'mores.  A great end to a great day. 

The owner of the ATV sports place, said they are about 45 days behind in their summer season.  His tulips are just now blooming. Hope that means it will stay warm longer into August for us.  

Lilacs, just starting to bloom

Split Rock Lighthouse

On Wednesday, July 17 (good that I have to write the days for the blog, so I don't lose complete track of time), we decided to take our dinghy's and go find Split Rock lighthouse.  It was sunny, warm & calm all morning so we figured it would be a good day to go out on Lake Superior in our dinghy's. WELL, it started great and as we went along the shore, we began to feel & see cool mist floating. Then there was a patch of fog hovering over a group of visible rocks in the Lake, not far from shore.  We continued on passing beautiful shoreline of rocks, trees and some cool homes nestled in the cliffs. The Split Rock Lighthouse appeared on a high cliff before us and is breathtaking.  We took many pictures, enjoyed loons in the harbor by the lighthouse & soaked up some sun and warmth.  We then began our journey back to the Marina, as quickly as it can, the wind changed direction 180 degrees and picked up slightly, so we donned our rain gear, because it was splashing some.  Next the fog moved in with a blast of cold air, we donned our sweatshirts under our rain gear. Next it began to rain, even though there was blue sky above us.  The hoods went up.  Then Garry spotted a majestic Eagle perched on a branch right on the shoreline. Again, we didn't get a picture, but Garry did.  As Jacque said "What we won't do for a photo op".  We made it back safely yet a bit chilled to the bone. 

Once back, the thunder and lightening began and didn't stop all night.  We took advantage of the rainy evening and enjoyed "Murder Movie Night" on Waterford. Remember how we wanted to watch Anatomy of a Murder after visiting Big (Thunder) Bay, well Jacque had ordered it from Amazon, since we couldn't find it anywhere in Big Bay, (shaking my head)! We brought the popcorn and enjoyed a classic movie. Jimmy Stewart was great in this black & white flick.  If you have never seen this movie, rent or Netflix it.  It begins a bit hokey, but it will hook you in the end.

a toast to all of you!!

We had planned to leave Thursday morning to head to Grand Marais, Minnesota not to be confused with Grand Marais, Michigan.  Jacque & Garry have some friends from around this area who are meeting us there. Cheryl, you should be proud of us, we didn't leave due to the fog.  We woke to very, very dense fog this morning.  The rain has stopped, but the fog has yet to leave us.  So a day to get some chores completed.  We defrosted the freezer and I did more laundry and I am catching up on this blog.  

Fish bait?

Leaving Wisconsin already!! Minnesota here we come!!

Saturday/Sunday July 13/14

On Saturday, July 13 we left Bayfield,  (Wisconsin's version of Martha's Vineyard according to Barb's sis, Gail) @6:45 AM (had rained early morning so we had a dry window to go) We have a 10 hour day so we wanted to get an early start. It is overcast with calm waters and mild temps. I like these longer days. I dusted & vacuumed.  I'm weeding out some of my music. I have almost filled my 64 GB mini iPad, so I have to cut back on some things (darn). We both took naps (separately of course, someone has to drive because we were leading today). We read & relaxed. 

Sand Island Lighthouse, Apostles

Raspberry Island Lighthouse

We weaved through some of the Apostle Islands, so that was fun. 

Raspberry Island Lighthouse is quite a big complex. One of the Apostles, but one of the smaller islands.

Twin cities Harbor, Superior & Duluth, Minnesota

  

Southern Entry to St Louis River

Northern Entry

Duluth is located on the St. Louis river with a north & south entry. The Southern entry is still in Wisconsin, the town is Superior & it is an easy, unobstructed way to enter the River. Duluth sits closer to the Northern entry where there is a lift bridge. The whole area is very industrialized with Freighter docks & factories scattered. We were coming in from the south, so we entered using the Southern entry. The water is quite brackish & there was some debris (tree branches & logs) floating. The area is called the Twin Harbors. We could have stayed in a nice Marina in Superior, Wisconsin on a small island in the river but we would have been too far to visit Duluth. So we choose a closer spot in Duluth, which was not highly recommended. The owner was nice and we docked on a sturdy cement pier with plenty of electricity but....... first we needed a pump-out. We pulled into the fuel dock which was narrow & tipsy. The owner handed me a token & said "everything here is do it yourself & computerized". Hmmmm, Ok we can do our own pump-out, we've done it @ Middle Bass. But computerized-Hardly!! The pump was an old fashioned small engine type manual pump. But it worked! The showers & bathrooms were a small trailer on wheels with 3 small stalls with head, sink & tiny shower.  Oh, did I mention there was an "RV park"  in the parking lot? Every paved parking space was filled with an RV.  Very Quaint, haha.  I felt sorry for the campers, who fell for the ad. 

compliments of Garry

We had a long day cruising & while I cleaned, Jacque cooked.  She made a fabulous Chicken dish with wonderful seasoning over Coucous AND fresh baked, homegrown strawberry shortcake for dessert. WOW, we are eating better than at home, no doubt.  

amphitheater overlooking Lake Superior

Despite the quirky marina & surrounding industry, Duluth has done an excellent job with their waterfront. They have great access to the Northern channel where the freighters come in under the lift bridge. There is an excellent bike path all along Lake Superior where they rent bikes, kayaks, horse drawn buggies & have a very impressive aquarium, beautiful parks, one with a stone amphitheater and one a gorgeous rose garden with the biggest peonies we've ever seen.

While we were in Duluth, we were at the furthest western point one can travel in the Great Lakes & the farthest west we will ever be while on our boat, even traveling the great loop. We were farther West than New Orleans.  

Even in the city, friends can be found

Find Mr. Bill, JJDuGood or  DD Duck, haven't decided yet

A Big 2 year old Happy Birthday Wish out to SABRINA!!! Hugs & Kisses Miss Jan & Doug