Day 4 Isle Royale

Day 4 – Isle Royale Mt. Franklin Hike

Today the hike we chose was about 11 miles in total, our starting point the dock at Hidden lake in Tobin Harbor.  Since we wanted to do a one way hike we opted to be dropped off at our starting point and work are way back.  Our plan was to take a water-taxi to our starting point but Steve found out that it was much cheaper to schedule us on the tour boat instead of the water taxi.  They were going in this direction anyway so we just hitched a ride.  It worked out great, $16.00 a person. 

From Hidden Lake boat dock we hiked up to Lookout Louise, beautiful views from here of the whole Tobin Harbor area.  Back in the 1930’s this area was a booming mining town and the place to be; now there are only the remains of a few summer cottages.  Four of these cottages still remain privately leased the rest belong to the National Park.  It was interesting that the National Park allows Artists to stay in these cottages weeks at a time to work and educate people that come to the island.  

From the Lookout we connected to the Greenridge Trail and hiked approx. 5 miles until we reached the summit of Mt. Franklin, elevation 1000 ft.  The trail was tough in places, very high foliage, up to my armpits, lucky we met a fellow hiker yesterday that told us to make sure we wore pants on this trail.  We listened thank goodness.  We ate lunch at the top of Mt. Franklin, enjoyed the views and talked with other backpackers, the real backpackers that stay in the back country the entire time they are here.  I’m way beyond this I like my hot shower not to mention a cold one at the end of the trail. We finished the hike by connecting to the Tobin Harbor Trail taking us back to the lodge. It was very hot today which is very unusual this time of year; we went through all of our water by the end of the trip.

Our total trip time including picture taking, lunch, and a few extra stops along the way, we finished in 6 hours 38 minutes.  It was kind of fun coming to the end of the trail head because one of the couples that was on the tour boat this morning was standing there at the trail head and remembered us.  They couldn’t believe that we made it back when we did.  It was fun having such a nice greeting when you come out of those woods huffing and puffing but totally ecstatic over the wonders and the beauty we saw today.

Saw traces of Moose, where they bed down, and even heard their cry but have not physically seen one yet.  Maybe tomorrow.