I don’t know if it’s George or if Pam and I are just getting slower, but our start time on this trip seems to be 11a instead of our usual trend of 10:30. It doesn’t really matter because we’re not covering long distances or have any schedule that we have to follow.
The trip today is the reverse of our first day. Since that was all uphill, we’ve got an easy downhill trek today with shelters to look forward to once we get to Windigo. Other than the mudslide out of Island Mine, the hike is uneventful. Once again, we saw lots of moose poop but no moose. I’ve decided the NPS has relocated all of the moose to warmer climes as compensation for enduring such a hard winter. I’m sure at any minute we are going to run into a ranger with a pack full of moose poop walking along the trail a dropping piles every so often to keep park visitors hopes alive of seeing a moose.
We got into Windigo by midafternoon and walked around trying to decide which shelter to take. We finally settle on #7 for a myriad of reasons: 1) it’s relatively close to the outhouse; 2) there are squirrels playing in the trees above the shelter; 3) it’s next to a shelter that has been blocked off for some nesting loons so we might catch glimpses of them; and 4) it’s available. Actually, there aren’t a lot of people in camp. Only 2 other shelters are occupied and there is one hammock camper here as well.
After we drop our packs in the shelter, we head on up to the general store and ranger station. We talk to the kid (he’s 22 but we’re finally old enough that everyone under 30 is a kid) that’s working at the general store. This is his second year working on the island. Because of his work schedule/days off, he knows this end of the island very well but hasn’t really made it to the Rock Harbor end. We buy some pop tarts for breakfast (oatmeal every day is getting a little old) and have some chips and a soda before heading down to the ranger station.
They’ve got some nice displays at the ranger station. A full moose skeleton (the closest we’ve gotten to a real moose so far since we haven’t found the ranger spreading the poop) and a stuffed wolf. This old wolf used to take down full grown moose by himself—a real bad-ass in the wolf world. He wasn’t even as big as my dogs but I don’t think my dogs would survive the “Call of the Wild”; they are more “White Fang” ending their lives in the comfort of a fireplace. After talking to the ranger on duty and the general store kid, we decide to take a short overnight out to Huginnin Cove tomorrow.
We go back to our shelter and cook another relaxing meal of chicken vindaloo, bean & beef chili, and chocolate chocolate cheese cake for dessert. Pam and I usually skip the backpacker deserts, but George packed enough deserts for one/meal with a few extras. When we were doing our pre-trip packing, we saw all the dehydrated meals George bought—for every actual meal, he had two desserts. He has a bit of a sweet tooth at times.
The shelters are 3 sided with a screen front and a picnic table outside. After supper, we maneuvered the picnic table inside so we could play cards away from the bugs. Once the sun went down, the temperature dropped fast. When we could see our breath, we called it a night. If only it would have stopped getting colder then. We ended up wearing all of our clothes and jackets and still shivered a bit. George unpacked his tent and used his fly as an extra cover. I don’t know if it was the Indian food, or just backpacking food in general, but George’s fly rarely rested on his sleeping bag because it tended to keep blowing in the wind.
