The sun was actually shining when we woke up. We got up and spread all of our gear out so it could dry while we had breakfast. By the time we dried out the tents and packed up, my pack was a good 10 pounds lighter than it was on Sunday (4# of wine, 4# of rain soaked gear and 2# drinking water).
We made pretty good time heading back today. George’s thigh was cooled off a bit and his clothes were dry (that is until he fell again). As we headed back over Mt Desor, blood hound George was leading in the area where we saw the wolf poop on Sunday. He claimed to hear growling in the weeds (not aggressive growling, more like a mom telling her kid to shut up). We might have surprised the young pup playing before ma could take charge of the situation. We also saw some really fresh chocolate balls on the trail. In the interest of science, I tried to get Pam or George to pick some up to see if it was still warm, but they have zero scientific curiosity.
The side trail leading into Island Mine was in even worse shape than Sunday. Even so, we slid into camp by 3:30. Island Mine is one of the campgrounds where campfires are allowed. We immediately built a fire for the ambiance and smoke. Without the rain, the bugs were back out. George and I both got out our headnets to try to get some relief. For some reason, they didn’t bother Pam much. I guess that just proves we are much sweeter than she is.
We set up our tents and chairs for a leisurely afternoon. I tried to get the two bumps I’m hiking with to hike down to the mine but got no takers. I was here about 8 years ago and we went to the mine. They actually made the right decision to skip it, it just looks like a sinkhole. There were a family of squirrels living in one of the trees above our campsite. The 3 younguns were out playing most of the afternoon and early evening so we had live entertainment. The squirrels on Isle Royale have actually evolved into their own species. They are much smaller and have shorter tails.
We fired up the BioLite. It has been decided that the stove is man’s work and we let Pam off with just doing a little dish cleaning to make up for us cooking and filtering water—it’s a great deal (for whom, I’m not saying). We’ve got our system down by now. We break 5-6 small sticks about 3” long and pick the pot up every 30-45s and drop the bundle in. We keep the stove blasting this way. We boiled 3 pots of water. One for hot tea, one for the meal and wash water, and a 3rd for after dinner drinks of hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps. Since I’m in charge of mixing drinks and the weight is coming off of my back, the drinks end up mysteriously strong. It definitely warms us up.
As we are sitting around the campfire sipping our toxic chocolates after all the chores were done, we see a couple of eyes in the dark. We can’t tell what they belong to but we manage to get some pictures and make out the form of a very ratty looking fox.
