Mornings go faster when you don’t have to dry out and fold up a tent. Even so, we still didn’t start any earlier than usual because we stayed in bed longer because of the cold. George claimed not to be able to sleep (snoring sounds contradicted this statement), so he was up early to get water boiling for breakfast. I think the real reason he got up early is that he loves the stove and doesn’t like to share the fun of playing with it. Between him and me, we’ve probably got 50 pictures of the stove in action. How many pictures of flames does one need? Apparently, one more than I already have—it is a lot of fun.
We walk along Washington Creek for about ½ mile before we cross a pretty cool bridge and start climbing up another ridge between us and the shore. There’s great views of Washington Harbor and Windigo behind us when we get to the top of the ridge. From here, it’s an easy down-hill into Huginnin Cove. When we were getting close to the shore, we start hiking beside a creek the rest of the way in. We noticed a large floating foam mass in one of the pools. I assume it was phosphates that have leached into the water from people doing dishes in the creek. It was both cool to see but a little disturbing that no more people that come out to this island can have that much of a noticeable effect on the environment. This reinforces our commitment to “leave no trace”.
We get into camp and set up by mid-afternoon. I take the last bottle of wine down to chill in Lake Superior when I go to filter water. We have a nice campsite on a point overlooking the lake and we can see Canada in the distance. If you look at the Canadian/USA border, from the west coast across it’s 54 deg 40 sec (history did sink in 54 40 or fight) but the border jumps north in Lake Superior so we can claim exclusive ownership of Isle Royale.
We made teriyaki chicken and Indian lentils for supper. Neither Pam nor George liked the lentils so I over ate the vast majority. After we eat, we make our way along the shore to a point that sticks further out so we can get better views of the sunset. The views of Canada are hazy and we can’t quite tell what we are seeing as we look across to Thunder Bay—it looks like a wall. We have a colorful and clear sunset then make our way back to camp to finish off our wine and have dessert. George skips the wine but not the dessert. It was chocolate chocolate cheesecake again. I really have to wonder if we are starving George because he tears the bag apart to lick this one clean.
