Isle Royale, Michigan

Our friends Danna MacKenzie (daughter of the a fore mentioned birthday boy) and Jack McDonnell live in Grand Marais, MN.  They also own a boat called 'Tis Grand.  We managed to convince them to take us to Isle Royale in Lake Superior.  We are clever and devious!

So on Monday August 19th we left port with mild wave action.  For those of you unfamiliar with Lake Superior I'll explain what little I know about the wave action.  Diana and I have seen the lake just lay flat.  This is very rare in our experience.  Normally we see 1 - 2 foot waves.  But many times we have also seen 6 - 8 foot waves and the lake be very nasty.  Part of the beauty of Superior is her ever changing mood.  Keep in mind that hundreds of ships have been sunk on the lake.

 Anyway we went to Suzy Island and found a secluded bay and anchored there the first night.  After dinner we watched the moon rise.  Awesome!

Tuesday morning we headed toward Isle Royale.  We arrived, docked and settled in fro a few days.

We did some hiking, dropped the dingy in and explored the shore line and had a great time.  It was very warm there, in the low 80s and I got hot.  So what better way to cool off than a dip in Lake Superior?

The water temp most of the way over to the island was in the 40's or 50's.  In fact we chilled the beer by putting it in the lake one day.  But the water temp was closer to 65 by the dock.  Not too bad.

One morning while I was walking I came across this fox.  She was not afraid of me and I was not afraid of her.  But we sort of danced with each other for about 10 minutes.  She would move to one side of the path and lay down.  I would move, then she would jump as if we were playing.  Finally a few other folks showed up and the dance was over.

On Thursday we left the dock and headed toward Rock of Ages light house.

This is an amazing light house because it is built on a rock.  Another cool thing about Superior is the varying depth of the lake.  Most of the way out to the island the lake was between 300 to 600 feet.  Near Rock of Age the depth will vary from protruding rocks to several hundred feet then to just a few feet in very short distances.
That night we anchored in a cove at Birnam Island.  This is an old fish processing bay.  The buildings still stand and a few cabins are occupied but we had the place to ourselves.

Friday morning we pulled anchor and took the about 5 hour cruse back to Grand Marais.

The weather on the trip was warm and sunny and the lake lay flat.  A very smooth ride. Thanks to Captain Jack and to Danna for a great trip and helping me cross Isle Royale off my bucket list.