Ship's Blog

Ship’s Blog: Rossport, Red Rock & Nipigon, Ontario

Wow we have internet again, we will do our best to get everyone caught up. We left you in Rossport, Ontario a small town where you better enjoy the outdoors or there is nothing there for you. It is a very friendly town we met quite a few of town folks as the only internet (Really) is at the town dock. After dinner folks stop by the dock to check their email & chat.

We headed from Rossport to Red Rock, Ontario. 

Ed & I had traveled this area some 15 years ago by snowmobile. Yep were a little crazy, we rode our snowmobiles around Lake Superior and back to the Mackinac Bridge. That is a totally different story. However we ended up at the Red Rock Inn way back then & as long as we were so close we thought heck let’s check it out. We had an awesome dinner & really enjoyed the area again.

We had ton’s of things to stock up on for our journey to Isle Royale.

Both Red Rock & Nipigon are small towns about 4 miles apart. We found out that the Beer Store was in Nipigon. See in Canada you cannot buy beer, wine, or liquor at the grocery store. Beer is at the Beer Store and wine & liquor is at the LCBO (Liquor Control Board Ontario). We took the dingy to Nipigon where we got a hair cut checked out the town and hit the Beer Store. The walk from town to the dock where our dingy is docked was 1 ½ miles. So of course we each carried a case of beer from town to the dock.

On our ride back to Red Rock the O.P.P. (Ontario Provincial Police) thought we needed a safety check. Why yes we passed & yep they sure did comment on the 2 cases of beer that we had along.  We chatted with them for a bit then we headed back.

The rest of the groceries we purchased in Red Rock. The local grocery is about 2 miles from us. The grocery store here was kind of like a scavenger hunt for us. We had our list of things we would need for our 3 weeks of wilderness that was going to be our next stop. It was a real challenge for us to find what we needed that wasn’t out dated! We fast became experts at where expiration dates are located on packaging. We had a good time at the grocery store, the folks that worked there even joined in helping us out. The “deli” lady let us have cuts off from the unopened meats & cheeses in her cooler. She tried to join us for the rest of our trip, we assured her that she really didn’t want to go for a “boat ride” with us. See ya just don’t know how long or if we’re commin back : )

Our 18 Days @ Isle Royale

This is going to be difficult for us to summarize we packed so much into our time here. I think when we get to Minnesota we may need to sleep for three days.

The island of Isle Royale belongs to the State of Michigan. It is a National Park. It is known as the eye of the wolf. If you look at the chart/map of Lake Superior & it’s shape you will see why.

There are ton’s of interesting facts & regulations about the island. We don’t want to bore you with that information. If you are interested you can find lots of information @ www.nps.gov/isro .

We left Red Rock by 6 am & enjoyed flat water the entire 6 hours of our trip. We arrived at the Northeast end of Isle Royale at Rock Harbor. We needed to clear customs back into the USA. Rock Harbor is the busiest location on the island. Rock Harbor & Windigo are the only locations where you can find drinking water. Rock Harbor is on the North tip and Windigo the South tip of the island. So you either need to pack water or 90% of the people filter water right out of Lake Superior. The island is packed with inland lakes, hiking trails, & wildlife. So the type of folks you meet here are out for the adventure. You are either here to boat, kayak, canoe, hike, fish or photograph.

On Isle Royale we:

Hiked over 100 miles of Trails (126.78 to be exact).

Picked wild Blueberries-Thimbleberries-Raspberries which we enjoyed in salads, yogurt & yes Julie even muffins which we called swamp berry muffins. Boy were they good.

We swam 4 times in Lake Superior while we were here. Well ok it was more like we jumped in & came screemin’ out. It felt good to cool off after hiking. The water temp’s varied from 48* to 60* the rangers claim that the lake is quite warm this year….ok whatever.

Wildlife: we came across 2 moose, 1 fox, countless flying squirrels, 5 or 6 snakes, heard the wolves howl 3 nights, caught lots of pike and 1 lake trout, watched 2 Eagles catch dinner, laughed @ 3 otters playing in our anchorage, Loved watching & hearing the Loons call, commented on the number of young the Merganser ducks have @ one time 13!!!

We rock hounded our way around the island’s shore. The rocks here are beautiful, very colorful. The isle Royale greenstone is the most popular one to search for.

We met folks from all over the USA most are here because they love the wilderness, a few because they were forced to, some on a final adventure with Mom or Dad before they head off to college, boy scout groups, girls camp, we met many folks the majority of them loving it here. The island is best described as a wilderness adventure: you will have to do without any type of phone, internet electricity, running water, shower, laundry we labeled the hikers food as astronaut food. We are at the end of our time here for now and yep we got caught in the rain a few times, stung by a bee 4 times, had tired sore wet feet from time to time, missed not having communication, heck we even had two really loud boaters keep us up til 2:30 in the morning once. But when we look back at out time on Isle Royale what is going to stick in our minds is all the “Good Stuff” and we will look back and “Laugh” at all of the other stuff. Our time here at Isle Royale was truly priceless : )

I know there are lot’s of pictures this post they are our favorites we hope you enjoy them too. We now should have better phone & internet if you would like to contact us. Thanks hope your having a GREAT summer too.