We started off the day early (at least for us) and hit the trail by 9 am after a quick oatmeal breakfast. Hiking out of Lane Cove was more difficult than coming into it because we had gravity working against us. Later in the trip, I talked with a woman who said she literally crawled a few times hiking there and I totally understand why, there were parts that were just sheer rock steps and that's not too difficult but with a pack on your back, big steps are a lot more tricky. It took us most of the morning to get back to Mt. Franklin and we stopped to catch our breath before continuing on the ridge. The next few pictures are from hiking on the ridge, absolutely breathtaking views!
Our original plan was to hike to Mt. Ojibiway for lunch then continue on to either Chickenbone East or West for the night (hoping to get to West because it's suppose to be a better site) but then tragedy struck (oh the drama)! My feet had been hurting most of the morning but I didn't think anything of it (hiking isn't always pain free, duh) but my right foot was really irritating me so I decided to stop and check my socks to see if they were loose or something. Once I peeled my socks off, my heart sank because I was greeted with two red angry blisters on my heels, the right one had already lost the top layer of skin and they definitely hurt. I seriously have nightmares of that sort of thing happening because like I said in an earlier post, feet are really important and you need them in good condition to hike and I still had five days of hiking left to do. Hubby helped me cut some moleskin to go around them and I gingerly put my feet back in my boots to finish the hike to Mt. Ojibiway. That last mile was pretty much the most painful hiking of my life and I moved at turtle-hiking-in-peanut butter-speed because every step stung.
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We arrived at Mt. Ojibiway and sat in the shade of the observation tower for lunch.
It's a pretty cool place to visit because it has a tower you can climb and get an awesome view of the whole island from. Once I got there I immediately took my boots off and slipped into my crocs and started getting lunch prepped. A group of five graduate students from MI tech arrived and joined us in the shade for their lunch. They had just came from Chickenbone West and offered some great advice about the trail ahead. I was concerned that I wasn't going to make the rest of the 7ish mile hike with my feet in their current condition so we opted to head down the ridge to Daisy Farm for the night which was only about a mile away.
After seeing my feet, one of the girls offered something even better than advice, she gave me duct tape! She said it might help to stick moleskin to duct tape and cover my whole heel like a giant bandaid. She gave me two strips to use and rolled up some more for me to use later. I am still forever grateful for her assistance because I don't how I would of finished the trip without her help and she probably didn't even realize how much her help meant to me. Thank you kind Grad student!! I had been pretty disappointed about how "crowded" Isle Royale was but I realized then how it wasn't so bad when you are in need of assistance. Every hiker we passed was incredibly friendly and helpful, the kind of people who backpack are just that way. We all share the same love of the hike and helping each other along the way is just what you do.
We then hiked down the ridge under a really hot sun, the terrain was very rocky with scraggly trees and grasses. I later learned that is the steepest trail on the island and I am grateful we went down it and not up it! When we arrived at Daisy Farms, hubby exclaimed, "It's a trailer park!" because it had like 20 shelters and dozens of paths running every which way. We found an empty shelter close to the water (#9) and set up for the night. The campground was very busy and people tended to gather on the dock at night but hubby and I chose to sit on a log by the water. We sipped whiskey while I journaled and he fished, we basically were just enjoying the calm of the evening water. My favorite way to end the day.
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| view of the water from our site |
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| home sweet home! |
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| added our own artwork to the walls of the shelter |
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