Nancy and I arrived home last night (Wednesday).
We came off the island on Sunday the 12th as our boat scheduled for the 16th was cancelled and we either had to get off on the 12th or wait until the following Sunday the 19th. At first we decided to stay and get ferried to Malone to go to Hay Bay and Siskiwit Bay then, re-thought our choice due to work and it would have been a stress on our supplies.
I thought I would post this quick along with a couple of quick pictures. I was videotaping most of the trip, so I only had a telephoto lens (Nancy had a regular) and I do not have many still pictures and my movies are a bit harder to grab quick.
Also, I did not read the board yet so I am not sure what of this is known.
So, some notes in random order...
- The trip was great. Totally off the cuff and we could not really go anywhere that we could not paddle to. The trails were basically impassable when we got there. The trail snow varied from 4" to 30" on the main trail through Rock Harbor campground. We stayed at shelter #1 and only wandered as far as #3.
- We were dropped off at Rock Harbor by the Voyageur and were there entirely alone.
- We paddled to Tookers and had two lovely sunny days watching the snow melt and paddled around the outer islands. By the 2nd day, the snow shelves along the shores were mostly gone.
- We paddled to Caribou dodging mini "icebergs" that were floating down the harbor. Had wind, snow and freezing rain a couple of days there, but managed to paddle to the fishery and trudge through the snow to the lighthouse. Plus, a nice big fire one night.
- We met the Voyageur at Daisy Farm. Candy and Rolf were there and she was happy to report seeing two wolves and Isabelle was still alive. Robert Seeber (aka “Bucket Bob”) was on board to get dropped off at Malone for 18 days.
- When we left Grand Portage on Monday, we drove to Copper Harbor and spent the night (the Ranger and the Beaver were at the dock in Houghton when we passed through). The queen had left that morning with 25 people (19 of which were part of the Wolf/Moose study) and they were staying till Wednesday according to Meredith at the Queen store (which she opened up for us on Tuesday).
- On Tuesday we drove to Houghton via Brockway Drive (which we were told was finally passable) and went to the ranger station. The Ranger had gone out that morning. We talked to Liz for a bit describing our trip. Valerie came in and we talked to her. She was hoping to be going out on Wednesday or Thursday if they got into Windigo and she was jealous that we got to be there.
- All in all, the trip was great, but too short. It does not seem we got a full trip in due to it being cut short and I am a bit upset about that
. However, it was a tremendous experience and I would do it again (of course!) 
.
Unique camping for sure but not real winter camping.
It seemed like 90% of our time was spent doing things to just stay alive. It was OK to do it when I was young and warm blooded but I can't see it happening again.
