We (niners and I) arrived in Houghton on 5/10. We went to the NPS headquarters and loaded our tools and personal gear and 2 kayaks. We were given the full blown tour of the Ranger III's engine room which is quite impressive. We made our way to the hotel around the street construction.
We had the usual breakfast at Soumi the next day, love their potato pancakes. We took care of the usual pre-trip duties picking up gear and supplies. We went to the Flooring manufacturer to discuss a few installation ??'s and were lucky enough to be given a tour of the plant, where the raw wood is turned into T&G maple flooring!!
Quite cool!!
The ride on the Ranger was very smooth, a little cool to be on deck. We arrived at Rock Harbor and off loaded our carts which had our tools and kayaks.
We began work the next AM, tearing out the carpeting and removing the loose tiles. After clearing that out, we checked the floor for low spots. We had brought flooe leveler and we levled the concrete slab.
We put down plastic and started laying pressure treated sleepers which were attached to the floor with concrete screws. Poly insulation was laid between sleepers. NPS electricians came by to discuss running service under the finished floor. They took measurements and said they would return the next day.
We were staying in the Ranger Residence (the first building on the right towrds the campground). We got started early the next AM putting down plywood subflooring. We were gluing and nailing the subfloor to the sleepers.
The electricians showed up and ran their pipe from the wall through the sleepers and stub up through the floor.
We finished the subfloor, while niners and part of the crew went to begin work on the roof. We were watching the weather and had a few days with decent weather to get the roof done.
We sanded the floor seams to even the floor and put down rosin paper and began installing the wood floor.
The next day, it snowed as we worked inside on the floor, having to go outside to cut flooring pieces to length.
We sanded the floor the next morning, vacummed and wiped the floor down with mineral spirits. After allowing it to dry, we applied a sander/sealer. We finshed that and took a quick trip to Passage Island to see the Lighthouse. I had always wanted to see it, pretty cool.
We did a light screen of the floor and put down the first coat of poly.
We repeated this process 2 more times. We went out for a little while in Tobin Harbor fishing. We ended up catching 2 lake trout. Fresh fish for dinner.
We finshed the last coat and let the floor set for 24 hours. I must say it turned out nice. We had to cut the doors down by 3 3/8" . We poured a concrete ramp to raise the entrance to the height of the new floor.
We moved the cabinets back, the electricians returnred to run their pipe under the cabinet shelves.
It was nice to be done. It was nice being able to stay in the Ranger residence, as it was heated and we could shower and do laundry.
We usually had free time in th evening, so I either went fishing or birding. Lots of warblers moving through.
We began moving the cabinets back and the desk/counter. We installed a new threshhold and put weahter stripping on the door. I was waiting for the Voyager on the 23rd as Tricia would join me and we would head to Malone Bay.
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