Friday September 1, 2017

We had a good night’s sleep and a leisurely time waking up. We only have three miles to hike with our packs and so there is no rush. After breakfast, we chat with the neighbors some more before getting our gear together. It is another picture-perfect day except there seems to be a bit of a breeze starting up.

Along Tobin Harbor

We decide to walk a little bit inland before turning toward the lodge. It is about a half mile further, but neither of us want to walk the tough rock-strewn shore that we started out on Tuesday afternoon. It was a good choice. We were out of the wind and the trail was good. It soon led us along the shore of Tobin Harbor. The water was a nice blue color today with the sunshine helping the refraction process.

Coral Mushroom

                                                                         As we hiked on, you will never guess what I saw. Yup, more mushrooms. Todays variety was totally different looking more like coral than some fungi. Then to top things off, we came across what I assume is a fungi growth on the side of a tree. I have seen smaller whiter versions of this in my travels but this one jutted out a foot or more from the tree. It was half disc shaped and there were ferns growing in the top of it as if someone planted them there. A perfect tree flowerpot.

CNC Rock Harbor

Thirty minutes later, we were walking into Rock Harbor. We went to the Lodge office and our room was ready so we walked there and unloaded our packs. The word lodge is a bit of a misnomer here. It is lodging but hardly a lodge that you might expect in a National Park. The office was in a small cabin. There were several separate motel type units and no main lodge building. That did not bother us at all as our room had a balcony that literally hung over the lake. Before we could take advantage of it, we had to go to the little café so that Carol could be fed. Burgers were the lunch of choice and then we returned to our room for a shower and to relax.

Room View and Balcony

Now you would think that after three days of hiking, a shower would have been the first choice. It would have been except for the fact that the café has very limited lunch hours and the thought of someone else serving us a meal won the war between a shower or a cooked lunch.  Showers were accomplished and then we sat on our balcony in the sun. Not having seen one of the 1600 fake moose on this island, we plan to have dinner tonight and then take a hike at dusk to hopefully see a moose that has been spotted recently in the vicinity. Right now, it feels good to air out our feet and enjoy the day. We go back out before dinner to walk around the harbor area. Then we have a nice dinner of lake trout at the only restaurant in “town”.

Finally, A Moose

After dinner, we head out on a sunset hike in search of the elusive Isle Royale moose.  We hike back up the Tobin Trail with no luck. We turn around and try the Scoville Point Trail. We do find some remains of an old mine but not a single moose. The sun starts to go down and at least it cooperates by giving us a nice reflective sunset. Returning to the room, I see the only moose of the trip. It is sculpted on the base of a lamp in our room. Daylight wanes and at least we have a bed. Good night.