Anyone here paddled a route around Isle Royale National Park? Any pics or trip reports to share?

My son and I portaged from Rock Harbor over to Tobin Harbor, paddled and portaged across to Duncan Bay over to Lane Cove, Pickerel Cove, then to McCargo Cove, across various lakes ad portages to Richie Lake. We did a day trip to Siskiwit Lake, where we stopped at Ryan Island. That meant we were on the biggest island in the biggest lake, on the biggest island in the biggest lake, in the world. We portaged from Richie to Moskey Basin and back to Rock Harbor. All in all it was about a week. We had a great time.

Many of the camp sites have shelters, like a screened porch. We only slept in our tents two nights. No dogs are allowed on Isle Royale. There are no bears on Isle Royale, but foxes can be a real nuisance. They like to steal things like shoes and hats.

I did a solo trip about 20 years ago on that same track. I took a ferry from Copper Harbor (MI) and paddled for a few days in the "Five Fingers" area, staying at numerous campsites.

I made it around the open water to McCargo and then on back to Rock Harbor. It was a good week's trip, not terribly difficult, assuming you miss big waves on the open water segment. The portages are reasonable too, no serious problems. I did some day-hiking into Mt Franklin, encountered numerous moose, and still recall the trip with great fondness.

Somewhere I have a diary and i wrote up a briefer account for Harry Robert's free publication, "Paddling" back in the day. If I can locate it, I'll post it under the trip reports section this winter.

Yes, we climbed Mt Franklin too. It was a very nice hike. That's the picture of some old guy standing on the rock.

I do NOT recommend the ferry from Copper Harbor. They didn't tie down the canoes and kayaks, and when a couple of the boats were damaged from sliding around the captain was very hostile and abusive when it was brought to his attention. Next time I'll take the Ranger from Houghton. There's also the Voyageur from Grand Portage.

Hey Oldgentleman, when did you go? I'm not excusing anyone for not tying down the boats, let alone their beligerant attitude, but I rode the Isle Royale Queen III out of Copper Harbor and had a very good experience. Since I rode it in 2002, they have replaced the boat with a longer and better ferry, the Isle Royale Queen IV.

For anyone reading this, I'd take the IR Queen anytime, with or without a canoe on board.

I went in 2005, I think. However, my son and a friend of his went last fall and said the captain (same guy) berated a couple guys for not standing in line the way he liked. As with me, he yells a lot if he has an audience, and quietly apologizes when nobody is around.

I won't ride the Queen again.