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By 9:00 a.m. the all-night rain had stopped, the
campsite was alive with the sound of singing birds and sunlight beamed down

unhindered between thin wispy clouds lazily floating along in the bright blue
sky.

As I stepped out of the tent and into the cool morning breeze I had a feeling
that today's weather would be perfect. We ate oatmeal for breakfast, filtered
more water and were on the trail by 10:45 a.m. We knocked off the steep, half-mile
long, uphill climb back to the ridge in about 20 minutes with only one very
short stop to catch our breath. The cool breeze we had in camp was nonexistent
on the way up to the ridge so it didn't take long to become hot and sweaty again
especially since the sun was heating up the air and turning the overnight rain
into uncomfortable humidity.

After topping out on the Greenstone Ridge we traveled downhill for a short distance,
leveled out for a while and then climbed back to the top of the ridge where
we stayed for most of the day with only a couple minor ups and downs. Today
was turning out to be quite different from the last two. The temperature was
between 75 and 80 degrees with bright sun, we spent a good portion of the day
on the open ridge and we crossed a lot of rock outcroppings. Last night's rain
and the subsequent runoff kept the giant slabs of exposed rock fairly wet and
slippery so we had to exercise a bit of caution while traversing them. At 12:30
p.m. we were just west of Mount Siskiwit when we came across an open spot on
the ridge near a drop-off. This area presented us with a nice view of the distant
ridges and valleys to the south. There was also a large rock outcropping nearby
which was sitting directly in

the path of a cool breeze blowing over the ridge. The outcropping appeared to
be a great place to stop for lunch so we set the packs on the rock and had a
couple tortilla shells filled with salami sticks, cheddar cheese and Dijon mustard.
During our lunch break we spoke with a boyfriend and girlfriend who had come
from West Chickenbone and were heading over to Hatchet Lake. They were spending
11 days on the island and were planning on staying at as many different locations
as they could. They said a moose had walked through their campsite last night
so I was hopeful we would see one too since we hadn't come across one yet. At
one point they had spoken with a guy who had been over at Feldtman Lake. He
told them he had seen about 20 moose in the area and even saw a wolf laying
on the rocks out at Rainbow Cove. Lucky hiker!
We said goodbye to our fellow hikers, finished lunch and were hiking again by
1:20 p.m. There had been a lot of moose tracks and droppings on the trail but
we never

saw
or even heard one. We also saw quite a bit of wolf scat, some of it very fresh,
and an occasional footprint in the mud but no wolves. The trail was fairly easy
until we came to a bluff from which we could clearly see Chickenbone Lake roughly
one mile away. At that point we began a steep descent from the ridge over some
pretty rocky terrain via a couple switchbacks. The trail dropped approximately
320 feet in a little over ¼ mile. It was a hard hike, one that I wouldn't
look forward to had we been going the opposite direction. After completing this
rough portion of trail, however, we were rewarded with a pleasant hike through
a pine forest where the sweet scent of pine hung in the air and years of shed
pine

needles provided a soft path to walk on. Once the trail bottomed out we only
had a few minor ups and downs before we arrived at the side trail leading down
to the West Chickenbone campsites. Like both previous campsites we had to hike
down off the ridge (this one was .2 mile) before we could pick out a site and
relax. On the trail into camp I saw a well-defined wolf print in the mud, maybe
this was a good sign that we would finally see some wildlife. By 3:30 p.m. we
were walking into the campground area. There were two guys staying at campsite
#6 and three men and two women at group site #1. The men at site #6 were here
on a canoeing trip. They told us they had been here for two days and had caught
a perch and two pike out by the point in their canoe. They had also seen four
loons out on the lake last night.

We checked out the remaining sites and decided to stay at site #4. We chose
to unpack and quickly set up camp before we became too comfortable. When everything
was in place I sat down for a couple minutes and relaxed. My calves, ankles
and feet were quite sore again from crossing all the slippery rock outcroppings and
from the downhill hiking. As a matter of fact, I think I could hear them cursing at me!
When things were set up and unpacked I
walked down to the lake with my washcloth and jumped in up to my waist. The
water was really cold but it felt good to wipe off the three days worth of dirt
and sweat with a wet cloth. Before getting out of the water I psyched myself
up and then immersed my head in the icy cold water to rinse off my hair.
West Chickenbone is a nice place to stay but as they say, every rose has its thorns. The
bugs were so irritating here that I decided to wear my headnet and jacket to
keep from becoming the main course on the dinner menu of every flying, biting,
blood-sucking insect in the area. It wasn't until shortly before we got into
the tent that the bugs disappeared.
By this time we were extremely hungry so it was a good thing that dinner was the next item
on the agenda. Tonight we would dine on Hamburger Helper Beef Stroganoff. We ate dinner by
7:00 p.m. and then fished for quite a while. We pretty much fished the entire shoreline,
where possible, from site #1 east to the group sites. Ken caught a decent size walleye
but I never even got a bite.

By
now the large, orange sun was getting close to the horizon and the temperature
had fallen to about 55 degrees. We walked back to our campsite, drank some hot
chocolate, ate a pop tart and talked about our trip thus far. By 9:30 p.m. darkness
had begun to weave its fingers through the campsite so we put things away for
the night and crawled into the tent. As usual, we reviewed the itinerary and
topo map so we knew what to expect tomorrow and then I wrote in my journal until
11:00 p.m. before finally calling it quits for the night.
As I was laying in my sleeping bag the peaceful sound of nothing was shattered by something
large crashing through the woods not far from the tent. I was hoping that our only encounter
with a moose would not be when it decided to plow directly through our tiny, defenseless tent
in the middle of the extreme blackness of an Isle Royale night. Then, as quickly as the animal
appeared it was gone and everything was quiet again. No up close and personal encounters with
a moose for us tonight!
Final count for the day: Many moose tracks, a couple wolf prints in the mud, a walleye
and flying insects that numbered in the millions - well, maybe only in the thousands.
Miles Covered Today: 7.9
Total Trip Miles: 27.6
Day 4
This page last updated on 02-25-2016 @ 11:25 AM