We woke up early and CK went out foraging for our last excellent town coffee for the next couple weeks while I took my last shower. We had exploded our packs the night before in the hotel room and repacked together, meticulously bean-counting as we’d never been on an extended backpacking trip together. Once on the island, we wouldn’t have any resupplies or bailout options. Luckily, we’re both pretty OCD–ah hem, detail-oriented–so, spoiler alert, we didn’t forget a single tent stake. *cue Monty Python-style trumpets*

Breakfast pasties from Roy’s stuffed with eggs, potatoes, sausage, and cheese were on the agenda, as well as a rhubarb crumble bar. So tasty!

Our flight was delayed not due to bad weather, ironically, but because it was the first day of good weather in several days and Isle Royale Seaplanes was the only way off the island for the hikers who had been stranded there. We lounged around the small beach area by the dock for a few hours, and finally were able to make it onto a plane. The floatplane trip was hands-down the coolest part of the trip, and it was over way too quickly.

We landed at Windigo, picked up our pre-ordered stove fuel canister from a cage near the dock (a nifty solution on the park’s part, as we couldn’t fly with fuel but no shops open this summer on the island), and checked in at the ranger station. Ranger Jenna went over our itinerary, permits, updates on the current State of the Island, and Leave No Trace practices, and we were off. Not very far though, as we were several hours behind our plan because of the flight delay. It turned out to be fortuitous though, because instead of hiking up to Huginnin Cove we camped at Washington Harbor and ran into our first moose…complete with baby moose!

We had set up camp in one of the regular tent sites, but then set out to explore the rest of the sites in case something else looked better. In group site #2, a cow was resting in the grass next to the picnic table. We edged around and snuck into group camp #3, where CK plead a strong case for breaking camp and setting up in one of the unused-by-moose-family group camps. I whispered back ARE YOU CRAZY and we eased back down the trail around the moose and that was that. We saw small moose tracks in the mud on the trail next to cow-sized ones, and heard from another hiker later that evening that she had indeed seen a calf with the cow in the group camp. So cool! I’m still glad we didn’t pester them by trying to camp too close.

We hung out on a dock for a while watching the sun sink over Washington Harbor and then got to bed early, looking forward to walking into the interior of the mythic island of Minong.