Adventure Racing (Hiking Vacation) 5:00:00 [3] 11.3 mi (26:33 / mi)
shoes: North Face Gore-Tex XCR
Day 4 Isle Royale Hiking Vacation. Lake Richie to McCargoe Cove. Depart Lake Richie at 9:52 am after gruel for breakfast, hoping to get a spot at McCargoe. Fairly flat terrain to start with along the lake and then swings north towards the ridge. Nice pace, 1 hour without rest as the boys hit their pace. Meet many coming the opposite direction including a gentleman with a Tibetan prayer bell, not a bear bell on his pack. Stopped at Lake LeSage to fill water containers and then West Chickenbone for lunch, tortillas and sausage. DIstance to West Chickebone is 5.2 miles by GPS, 3.4 by map.West Chickenbone is a nice spot but the lake has the same green algae as Lake Richie so water is avoided. Back on the trail to McCargoe at 12:57pm. See Thunder Bay father and sons fishing but they are having no luck. They have sailed from Canada and are moored at McCargoe Cove. There are lots of sailing docking locations on North Superior side. Arrive at 2:20 pm at McCargoe to find no shelters, or single campsites. Take a group spot and hope no one reserving it shows up. Dwayne washes with surfactant and Ian takes a quick dip, first ever. Sitting on the beach, a snake with a tadpole in its mouth crawls out between this legs. It slithers into the bank and we watch it inhale the large tadpole. Ian walks to the Minong Copper Mine after without pack to see the old mines. Mined back in the 1890's for 10 years, the ore was transported to McCargoe by rail. Old tailings piles, ome shaft and a surface galey is all that is left. Prehistoric Indian pit mines also dot this area.
Distance today - 9.3 by GPS, 5.4 by map temperature - 28°C high.