After a quick disembark – the obligatory LNT talk and registration – we are on the trail by 6:45. It feels like a steeple chase leaving Rock Harbor, but I let myself get caught up in in just to be on the trail.
Rock Harbor is no misnomer. Ankle breaker is more appropriate. Beautiful is also. Lichen and moss bearded pines and aspen dominate. Ferns abound as well as our new favorite on trail snack the Thimbleberry. We've never heard of them before, they are like a small flat red raspberry with a tart strawberry-esque flavor.
The trail is covered with root and rock, at times the only place to step is to balance on top of them. I never quite figure out the best rhythm between looking where I'm walking and the scenery around me. The rocks are the trail in the picture above.
We easily make Three mile campsite with a short stop at Suzie's Cave. Suzie's Cave is named for a girl who used to play there long ago. It is also an arch that, though now a couple hundred feet from the coast, used to be partially submerged. We make camp at Three Mile campsite and eat our dinner sitting on a stone slab watching the sun set over Lake Superior. It is one of the best dinning rooms I've ever eaten at.
We had a thunderstorm during the night that caused me to get up and put on the rainflys. The campsites are close together, but situated in such a way that you have a bit of privacy. There wasn't much wildlife moving about other than the red squirrels who are psycho. Similar to the black squirrels in Kent, but a "little" less aggressive. One confronted me, looked directly at me and clicked madly claiming our tent site as his domain.
Wednesday began as another game of leapfrog, we hoped back and forth with a young couple on their first trip, a group of 20 somethings, and a large group of women whom we later learned take backpacking trips all over the country once a year. Although somewhat better the beginning of the trail is still and ankle breaker. Along Rock Harbor/Snug/Superior up until the Daisy Farm Campground. It then we climb up and hiked on, or just under the ridge-lines from Daisy until we descended to Moskey Basin Camp.
We covered the 4 miles to Daisy Farm by lunch but hike another 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile to a nice lookout to have it. Before lunch we spot a couple Mersengers sleeping on the rocky shore, a bald eagle and take a break at an old mine (the Siskwit Mine) that is mostly unexciting.
Our second 4 miles on the ridges are surrounded by aspen and birch stands. Large rock slabs covered in lichen, scrub and small juniper break these wood. We catch glimpses of Moskey Basin below us and a grassy swamp to our right.
Ian is forever the trooper. Isaac is finicky and a little more touch-n-go. He stops a lot which can be trying, perpetually adjusting a pack or shoes, but he always finishes.
We spot a cow and calf moose track on the trail just outside of camp and scout near dusk, but a sighting isn't in the cards. Our camp, shelter 8, is a nice spot as long as your upwind of the privy, which we were, mostly. It is at the end of the basin overlooking a grassy cove. We wade, catch snails, threatening to eat them. Watch a mother and 6 young Mersengers dive all night, and try to identify a heron-ish while sitting, and duck looking while flying mostly black bird (turns out it is a Cormorant.) An unidentified bird of prey passes overhead, and a sandpiper feeds at our feet. It is an evening of relaxing and playing after a long beautiful hike.
We take a short walk to the point looking back up the basin at dusk. I split off hoping for a moose but do spot 2 Snowshoe Hare. Loon awaken us through the night and we hear the distant howl of a wolf.
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