Twenty miles from the nearest shoreline, Isle Royale is an
isolated and interesting eco-system.
Protected as a wilderness, Isle Royale National Park has hiking trails
over the islands that are part of the park, and boating trails between the
islands. The main island is 50 mile long
Isle Royale. Many visitors backpack camp
around the island.
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| Our ferry holds about 40 people |
You can only visit Isle Royale by boat. Some people come in their own motor or sail
boats. The rest of us visit by
ferry. The ferries leave from 3
locations – 2 from the UP of Michigan, and 1 from Grand Portage Minnesota. Each ferry delivers and picks up visitors to
different places on the island. Our
ferry took us to Windigo. The trip there from the mainland took 1.5 hours each
way.
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| Two Rangers meet us at the dock |
When we arrived, we were met by 2 Park Rangers who briefed
the day visitors (us) on the schedule of Ranger led hikes and talks for the
time we were there.
The other Ranger
briefed the campers on the process of filling out back-country camping permits.
We went on the first Ranger led hike of the
day; it was very interesting.
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| A view of Washington Harbor |
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| A beautiful vista around each corner |
Windigo gets its name from an unsuccessful copper mining
operation on the island from 1890-1892.
The foundation of the main building and some roads still remain.
Otherwise, the island is a natural
wilderness.
They have been studying the
predator/prey relationship of wolves and moose here for 58 years.
Sadly, the wolf population has dwindled to
just 2 inbred wolves.
They are so inbred
they are unlikely to reproduce.
So what
happened to the pack?
Scientists believe
that in the past, wolves from the mainland made the trek over the ice bridge to
the island looking for food.
In recent
years, there hasn’t been an ice bridge or if the lake was frozen, it wasn’t
frozen for long enough to interest a wolf to make the trek.
They attribute this to climate change.
So the pack has not been supplemented with
new genes for many years.
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| Moose munching has stunted the growth of these trees |
As a result, the moose population has ballooned to 1300
moose. They have over-grazed the tender young
trees in the winter. There is a Moose
Exclosure – an area fenced off 50 years ago so that moose can not graze
there. The difference is remarkable. Inside the Exclosure, there are many
tall trees. It is dark and close. Outside, it is light and sunny, and few trees
are over 6 feet tall. Remarkable. This is not the largest population of moose
though – in 1995 there were 2,400 moose.
Egad!
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| Some of the hiking trail is across wooden boards |
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| Blue-bead Lily and Thimbleberry |
On the Ranger hike we learned that Isle Royale has over 600
types of lichen.
Lichen is very
sensitive to air pollution.
Scientists
attribute this abundance of varieties to the clean air found out here in the
middle of the largest fresh water lake in the world.
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| Canada Dogwood |
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| Red Squirrel |
We hiked around the rest of the day there.
It was peaceful, green and lush.
We saw tiny red squirrels the size of
chipmunks.
They are unique to the island
and are now identified as a sub-species.
There are only 20 species of mammals on the island, 3 of which are bats.
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| Rock-of-Ages Lighthouse |
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| So lonely! |
On the ferry ride back to the mainland, we passed the famed
Rock of Ages Lighthouse that marks the western passage around Isle Royale.
It is automated now.
In the day, it housed light keepers.
What a lonely isolated place.
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| Our three Rangers |
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