Isle Royale 2002 Trail Journals - The "Story Version"

Hikes In-Depth > Isle Royale National Park > Isle Royale 2002 Trail Journals - The "Story Version"

The following account of our last experience on Isle Royale was written after we were back home. It was actually done over a series of emails. I was planning on just giving people a general idea of how the trip went, but it seemed like the more I thought about it, the more I had to tell!

Part I

We are back....
We had a lot of fun on our trip!!! We got into Rock Harbor around 3:30 or 4 (?) on Wednesday. After the mandatory briefing with the Park Ranger, we headed out on the trail. We camped at Three Mile campground the first night, but there were so many people on that end of the island we were unable to get a shelter. We set up camp in the last available tent site, and decided to eat supper. Andy got the stove ready, and it flared up like usual...well, maybe a bit more than usual. I headed for the other side of the site to avoid the flame, like always. I turned around to see the entire hose on fire, and yes, it appeared that the top end of the gas bottle was also getting pretty hot. Andy was trying to blow it out, and dumping the little water we had around on it. He managed to put it out before the whole thing blew up. But, something was leaking, so we couldn't use the stove anymore as it was. And it was only the first night. Andy decided he'd go back to Rock Harbor in the morning to find replacement parts and/or another stove. He left around 6 AM and got back sometime around 9, I think. 6 miles - yuck! I had my own problems while he was gone. Eventually I decided to get up and get everything packed up so we could leave right when he got back. Unfortunately, I only had about half the stuff inside put away when I heard the thunder....

Next