We did a lot of driving on this trip and the night before our Isle Royale Queen headed out for the island we had traveled to the farthest tip of Michigan (that you can drive to anyhow). We got a room facing Lake Superior and we got even more excited about the morning’s journey across the huge lake to a tiny Island. With our bags packed and everything in order we attempted sleep despite our excitement.

The next morning we boarded the ferry, aptly nicknamed the barge barge. I typically have issues with seasickness so I took as many precautions as I could. I’m am super happy to say that despite many, many opportunities to get sick I was able to keep it under control.

I should mention something of interest here. Before this trip my good friend Joe recommended I read “Naked in the Stream” by Vic Foerster. A book of short stories by a man who has visited the island for many years. So what do you know when I hear that ol’ Vic is on the very same ferry boat that I am. It turns out he likes to go at the end of September to avoid the crowds, bugs, and heat of summer and it turned out this just happened to be good timing for our first trip ever! When we landed on the island I got a quick picture with him to show off to my friend and let him on his merry way.

It looks us about 15 minutes or so to get organized and actually following a trail but we were doing it! We were finally hiking the famous Isle Royale National Park. We hiked about 6.5 miles that first day and ended at a place called Lane Cove. We had the place to ourselves. The next day we hiked roughly the same amount to the Daisy Farm campground. The view was changing constantly and one of the highlights that day was seeing the view from a tower up on the ridge top! It was pretty amazing.

Afternoons at the campsites were pretty quiet but that’s part of the charm of a camping trip, to enjoy the quiet moments. Our evenings consisted of a shot of gin to sip on, staring at the water, eating dinner, staring at the water, having a dessert like snack, watching the sunset, and then basically going to bed. Once the sun went down the temperature dropped to about 40F burr and no fires were allowed at any of the campsites we stayed at. I had trouble sleeping due to being cold, uncomfortable, and trying to go to bed way too early. At least I was up early to see a couple of sunrises.

One of the highlights of getting to our destination was our shot of gin to sip. The second day I discovered some wild mint and that got me thinking that I could turn our gin shots into cocktails! Later on the hike I picked a few juniper berries to add to the cocktail. Once we arrived I got started on the camping cocktails. Recipe below:

Camping Cocktails:

2 oz of gin

2 sprigs of wild mint

8-10 juniper berries

Add the berries and mint to the shot glass and use the other shot glass to muddle them together. Add 1 oz of gin to glass and done! Camping cocktail ready to drink! They weren’t bad really but a little sugar sure would have helped. 🙂

We spent the rest of that day sitting on the end of the dock gazing out over the water and trying to figure out how we got so lucky to be sitting here with such an amazing view and at such peace. The reflections were amazing that evening so I took a ton of pictures.

The next morning I was up early again but at least I got to see the sunrise over Lake Superior and the little cove our dock rested in. After our morning rituals and breakfast we were off to the last campsite on our trip. That night was a little ominous as a fog overtook the entire island  and the trees by our campsite were covered in lichen. It looked like they grew lichen instead of lichen growing on them. I put my hammock up and took turns reading there and gazing out at the fog on the dock.

On our last day we packed up for the last time and slowly made our way back to the harbor to catch the ferry. We soaked up as much sun as we could and took as many mental images as possible and loaded up onto the ferry. The waves were a little bit rough going back, 4-6 feet and some 7 foot, so I was lying down most of the way. Near the end I did get up to see a 1,000 foot freighter cross our path. That was pretty amazing to see.

Tired and a little bit nauseous we arrived in Copper Harbor, loaded up the car, and after some much needed sleep we were ready for our next adventure!