Hi to all Paddlewisers, Three friends and I are planning on paddling the crossing to Isle Royale in Lake Superior later this summer, probably around late August. I'm wondering if anyone out there has experienced paddling this crossing? If so, where did you start (Minnesota, Canada or Wisconsin?) and where did you paddle to? How long did the crossing take you? Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated. Of if you have any hot spots to check out once we've arrived, let me know that too. I've been to IR before and loved it, but this will be the first time actually paddling to it. Heck, taking the ferry is a bumpy enough ride, I can't wait to paddle it! Thanks, Mark ___________________________________ Mark Mastalski, Assistant Director Cooperative Education & Internship Program University of Wisconsin - Madison 1415 Engineering Drive, Room 1150 Madison, WI 53706-1619 (608) 262-7504 www.engr.wisc.edu/services/ecs *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Hi Mark, Bill Newman here. Sarah Ohmann and I, wrote the Globe Pequot guide book "Guide to Sea Kayaking Lake Superior and Lake Michigan". Sarah has a pretty good mile by mile description of entire coast of Isle Royale (Route 12 pages 55-63). Honest it won't hurt our feelings if you run to library and xerox this route. We did not describe the cross to the Island because we did not want to touch the liability with a ten-foot pole. If you read the route description we don't even suggest that the crossing is a legitimate possilbility. That said both Sarah and I have crossed out to the island in our kayaks, and for an expert paddler with plenty of time budgeted to wait for good weather it is an option. It is a serious crossing and I do worry that even if you and your friends are very strong paddlers you might get into trouble by having a big crossing at both the beginning and end of a limited vacation time. If you get caught short of time at the end of your vacation it is all to easy to be tempted into crossing when the weather is a little bit iffy rather than the perfect weather you should have waited for.... I last paddled out there over the fourth of July weekend in 1997 as part of a training trip for a bigger Lake Superior crossing. We started from the mouth of the mouth of the Pigeon River on the indian reservation and crossed out to Rock of Ages lighthouse and then on into Washington Harbor. The mouth of the river can be accessed by a dirt road that splits off to the right of the highway immediately before the U.S/Canadian border. Officially the launch point at Pigeon River is closed to non-tribal members - unofficially a fair number of non-indian locals use the access. If you must use this launch point leave a note on your car so the local tribal game warden will not panic if he sees a vehicle there for a number of days and assumes the worst. From there you can quickly paddle a couple of miles to the end of Pigeon Point and then about (about 15? statue miles) to Rock of Ages Lighthouse. Note that unless the weather is excellent you won't be able to land at the island (big rock!) so you need to plan on another 3 statute miles to get safely into Washington Harbor. If you want to make the crossing from Pigeon Point to Washington Harbor it is probably better to lauch from harbor in Grand Portage and paddle up through the Susie Islands to the north side of Pigeon Point where there is a snug little cove where you could spend the night. I don't want broadcast this location to too many people but I could give you the details off-list. Note that the Susie Islands are also tribal land so you are officially trespassing if you stop on them. Unofficially you are probably ok stopping on them for a day-trip, but please don't camp overnight on them. Kayakers have a good relationship with the tribe and we don't want to spoil that by being disrespectful of their property rights. An easy day trip of less than 15 miles takes you up the coast through the islands to the good campsite on Pigeon Point. From there you could leave first thing in the morning and from camp to Washington Harbor you could make a trip of about 20 miles. When we came back to the mainland we did so by crossing from Amygdaloid Island to Silver Islet in Canada. This is a crossing of about 22 statute miles but it takes you from one snug harbor to another good harbor behind the many long thin Islands including Amygdaloid. Note that in doing this you are crossing from Canada to the U.S. or the other way round without being anywhere near a customs check in point. To do so legally you should drive to the border at the Pigeon River and spend about $20 to get a remote area border crossing permit. However you go this is a big crossing that should not be taken lightly. Although you can find a crossing on the map from say Pigeon Point to some God-Forsaken Rock like Rock of Ages that is 15 miles or so distant, you really need to paddle 20 statute miles or more to get from one safe harbor to the next safe harbor. A 20 mile crossing is not like paddling a 20 mile coastal day trip. With great weather and a strong group you can polish it off in 5 hours, but with a head wind and unexpected bad weather it can become a 20 hour nightmare. When we came back from Amygdaloid Island to Silver Islet we had a good weather forcast with some fog in the morning that was burning off by about 10:00 AM so we had good visability before we got near any shipping traffic. In spite of the good forcast we got nailed by a thunderstorm that hammered us with 30 knot head winds heavy rain and lots of thunder and lightening for about an hour just 6 miles from Silver Islet. The weather can easily take an unexpected turn in 5 or 6 hours so unless you should not consider doing the crossing if you are not willing to handle the worst weather that could pop up in that time. Someone else mentioned the hazards of fog and the shipping traffic. The commercial traffic is not that heavy in this area. We only had one ship cross our path on the 22 mile return crossing. However I would avoid the crossing if you thick fog is going to be a problem. Also you may want to make a Security call on the VHF giving your departure location, destination, departure time speed and heading. That would at least improve the chance that the ships will be looking for you as you cross. The best weather in terms of light winds and moderate seas is usually in early summer June and July although the Lake and the Island can be quite cold that early in the season. On our fourth of July trip the Lialacs were just starting to flower on Belle Isle (Isle Royale), and in Silver Islet. It was unusually cold that weekend with the maxium air temperature over the 4th of July weekend being about 50 F lows in the high 30s and low 40s. I would plan on having a Gortex drysuit available for your crossing and I would wear it unless the weather and the water are unsually warm if you cross in early summer. Although calm weather is more likely in late June or July you have a much higher probability of running into fog as warm moist air from the mainland blows out over the 50 degree Lake Superior water. For relatively calm weather with warmer temperatures and less fog the first half of August is probably best. The second half of August the winds start to pick up as Fall approaches and you can get some rather unpleasent weather some years. I hope this helps give you better information to decide whether to cross to the island. If you lack a flexible schedule and expert kayaking skill I would stick to the ferry. With a little weather or bad luck a big crossing can go from boring and uncomfortable to a horrible horrible ordeal. The two longest Great Lakes crossings that I have done were not the least bit fun. During the 85 statute mile crossing of Lake Michigan we got nailed with 25 knot headwinds and 3-5 foot seas for about six hours and while paddling all night in that mess two of the four of our group got sea sick and had to be towed as they tossed their cookies all over each others spray skirts. On the 67 mile crossing that I did from Stannard Rock Lighthouse to Caribou Islet I got sea sick paddling at night in fog and had the longest most unpleasant night of my life. I am not prone to sea sickness and that was the first time it had ever hit me in a kayak. I was able to continue paddling for the 35 miles or so left after I got sick but I was very very lucky to have good weather and a paddling partner who let me lay my head on his deck every 30 minutes to puke and nap.. An unexpected head wind, a sea sick or injured paddler in your group or a bit of fog could easily make your crossing become a most unpleasant adventure. Summer weather for an Isle Royal trip will probably be pretty good with 3 foot seas or less on a good forcast and winds of 10-20 knots or less. However it is not that uncommon to have a late August storm kick up 8-10 foot seas and winds over 30 knots so be very careful to wait for good weather. Mark Mastalski wrote: > Hi to all Paddlewisers, > Three friends and I are planning on paddling the crossing to Isle Royale in > Lake Superior later this summer, probably around late August. I'm > wondering if anyone out there has experienced paddling this crossing? If > so, where did you start (Minnesota, Canada or Wisconsin?) and where did you > paddle to? How long did the crossing take you? Any ideas or suggestions > would be appreciated. Of if you have any hot spots to check out once we've > arrived, let me know that too. I've been to IR before and loved it, but > this will be the first time actually paddling to it. Heck, taking the > ferry is a bumpy enough ride, I can't wait to paddle it! > > Thanks, > > Mark > *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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