Hey there everyone!

Has any one done some kayaking around Isle Royale? At the Quiet Water Symposium in Lansing last weekend, I have really gotten the bug about going up there.

Does anyone have any tips or insight on this National Park?

I think I would need to go for at least 4 days, but I would love to go for a week. I read something about the spiny-water flea that is in Lake Superior waters, but not in the inland lakes of the Island. Is this a problem with taking the kayak from Lake Superior to some of these lakes? The brochere mandates washing off the kayak before going inland. How would I accomplish that? Obviously using Superior water would not help. It alos seems that using the water from the inland lakes risks contaminating the lakes themselves. Maybe boiling the water before washing?

I am interested in hearing from anybody who has done this trip or are thinking about it.

Scott

Hello Scott, here are some weblinks for you...

This one is a compilation of numerous trip reports on Isle Royale, including backpacking trips:
http://www.isleroyale.info/trips/2003log.shtml
I have a report on a kayaking trip that I took in 2003 with a group of friends- see the line with "Steve P" in the left column, which contains two reports of the same journey, one by me (John Pearson) and the other by trip organizer Steve Parrish. Our trip was an easy one with short segments on the quiet waters of a protected bay, but you can also do an ambitious circumnavigation.

A recent story of a circumnavigation is posted on this website:
http://www.patrickmaun.org/photos/isleroyale/index.html


For some beautiful photos of Isle Royale, see
http://www.sweetwatervisions.com/Pages/isleroyale.html

Thanks John,

Those gave me some great ideas. My trip would most likely be more like your trip. The circumnavigation was pretty ambitious. Not only did they go around the island (100 miles in 5 days) they paddled over from Minnesota and back to the mainland. My skill set is not up to that..... yet.

You guys looked like you had a lot of fun.

BTW, I got my B.S in Botany from the University of Michigan. I then went to Michgan State for my degree in Golf Course Maintenance (hence Turfboy) I had not thought about cataloging the plants I see on a trip. I also haven't thought of a Maple as an Acer rubrumin quite a while. Usually I think more in terms of Poa pratensis or Agrostis stolinifera var. palustris

Hi Scott, a friend here in Iowa has done that interior lake-hopping trip on Isle Royale and raves about it. FYI, it is better suited for a canoe than a kayak due to several portages, mostly short, but some long, wet, rocky, and steep. Those could be awkward with a kayak. Then there's the problem of carrying your gear, which consists of many small packages with a kayak instead of only a few big ones (carried backpack-style ala the "Duluth pack") with a canoe. This results in an extra trip or two back down the portage trail between the landings. On the other hand, you wouldn't want to do the Superior shoreline with a canoe unless you had absolutely calm water for the duration of that segment.

I'm originally from Michigan myself (Detroit area) and "discovered" the St. Clair Flats (a delta on the north side of Lake St. Clair, the "little" Great Lake) as a great kayaking place during a trip "home" a few years ago.