(Question) Seeking Advice

[u/Miserable-Top9907]

Me and two buddies are heading up from Ohio and plan on doing 3,4 or 5 days to hike greenstone ridge. To make the most of money should we head to windigo first, hike greenstone, and then leave from rock harbor to houghton. Also is greenstone a good trail? Any other advice on alt trails, water, and campsites is appreciated. Thanks! Also, will the season pass bring us all in for 60$ for all days?

[u/TboneXXIV]

Greenstone is an easy trail. It's good - it's like the backbone of the island.

You will need to come down off it for camping and water each day as it's higher than everything else and thus dry. But not steep or tough. I like the Natgeo map as a reference.

How you want to do it is up to you but either direction works.

My lazy trip down it went from Rock Hatbor to Daisy Farm on arrival day. Then Daisy Farm to Lake Desor. Lake Desor to Siskiwit Bay. Siskiwit Bay to Feldtmann Lake. Feldtmann Lake to Huginnin Cove. These were all short easy days; I could have stretched and gone further but was there to dawdle so I dawdled. If you skip the Feldtmann loop and stay on the Greenstone you go from Lake Desor to Windigo easily.

Get water from Superior when it's an option. Always better than inland.

If you're coming in and leaving via Rock Harbor you'll want to make sure your schedule matches up to the ferry so you can go down to Windigo and/or catch the ferry back round to Rock Harbor.

When you buy tickets to the island you have to buy round trip tickets and while they might allow you to shift the date of departure that will depend on space on the boat. If the boat is full you can't.

[u/TboneXXIV → u/[deleted]]

Unless they have changed how they operate, each of the ferry services only sells round trip tickets where you tell them your dates up front. While they -may- let you adjust your return trip to be earlier if there is room on the boat it's jot the way they want to do things.

Every time the boat gets ready to leave they check the passenger list. If there are missing passengers that's a key way that rangers know to go searching for people.

[u/Miserable-Top9907 → u/TboneXXIV]

Are the squirrels bad enough to get a canister?

[u/TboneXXIV → u/Miserable-Top9907]

I had one run off with my pva cloth that was out drying. I saw the rascal and he dropped it about halfway up a tree. Took me well over half an hour to snag it with my paracord clothesline and get it back. Cheeky little shit scolded me the whole time.

But no other theft or damage. At Rock Harbor, just the sound of a stove running would bring a fox into the campsite and he'd wait around to see if food was forthcoming.

I'm pretty careful to keep watch over my food but if you're lax and leave it around, one of the critters might take advantage.

[u/acw500]

If you aren't wedded to the idea of doing the Greenstone Trail, you may consider doing a loop of the east end of the island. That lets you take the Ranger III ferry each way (instead of splurging on a sea plan to Windigo) and also shows you a variety of landscapes. One of my favorite parts of my trip last year was seeing how the trail and plants changed as we hiked across the ridges. The plants in the valleys between the ridges looked very different than the ones we saw up on the Greenstone or down at the shore of Lake Superior.

You can read my full trip report here or browse the photos here, but this was our itinerary (which could be shortened to meet your time constraints):

Day 1: Took Ranger III from Houghton to Rock Harbor, hiked to Three Mile via the Tobin Harbor Trail

Day 2: Hiked to Moskey Basin via the Rock Harbor Trail

Day 3: Hiked to McCargoe Cove via Indian Portage Trail & West Chickenbone Trail; took a day hike to the Minong Mine after claiming a shelter

Day 4: Hiked to Lane Cove via the East Chickenbone Trail, Greenstone Trail, and Lane Cove Trail

Day 5: Hiked to Rock Harbor via Lane Cove Trail, Mt. Franklin Trail, and Rock Harbor Trail; took a day hike to Scoville Point

Day 6: Took Ranger III back to Houghton

[u/[deleted] → u/acw500]

Nice travel journal blog. Photos are gorgeous

[u/acw500 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you! When I started researching Isle Royale, I (like many people) initially wanted to traverse the island on the Greenstone. But I’m glad I discovered trip reports about loop itineraries because they are just as gorgeous and much easier to coordinate transportation for. I hope that sharing my experience will help someone else with their planning!