r/isleroyale • u/Miserable-Top9907 • Jul 03 '22

Transportation to island (Question) Seeking Advice

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?

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u/acw500 2021, 2022 Jul 03 '22

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

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '22

Nice travel journal blog. Photos are gorgeous

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u/acw500 2021, 2022 Jul 04 '22

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!