The Vacation,
Part 5; Washington Creek,
Now somewhere I read that although this was the longest hike, 12.6 miles (the other hikes were about half that) it was suppose to be an easy, gradual downhill hike. I'm not sure where I read this, but another hiker that we meet towards the end of the hike said he read the same thing. There was nothing gradually downhill about this hike.
After we did the first part relatively quickly, we were all feeling pretty good about ourselves and the amount of distance we covered. "I think were a third of the way", at one point someone said. "I think we went over the last ridge." "I think there is only three miles left." "I think we are already on the boat." None of this ended up being true. After we got through the first section at a relatively fast clip, with me in the lead for reasons I will go into later, we sat down, took our packs off and ate beef jerky and trail mix. We noticed three contour lines on the map signaling ridges we had to go over and knew they were coming up. We went over a couple of small hills and I looked back and said to Adrian, "I think that was the third one." He agreed. 
Over the next couple of hours as we forced ourselves up ridge after fucking ridge we realized how wrong we were. My calves felt like they were going to blow right out the back of my legs. Luckily that didn't happen. However I was very happy that I mostly use the stairs at work and don't run to the elevator like most guys I work with. Also the frequent walks I took this summer made the long, challenging hike much more bearable. One person in our group didn't spend his summer preparing for the hike.
So to go back a bit, Isle Royale is known for it's moose population. Last time we went if memory serves me it seems we saw a moose almost every day. Here we were on our fifth day on the island, our last hike and we haven't seen a single moose. This last hike being long and our last day, I decided that moose sightings were just not in the cards and since I had already seen them the last time we were at the island, I didn't care so much. So I took the lead, not caring if someone was walking right on me heels. However I offered my companions some hope by telling them that last time we saw a big bull moose just outside of a campsite on our way to the boat. I didn't believe we would see one however. During a mix up following rock cairns Adrian took the lead and I was in the middle. As we were making one of our ridge climbs, this is long after we thought we were done with them, I was almost at the top when I looked off into the woods and noticed a distinct shape that can best be describe as "no tree". Right there maybe fifteen feet into the woods was a moose. Right from first sight I knew there was trouble. I could tell she didn't like the looks of me and I can't say I cared to much for the look on her face. She lowered her ears and stamped her hooves while I braced myself for what would be a colossal impact. She charged and the collision could of killed a lesser man. As we tumbled back down the ridge I threw heavyweight blows into her skull as she worked my gut. I was vomiting blood by the time I felt her skull cave-in from a final deadly blow, just as we reached the bottom of the ridge. Or she just sat there eating grass watching us take pictures of her. I can't remember, it was over a week ago. I should have taken notes.
We finally made it to the campground thoroughly worn out. A short walk away was a ranger station were I bought Cheetos, snickers and a can of soda for the odd price of $1.37. Included $.10 MI Deposit!!! How generous, but $.37 how do you come up with that. Of course the price was high, but not compared to the $8 pack of cigarettes someone else bought. I sat and ate the junk food and smoked what became community cigarettes with a deep guilt that I was ruining in ten minutes what I had accomplished over the last five days. Especially the cigarettes. I very rarely smoke and didn't enjoy these at all. Every drag was full of guilt, but yet I kept taking more until they were all gone the next morning. I extinguished mine with a, "Yuck, that is the last of that for a long time."
And so we went to sleep for the last time on Isle Royale soil, knowing our little escape was almost at an end.
Now somewhere I read that although this was the longest hike, 12.6 miles (the other hikes were about half that) it was suppose to be an easy, gradual downhill hike. I'm not sure where I read this, but another hiker that we meet towards the end of the hike said he read the same thing. There was nothing gradually downhill about this hike.
After we did the first part relatively quickly, we were all feeling pretty good about ourselves and the amount of distance we covered. "I think were a third of the way", at one point someone said. "I think we went over the last ridge." "I think there is only three miles left." "I think we are already on the boat." None of this ended up being true. After we got through the first section at a relatively fast clip, with me in the lead for reasons I will go into later, we sat down, took our packs off and ate beef jerky and trail mix. We noticed three contour lines on the map signaling ridges we had to go over and knew they were coming up. We went over a couple of small hills and I looked back and said to Adrian, "I think that was the third one." He agreed. 
Over the next couple of hours as we forced ourselves up ridge after fucking ridge we realized how wrong we were. My calves felt like they were going to blow right out the back of my legs. Luckily that didn't happen. However I was very happy that I mostly use the stairs at work and don't run to the elevator like most guys I work with. Also the frequent walks I took this summer made the long, challenging hike much more bearable. One person in our group didn't spend his summer preparing for the hike.
So to go back a bit, Isle Royale is known for it's moose population. Last time we went if memory serves me it seems we saw a moose almost every day. Here we were on our fifth day on the island, our last hike and we haven't seen a single moose. This last hike being long and our last day, I decided that moose sightings were just not in the cards and since I had already seen them the last time we were at the island, I didn't care so much. So I took the lead, not caring if someone was walking right on me heels. However I offered my companions some hope by telling them that last time we saw a big bull moose just outside of a campsite on our way to the boat. I didn't believe we would see one however. During a mix up following rock cairns Adrian took the lead and I was in the middle. As we were making one of our ridge climbs, this is long after we thought we were done with them, I was almost at the top when I looked off into the woods and noticed a distinct shape that can best be describe as "no tree". Right there maybe fifteen feet into the woods was a moose. Right from first sight I knew there was trouble. I could tell she didn't like the looks of me and I can't say I cared to much for the look on her face. She lowered her ears and stamped her hooves while I braced myself for what would be a colossal impact. She charged and the collision could of killed a lesser man. As we tumbled back down the ridge I threw heavyweight blows into her skull as she worked my gut. I was vomiting blood by the time I felt her skull cave-in from a final deadly blow, just as we reached the bottom of the ridge. Or she just sat there eating grass watching us take pictures of her. I can't remember, it was over a week ago. I should have taken notes.
We finally made it to the campground thoroughly worn out. A short walk away was a ranger station were I bought Cheetos, snickers and a can of soda for the odd price of $1.37. Included $.10 MI Deposit!!! How generous, but $.37 how do you come up with that. Of course the price was high, but not compared to the $8 pack of cigarettes someone else bought. I sat and ate the junk food and smoked what became community cigarettes with a deep guilt that I was ruining in ten minutes what I had accomplished over the last five days. Especially the cigarettes. I very rarely smoke and didn't enjoy these at all. Every drag was full of guilt, but yet I kept taking more until they were all gone the next morning. I extinguished mine with a, "Yuck, that is the last of that for a long time."And so we went to sleep for the last time on Isle Royale soil, knowing our little escape was almost at an end.
posted by Jon at 6:21 PM
2 Comments:
You should have stayed in Huginnin Cove. It is much nicer.
It was considered, but due to time constraints we decided not to. Although I didn't consider being in eastern time zone so it would have worked. In the end I think we were all ready for the $1.37 cokes of Washington Creek by that time anyway.
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