Isle Royale media is being processed; the film is finished and (slooowly) uploading. Here’s the crew negotiating one of the “notorious” beaverdam crossings on the western Minong.

While the Minong is steep in places, and on the rocky ridges the trail is easy to loose, it would be harder to get more than 50 meters away from it, and generally we found that trails reputation exceeded its difficulty. It was, however, high quality hiking, especially the westernmost 15 miles.

Naturally, I’m planning the next outing. The family trip was very moving, but now I have an itch that 46 miles in four days just couldn’t stratch. I call it the Northwest Glacier Quintathalon: a big loop involving five modes of travel.

1: Cycle (road) from the Camas Entrance station to Apgar (11 miles)
2: Ride shuttle bus to The Loop
3: Hike over Fifty Mtn down to Goat Haunt, then up to Lake Francis (30 miles)
[might be some packrafting on the Waterton River, but probably not from what I recall last year, either too low or too gnar]
4: Snow hike/climb over Brown and Boulder Passes, then hike down to Kintla and the North Fork (28ish miles)
5: Packraft the North Fork back to Camas (32 miles, Polebridge is halfway)

Doing it in two days might be a bit much. Bring enough food to bivvy along the river if needed.

Gear required:
-light hiking and camping, nights below freezing
-food for 48+ hours
-road/cross bike
-ice axe
-packraft/paddle/PFD

Simple.