The next morning, I headed towards West Chickenbone on my
way to Moskey Basin. The trail follows
the edge of the lake, and you could watch the ducks fishing. TWC indicates the temperature actually got up
to 81 that day, and it did feel pretty warm (we had already had a couple of 95
degree days in south Texas before we left).
The trail passed through the West Chickenbone campground, so I was able
to see the other sites I hadn’t visited earlier. I thought their views were often a bit
better, but they didn’t have the fancy log picnic table equivalent or the
closeness to the privy. The hike up to
the Greenstone, from my former campsite, only took about six minutes this
time. And there was a hiker about ready
to leave camp on that site.
Heading down towards Lake Ritchie from the Greenstone, I ran
into a veritable crowd of hikers heading up to the Greenstone. First was a young couple. Then a single older gentlemen that said he
wanted to stay at East Chickenbone; he said he didn’t care about the difficulty
of getting to water. And then I ran into
two guys that asked if the trail got easier.
Hiking was pretty nice. When I
got to the Lake Ritchie campground, I ran into more folks. First, there was a young single kayaker who
had his kayak pulled up on the rocks and was studying his map intently. He didn’t look happy, and I figured he was
having some trouble finding the portages.
Shortly after that I came on four young hikers fishing from rocky areas
on the bank. They indicated they had
just arrived and hadn’t yet had any luck.
I continued on towards Moskey Basin from Lake Ritchie. The hiking was still good. Just past the cutoff to Chippewa Harbor, I
came on a young lady out on a day hike from Moskey Basin. It was about 1300, and I figured she had
another 10 miles to get back to her camp if she went to Chippewa Harbor as she
intended. She looked like she wouldn’t
have any difficulty.
When I got to the Moskey Basin campground, the wind was
blowing pretty strongly. I started
checking the shelters out for their view and accessibility to the lake. They were all right on the lake; great sites
with great views. But the first ones I
came to were pretty exposed to the wind.
They were all empty except the last one, the site least susceptible to
the wind the direction it was blowing.
Figured it was where the young lady was staying. It’s drawback was how close it was to the
privy (potential noises). I took the
next shelter to the last, which had a really nice rock outcropping on the lake.
After doing the usual water filtering, I took the opportunity
to soak my feet in the lake. The rock
outcropping was perfect with a nice seating area and a shallow area for the
feet. There were also a bunch of ducks
doing their fishing and providing hiker entertainment. As the afternoon/evening drew to a close, the
wind died down.
While fixing dinner, I saw and heard a couple of sea
kayakers arrive and set up camp in one of the shelters around the bay. I also noticed the first mosquitoes I had
seen on the island. There were some gnat
clouds up on the rocky areas of the Greenstone, but not enough to be
bothersome. The mosquitoes were
something else. I pulled out my Picardin
for the first time and used a touch or two.
After dinner, I started reading in the shelter. After a while, the two kayakers walked out in
front of my shelter talking somewhat obliviously. They apparently didn’t notice my permit on
the door handle; and I usually brought everything into my shelter or tent
vestibule at night. I said hello and
they seemed pretty startled. It turned
out to be the couple of kayakers who were loading up their kayaks back at Rock
Harbor the first day when I was filtering water. Very nice folks. They had gone to Belle Isle on the north side
and back. We had a nice talk while they
slapped at mosquitoes.
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