This morning, I started out early. I had pretty much decided I wanted to make it
to Rock Harbor instead of stopping at Three Mile for the night. That would allow me plenty of time the
departure day to take an early morning walk to Scoville Point before the
ferry. The walk to Daisy Farm was pretty
nice. Seemed like there were more muddy
trail sections and still some blow-down.
But the mud/water had receded enough that rock hopping was feasible most
places.
At Daisy Farm there were a handful of young people in
T-shirts on the pier, I figured they were waiting for the Voyageur to head
back. The wind was strong and it was
overcast; they looked pretty chilled. The
weather that day was very peculiar.
Mid-morning the clouds came in and the temperature fell; it looked like
maybe a storm. But the clouds cleared
and it got hot. Anyway, past the pier, I
came to a bunch of shelters lining the path and lake. Almost all were full, with many packing up to
leave. I actually only met one person on
the trail in the campground area.
On the trail from Daisy Farm to Three Mile, I came on my
first and only formal ‘group’ of seven!
They were young and spread out quite a ways. And the leaders seemed to be huffing it
pretty good; not sure why they were making that level of effort and leaving the
others behind. Here the trail turned
into what I would call a boulder field (but nothing like a talus/boulder field on a Montana mountain). The
trail had enough big rocks to make the hiking miserable. About that time, I came to the Mt Franklin
trail post. I could see why some folks
might miss it when they want to head to Rock Harbor on the Tobin Harbor
trail. The trail post itself was
conspicuous, but the Mt Franklin trail looked like a goat track up a mountain. I was not looking forward to more boulder
scrambling, so I took the Mt Franklin trail.
The ‘goat track’ only lasted for a short while, and then the
trail returned to a nice walk under a heavy forest canopy. But it still had some blow-down. I figure either the trail clearing crews had
not really gotten started, or they intentionally leave blow-down that is not
extremely difficult to get around. This
section is awfully close to Rock Harbor, so I really don’t know which is more
likely.
The Tobin Harbor trail to Rock Harbor seemed to be easier
than before. I think I was moving a lot
faster than when I had just arrived.
Quite a number of the shelters at Rock Harbor were taken when I got
there by mid-afternoon. As with McCargoe
Cove, I was pretty surprised. Where were
all of these people hiking (or kayaking)?
Maybe they were all just staying at Rock Harbor and renting the motor
boats (several had been going up and down the harbor all day), kayaks and
canoes? The lodge was not open, but the
store was and they now had kayaks and canoes up on the rental racks (though
many disappeared the next morning).
The shelter I picked (#5) had a good bit of privacy, but it
was probably in the worst condition of any I had stayed in. The wood floors and walls seemed to be damp,
it hadn’t been swept out, and a previous occupant had left toilet paper and
paper towels up on the side boards.
After unpacking, I headed down to the store to see what they
offered. As others have commented, the
store seemed to be supplied pretty well with lots of stuff for camping. I picked up (and paid for) a sweatshirt for
my wife and then headed back to the shelter for dinner and relaxation. Unlike some others, I didn’t really have a
craving for snacks and soda. Maybe
because the Mountain House dinners tasted better than my self-prepared Paleo
meals at home. :)
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