My instincts had been correct...only a few feet onto the "trail" a dragonfly flew about landing on a tree nearby and patiently posing until I could focus in the the camouflaged critter! I don't think I had ever seen one up close like that! All week I found them EVERYWHERE!
True or False: under armour prevents you from sweating....FALSE..you still sweat profusely in 85 degree heat while hiking on basalt (black volcanic rock) that traps the heat and radiates it back to you from below! This was the greatest challenge I faced the whole trip! TOO HOT! At least with that gear it helped to wick it away....it was truly like Florida in the summer...a bit much. But...I had places to see and animals to track...so...I stopped the whining (somewhat), buckled down and marched on!
I found myself taking
The terrain on Rock Harbor Trail is pretty rugged, I'm not used to hiking on tilted rock, ups and downs and carefully watching my feet every step. I'm certainly glad I had 2 hiking poles...they were a necessity for me! If you click to enlarge the photo you can perhaps get an idea of the terrain...and I felt like I had been going forever, I'd been gone a good hour...did I pass Suzy's Cave? Here it is true back country and there are no "mile markers" to let you know how far you've come, or have left to go. I think that's probably so folks don't get discouraged and give up! Thankfully, there were wooden posts at trail intersections....and some folks headed the other way reassured me that I hadn't missed my crossover.
Butterfly break! I think I've decided that this is a Silver-bordered Fritillary based on the large silver spots on the underside of its wings! I'm glad I didn't delete my blurry images because that was the determining piece of information! Butterflies were within the top 3 abundant critters I saw on Isle Royale!
True or False: under armour prevents you from sweating....FALSE..you still sweat profusely in 85 degree heat while hiking on basalt (black volcanic rock) that traps the heat and radiates it back to you from below! This was the greatest challenge I faced the whole trip! TOO HOT! At least with that gear it helped to wick it away....it was truly like Florida in the summer...a bit much. But...I had places to see and animals to track...so...I stopped the whining (somewhat), buckled down and marched on!
I found myself takinga lot of photos of mushrooms, fungi and lichens...partly due to interest, but I think more because it was a rarity to find shade and I tried to linger there before going back into the blistering heat. Here's some sort of polypore fungi with some green sprouts of Grandfather's Beard in a nice shady area!
The terrain on Rock Harbor Trail is pretty rugged, I'm not used to hiking on tilted rock, ups and downs and carefully watching my feet every step. I'm certainly glad I had 2 hiking poles...they were a necessity for me! If you click to enlarge the photo you can perhaps get an idea of the terrain...and I felt like I had been going forever, I'd been gone a good hour...did I pass Suzy's Cave? Here it is true back country and there are no "mile markers" to let you know how far you've come, or have left to go. I think that's probably so folks don't get discouraged and give up! Thankfully, there were wooden posts at trail intersections....and some folks headed the other way reassured me that I hadn't missed my crossover.
Butterfly break! I think I've decided that this is a Silver-bordered Fritillary based on the large silver spots on the underside of its wings! I'm glad I didn't delete my blurry images because that was the determining piece of information! Butterflies were within the top 3 abundant critters I saw on Isle Royale!
Same guy on a clover instead of Canadian Hockweed.
Finally! The 0.2 mile path to Suzy's Cave had a great view of Tookers Island.
Legend has it about 100 years ago, Suzy Tooker and her family lived (in the summer) on Tookers Island, one day she was playing on the mainland and a bad storm came up on Superior that prohibited her from canoeing (or maybe swimming) back to the island. So she was forced to take shelter overnight in this cave! Hence the name Suzy's Cave. Not comfortable, but in a bad storm...shelter is shelter!
Once I crossed over to Tobin Harbor Trail, I found it much more to my liking! There were occasional rocky areas, many tree roots, and SHADE! and trails of DIRT! Yipee! And more wildlife! 2 Pileated woodpeckers flew past and hammered on a nearby tree, a few loons were heard. And the highlight was watching a merganser swim with a bunch of youngsters and watching them all haul out onto a little island to rest, and watching "mama" flap wildly and chase off a loon! I couldn't get my eyes out of my binoculars to get the camera on...but was 50-75 yards away and the clarity wouldn't have been great anyway.
Here I am peering out from behind some white cedar & pines onto an island in Tobin Harbor....oh how I wished I had mastered kayaking!
Here's a red-capped mushroom of the
Russula family hiding under some Thimbleberry leaves. I saw a loon splashing about while preening in Tobin Harbor...I was such a sweaty stinky mess that I thought about joining him! But...I stumbled on back to my room for an ice cold shower! Ahhhhh...and clean dry clothes before heading to the Greenstone Grill for some nourishment and Andrew's evening program about the Ojibway and their stories of Minong (their word for Isle Royale) from 100+ years ago! At least I had cooled off a little and was looking forward to a good rest and being lulled to sleep by the sound of waves crashing onto the rocky shore below my open windows!
Russula family hiding under some Thimbleberry leaves. I saw a loon splashing about while preening in Tobin Harbor...I was such a sweaty stinky mess that I thought about joining him! But...I stumbled on back to my room for an ice cold shower! Ahhhhh...and clean dry clothes before heading to the Greenstone Grill for some nourishment and Andrew's evening program about the Ojibway and their stories of Minong (their word for Isle Royale) from 100+ years ago! At least I had cooled off a little and was looking forward to a good rest and being lulled to sleep by the sound of waves crashing onto the rocky shore below my open windows!
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