Day 8: August 9, 2012

Getting up early this morning for our hike turned into... well...

...not getting up early.

How could we- we were so comfortable!!

When we originally woke up, it was pouring with rain outside of the shelter!! We were so thankful to have a roof over our heads, and we all drifted back to sleep, unwilling to get out of our warm sleeping bags.

When we got up, it had mostly stopped raining but was still sprinkling, and everything outside was soaking wet and cold. Another day when I couldn't have been more thankful for my Helly Hansen gear! Ate breakfast and got ready for the day, all while staying dry and warm, which gave me courage for the hike ahead, hahaha! (But seriously, I was in a much better mood knowing that the entire day wouldn't be damp and rainy- or at least that I wouldn't be! :D)

We're stayin' dry today!!

We Steri-Pen'd some water before we left too, of course!!

Ready to go!!

We stored some of our sanitation gear at Daisy Farm because we didn't have to sanitize until we came back. We also had the good fortune of some NPS staff being able to bring a bit of our gear up to the cove for us in a boat! Thank you all SO much!! I doubt we would've made the hike carrying that heavy turkey fryer and propane, and it was so much better without the boat!!

Jennifer found a little friend along the trail!!

Thanks Helly Hansen, for the phenomenal raincoats!!!

We went up to the scenic overlook again when we passed it and looked at Canada! It's such a beautiful spot, with one of the best views around. We ate lunch there, and watched an ant carry a crumb that was almost twice his size (we can sympathize you see, with the weight of our backpacks ;P)

Oh, Canada!!

Got to McArgo Cove around 5 pm, and after eating dinner it's pretty much off to bed. Sampling starts up again tomorrow!!

We made it!!

Day 7: August 8, 2012

Woke up and packed up our things- we packed as lightly as we possibly could, because from Daisy Farm we'll be making the trek out to McArgo Cove for sampling! That's a tough hike when you're carrying loads of sampling gear, so we basically left everything that wasn't essential out of our bags. Angela has switched from carrying our boat in our mystery-donor bag to carrying it in her Eagle Creek backpack, which seems to be working a lot better!! There's a compression strap on the inside, which keeps the boat close to her back, making it a lot more comfortable and easy to carry. We seriously love our Eagle Creek backpacks. I can't rave about them enough!!

Jennifer and Rachel in the Coca-Cola canoe!

Got to Daisy Farm fairly early and got a shelter for overnight! Then, we got to spend some time decompressing and getting ready for the hike tomorrow. We laid out on the beach, and I fell asleep in the sun because it was so comfortable. :)

Found this lil' guy, and we named him Rambo!

In the evening, we attended Candy Peterson's talk about the wolf-moose project on Isle Royale! We went to this talk the last time that we were on the island too, and it was just as interesting the second time around! Remember everyone: We aren't number one, we are one. :) There were some loon experts there, so we got to learn more about the loons and their lives in the inland lakes of the island!

We got to see various moose bones that showed evidence of cancer, arthritis, and other health problems that made them more vulnerable to attack by wolves!

Getting up early tomorrow for the 8 mile hike to McArgo!!

Day 6: August 7, 2012

I'm slowly (very slowly) starting to become a morning person! How could I not, with views like these?

Today, we made our way back to Mott Island for our first processing day!! One of the NPS staff members brought some gear back for us to make our load a bit lighter. Thank you so much, Mark!! :) On our canoe trip back, we saw four river otters swimming in the Rock Harbor channel. They were so cute! Reminded me of my younger sister because otters are her favorite animal.

Before leaving on the canoe trip, we saw two moose as well! Rachel spotted them while we were eating breakfast, on a far bank. It was a mother moose and one of her young! They're the first moose we've spotted while at the island, and in fact the first moose I've ever seen! :D

They saw us too!

Toward the end of our canoe journey, we had to quickly paddle to the side of the channel, because the Ranger III passed through! They slowed down quite a bit, but even so they left behind a gigantic wake! Rachel and Jennifer's boat almost tipped over in the shallow water, but they saved it at the last minute!

Once we were back at Mott, we sanitized our gear using the same procedure that we used on the last trip- we put all of the waterproof gear into 140°F water and leave it in the sun to dry completely. Anything else was cleaned off with bleach and water. We were all pretty sore from doing so much hiking in the past three days, so we relaxed and helped Angela pack plant samples into their silica gel baggies. We also got to call family members and take showers! Always a good thing. Finally got back to the tents at around 2 am (there were a lot of plant samples to take care of!!) Leaving tomorrow for Daisy Farm!!

Help to prevent the spread of invasive species: Disinfect/clean your gear properly!!

Day 5: August 6, 2012

Gooooood morning!

Woke up at 7:00 am so that we could get to Lake Chickenbone early! Jennifer and Rachel are morning people, so they're doing just fine waking up early to work. Angela and I are a different story, haha! We're working on it though! :)

We were hiking by 7:40, and we traveled 6.5 miles to get to Chickenbone!! Had to pass through a huge patch of thimbleberries to get to it (which, if I haven't mentioned, are like little droplets of heaven. Seriously, they're soooooooooo delicious).

[Insert angel chorus of your choice]

Here's a great view of Chickenbone Lake! So much beautiful blue and green. :)

Started sampling early- the lake was really really cold! Couldn't believe how chilly it was for August. We finished early though, and hiked back! 13 miles of hiking with gear in one day was pretty exhausting, but we did it!! :)

Workin' hard or hardly workin'? ;)

                                   Close ups of a Nuphar variegata flower!

Day 4: August 5, 2012

Got up early to sample Lake Livermore!! Had breakfast and then hiked 6 miles to get there. Then we stopped for lunch, and had our first day of August sampling!

Rachel and Jennifer, ready to get in their boat for Day 1!!

Jennifer and Rachel had a butterfly friend with them on their first day!!

We were all exhausted by the end of today- the first day always seems to take the longest, because we're getting back into the groove.

Feels good to be back!

A bed of Nuphar variegata!

I got to do one set of my titrations on a rock-lab, which was awesome.

We found some Eriocaulon aquaticum!

A Sagittaria flower!

Angela looks so distinguished with her plant moustache!!

The sediment porewater was harder to get this time.

Here's a good view of our transect line going out!

 On the hike back, we saw a fox on the trail!! He just hung out there for a while, eating a squirrel. We kept our distance, and watched him until he ran away from the path. He was such a cutie- we got a great video!

We also passed some hikers who were on their way to Richie and were out of water. We gave them the rest of ours, since we were so close to camp. Always make sure you bring plenty of water when hiking!!

I'm getting thirsty just thinking about hiking.

We filtered our samples and took care of the plant samples, and got ready to sample the biggest lake of our second trip tomorrow- Lake Chickenbone!

Day 3: August 14, 2012

Woke up at 6 am to the delightful sound of rain. I scooted some of my things away from the sides of the tent and dozed off again, but pretty soon it became obvious that raindrops were hitting my metal mess kit somehow. So I sat up to deal with that... and realized it was raining in the tent.

Apparently our rain fly was not waterproof.

Angela put a tarp over us, so it mostly stopped raining inside, which was lovely! My sleeping bag was pretty wet on the outside, but I hadn't even noticed the rain until I got out of it- it was still warm and dry on the inside! I'm also thankful that I draped my Helly Hansen coat over my things last night, just as a precaution in case condensation collected on the walls of the tent.

Score: Helly Hansen-1, Rain-0

Angela had to totally move her tent, because water was pooling underneath it. Once it had stopped raining, we ate breakfast. I sat at the table in my rain pants and stayed nice and dry! I can already tell that this trip will be more comfortable with those.

Here's Rachel modeling the rain pants!

We moved our things to a shelter that had opened up, and hiked to Livermore! It was a really long hike. I started out going first with my rain pants on, to knock dew off of the plants! That kept the non-rain pants of the others totally dry! :D

We're the members of the Eagle Creek Club! :)

Stopped at the Richie portage for lunch. We ended up getting to the lake at 3:30ish, too late to start sampling really. We left our gear there and had a better hike back- much less to carry! We don't have to sanitize between our next two lakes, Chickenbone and Livermore, like we thought we would have to, because we confirmed with the Park Service that there's a wetland that runs between them!

 We got back to Moskey and put our feet in the cold water of the channel for a bit. Had tuna mac for dinner, and packed our Eagle Creek backpacks up for our first official day of sampling tomorrow!

Before bed, we also had a Lafuma photoshoot. :) I was so tired that I almost fell asleep out on the rock, even though it was still so light out.

Goodnight, everyone!! :)

Days 1 and 2: August 2nd and 3rd, 2012

We're off again!

Left around 1 pm with our new volunteers Rachel and Jennifer! We were all really exhausted for the whole trip up, for some reason. We had to get coffee at a drive through.

Crossing the bridge!!

Finally made it to Houghton at 12 am. None of us had thought about how we'd unload the car in the dark, so nobody had a flashlight or headlamp. But we had our mini Coghlan's lanterns attached to the zippers on our backpacks!! We only used two, but they lit up the back of the truck so that we could find all of our stuff before checking into the hotel! They're incredibly useful.

We woke up early, ate breakfast, and got on the Ranger III at 9 am! I took normal Dramamine instead of non-drowsy, annnnnd... I slept for four hours. o_O

Welcome to Mott!!

Once we got to Mott island, we unloaded our gear, loaded the canoe, and canoed to Moskey Basin!! It wasn't raining this time, which was nice. When we got there, there were no shelters. So we set up our tents. I was really cold, so I put on my rain pants and rain coat- I was so warm!!

So warm. :)

Unpacking!!

This entire camping set could be yours if the Price is Right!! But not really. It's ours.

We had spaghetti for dinner, and played Q and A with our new volunteers, to get to know them a bit better! We reloaded on water and taught them how to use the Steri-Pen before going to bed!

The moon looked soooooo awesome.

Thanks again, Steri Pen, for giving us the gift of clean water!!