June 21, Three Mile to Rock Harbor

Victor and Jared woke early this morning to hustle into Rock Harbor and reserve a shelter for us. Meanwhile the rest of us packed up camp and got ready to hike our last 2.7 miles. (it's not quite 3, despite the name!) While packing up we had a fox wander into our campsite. I couldn't find my camera in time before some other campers scared it off. When we were packed up I tried to use the radios we had taken to reach Victor but I wasn't able to reach him. So Alisia, Lillia, Gavin and I headed off on the trail in hopes that they had a good shelter for us. Lillia couldn't stop talking about the pretzels she was about to eat!

Some wildlife along the way:


On our hike, a bird was singing a beautiful tune and Alisia echoed it by whistling. They went back and forth about 10 times "talking" to each other! (It's a bumpy video because I was trying to catch up to my speedy kids!)

I told the kids that I had this vision of daddy and Jared driving up on a boat with a pizza in their hands. Not two minutes later, we spotted a boat. Next thing we hear "Lillia! I've got pretzels!"

Victor and Jared had rented a motorboat and came back to pick us up!!! We had already hiked 0.6 miles but we gladly turned around to head back to the dock at the Three Mile Campground so they could pick us up. The scene was reminiscent of the rescue boat on Naked and Afraid.





Victor had bought pretzels, beef jerky and Oreos for us to share. The kids were beyond excited!!

Since we had the boat for half the day, we headed to Edison Island to explore an old fish hatchery Here is where they dried their nets:

Then we climbed up the Rock Harbor Lighthouse. Here is the panoramic view from the top:

Before leaving, we decided to hike about a half mile to the Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale headquarters where we saw some pretty cool moose antlers and other bones. 

Then we piled back in the boat for the easy drive back to Rock Harbor. Check out Jared's sweet scratch from one of our hikes!


On our way back the Ranger III pulled out of Mott Island and we had to race it back to Rock Harbor so it didn't run us over!

WE MADE IT!!!!


We actually weren't as tired as we look in that picture...we were mostly proud and excited about the real food we were about to eat! (Jazz hands!!!)

I didn't get a picture because it was a bit of a hike away from our shelter and I hadn't taken my camera, but the three youngest kids set up a shoe cleaning station where they thoroughly washed mud out of everyone's shoes (for a fee, of course!) Jared wasn't there because he was off on a trail run to try and find his favorite hat that he lost earlier that morning. (No luck.)

Here we are walking along Rock Harbor eating ice cream we just bought at the local store and looking forward to buying some pizza at the restaurant. (Note the bag of pretzels in Lillia's hand...that's the second bag!)

We bought some souvenirs and headed back to our shelter for one last sleep in the wild. (We did price the hotel but for $385, we thought the shelter sounded just fine!) Just before reaching our shelter, Lillia spotted a fox. 

We happily paid $6 for a 5 minute shower and cleaned ourselves off as best we could in such a short time!  Then Alisia decided she would pretend she was Ariel to comb her hair since we hadn't brought a brush along.

Lillia and Gavin had a fun time playing with their new toy from the souvenir shop:

One more sleep until the boat ride back to civilization!