Kayaking Isle Royale

I’m new to the kayaking world. A novice if you will. Although my athletic ability and my Genius gives me adequate ability to not drown. I find that is key. Not Drowning.

Wow. Kayaking. Isle Royale. Wow. I can’t describe the feeling of my kayaking trip on Isle Royale. My writing talents are nowhere near the ability.

The island has many campgrounds only reachable by a water vessel. The down side is that many power boaters like fishing near the island and use the docks overnight. Sailboats also sail into the harbors and bay to dock at night, or to spend a vacation. The mentality of power boaters to sail boaters to kayakers is a dynamic shift in Zen. Gas powered, wind powered, or powered by you. Let’s me admit I hate power boaters. They can rot in dead fish for all I care. Sailboats are nice, but I’m still displeased to see them on Isle Royale. That’s my own problem though; they are welcome there in moderation.

The Campgrounds

I have only experienced a few of the campgrounds reachable by kayaking. These are as follows below:

Duncan Narrows

Two shelters, two tent sites, and stand-alone grills along with picnic tables and a dock deep enough to jump off of make this site technically nice. The setting makes it gorgeous. It is actually out of the way for most boaters. Few people kayak around Blake Point, and after doing so I can see why. I almost got dumped onto a huge rock with waves crashing in… luckily and I stress luckily I got my head on straight and paddled through it and rode a wave for about thirty feet. Adrenaline was seeping out my ears.

Duncan Bay

I did not camp here, but we stopped and had lunch. It is nice enough for a pleasant stay. It is far enough back that most boaters don’t bother I think, but we did see a few sailboats sail all the way into the campsite.

Lane Cove

Again, we only passed by it. I didn’t walk into the campsite, but it was a beautiful cove and people were playing in the water when we kayaked through.

Belle Isle

Belle has some shelters; I’m not sure how many. It is a great place to stay. It has a tiny little cove and swimming in it made me think of the Blue Lagoon. Some chipmunks were rather fierce and so were the bugs, but that’s all probably seasonal.

Pickeral

There seemed to be only one campsite at this campsite. It is on a small rock face/ridge and we were supposed to camp there, but a group of about 5 people was already there. We ended up camping off in the woods at the end of the cove.

Birch Island

Although I’m sure many boaters dock at Birch, it would be worth staying there. It is a fairly small island inland at the end of McCargo Cove. We smoked a cigarette on the dock and then dove in the water and it was one of the most enjoyable moments on the trip. One of hundreds of enjoyable moments.

Portages No wheeled devices are allowed on the island and that includes portage devices. This is a good thing. The portages are hard. Ours were short and sweet because we skipped the only big one on our route: Tobin Harbor to Duncan Bay. We talked to one family with a canoe and two kayaks. They said it took them 4 hours. Our longest was a half-mile and it was not enjoyable, but it didn’t take long.

How to get there I’ll add all this later. For now go to the backpacking isle royal page. The ferryboats take your kayaks over for a nominal fee.

Equipment Well, being the novice that I am, I broke a paddle. Yeah yeah. I know. We had no spare paddle and I just used one for the rest of the day, which was only a few hours. That night we used a stick and duct tape and made it almost new again. It was plastic and metal so it wasn’t a big deal really. Luckily my kayaking bud was all Gumptioned up and got into the project with fervor. What I’m saying is an extra paddle. J Wetsuits are a must. Anytime of year Lake Superior is cold, the wind can come out of nowhere, and well, its just fun to put on a wetsuit. We used sleeveless wetsuits that worked perfectly.

Other than that, we brought standard backpacking equipment and a detailed map. You need a good map! The free one doesn’t show small islands and other landmarks. Check my backpacking eq list for what you might want.

Oh yeah. LIFE Jacket. Too obvious I suppose.