irphoto02

Captain Ben's Annual

ISLE ROYALE Slide Show

Summer, 2004

Ben Kilpela's Isle Royale Web Site Home Page

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INTRODUCTION: I’m back with a few more photos taken in summer 2004 at Isle Royale. All these photos on this page were taken with my newer Olympus C400 digital camera.

Isle Royale DESKTOP BACKGROUND: You can make any shot background for your computer desktop simply by pulling up the large version, right clicking when your cursor is on the picture, and then choosing the [Set as Background] button on the pop-down menu.

1. Summer 2004 was a bit foggier on Isle Royale, and we saw some foggy days even in the middle of the season. Here’s a shot in Tobin Harbor near midsummer. I was looking across at one of the small islands that dot Tobin near Hidden Lake.

2. Some days later I took my canoe over to Raspberry Island in a light fog. I took this shot while riding the waves just off the southwest tip of Raspberry. I was crossing over a nasty reef that the Isle Royale Queen IV has to avoid when we are entering Rock Harbor through the nearby channel. Remember, in 2005, the bigger and much faster Isle Royale Queen IV will be in operation, and we expect to cross to Isle Royale in three hours most days.

3. Here’s another shot on another foggy afternoon at the Big Island. This one was taken down near Scoville Point, a spectacular spot near the Rock Harbor Lodge that no visitor should pass up the chance to see. The waves were rolling into Rock Harbor from the southeast, a direction to which Scoville is exposed. It was magnificent to see the breakers curling into a stone beach in heavy fog.

4. A calm day on Lorelei Lane. This shot is taken on the southwest end of Smithwick Island on one of the many spectacularly calm days we get out at the island during the summer. It was just warm enough to swim this day, early in August, even though that is open Lake Superior in the distance beyond the small islands.

5. A couple years back the Rock Harbor Lodge came under new ownership. They have been slowly making changes and additions here and there at the Lodge, and it’s getting better and better every year. This is a shot of two of the four Lodge buildings that stand along Rock Harbor. I hope you get a chance to stay there some day.

6. And remember the Lodge Housekeeping Cottages, which remain extremely popular. Make your reservations early to get into these units, which are up the ridge between Tobin and Rock Harbors and overlook Tobin.

7. Late in the summer, my daughter Miranda, who lives in Copper Harbor now, came out to the island with me, a common summer event. In the Mirrocraft I and my brothers own (that’s the Queen III in the background), we buzzed down to Mott Island one afternoon. Did you know Mott, where the Park Headquarters are located, has a wonderful loop trail, two miles in length? Obviously, you have to get to it by boat -- or by swimming. But if you get can over there, don’t pass up a chance to take the Mott Loop Trail, a very special place in the park. More coming on Mott in this year’s slide show.

8. Here’s a shot that same day. On Mott Island, Miranda is picking thimbleberries, which had one of their best seasons ever, at least in my memory. We were picking thimbleberries all through August and on into September. Blueberries and raspberries were excellent as well, but they were even better in 2002 and 2003.

9. Turning to some of the other spots along the coast I visited this summer, let’s start with a shot out at Edwards Island. Actually, I am standing on a high cliff on a small, unnamed island just south of Edwards. What a view near the open end of Tobin Harbor from this unusual spot.

10. Here’s a shot of my canoe pulled up on a ridge of rock in a cove at Raspberry Island. This is a typical scene during my jaunts around the harbors of northeast Isle Royale. If you stay at the Lodge, make sure you rent a canoe or boat for a full or half day. There are so many places like this one to explore.

11. Sometimes people forget that it is Lake Superior that creates the unusual and captivating weather of Isle Royale. Here’s a shot out on the Big Lake a few miles off the island when a wind-shift line was rolling in from the west bringing a change in the weather.

12. Here’s something different for my annual slide shows. Can you guess what this is a photograph of? Well, it’s Isle Royale, naturally, but it’s a shot from 50 miles away from the top of Brockway Mountain on Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. The top of Brockway is just five miles from our home port, Copper Harbor. It’s a great spot to visit, especially at sunset, to see the island on clear days and nights. Some nights, you’ll even see the lighthouses of Isle Royale blinking 50 miles away. In the photo, the sun is setting over a spot just west of the highest point on the island, Mount Desor.

13. My wife Marsha and my boys Logan (seated across from Marsh) and Drew took a trip down to Mott Island later in the summer. Here we are puttsing very slowly down Lorelei Lane between Outer Hill and Inner Hill Islands, a prime loon area.

14. Here’s a shot of Marsh and the boys in a cove at Mott, looking back at Lorelei Lane.

15. At Mott, we had a nice walk that turned into an adventure when we came around a bend and encountered a cow moose with twins in a dense, dark thicket. It was a first for us all. I had never seen twins in all my years at the island. The family was on the move, probably because the boys were talking away as we came down the trail, so it was tough getting photos. But here’s a couple shots. The first shows the twins keeping Mom between themselves and us as they quickly move off into the Mott forest.

16. The second shot is of Mom as she kept herself between me and the twins in the dense foliage. When it was plain they wanted to be left alone, we headed down the trail and left Mott Island that day with the memories of the few seconds we glimpsed them together.

17. Let’s close down this year’s slide show with two more wildlife shots. Here’s a shorebird I’ve never seen at Isle Royale before, a whimbrel. Check it out at: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/programs/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/. It’s one of the most wide-ranging shorebirds in the world, though it is not shown as inhabiting the Great Lakes. I’m going to have to investigate whether I’ve seen something special. This bird uses its long, down-curved bill to probe deep in the sand of beaches for invertebrates, but also feeds on berries and insects. I photographed this beauty, which made no call, at North Government Island, which is far out in the wilderness at the northeast tip of the park. It seemed pretty surprised to see me come over a ridge.

18. And lastly, here’s a shot of one of the Snug Harbor loons, a pair which have been hanging around the busy main entrance to the park for several years now. This one popped up by my speedboat one day a mile or so from the Queen dock in Snug, and it paddled about just watching me for several minutes. I shut the motor off and drifted there, and the loon stayed close by.

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