irphoto02

Captain Ben's Annual

ISLE ROYALE Slide Show

Summer, 2005

Ben Kilpela's Isle Royale Web Site Home Page

NOTE: Click on the thumbnail photos for full-size photos; then use your [back] button to return to this page.

My photos on this page were taken with my 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. This year’s slide show begins with a shot of the new Isle Royale Queen IV at the dock in Rock Harbor, the main entrance to the national park. 2005 was the first year of operation for the Kilpela family’s new boat, the first major upgrade in our service since 1989. The new boat turned out to be fantastic; she’s roomy and fast and comfortably appointed. She makes the crossing in just a few minutes over 3 hours, and she provides a more solid ride as well.

2. This shot was taken on Passage Island, that truly splendid isle, part of the national park and located two miles from the northeast tip of the main island. You can get there only by boat. In this photo, my son Logan, now 13, is standing on the high cliff that overlooks the northwest end of Passage. You can just make out the shore of Ontario in the summer haze. What a great spot to visit, for Lodge guests and backpackers alike.

3. Here’s a shot of the Sandy, the Rock Harbor Lodge’s tour boat. We took the Sandy over to Passage Island, and she is tied up at the small dock in the cove there, a very beautiful spot.

4. Next is the Passage Island Lighthouse, which stands on the southwest tip of the island and overlooks the narrow strait between Passage and the main island. As you can see, the light is perched on the edge of a massive shoulder of bedrock. That’s my youngest son Drew, now 10 years old, on the ridge on the right side of the photo.

5. Isle Royale through mountain ash trees from the Passage Island Trail. Visible about 2 miles away are the Palisades and the entrance to Duncan Bay. In the farthest distance is Mount Franklin.

6. My family (wife Marsha and sons Drew and Logan) went to Hidden Lake one evening to scout for moose. No wildlife milling about, but it was a spectacular evening. This is a shot of my wife and boys on the Hidden Lake dock on Tobin Harbor.

7. My family did later see a moose, the only one I saw this summer. As you might know, the moose population has cycled down to one of its lowest levels in history. This one was a yearling cow that was wandering about the Rock Harbor Marina, searching for vittles. That’s the top of a marina picnic table at the bottom of the photo.

8. The next two shots are not my own, but the work of an Isle Royale visitor, Dylan Blair, from Buffalo, New York. These are shots of wolves that Dylan and his group, making their first trip to the island, met on the Rock Harbor Trail. They saw one wolf about a half mile west of Suzy's Cave (about two miles west of the Rock Harbor entrance), then two more about a quarter mile west of Suzy's Cave. Dylan writes: “I was just walking along and looked up and Woah! there was a wolf. So I watched him and he stared at me until finally he walked into the woods. Then about a quarter mile down the trail (I had my eyes peeled at this point) I saw two more, one, which I think was a female ran into the woods immediately, while the other stood and stared at me for about 10 minutes (enough time for the rest of my crew to catch up to me and the wolf). I was probably standing about thirty feet away from the last wolf. It was an amazing experience, seeing such a powerful creature, without any glass, fence, or cage between us.”

9. Another shot of a wolf from Dylan Blair. I had my own FIRST encounter (after 34 years! of going to Isle Royale) with a wolf this summer, very close to Three Mile Campground, but I failed to get any photos. I’m not sure why the wolves were so visible this summer, but there were a number of sightings in the greater Rock Harbor area. Congratulations to everyone who had a sighting. It’s a special experience.

10. This shot is of my wife Marsha on the cozy porch at one of the main buildings of the Rock Harbor Lodge, which stand on the shores of gorgeous Rock Harbor. My family had a wonderful night at the Lodge this year. It is very special to sleep in a bed so close to the shore and to take in that beautiful view of Raspberry and Smithwick Islands across Rock Harbor in the morning.

11. This year was a sad one for Copper Harbor and Isle Royale, since one of the famed patriarchs of our town, Willard “Sully” Kauppi, died in his 80s last winter. Sully was the son of Charlie Kauppi, the Finnish fisherman who began the run to Isle Royale from Copper back in the late 1920s. This historic photo is of Charlie in the wheelhouse of the Copper Queen, the renowned passenger ferry that ran to the island from Copper in the 40s and 50s. That boat later became the first Voyageur sailing out of Grand Portage, Minnesota.

12. This second historic photo is of Sully, who worked for his Dad on the Isle Royale run in his teenage years. Sully is standing beside his fishing boat the Shirley K. Sully and all the Kauppis have remained close friends of the Kilpela family. I will miss good ol’ Sully, who lived close by and always said hello to my boys. We will never forget him and all his stories and sayings.

13. Here’s a shot of my wife and son walking up the Mount Ojibway Trail from Daisy Farm. It was a very hot day, as were many days during the summer of 2005.

14. On the trail to Ojibway, my son Logan and I found a fresh wolf track in a muddy spot on the trail (not many muddy spots around this year). We were ever on alert to see the wolf that made the track as we hiked up that morning, but we had no luck that day.

15. Here’s Logan on the Mount Ojibway Fire Tower, with the camera pointed north. Note how hazy it is. You can barely make out the Ontario shore, which is visible in almost all conditions except fog. There were many hot, humid days on the island in 2005.

16. The Rock Harbor Lighthouse from Middle Island Passage.

17. Another shot from the top of Isle Royale, this one showing the Ontario shore directly north of the island from Mount Franklin, from where this photo was taken. What a clear day this one was, later in the summer. See photo 5 for a shot of Mount Franklin from 10 miles to the northeast.

18. It looked like it was going to be a bad year for berries when the blueberry crop ripened, since the berries were badly dried out. But I found the raspberry picking to be exceptionally good in 2005, probably because raspberries like hot, dry weather. These berries were growing on the shore of an island in Rock Harbor on one of the few rainy days of summer. Take note of the spider web connected to the berry leaves.

19. Finally, a shot of dying fireweed on a rocky island beach, with an industrious bee gathering the last of the pollen. Getting ready for winter.

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