The holy grail of visitors to Isle Royale would seem to be getting to see a moose. If you talk to anyone you meet on the island for more than five minutes, they’ll ask if you’ve seen one, or they’ll tell you where they saw one. Usually both. It’s a hot topic.

More than half the people I talked to in the short time I was there had seen more than one moose, so it’s not like they’re super rare. Either the moose on Isle Royale like to hang around the same places the people do, or everybody else had a lot more luck than I had because the only sign of moose I’d seen for the first three days was lots and lots of moose poop. It’s scattered all over every one of the trails I hiked.

But then on Thursday morning I SAW A MOOSE AND HER TWO BABIES!

I was walking up the trail through the campground with the idea of going out to the rocks near the pier to take photos of the sunrise. The trail to the pier was just beyond a junction in the trail that splits off in several directions. I was only a few steps from the junction when I realized a cow and her two calves were standing in the woods on the other side of the trail, watching me!

I froze dead in my tracks and stared. Mother moose stared right back. She could have taken two steps out of the undergrowth and licked me or whatever it is moose do to say hi to people. She watched me for a minute, maybe two — felt like forever — before deciding I was entirely the most boring thing she had ever encountered, then turned and walked away through the woods, both calves in tow. I lost sight of her among the trees until she emerged from the woods to cross the trail behind me.

It was still early enough in the morning that the woods were very dark, so these are the best shots I got. The camera just couldn’t grab enough light to figure out the exposure it needed. I’d press the button and it would think and think and think before finally opening the shutter.

Weirdly, I’m the only person in camp who saw the moose that morning. There were lots of people up and around. Mother moose walked halfway down the trail toward the outhouses, out in the open for anybody to see, but when I asked around, everyone else was surprise to hear there was a huge moose wandering around camp. And the display on my camera isn’t the greatest. I couldn’t show anybody my murky early-morning photos.

Fortunately, the photos I got of the sunrise were a little better.

The moose and the sunrise were the highlights of my visit to Moskey Basin. I checked out the rest of the campground, I talked to a few people, I read a few chapters of the book I brought with me, I napped in the sun. My stay there was enjoyably relaxing, but writing long descriptions of how great my naps made me feel doesn’t make for much of a trip report.

My goal today was to make it to Threemile campground. I believe they call it Threemile because it’s 3.6 miles from Rock Harbor. Threepointsixmile campground doesn’t roll very easily off the tongue, though, which is probably the reason they shortened the name. Between Moskey Basin and Threemile, there’s another campground called Daisy Farm. It has lots and lots of room to camp and my understanding is that it’s a very popular place to stay, but it’s eight miles from Rock Harbor. On Friday morning, I wanted to be closer to Rock Harbor than that, to make sure I wouldn’t miss my boat, so Threemile was the goal.

After packing up all my gear, I got dressed to set off from Moskey Basin at 8:00 AM Thursday morning, shedding my thermal undershirt and pulling on my only t-shirt. And then stripping my t-shirt off in a big hurry because it smelled worse than a bucket of moldy socks. I mean, I didn’t smell great, either, but that t-shirt reeked. I rolled it up with my dirty socks and hung it from a strap on my pack where I hoped the fresh air would carry its nasty odor away from me.

It’s an 8.1 mile hike from Moskey to Threemile, my longest hike since Tuesday. I set a slow, easy pace to conserve my strength. The trail along the shoreline is mostly level, which was a relief. Every once in a while the trail would force me to climb up and over a big rock, or stop and slowly pick my way through a watery muck hole, just for variety, I guess, but mostly it was a pretty easy hike.

When I reached Daisy Farm I stopped to use the potty, and while I was there I figured I might as well refill my water bottles with cold water from the lake. I also figured I could take twenty or thirty minutes to sit down and munch on some nuts and fig bars.

While I was stuffing my face, a guy I met further back along the trail came into Daisy Farm, stopped to have a snack with me, and we chatted for a bit. He told me he had blisters all over his feet that were just killing him, but when I offered him some bandages or moleskin he said he had plenty of that, it just wouldn’t stay on his feet. “I just put my head down and power through, you know?” he said. No, I don’t know. I would be a blubbering mess if I had blisters all over my feet. Luckily I had only one, under a thick callus. It didn’t pop and it didn’t hurt, so I left it alone.

We left Daisy Farm hiking together and that’s when I found out what he meant by “powering through.” He could move along at a pretty good clip even with blisters on his feet. I had to scramble to keep up with him, and when he was behind me he was always right on my heels. Together we made really good time between Daisy Farm and Threemile.

At Threemile there was just one other camper occupying a shelter. My hiking buddy had planned to press on to Rock Harbor but when he saw he had his pick of the shelters, he decided to stay. Once again, I could have tried camping in one of the shelters, but the appeal just wasn’t there. Instead, I found a camp site down by the lake shore where I could hang my hammock and sleep in comfort, swinging under the trees.

Read about my last day on Isle Royale!