IRNP JOURNAL - Day 0 07/02/2009

Thursday - Houghton, Mi.

 

After months of planning and preparation and weeks of packing, the day has come to depart for my favorite location in the world, Isle Royale National Park. IRNP is located inside the Michigan border in beautiful Lake Superior. It is considered the gem of the National Park Service and it is the least visited national park, which is a big reason why I like it so much!
After last year’s trip, Ray and I decided to drag our father, Frank, along with us this time. He agreed to go, as he was sick of looking at hours of video and gazillions of photos of our trips and hearing us go on and on about how wonderful and pristine IRNP is and how great the fishing is. He finally decided he had to experience it up close and personal. He had the same kind of excitement I had before my first visit to the park. I passed on a few of the many books I have about IRNP to him, including Rolf Peterson’s: The Wolves of Isle Royale: A Broken Balance which I am sure helped in building up that excitement.



Wednesday/Thursday 07-01-2009 & 07-02-2009 Day 0

Dad, Ray, and I left work in Detroit at 6pm sharp, made a quick stop at the ATM, and headed to Westland to pick up my nephew Paul. Big thanks go out to my cousin Frank, who gave Ray, Dad, and I the time off of work. He also loaned us his 2008 F-350 Super duty for the week and said he would cover the gas too! It is truly appreciated Frank!

Paul was in charge of procuring the beer and the beef jerky. We snapped a commemorative farewell photo with our main sustenance for the week (Beer and jerky), loaded it up in the truck along with Paul’s gear and headed out the door at 7PM sharp.

We made a few quick fuel and snack stops and wound up driving through the night and into the morning arriving in Houghton at 5AM. The trip was uneventful, and I only encountered 3 or 4 deer near the road, just enough to keep me on my toes! We traveled 587 miles averaging 11.7MPG. We jammed out to 4 CD’s that Paul’s buddy, Tully, burned especially for this trip! Nice job Tully! It made the miles fly by!

We made our customary 7am stop at Soumi’s Restaurant for a good hot breakfast. We then went back to the Motel 8 to check in. Paul and Dad napped for a few hours, Ray went walking around downtown Houghton, and I headed for the sauna and whirlpool. After relaxing there for a bit, I headed back to the room for a nap myself.

We all woke up, showered and then headed to downtown Houghton to get a beer and a burger. We ate a very tasty burger at Armando’s. We then headed to Wal-Mart to buy our food for the week. The total for all the food was $240.00. After returning to our motel, we prepared our food and gear, loaded up the cooler, and made a few final cuts on our gear. We were all in bed by 11pm.