November 14th -  It's been four months since our family trip to IR. But the wonderful (and not so wonderful) memories still linger. I hadn't made the time to give a report and decided it was time.

My husband and I took our daughter (9) and son (6) on their first ever backpacking trip in late July to IR. We decided on Huginnin Cove loop, which was a good decision. They could have gone no further. We saw 8 people all day.

We stayed our first night in the Huginnin Cove campground on a site over-looking the water. It was beautiful. Incredible sunset!
Very late supper, my husband had trouble with the stove. I did dishes in the dark. We could see fox scat everywhere, but never saw the foxes. After we zipped ourselves into the tent I could hear them scampering about. Sort of an erie feeling. The kids were too tired to be scared.

The next day we headed back. We stayed on constant moose alert, and were getting frustrated. So many footprints, but no moose.
We saw only 2 people on the trails. We got a shelter at Windigo after a rather long day. I went to get our food up at the store, I had stored it there over night for $1. On the way there I saw 7 moose swimming in Washington Cove.  No camera on me! I stared in amazement at them. It was fascinating.

After supper we attended a National Park service presentation on the wolf/moose study. It was fabulous and the kids even learned a ton.

It rained buckets on the way back to the campground and we were so thankful for the shelter. The next morning was quite nice.
My son headed to the outhouse and yelled. "I see a moose." Well he did. And we watched the cow for an hour browsing through the campground. It was really incredible. The highlight of our trip, made me wonder about all those miles we'd hiked.

The trip back on the Winonah was just a little rough. Thankfully my son was just tall enough to throw up over the side. Like you'd expect he was ready to eat his popcorn as soon as he emptied his stomach! The fog was very thick, another boat followed us back to Grand Portage.

By the time we put our packs on to hike back to the car (we were parked in the over-flow lot) I was ready to go again. The kids spent the rest of the vacation trying to avoid any hiking!

By next summer I hope they've forgotten the pain, and only remember the fun.

Things I learned: don't pack too much food, it's heavy! Bring a belt for the kids, their pants get loose quickly! IR trails are narrow and damp. You don't really need zip off pants, just quick-dry pants.

Thanks to all of you who provided me help with planning. We will return. The island sort of gets a hold of you!

Postscript: Although the kids had spent many hours hiking various trails before IR, those hikes were without backpacks. Putting on the packs really did impact their energy level. A 5 mile hike with a pack for our kids was challenging. They did it. And they were proud of themselves. But they weren't anxious to do it again.

Written by Nancy King
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