Judy Byykkonen and her granddaughter, along with Judy’s friend and her grandson made a quick trip to Isle Royale last week. Judy said it all started when her friend, Sharon’s grandson wanted to ride on the Ranger III, so the two grandmothers made reservations to go over on the Ranger III, do a bit of hiking, spend the night tenting and then make the return trip on the Isle Royale Queen IV the next day.

They arrived at Rock Harbor around 3:00 p.m. and headed to the tent sites to set up. You can only stay there one night, which was perfect for them, but all the sites were full. A nice lady who was camping solo, offered to share her site with them, so they got set up and then found a place for the kids to swim. After their swim, they hiked the Stoll Trail and saw moose tracks and poop, but no moose, unfortunately. It rained later in the evening, but they were comfortable in their tents. The next morning they had planned to do a longer hike, up to the Greenstone Ridge, but they were informed that the Queen would be leaving early to get back to Copper Harbor before a huge storm that was forecast headed that way. Judy said the park store was sold out of Dramamine, as passengers that have motion sickness were preparing for the rough ride back. So for Judy and Sharon, what started as a child wanting to ride on the Ranger turned out to be a spark which fueled their desire to return to tent farther inland and to experience other trails and maybe even take their kayaks to do some paddling.

Since we’re already at Isle Royale, let’s join Under the Radar from Detroit Public TV for a recent episode on the Island. The lead-in for the video says: ”On this awesome island episode of UTR, we drive, float, fly and hopefully say hi to a moose. Then we conquer the Keweenaw looking for phenomenal food, a terrific tour, and the elusive Yooper stone. Get ready to explore the cool people, places and ancient islands that make Michigan a great place to explore.”

Grandmothers…Queens on the Queen.
And what is the Yooper Stone?
And please don’t tell me that it’s a cocktail high.

It looks like they had such an amazing time.
If I liked tenting, I'd be down for that
(and I always have my dramamine because I've
had motion sickness since I was very young).
I've never seen pictures of people swimming
over there but Judy's granddaughter was a
brave soul. Looks like she really enjoyed
it. Thanks for taking us along.

That is so awesome. Judy the Adventurer!~ Thank you
for all the adventures and beautiful pics!

Alex..the Yooper stone is a yooper lite. This is
the guy that "discovered" them:

Yooperlites

They discovered them after I could do a hunt.
sniff. oh well..

My son found a yooper lite at the lake on
Saturday. First time looking. He was pretty
excited.