In the middle of lake superior, there is an idyllic island, 45 miles long and 9 miles wide. It has untouched lakes, thousands of moose, and a dwindling population of wolves. I have been there 2 times, and both times it was an experience I will never forget. This is Isle Royale, the least visited national park in the contiguous US, and the largest island in lake superior. I have hiked over 100 miles on the island, but there are 12 that stand out as the most physically challenging day of my life. It started at 6:12 in the morning. In my Scout troop, we play the morning ‘game’, Where you start waking up at 6 and every minute you are ready to leave before 7 am, you get to sleep in that much the next day. This was our last hiking day, as tomorrow
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Being at the second highest point on the island under a metal structure is not the greatest idea in a thunderstorm. We started to panic, realizing that we were lucky not to be fried yet, when our smartest member, Kenrick Bjelland, spoke up and started talking about a scientific thing called the Faraday Cage, where the metal around us actually protects us. Knowing him to be the smartest human alive (he knows 512 digits of pi), we trusted him, but only barely. To pass time on the island, we brought some books, more specifically, 7 copies of Shakespeares Othello. We quickly got out the books and started reading the Olde English gibberish, not really understanding what we were saying, only that a lot of people were dying/ Kenrick, who was reading the part of Desdemona, the love interest of Othello, spoke in an ear-piercing falsetto, and Henry, one of the youngest scouts on the trip, stumbled through the pentameter, jumbling his words left and right. I, on the other hand, had some minor roles and was sitting back, stifling my …show more content…
We took a 30-minute break, which after a 2-hour frenzy, was a godsend. After the break, we were mostly dry and almost to the camp, but then the bugs came. The mosquitoes came in hordes, slapping ten at a time on your arm. We hadn’t put on bug spray since the morning, but we were so close that we decided to keep moving. The bugs kept up their relentless offense until we had to stop, as they were making us go literally insane with itching. After a short break and the bliss of a break from bugs, we powered through the last half mile, around the corner to the sight of Lake Superior. We had finished our march up mountains, through swamps, down valleys, and into the lake for a chilly
Being at the second highest point on the island under a metal structure is not the greatest idea in a thunderstorm. We started to panic, realizing that we were lucky not to be fried yet, when our smartest member, Kenrick Bjelland, spoke up and started talking about a scientific thing called the Faraday Cage, where the metal around us actually protects us. Knowing him to be the smartest human alive (he knows 512 digits of pi), we trusted him, but only barely. To pass time on the island, we brought some books, more specifically, 7 copies of Shakespeares Othello. We quickly got out the books and started reading the Olde English gibberish, not really understanding what we were saying, only that a lot of people were dying/ Kenrick, who was reading the part of Desdemona, the love interest of Othello, spoke in an ear-piercing falsetto, and Henry, one of the youngest scouts on the trip, stumbled through the pentameter, jumbling his words left and right. I, on the other hand, had some minor roles and was sitting back, stifling my …show more content…
We took a 30-minute break, which after a 2-hour frenzy, was a godsend. After the break, we were mostly dry and almost to the camp, but then the bugs came. The mosquitoes came in hordes, slapping ten at a time on your arm. We hadn’t put on bug spray since the morning, but we were so close that we decided to keep moving. The bugs kept up their relentless offense until we had to stop, as they were making us go literally insane with itching. After a short break and the bliss of a break from bugs, we powered through the last half mile, around the corner to the sight of Lake Superior. We had finished our march up mountains, through swamps, down valleys, and into the lake for a chilly