College for Kids leads youth to Isle Royale
By Andrew LaCombe, 17, Eric Wagner, 13 and Dennis Bao, 10

It’s not an every day occurrence to encounter a moose. But over the summer, eight Michigan middle and high school students spotted and chased one while spending five days backpacking the southeast shore of Isle Royale National Park.

The trip was coordinated this past summer by the Seaborg Center at Northern Michigan University. Chuck Delpier, a teacher at the Negaunee Middle School, led the journey for the Center in late June.

Fifteen-year-old Alison Blattner of Cass City said the adventure was very different than an average summer vacation.

“ You don’t have a lot of things that you would normally have for a summer trip,” she said. “It’s a lot different from just going camping at a campsite and hanging out there. There’s no place for an RV. There are no cars at all. You have to bring everything, and there’s no way you can get back unless you take the boat.”

Fourteen-year-old Katie Valiquette of Trenton noticed differences in the way she might pack for another week-long trip.

“ My pack was 50 pounds, so you didn’t really want to bring any more stuff,” she said. “You had a tent, a sleeping bag, a cooking stove, and that really weighed a lot. I learned that you don’t need all the extra stuff to have a fun time.”

Isle Royale is located in western Lake Superior 56 miles offshore from the Keweenaw Peninsula. The island is forty-five miles long and nine miles wide, and was a center for mining and fishing in the late nineteenth century. The entire island is now wilderness and is closed to all motorized vehicles, which makes it a popular place for recreation such as hiking, kayaking and canoeing and boating.

Delpier has led several backpacking trips to Isle Royale. He feels kids want and need this kind of experience.

“ The virtual reality of computer games only goes so far to satisfy the inner need many kids have for adventure,” he said.

The summer 2007 trip was planned after Delpier got to know the kids and got a sense of their abilities. It was designed to provide a challenging, but manageable experience.

“ Multi-day backpacking and minimal impact camping in the backcountry was new to all the kids,” said Delpier. “Challenges included choosing the correct gear and food for the situation. Other challenges and learning opportunities included hydration, group dynamics, plus the wildlife and the ecology of Isle Royale.”

Blattner recalled many struggles during the trip.

“ At one point it was a very mountainous part of the hike and we had four miles to go,” she said. “So it was pretty hard and it was a long way. There were some times that you just wanted to give up. It was really challenging at some points, but you pretty much learned from that instead. I learned that giving up is not a good idea, and you can always keep going, even when it may not seem like you can, and that things are not really as hard as they seem.”

Blattner and Valiquette, who were both on Isle Royale for the first time, agreed a highlight of the trip was tracking the moose. According to Delpier, the moose search actually began during an earlier trip back in 2004 when a group he was leading found a moose carcass.

“ Apparently the moose leaned a bit too far over a ledge for some food,” he said. “Evidence suggested that the moose caught its hoof in between two rocks at the top. The moose fell over the ledge, hanging there until it expired. We wondered if some remnants of this scene were (still) visible. We found moose bones scattered and picked clean in the area. As we were getting our backpacks on to resume our hike, we were startled by the sound of a large animal crashing through the brush. The animal was running parallel to the trail in the same direction that we were hiking. Instinctively, we simultaneously dropped our packs and jogged along the trail. The moose stopped and kids got several pictures, Delpier added.”

Since it was the first time the group had all been together, the trip included some relaxation time, something more typical of a summer vacation.

“ We just hung around,” Blattner said. “We brought some playing cards, so we’d have a card game. Just talked mostly. Since they don’t allow campfires we didn’t have one. We had to get along very well with our tent-mates. Since we were both sharing the tent we would have to get along, otherwise it wouldn’t have been a very fun trip,” she added.

The weather during the trip was average for the Upper Peninsula in June: Cold mornings leading to hot afternoons. The trip included some relief from the heat by jumping into Lake Superior.

“ We were so hot and we felt like we just really needed to get wet,” Blattner said. “The water was really cold and felt really good.”

Valiquette added, “We jumped in the water 22 times. It was only 32 degrees and you couldn’t stay in it but 10 seconds before you went numb. But after the 15th time you didn’t feel anything anymore, so it really didn’t matter.”

Blattner would recommend this trip to her friends.

“ We had a lot of fun and it’s a really good experience,” she said. “You learn a lot from this, learn how to keep going, and you get a lot stronger from the trip.”

The trip may be offered again next summer through the Summer College For Kids Program at NMU. Officials with the Seaborg Center say they will not have the program offerings set until late April, so those who may be interested will have to check with the office then.