Hey there, I am Alice Lyn, and I am so excited, because we are here at Isle Royal National Park.

Now, some of you may be asking yourselves, why is this such a big deal or even what is Isle Royale?

Well, located in Lake Superior, Isle Royale or Minong, its ancestral name, is the world’s 5th largest lake island.

Part of an archipelago making up 400 smaller islands, this island’s amazing landscape offers more than 205 square miles of pristine nature and is part of the Anishinaabe traditional cultural history.

A little over a year ago, I partnered with James Edward Mills of the Joy Trip Project.

To support his work on Isle Royale for All.

Isle Royale for All is an initiative designed to help identify and remove barriers for historically marginalize people to access this land.

Together, we’ve brought a group of 8 incredible people from Michigan’s lower peninsula to experience the park, learn some new outdoor skills, and of course, build community together.

Despite the island’s undeniable beauty, Isle Royale remains one of the country’s least visited national parks.

Because being on an island, this park is only accessible by either boat or seaplane.

In fact, traveling here is an adventure in and of itself.

First, we need to make our way up north.

Our group is made up of residents from Grand Rapids, Lansing, Detroit, and Ann Arbor.

So we’re all meeting here in Lansing for our long journey to the northwest part of the upper peninsula.

But how are we getting there, you ask?

Well, enter the get outside bus.

My name is Michael Leinbach and I’m the executive director of The Get Outside Bus.

We’re a nonprofit.

We work nationwide, but we’re based in the Great Lakes area.

Our whole goal is to make it more accessible to be outside.

That means we need to think about barriers that are cultural.

We also need to think about barriers that are logistical, and we also need to think about cost.

When Alice and James came and asked about this Isle Royale trip, it was such an easy yes.

I’ve also worked a lot with Isle Royale and spent some time on the island, was involved in the wolf moose research there.

I’ve taken multiple youth programs and adult programs to the island, and it’s kind of my favorite place to go myself.

So that made it a pretty easy yes.

I also think that one of the things that’s cool about Isle Royale is we look at it like it’s a really hard place to go.

And it is.

You have to take a plane, you have to take a boat.

It’s a long drive from anywhere.

But being able to get groups out there and show, hey, this is possible, I think opens up all the other trips that you know are easier.

So to have that kind of challenge ahead of us, I think I think was a really cool experience, and I just couldn’t say no.

Plus, I still gotta try and see a wolf.

Between the drive to our pickup site in Lansing and then up to Copper Harbor, most of us have logged 600 miles and over 11 hours of driving today.

So we had worked with our friend John Mueller, owner of the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge to arrange a layover day for folks to rest and regroup before the next leg of our journey.

Keweenaw Mountain Lodge is B Corp certified and sustainably operated And it’s a dark sky park, which means that the property is far enough away from light pollution to get clear views of the night sky.

As soon as you arrive here, it becomes evident that this place is designed to help guests truly be present in the nature that surrounds them.

We’re also meeting up with our cinematographer, Alex Miranda, and of course, James Edward Mills.

Primarily my purpose in working with the National Park Service as well as The... National Park Foundation is to try to raise awareness for the least visited national park in the lower 48 United States, Isle Royale National Park.

And I’m really excited about the prospects of being able to Lead a group of People of color.

from a wide variety of different backgrounds to be able to have a positive and hopefully empowering end... enlightening experience in the outdoors.

And my goal, ultimately, is to be able to allow them to come back into their communities and share their experiences with people in their community as well as, hopefully, inspired a new generation of young people, to have the Aspiration to protect and preserve our wild and seating places, especially in our public lands, our national parks.

Among our group are Grant and Chief, 2 community members who agreed to share their experiences throughout the course of our adventure together.

And I love the unique energies that they bring to the group.

All right, so what made y’all say yes to going on this expedition?

My funny answer is Alice.

My actual answer is that it’s hard to say no to go to a place that I’ve heard about, and that’s very special, to international by people in general, Minong, like it literally means the beautiful place.

What could be more tempting than that?

I talked to some of my family and some aunties in my community, and they were like, well, pretty cool to see you on something like this.

One of the biggest issues with, like, spending meaningful time in special places like this.

Get knowing how to get there and having the mentorship and people with you that make it feel grounded in reality.

So it feels like the perfect confluence of events.

I haven’t been camping one in a while.

Um, and by camping, I mean, like, community centered.

I’ve been out by myself.

I’ve camped in my car.

I’ve done, you know, one on ones, but being out at a campground, where, you know, there are folks around you that look like you, that talk similar to you and understand you, was a big draw, but also, I’ve never... I hadn’t even really heard of Isle Royale besides in passing.

You asked me, and so I was like, Oh, it’s color out here.

I’m going.

I’m doing that.

I’m going ’cause I knew I’d be protected.

I knew I’d be, um, like, surrounded by good people, but I knew, like, I would be able to be my full self out in the woods, and I was like, yep, cool.

Okay, so what are you hoping to learn while we’re out on Isle Royale or just, you know, on this trip in general?

I know comfort isn’t going to be a priority, but, um, ways that I can feel like I can do it myself.

Like, I can go out and feel, like, less of an intimidating thing to spend three, four days out in nature, as far as personal within myself.

Kind of in the same similar thing.

I think I’ve gotten comfortable in my, like, you know, blackness and transness.

I know who I am, and so I want to find the uncharted territories in myself again.

I think I’m always learning, but like, yeah, I’m kind of just excited to see, like, who I am out there.

And, like, who I am with you all out there.

Yeah.

What about you?

What are you hoping to learn?

I would echo what Chief said in terms of it being something that I’m capable of doing.

I mean, you think about Isle Royale getting 20,000 people a year, being this deeply important place.

And a special place with tons of bountiful food and medicines and.

I think I’m hoping to learn more about what that pert feels like.

Is everything that you’re hoping to teach or share with the group?

Earlier, I had talked a little about Mishipishu, who is the great underwater panther.

One of the big things about Mishipishu is that copper is... Depending on your teachings, effectively the body of Misha Peter, so, you know, float copper, freely given, in terms of like, those are their scales being shutted off, those are their horns being cutting the tip off.

And copper, therefore, represents this innate connection to the spirit world, but then you get to the point where mining by anishinaabe people reached a certain threshold where it wasn’t feasible to keep mining.

And then you had other people come out, uh, and start making these really deep gouges into the island.

And a decision to stop doing that?

restore it to being a place where Mishipishu can Just vibe.

Or it can be, you know... A sacred being.

I think that’s something I want to share like.

They’re all obviously parallels between.

our stories and the spirit, however you believe in them and ourselves.

So that symbol of reclaiming and coming home, I think, is something.

I want more people to feel and have stories to reinforce for them.

Well, I’m so excited for tomorrow.

The next part of our journey, which will be hopping on that seaplane and actually getting to the island, so we’ve come a long way already.

Um, but I’m, yeah, I’m really excited to experience this with, with both of you and with the whole group that we’re, we’re here with.

I think it’s gonna be a really amazing experience, so... Wait, please just, please wait.

I’m sorry.

I should be helping you being more supportive.

Because there’s a pretty broad spectrum of experience levels among the folks on this trip, Micah and his teammate Jaylyn are going to teach the group some basic skills before we head to the island.

Things like how to properly pack and wear your backpack, how to get clean water in backcountry, and an overview of how to use some of the gear will be bringing along with us.

After a lovely and very educational day at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge, James is cooking up a big meal before most of us turn in.

But being that we are in a dark sky park, there were a few of us who couldn’t resist the opportunity for some stargazing and astrophotography.

You have arrived.

Today’s the day and we’re finally heading to the island.

So we’re piling back into the van to head to Hubble, Michigan, for the next leg of our journey.

I’m pretty nervous about this e- plane.

I don’t like flying in general.

Um, and I’ve heard that the little planes can be a little bit bouncy.

But yeah, I’m excited.

Yeah, I’m also very excited.

I am still, again, very nervous about the cold.

100%.

But it’s all right.

I’m excited.

We should be good.

We got all our gear and all of that, and everybody seems to be in good spirit, so it should be a good trip.

I’m excited.

Yeah.

Now, if you haven’t already picked up on it, one of the biggest barriers to accessing Isle Royale National Park is just getting there.

There are 2 primary destinations on Minong.

Rock Harbor and Ozaagaateng.

Rock Harbor sits on the southeast end of the island and offers amenities like the Rock Harbor Lodge.

A restaurant.

A store, and even fishing charters.

To get to Rock Harbor, you can take the cheaper but slower option, the ferries.

The trips can take anywhere from 3.5 to 7.5 hours depending on the route you take and can cost between 90 and $350.

But there are more options for storage for those interested in bringing items like kayaks or canoes.

But our group is heading to Ozaagaateng, formerly known as Windigo, on the northwest side of the island.

Ozaagaateng doesn’t have quite the same number of amenities that rock harbor does, and believe it or not, it’s even harder to get to.

With the only travel options being seaplane or the ferries out of Grand Portage, Minnesota.

Since we didn’t want to travel from Michigan to Minnesota to get back to a park in Michigan, we’ll be taking the seaplane out of Hubble.

Flight durations are typically 45 minutes to a Ozaagaateng or rock harbor, and tickets can run between $287 one way, or $416 for a round trip.

The seaplane does have weight limits, though, and packs can’t exceed 45lbs, which is an interesting challenge to navigate when you’re also bringing camera gear.

Yeah!

That was cool.

Whoo Yeah!

Well, we made it.

They say it’s about the journey and not the destination, but when it comes to Isle Royale, I’d say it’s both.

We’ve already had an incredible time getting here, so I can’t wait to experience some of what this land has to offer now that we’re here.