Adam Berger

The Abbie passed Presque Isle in the morning, reached the breakwater at Marquette Harbor at 10:30 AM, and pulled into its home landing soon after. The crew stepped ashore, expressing interest in taking a similar trip together in the future. In thirty days, the Abbie had traveled 775 miles without any serious problems. All the Abbie’s men took pride in participating in this voyage from Marquette to Isle Royale and back. They felt a strengthened sense of mutual respect for one another. 

Adam Berger
​
Waking after a rainy night, the men dried themselves by a morning fire. The weather improved after breakfast, and the Abbie prepared to leave. Three boys approached the camp, and curiously asked what made the boat go. The answer, “naphtha,” simply confused them. The Abbie cruised on, with the boys watching spellbound on the shore.

At the Portage River the Abbie encountered a steamer called Japan, and the Abbie men exchanged waves and whistles with the passengers and crew on the larger ship. The Abbie cruised across Keweenaw Bay and stopped at Point Abbaye to change naphtha drums. The craft then went on to Huron Bay, passed a camping party at the Huron River, and another at the Salmon Trout River. The Abbie stopped for the night at the fishing station in Big Bay. The surf was so rough that the men chose to forgo landing and just sleep crowded together in the boat that had carried them to Isle Royale and back. 

Adam Berger
​
At 4 AM, J.M. Longyear woke the men with a call of “Time!” and they stepped out of their tent to a foggy early morning. The Abbie rushed to the place between Washington Harbor and Grace Harbor where it was to meet the Taylor at 5 AM. There they enjoyed coffee and waited for hours for the Taylor to appear. Tiring of waiting for the belated rendezvous, the Abbie’s men went ashore to cook breakfast from the remainder of their food. Mox declared that the bread was “not so very moldy!” and the men decided it was surely time to go home, as their supplies were truly depleted.

The Taylor finally arrived at 9 AM, four hours after the 5 AM scheduled time. The Abbie was hooked to the steamer to be towed across the lake. The luggage and most of the crew loaded on the Taylor, Mox stayed on the Abbie to make sure nothing went wrong with their boat. The steamer pulled the Abbie forty-five miles across Superior, with Mox calmly seated on the smaller boat, as spray rained down around him.
When they reached Hancock, the Abbie was pulled loose of the Taylor. Mox, an experienced ocean-going seaman, described riding aboard the towed Abbie as the wildest boat ride of his life. The Abbie cruised below the draw bridge to Houghton, where Howard Longyear went to the post and telegraph offices and to buy supplies for the rest of the trip. 

Adam Berger

The crew left what they described as the worst campground of the trip and crossed the reef at a channel near Siskiwit Point amidst heavy swells. They landed on the southern point of Isle Royale and got out to stretch their legs. The lake quieted as they resumed their trip. At 7:15 PM they reached Washington Harbor, having circumnavigated Isle Royale. They encountered the captain of the steamship Taylor and made plans for the Abbie to be towed across the lake the next morning.
​
Howard Longyear and Mox went to a nearby smokehouse to have the largest trout of the trip, caught by Howard Longyear, smoked overnight so it could be taken home as a souvenir of the trip. However, the smoking failed and partially cooked the fish. Luckily, Mox had made an outline of the trout on a board when it was caught, and Howard Longyear planned to cut it out and paint it to make a substitute trophy. 

Adam Berger
​
Heading west, the ship passed an abandoned lighthouse, between Caribou Island and Mott Island, and to the wrecked hulk of the steamer Algomah, thinking of the forty-six people who died in that wreck. They then landed on an adjacent beach and searched for green stones found only on Isle Royale, and agates.
​
The Abbie then cruised along the shore in view of the lighthouse on Menagerie Island, past Wright Island, to Siskiwit Bay. J.M Longyear caught a beautiful trout. The men camped there on the gravely, rocky shore. Tent pegs were no use on the rock, so they improvised, piling rocks on poles to which they tied the guy ropes. However, the tent collapsed in the night.  

Adam Berger

​Although the others derided him for going after a disfavored species, Howard Longyear decided to fish for pickerel, and caught two. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew took the Abbie up the bay to explore. Three-hundred feet up, they could see across Duncan’s Bay, small islands, and the Canadian coast. Mox climbed to the very pinnacle of Lookout Louise, tied a small US flag to a spruce tree, and put the Abbie’s colors and pennant on either side. The men photographed Lookout Louise with those signs of their journey planted upon it. J.M. Longyear misidentified the spot as Monument Rock.

The Abbie then went through Duncan’s Bay to Blake’s Point. Howard Longyear caught a trout. When he tried to go after a larger one with a lure, the tip of his rod broke and his hook snagged on the rocks, pulled to undo the snag, and realized he had a fish on. He landed the trout despite the condition of his rod. Both trout were very large.
They left Blake’s Point, went up Rock Harbor, and set up camp in the grass near the old Siskiwit Mine. While Mox cooked dinner, the tent caught on fire, with flames leaping twenty feet above the ridge pole. The men put the fire out and set it up on fresh ground, ate a dinner of baked pike, and went to sleep hoping it wouldn’t rain on their partly ruined tent. 

Adam Berger

Mox woke up the rest of the crew with a shout of “Yo-Ho! Time!” and the trip continued. The Abbie cruised past Todd’s Harbor and to McCargoe’s Cove, where the boat scraped bottom without sustaining damage. They reached Minong Copper Mine’s abandoned landing where the men saw buildings still standing. As they cruised on into the cove Mox stood at the bow of the boat looking out for shoals, especially dangerous around Locke’s Point. They turned south into Duncan’s Bay, site of a mining operation in the 1840s. The men encamped, dined at about 8:30 PM, and went to sleep under a colorful display of the Northern Lights. 

Adam Berger

As they cruised in the Abbie, the men tried their luck fishing, but didn’t get a single bite. When they came to a waterfall, they tried again. J.M. Longyear hooked a big trout but lost is as he was reeling it in. They continued on to the site of a land exploration camp at Todd’s Harbor and set up camp near a stream at 4 PM. 

The men woke up to a soggy morning. Their spirits were lifted with a big breakfast of coffee, pancakes, and bacon. After a bit of deliberation, the crew decided to push on despite the inclement weather, and the Abbie’s journey continued. About three miles from Washington Harbor, however, fog and wind convinced them to halt. The Abbie pulled to shore at what the men dubbed Shelter Cove, and the crew spent the day fishing and looking for agates. 

Adam Berger

The men fished for another day at their foggy camp at the mouth of the Washington River on Isle Royale. At the end of the day, they loaded into the skiff to watch the numerous bats catching insects in the air. They expressed gratitude for the presence of the bats, wondering aloud how terrible the mosquitoes would have been without them.