Devils Day 5

Tuesday, July 12^th, 2005.

Maintenance paid a morning visit to review utility systems.  Strange because water systems were reported out of commission on Raspberry and Michigan Islands and everything seemed fine here.  

Still, we worked from 8:15 to 11 am doing a full check and training on systems.  Covered 12v, 24v, 110v systems, generator, mowers, solar and water systems.  Pumped septic tank, refreshed chlorine, fixed weed whacker and then had brownies and coffee.  Then a steady stream of visitors from 11:30 to 3:30 including people who had visited last weekend and returned with friends.  Finally a group of trek and trail guides on their day off taking a “busman’s holiday” paddled out for the day.  A couple I had met previous years on Oak and Manitou Island visited.   I dressed up in mosquito gear to trudge to the south landing to check site and clean latrine.  Very hot on return but I was too tired to do a beach swim so I just showered and took a nap.  At dusk I went out the back door and accidentally locked myself out.  I went around to the front door and was greeted by a great gray owl sitting on the lamppost at the end of the walk 25 feet from the house.  I rushed inside to setup my tripod and telephoto lens in the office window.  Amazingly, he sat and watched until I snapped the shutter at which point he headed about 50 feet north to a higher perch.  Then he flew in a circle around the field and yard and then returned to his original spot on the light post.  Exposure time at that point was about 3 seconds so I did not get a very good photo, but did get a good silhouette.

 

Note:  The island is pretty remote.  In a kayak, it is 12 miles to the nearest landing. For day paddlers, that's a 24 mile paddle!  For the Park Service it is about a 20 mile trip, so unnecessary trips are avoided.