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Huh, there’s nothing detailing the search for the alleged seasonal pond in the article. Just that they hiked for a while. They didn’t even say “we didn’t find i

Huh, there’s nothing detailing the search for the alleged seasonal pond in the article. Just that they hiked for a while. They didn’t even say “we didn’t find it”. I feel like a chapter was left out! Did they go in the right season? Did they find any ponds but no boulder? The article did little to convince me it’s a hoax, though I don’t believe it’s real either.

derbOac 3y ago
This has been my impression of this story since it was originally posted, that the discussion of it has been extremely odd and focused more on Taub's narrative than what's actually going on on the island. My memory of the original story was that it was even stranger, in that what I recall was they got lost, claimed it didn't exist because they didn't find it (even though they were completely lost) and then we were supposed to just go along with that. "San Franciscan goes to Isle Royale with his mom and gets lost, couldn't find a boulder he read about on the internet" would just as accurately describe the whole thing, so why isn't that the story? I wish this sort of higher-level discussion were more part of the story; it's disappointing to me that Wikipedia isn't more factually accurate about it. I'd change it but my experiences with making edits on Wikipedia are not encouraging. I've been to Isle Royale, and hiked throughout the interior. I've been to Siskiwit Lake, although not to Ryan Island itself. Personally I doubt Moose Boulder exists, but I could see a vernal pool with a boulder in it as a real possibility. You can see from the Google Maps satellite imagery there isn't any obvious pond there but who knows. I imagine with enough knowledge of the topography or Ryan Island, someone could model what it would look like with a lot of snowmelt and rain to see if it's even possible for there to be a vernal pool there in spring. I remember discussing the idea of such a boulder with a companion, not by that name, but as an abstract amusing concept. The geography of the Isle Royale invites the idea of it even if it doesn't exist: the entirety of the place is a maze of rock and water, so it's easy to believe such a thing could be there. Isle Royale is pretty remote, but Sikiwit Lake isn't that difficult to get to if you go to the trouble of going there. I think the thing easiest to do would be to bring along a good sturdy drone and launch it from the shore at one of the campsites. On a totally tangential note, I cringe every time I see Isle Royale being mentioned as part of Michigan. It should really be part of Minnesota — the only reason why it's not is because of the vicissitudes of statehood timing and fears of Canada claiming it for itself.

derbOac 3y ago

This has been my impression of this story since it was originally posted, that the discussion of it has been extremely odd and focused more on Taub's narrative than what's actually going on on the island. My memory of the original story was that it was even stranger, in that what I recall was they got lost, claimed it didn't exist because they didn't find it (even though they were completely lost) and then we were supposed to just go along with that. "San Franciscan goes to Isle Royale with his mom and gets lost, couldn't find a boulder he read about on the internet" would just as accurately describe the whole thing, so why isn't that the story? I wish this sort of higher-level discussion were more part of the story; it's disappointing to me that Wikipedia isn't more factually accurate about it. I'd change it but my experiences with making edits on Wikipedia are not encouraging. I've been to Isle Royale, and hiked throughout the interior. I've been to Siskiwit Lake, although not to Ryan Island itself. Personally I doubt Moose Boulder exists, but I could see a vernal pool with a boulder in it as a real possibility. You can see from the Google Maps satellite imagery there isn't any obvious pond there but who knows. I imagine with enough knowledge of the topography or Ryan Island, someone could model what it would look like with a lot of snowmelt and rain to see if it's even possible for there to be a vernal pool there in spring. I remember discussing the idea of such a boulder with a companion, not by that name, but as an abstract amusing concept. The geography of the Isle Royale invites the idea of it even if it doesn't exist: the entirety of the place is a maze of rock and water, so it's easy to believe such a thing could be there. Isle Royale is pretty remote, but Sikiwit Lake isn't that difficult to get to if you go to the trouble of going there. I think the thing easiest to do would be to bring along a good sturdy drone and launch it from the shore at one of the campsites. On a totally tangential note, I cringe every time I see Isle Royale being mentioned as part of Michigan. It should really be part of Minnesota — the only reason why it's not is because of the vicissitudes of statehood timing and fears of Canada claiming it for itself.