The Mishe Mokwa is taking a well-deserved rest in the Leland Harbor after helping to transport nearly 10,000 visitors over the season to the Manitou islands.

Some visitors were treated to transportation changes on a popular mechanized tour that for decades has provided links to the island’s past. And more changes are on the way in 2012.

“We changed out our tour vehicles this year, and are now providing wagon tours of the island rather than the old pick-up trucks,” explained Sarah Grosvenor, co-owner of Manitou Island Transit. The company, whose owners have ties to the Manitous dating back generations, provides a mechanized tour along the “farm loop” on South Manitou Island that until this year was taken in the beds of retrofitted pick-up trucks whose age made them somewhat historic by themselves. Mechanical problems pushed Manitou Island Transit to seek permission from the National Park Service to switch its mode of travel to wagons equipped with upholstered seats and pulled by farm tractors.

“They’re way more comfortable than those old trucks,” said Tom Ulrich, assistant superintendent at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. “They talked to us about it, and it sounded like a great idea. I was surprised how quiet they are.”

A taste of another change was recently provided to South Manitou visitors. After a downed tree blocked the transit’s usual farm route, tour guides received permission to make a test-run to a new walkway built to guide visitors through the Valley of the Giants, an area of the island spared from lumbering. Previously, the area could only be reached by hiking. However, a change in the park’s General Management Plan provided for mechanized tours to the area starting this year.

But first some preparation was needed. The Park Service worked through the Leelanau County SEEDS program to secure young volunteers to harvest black locust trees from park lands on the mainland that were transported to South Manitou. Black locust is not native to Leelanau County. The wood was used to build a walkway through the Valley of the Giants needed to protect cedar roots and prevent erosion.

“We went out to the cedars last weekend because one of our other tour trails was unavailable,” said Grosvenor. “The visitors really liked the route change. Next season, the wagons will go out to the cedars much more.”

Ferry trips to the island were up slightly, according to National Park Service figures through September, increasing from 9,833 visitors in 2010 to 9,944 in 2011. Partly because overnight stays are required on ferry visits to North Manitou, the south island received the bulk of traffic with 6,939 visitors. Some 3,055 were transported to North Manitou.

“We may have been down a bit in May and August, but the numbers were even in June and July,” Grosvenor said. “We were definitely up in September due to the great weather the first three weeks.”

She reported no impact in ferry traffic resulting from a nature-caused mishap to the Frankfort-based ferry Pictured Rocks, which was intentionally beached south of Empire on July 25 after a rogue wave crashed over the bow of the 60-foot boat.

Ulrich said island visitation has been steady.

“It has been stable through the years. There was a little dip a few years ago, but it came back. It’s like visitation to the Lakeshore in its stability,” said Ulrich.

The Mishe Mokwa, named after mother sleeping bear in the Chippewa legend, has one more mission this season ­— to transport deer hunters to and from North Manitou Island. The island muzzle loader and rifle hunt will run from Oct. 29 through Nov. 6.