Entries about hiking

June 13:

The Wawa library, where we did our last blog entry was selling off some DVD's, and we picked up a 4 movie retrospective on Clint Eastwood, as well as the Gangs of New York for $4.

We left Wawa in the early afternoon, after getting a photo of TaJ with the Wawa town bird, the Canada Goose:

We drove another 225 kilometers over a beautiful empty highway, passing the town of Marathon befvore stopping for a planned 3 night stay at Neys Provincial Park, on a sandy spit of land that juts into Lake Superior. This campground, which has over 200 sites is, once again, virtually empty. The first loop seems to hold most of the short stay campers, and while it looked nice, we decided to look at the second loop.

The second loop had 9 sites filled with Seasonal campers, all of whom were away, supposedly working somewhere, so the other 30 sites in the loop were empty. We took a really nice site just a short hop from the shower room and had the whole place to ourselves. No drama this time in parking TaJ, and we did not need the extra 25 feet of electrical cord we had bought for $65, in Wawa.

We set up camp:

The visitor centre at Neys does not open until June 30, so there are no services to speak of. The place does have a lovely beach that we will explore over the next two days, which the weather forecast tells us will be rainy...much rain, a bit of wind, some thunder and lightning. There is very little bug activity at this point. There are black flies and mosquitoes, but not many.

We settled in to watch the Gangs of New York, since we have power, a tv and an entertainment system. Thank you Forest River.

Overnight the rains began and we woke to lots of rain in the morning. We decided to use our first day to run over the Pukaskwa, the National Park, about 50 kilometers back the way we came. It will be the first use of our free day passes to Canada's National Park.

The weather cleared as we got to Pukaskwa around noon. We ate our lunch in the Visitor Centre parking lot, where the hiking trails all start from. While we were eating the weather dramatically cleared, and the sun came out. Again, the Visitor Centre here does not open until June 21, so we are a week early.

On our way to the trail head Jenny came as close to a moose as possible, albeit a plastic replica:

Given the change in weather we decided to see if we could get in a hike before it closed back in again. It might have been a mistake to even start out and we chose a shorter trail. If the weather had cooperated, we were planning on doing a 10 k hike here, out to the suspension bridge on the Coastal Trail, but that was not to be with the rain in the forecast.

We took a shorter trail along the coast, with a planned route of about 2.5 kilometers. We made it to the top of the trail, but then I ran into a bit of trouble with my footing...I fell, scraping my elbow in the process. The rain from earlier in the day had made the rocky trail treacherously slippery. Despite being cautious, I managed a really good fall.

We did get a nice picture of Lake Superior from the top of the trail before we returned to our car. A couple of hours later, as I write this blog entry, the rain is back.

This time we are at the library in Marathon, another small community on the shore of the great lake. With a population of about 3,200 this place services much of the local area. It must be something to live here, with really good shopping is almost 400 kilometers away in the Soo, or 325 kilometers away in Thunder Bay.

With the rain closing in and expected to continue overnight, we stocked up with a bottle of wine, and will make do, back at our little trailer with a supper of tortilla chips, salsa and guacamole. We have books to read, movies to watch and really love sitting around in our trailer when it rains outside.

We plan to spend tomorrow at Neys, and get in some beach walks and hiking at the provincial park before heading on to Sleeping Giant on Friday.

June 11: After a wonderfully stormy night we woke to clearing skies and decent temperatures. Our camp site is right on the beach. Agawa Bay has a 3 kilometer long beach on the shore of Lake Superior.

After a leisurely breakfast of French Toast and Bacon we took a tour of the Visitor Centre and its many exhibits on the history of this area. The beach at Agawa Bay has been used by natives for thousands of years, and in recent history this beach was a stopping off point for voyageurs on their long journeys across Canada. As many as 15 crew on extremely large canoes paddled 16 hours a day on trading trips across this area, and slept on these beaches. Our campsite:

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In the foreground of this picture you can see the tree branch that narrowly missed our trailer:

Afterward we walked back along the beach to our campsite. The lake, which had 2 meter high waves the night before was calming down. A few days ago I hyper extened the big toe on my left foot and to dull the ache I stood with my feet in the 4 degree Celcius water. It worked really well and before long I could not feel a thing from the ankles to the end of my toes.

We headed off to see the famous Agawa Bay Pictographs, that date back hundred of years. It is a short, but steep hike down to the lake shore, and seeing the pictographs takes some courage. I stayed back and kept a photographic record in case Jenny fell into the lake. People has been killed walking along this piece of rock by large waves.

This is the payoff for taking the risk of walking along that ledge:

This is the trail up from the Pictographs:

June 12:

A rainy night led into a deeply foggy morning. We lazed about for the morning in the hopes of getting a decent hike in the afternoon. The weather forecast at the Visitor Centre was calling for much improvement in the afternoon. Surely it did clear and we were able to head out for a lovely 5 kilometer hike along the Sand River. Waterfalls and forest flowers. We thoroughly enjoyed the almost 3 hours of up and down hiking along the riverbank.

We played tortise and hare with a romantic young couple through most of the hike. They were quick along the trail, but would get distracted and we would come upon them being romantic time and time again. We suggested they get a room a couple of times, but we can understand their affection for each other. It made for fun encounters along the trail.

As this is written we are in Wawa, at the public library, using their internet. We head on from here to camp for the next three nights at Neys Provincial Park, where we will explore Pukaska National Park as well as other local hiking trails. The road is long and we are having a great time.