Pukaskwa

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

After days dodging rain and dressing up in a winter coat to go outside imagine my delight when today dawned sunny and warm.  It was with no sense of regret that I departed my campground in Schreiber.  However pleasant its owner may have been when I finally met him Traveller’s Rest has seen better days and requires a lot of work before it can be accounted a restful place to bide.  Had I met the owners before they left for their day jobs I would have told them that if they continue to use computers on a network they should disable file sharing.  Karen’s iTunes folder showed up on my own iTunes playlist until I disabled show shared files. 

 

Today I encountered more truck traffic than I’ve been accustomed to experience attempting to give me a push.  When I got to Marathon checked out the town and later discovered the tourist bureau on the eastern end of town.  Not that the people there knew anything of use to me in the first place, an apprehension confirmed by parks staff when I got there.  Pukaskwa is accessed by the 15 km highway 627 that passes through Pic Native Reserve.  As expected half the campground was open and registration was by self service—mercifully they allow one to use a credit card.  Fees that add GST on top of the price make for strange change. 

 

The park, on the north shore of Lake Superior “protects 1,878 km² of roadless, boreal forest wilderness”.  The front-country campground on Hattie Cove with its electrical hook-ups allows for a taste of this wild frontier while preserving the comforts of home.  Got my bike in action and rode up to the admin office in a fruitless attempt to discover if I could find out more about the park.  Upon returning and getting set up set out to explore the day use trails in the park.  Ran into two parks staff out taking a break from their admin work to bird.  Greg, it transpired was a Newfie and his accent became very apparent when he got excited about our encountering a pine martin along the camp roadway.  When they left I set out on my hike. 

 

The day-hikes out of Hattie Cove may not involve great gains in elevation but they are no less strenuous for the rock ledges and outcrops that must be scrambled over and the tangle of dead-wood that litters the beaches.  Boardwalks cross most of the major wet areas and strategically placed stairs get one over the worst humps but plenty remain.  I could attempt to describe the scene but pictures do it better:

 

 

 

Back in camp I encountered an RV warm enough to force me to break out a short-sleeved shirt.  I also discovered that I had company in the park.  Do kids have to make so much noise?  For the first time I also encountered black flies and mosquitoes, a harbinger of things to come. 

 

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Taking my own advice I went off early to hike around a small inland lake.  The sound of Birdsong was all around me and a Redstart posed right in front of my nose.  Early spring flowers, encouraged by yesterday’s sun and heat were springing forth at every hand.  A small pocket of Marsh Marigolds was a pleasant discovery.   If I wanted my morning exercise I certainly got it as the route scrambled over rock outcrops, ridges and rifts and past ancient potholes.  I was truly thankful for the stairs, bridges, and boardwalks though a lengthy boardwalk merely two planks wide had me walking the straight and narrow.  When I got home made brunch and after a bit of reading settled in for an afternoon siesta.  My late afternoon trek took me for a walk out to the  tip of a peninsula which reaches out into Lake Superior near the mouth of the Pic River.  A rift valley nearly made an island of the point and the path in follows an elaborate set of stairs and traverses rough terrain that demands that one concentrate on every footstep and remain standing in place when one stops to look around.  The views of Lake Superior are spectacular.  Upon my return had a late Dinner. 

 

I’ve filled another bag with garbage and even though I produce only one a week my stock of grocery shopping bags is slowly dwindling now that stores are insisting on charging for bags or not supplying them at all.  The cynic in me wonders at just how much major chains care about the ecology but it certainly hasn’t taken them long to cop to the concept of making money off the sale of grocery bags.