Fishermen's Cove to Cascade River

It aw the last day of May and we had quite a heavy frost. I bet it was 28 degrees. I was barely warm in my bag.. My tent was on the beach where it got a bit colder. I had to blow on my tent pole joints to thaw them. The sun would be bright and once we launched it was quite nice with just a light to non existent headwind. There were some small remnants of swells from yesterday which were confused and bouncy with the rugged Pukaskwa coast. The seas calmed throughout the. We caught a 4 pound lake trout midway through morning and stopped just one time to fillet it and have lunch...oh and pee of course. Another 10 miles or so brought us to the Cascade River ..where we decided to camp. We planned to camp out on Otter Island to check out he lighthouse and Pukaskwa structures, but noticed the island is closed to protect the Park's small caribou population during calving time...May and June. It's really nice here at the falls though. I think it's going to be another cold night but not as cold as last night... It keeps the bugs down.

Frosty morning!

Almost ready o launch .. Dan and Dave taking a Secchi Disk reading.. Or we're the dealing with a fish?

We got one though..

A little cove in English Fishermen's Harbour where we had lunch and filleted the fish.

At the Cascade River..

From top of falls ... From further up the river with the end of Otter Island in background.

Dave and Amy's camp ... Dan and Dave after dinner.

Nice evening

Hattie Cove to Fishermen's Cove

We had a light tailwind when we left Hattie Cove. It was an overcast chilly day with brief sprinkles. We could have gone further with such awesome paddling conditions but Fishermen's Cove is such a nice spot, we stopped. I think it was about 3:30. It did get sunny by the time we got to our campsite at Fishermen's Cove but it never did warm up Wednesday. I think we paddled maybe 25 miles? That's about double the typical guided group distance back when I did kayak trips here.. The last time was 1997 and I'd not been back since. Plenty of paddlers would come close to doubling that 25 mile day but for me, these days and with my gimp shoulder 25 seems just fine. The shoulder is slowly feeling better but far from normal and it still won't allow me to take my normal stroke. Feels nice to be in the sleeping bag... I won't be uploading these next few posts until we get to Wawa.

Another camper watched us pack and snapped a pho to of all 4 of us. .. Dan and Dave take a Secchi Disk reading.. A water clarity test Wilderness Classroom is participating in.

Orchids.. What are these ? Snowy Lady Slippers or Pink ? There were lots of them and right at the campsite.

Looking down at the beach from up where the orchids were ... I camped on the beach as it seemed warmer.

We hiked the coastal hiking trail to an overlook of where we camped. See my tent?

Waiting for dinner to cook ... After dinner fire waiting for sunset.

Nice sunset campsite...

Pukaskwa National Park

We are at the almost deserted Hattie Cove campground. We 4 make up about half of all who are here now. It's cold. We're looking forward to the forecasted much warmer weather.

A : See Details(Google Map)

Marathon to Hattie Cove

Can't wait to see the sun again. We paddled about 12 or 13 miles I guess with a 15 knot headwind. Some places stronger with shoreline effect. Seas were mainly a foot or so but built to over 2 with some over 3 feet and possibly higher at the point and bay leading into Hattie Cove. The refracting wave scenario. The visitor center is now only open July and August due to budget cut backs but a few students from Pic River were taking a nature type class so we were able to warm up and dry gear a bit.. The shower room is unheathed but the rest rooms have heat so we did a bit more gear drying.. It's basically cold. Sounds like some sun and warmer temps are to begin tomorrow for a change. I wish I could have taken some photos while we were on route but it was not photo friendly and my lens was all wet anyway from the 100% humidity...drizzle...fog. At least the bugs have been knocked back down. The black flies were coming out last nice weather.

Breakfast and packing at the launch in Marathon near which we camped 2 nights. .... The one break we took after finding a supposedly open passage according to the chart, a dead end. A pee break was over due anyway.

Our boats at Hattie Cove ... Our site at he Hattie Cove campground.

Hanging out cooking dinner. We won't have Internet until we reach Wawa I guess. 9 days if weather allows.

Our last night in Marathon

We had another amazing dinner with Steve and Joyce ... She said it was going to be 'spaghetti'. It was way more than that. It was delicious!

Joyce took this of s while showing us around Marathon. Our wonderful Italian dinner.

Another night in Marathon

We're at the Marathon library. Having another dinner with the friendly family we met over at Neys Provincial Park.

A : See Details(Google Map)

Marathon library

We decided to stay in Marathon another night rather than resupply and pack and go for Pukaskwa. Joyce came down and drove us around for our shopping and back to the boats where we packed the new food. Now we are at the library and will again be having dinner at Steve and Joyce's. Yummy! It's another cloudy day and it rained all night but so far it has not rained today.. Predictions for thunder storms was the main reason to stay another night but tired muscles after yesterday was factored in.

Windy day . Neys to Marathon

We are camped at a boat launch ramp in Marathon. It was a tough day wit,h shoreline effect winds much stronger than the forecast. It was supposed to be a 16 mile day but wind conditions added at least another 5 miles due to avoiding bigger crossing. The first half of the distance was not bad with a tailwind as we left Neys Provincial Park but then it was headwind all the way. The strongest was the last few miles approaching Marathon. The next highlight was a 3 mile crossing in strong winds. If not for the fact the winds were offshore we would have been wind bound. Maximum wave size was 2 feet but mostly less.
We had met this wonderful family at Neys and the daughter Alicia brought us baked goods from her mom. They had walked by our site and talked with us earlier. They were going to invite us to breakfast but we were about to launch. The dad, Steve told us about this ramp area as a good place to stop to access Marathon. Well they were waiting at the ramp to invite us to dinner and wow what a treat. The mom, Joyce with help from Alicia cooked up an amazing dinner. We were all smiling as we had been paddling all day in the rain and were wet and chilled. They came back to pick us up after we set up our tents and changed. Joyce is coming down to pick us up this morning for our errands in town. We left our paddling gear drying in their basement. It rained all night but has now stopped. I guess if we get our errands done we will head to Hattie Cove in Pukaskwa this afternoon. It's about 12 miles.

Neys has a long sand beach.

Amy during the easier part of our day. Pic Island in the background. We found the Lake Superior's low water level required us to drag and carry our boats at on point.

Where we had lunch just after the shallow area we saw 2 swans but we were not sure if hey were Trumpeter or Tundra swans? We pulled off for a thunder storm where a dead boated moose had washed up.

Having dinner with our wonderful host family. Our tenting location with the old closed pulp mill in the background. The gold mines are what keeps Marathon going. Steve works there and says they have about ten years before they too will close.

Neys Provincial Park

Sounds like rain tonight and tomorrow. I think we plan to head out regardless unless the wind is bad or thunder storms are about.

A : See Details(Google Map)