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...

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.

Slate Islands to Neys Provincial Park

We arrived to the Slate's on Tuesday about noon, spending 3 windy days at the cabin on McColl Island. We had great paddling conditions for the crossing back to the mainland today. We are now camping at Neys Provincial Park at a site with electricity nestled in with several RV's. We're off to camp near the town of Marathon tomorrow for a food resupply before beginning the most remote section of Lake Superior. I'd not seen the coast between Rossport and Pukaskwa National Park and it was my first time out to the Slate's as well. I love paddling at Pukaskwa but I've not been there since 1997.

...A storm approaching Friday and the morning we left McColl Island...

...Just as we were leaving the Slate Islands .. Heading to Neys Provincial Park with Pic Island in the background...

...Techno mania at the electric campsite at Neys Provincial Park...

Slate Islands crossing

Having run into Terrace Bay residents Elenore and Paul was a huge help after discovering all our errands we planned to do would have to wait a day due to Victoria Day.. It allowed us an early start to do our food shopping and we were on our way to the Slate's about 11:30 am. The conditions were quite nice with just a slight headwind an very calm condition. The crossing is about 7 or 8 miles. We saw our first caribou soon after interning the central protected area of the archipelago. I mean hopefully we'll see some more.. We have strong SE wind now a few days and will likely cross back to the mainland Saturday morning?

This is where we ended up camping .. The cabin 'Come N Rest' on McColl Island.