Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Mouth of the Michipicoten River

We had another great day of paddling from the Dog (University) River to Naturally Superior Adventures right at the mouth of the Michipicoten River. Wow what an awesome location for this kind of business. Dave, the founder/owner has been a wonderful host. Dave and Amy of Wilderness Classroom are going to be giving a couple of school presentations in nearby Wawa tomorrow. We will stay here a 3rd night and leave Wednesday morning I assume.

Paddling toward Wawa .. Amy and Dan at our lunch stop.

Miscellaneous photos of Naturally Superior....

Our campsite at Naturally Superior Adventures

Monday, June 4, 2012

Naturally Superior Adventures

We paddled into the mouth of the Michipicoten River and are camping at Naturally Superior Adventures. Nice place! We'll be here a couple days as Dave and Amy will be doing some school visits in the nearby town of Wawa.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

RedSucker Cove to Dog (University) River

Finally we left RedSucker Cove. Not the best site to end up camping at 2 nights. It was nice to give my shoulder a rest day I suppose.
We had nice paddling conditions...it was foggy at first then some sunshine and it did rain on us a few times. The wind was light and from behind and increased as the day progressed. 10 knots at most. We had lunch at a nice sand beach at Ghost River. We arrived to Dog River about 4:30. It's a nice camping spot. We swam in the river which felt good though cool. We're about 16.5 miles from the Michipicoten River. I guess we will go to Naturally Superior as Dave contacted them about staying there. Wilderness Classroom is planning to visit a couple schools in Wawa so we may be there a couple days?

Early on we had some patchy fog.

Lunch stop at the Ghost River beach. Note the dry pants pulled down during lunch. Dave, Amy and Dan all had we buts?

Mouth of the Ghost River

Dog river beach and my tent spot...

Getting ready to cook dinner ... The view

Mouth of the Dog River

Evening

Friday, June 1, 2012

Sandhills Cranes at RedSucker Cove

Here is a photo of the cranes Dave took with his big lens.

Pukaskwa Pit Stop

These were the only Pukaskwa structures we saw. The structures on and near Richardson's Island are well known and likely the most visited. I had maps of the Pukaskwa coast with many more that I borrowed out to a 'friend' kayaker but lost track of them and eventually forgot who I borrowed them to. Prehistoric peoples of this area, I've heard about 1,000 years ago, made them? The use or purpose can only be theorized.

Cascade River to RedSucker Cove

The camping at the Cascade River is nice. We had a nice dinner which included fried lake trout caught earlier in the day. We slept in a bit getting on the water about 8:45. It was a warm morning and the warmest paddling we'd had so far. We decided to check out the Pukaskwa Pits at Richardson's Island and that's where we had lunch. The weather changed a bit during lunch with developing clouds and a NW wind which pushed us along nicely. We wanted to get as far around the corner as possible due to predicted strong NW winds tomorrow. The shore now runs nearly east and west rather than the north and south of the National Park's shore. As it turned out we camped just 2 nights in the Park, not counting the Hattie Cove campground night. RedSucker Cove is listed as a campsite for those paddling on to Wawa. It has 2 ends so I'm not sure we picked the right one but it was the end of our longest day and we'd been paddling in the rain for the last half hour or so. A substandard site compared to the many beautiful campsites but during dinner under a big cedar tree a pair of Sandhill Cranes flew in and landed in the cove. They're still here .. Resting up just like us.

Dan in the morning ready to launch. One last shot of the Cascade's falls.

Dave and Amy...almost to the 'pits'. ... This Pukaskwa structure is near Richardson's Island.

Michipecoten Island in the distance. Just a couple more miles to RedSucker Cove. Heading toward the rain...

Not our best campsite. Tight squeeze on tent space.

Our after dinner soup. .. Can you see the Cranes? Dave took some with his big lens I'll add at some point.

We stayed here 2 nights.. It was raining in the morning and .. Well we just decided to stay?..

Thursday, May 31, 2012

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