2022 Pukaskwa Day 4

Today would be the big day, the day we made it to the end (or the start, depending on your perspective). The mood was high as we embarked after our morning coffee ritual. The lead hikers with the slower pace headed out first followed probably about an hour later by the much older and less experienced marathon runners. If my memory serves, we met up for lunch before pushing on towards the end of the trail.

The drying of the rain flies was becoming a daily ritual. Not because of the rain, but because of the extreme temperature differences causing an extreme buildup of condensation on the interior of the rain fly. This cannot be under estimated, these things were soaked and some of us dried them out prior to hiking for the day and some of us dried them out once we got to our campsite. 

Day 4 was an exceptional day. Not only did everything work out according to plan but our timing was so that it allowed us again another option. Reaching hideaway Lake by approximately 2 PM gave us the timing we needed to knock off the out and back to North Swallow River on this day rather than wait until the scheduled plan of doing it on day five. I’m going to now include a visual of some of the estimated timing for the sections of the trail. And this is why nobody would ever encourage us to do such a thing. However knowing what we had done up to this point combined with our Trail Education, Fitness and great weather we certainly did not feel it was a risk to push on and get another 8K in the books and to then began heading back tomorrow.

Once again these estimates are only a guide and there are no two groups of hikers that will have the same timing and outcomes on the trail. From hideaway to north swallow river which is only 4 km takes many people at least two hours. For some people it actually takes them a lot more than that, especially when you consider they may be starting the trail from North swallow with 45 pounds on their back, in poor weather and encroaching darkness. We forget this is a wilderness trail. It is not well travelled and not well

Marked.  

We set up camp at Hideaway lake and basically walked the 4 km to North swallow and back with only water and a couple of celebratory treats. Once again a huge shout out to the park staff who kept the trail nice and clean, and to the good Lord for the great weather. It actually was a very doable hike at the end of the day to head out to North Swallow and back. I believe the entire trip segment only took us a couple of hours. We did it!

In 2019 my family did a trip across Canada and we bought the Parks Canada pass. Parks Canada did an excellent job marketing the share the chair program. It was really fun to get photos in the red chairs at all the different parks Canada locations from Ontario to British Columbia. We actually went through Pukaskwa that summer and I think we had some red chair photo sessions rate within the Hattie Cove campground. 

This was also special. It’s really funny to think that after hiking for 3 1/2 days over almost 70 km and literally seeing about four people that we would pop out on the beach and see these red chairs. Signs of humanity. It was really fun to hang out in the red chairs having our celebratory treats and starting to wonder just how many nights would it take to get back?

Congratulations to Pierre, Nenad, KD and Duff for your excellent work and bad dad jokes traversing Canada‘s toughest trail in 3 1/2 days!

2022 Pukaskwa Day 3

Waking up in Oiseau Bay this year as compared to last, had coffee being the only similarity. At this time last year we were nursing our wounds. After falling behind schedule and making up for it with our 34 km day last year, the marathon runners and their 40 pound packs were done. No biggie, we still really enjoyed our leisurely 3 day return back to Hattie’s Cove.  

This year… Different story. We awoke to our usual Nescafé coffee and morning discussions. As they say what happens in Pukaskwa stays in Pukaskwa, especially the stories! This year, the bodies were feeling great and spirits were high as we were on track to complete this hike. Today’s plan would be to make it just the 15 map kilometres to White Gravel River. 

I’ve included the elevation profile for your enjoyment. As you can see there is considerable elevation gain throughout this section of the trail. In fact the highest point of the trail is reached at around map kilometre 41, a breathtaking 325masl when the average was closer to 200masl. In reflection, this was most likely the hardest day of the trail. Thankfully we had absolutely amazing weather, and thanks to the staff the trails were well-maintained, lots of freshly cut dead fall. Upon further reflection I think what made this hike hard, was our choices to make for longer hikes during the day to cut down on a few nights overall. We believe our original plan which would’ve been eight nights and nine days would’ve been a very leisurely pace and would’ve been a lot of fun as well. However based on our accomplishments up to and including day three I think we realized that we would be shaving off at least one day from the proposed itinerary. 

I’m not sure The trail camera caught RuPaul in his tinfoil smock. As previously mentioned when you are sleeping beside a giant melting ice cube the air temperature tends to be very close to 5°C when you have no wind. This was some thing we were sadly ill prepared for however we adjusted and made the best of it that we could’ve. Once again, I feel that had we have kept this pace with higher temperatures I think the trail would’ve gotten the best of us. Especially on day three was such a strenuous hike it only makes sense that the cold temperatures enabled us to keep our body temperatures relatively cool as we slugged through the forests and up and down the hills of this amazing park. 

Interestingly enough, up to this point we had only seen just a couple of different hikers. And from the midpoint on to North Swallow river I believe we only saw two hikers. I keep thinking and I know the rest of the boys do too, what is next? It’s going to be very hard to find another trail that is so isolated, challenging and beautiful to tackle after doing this one. Perhaps we will have to start looking abroad.

As amazing as it was to digitally detox for a week, it was surprising how much we looked forward to our daily updates from home. This was accomplished through the Garman in reach mini. Originally brought on the trip as an emergency communication device if needed, we found it useful for sending quick status updates and to receive simple texts from home. This was definitely something to look forward to after a long day of hiking as we sat around on the shoreline sipping tea and telling tales.

Wrapping up Day three on the trail was special for many reasons. Probably the largest of which was the fact that we all knew at this point we were going to finish this trail. The only question was; In how many days? It was funny because every evening we always ended up saying tomorrow is going to be a big day. LOL. We brought this upon ourselves, there was in fact supposed to be many easy days and NOT too many “big days”, but we found our success was cumulative 

and it always presented us with options. Which is a good thing, but we always seemed to have chosen the tougher options. Choosing the tougher options worked for us, as we still always manage to get into the campsite at a reasonable hour giving our bodies time to recuperate and our minds time to wander.  

EMPHASIZE…if this blog is part of your research and learning for a future trip, you can not expect to be able to follow the same itinerary. There are factors beyond ones control, and factors within your control that need to be fully understood. We accomplished all we did through solid investment in gear, descent personal fitness, proper nutrition and the right mindset (as gained through a previous attempt at the trail). The factors beyond our control such as weather and trail conditions were near perfect, which is nearly perfectly never the case!!

Day 4 would be a big day…

2022 Pukaskwa Day 2

Our days’ started with rich and creamy Nescafé coffee packets. Your basic on the trail double double. Our morning routines were starting to get establish on day two. Personally, I preferred getting up early and taking my time with my breakfast of oatmeal and trail mix, followed by the trail coffee usually with a view of the water, and a weather forecasts. The daily Jays updates quickly became so depressing they would be ignored. 

As you can see in one of the photos posted, the morning routine also included a trip to the luxurious washrooms. I make no joke about this, it is probably the nicest back country outhouse you will find. Complete with platforms for your radio and toilet roll. Mornings were certainly a High Point of this trip. This was probably the only morning out of the six that had a little bit of rain. It made for some very treacherous hiking for a small portion of the trail as it skirted the giant melting ice cube. A couple of the team members preferred an even more Leisurely start to the day as tents getting wrapped up and turtles being released only began once the lead hikers were practically on the trail. This however was no problem at all as it seemed the early birds had a slower pace on the trail compared to the late starters with their more efficient cadence. 

Some ask what was the trail like? If you’re reading this blog you understand how hard that is to answer. But I include a picture of Nenad on the Cobbly Billy Boulders right at shores edge of the big lake they call Michigamme. I can’t imagine traversing this section of the trail in stormy weather, or even if the waves would be pounding in from the lake. I am sure many a hike her before us has been delayed as they waited for the calmness to return in order to safely get through this section. 

Day two granted us the ability to keep to our schedule no problem. The weather was fine, in fact it was probably ideal as although it felt cold just standing around, the strenuous hiking brought our body temperature up in such a way as to not have a lot of sweating happening during this difficult hike, yet not be cold; surprisingly the temperature was at only about 10°C for much of our morning hiking. It was a wonderful day of hiking and I think at this point I started to think that we might in fact do this thing.

Once again we see the variety of this great trail. Just when you start to think will this green tunnel ever end, or my goodness there is another rock cairn on the coast that we have to go to, we would be blessed with a change of scenery. In fact my favourite was always hitting a beach section of the trail. Can you imagine we never saw anyone on these beaches? It was always fun to hit a beach and get some fresh air, have the bugs blown away and often taking some time for a break or even lunch. The insects were never a problem for me, other than early mornings and warmer days. Often, it was too cold for them or Nenad’s pesticides were so strong that the bugs evacuated to Minnesota. 

As previously mentioned, The facilities at the park were good. After a long day of hiking you knew you could count on a decent outhouse, a nice fire pit and a trustee bear box thoughtfully placed far enough away from the campsite to give you comfort in the fact that if the Bears were around they would be busy with the box and not your tent! Although some of us used the facilities more than others, I think we all appreciated having it just in case nature called. #suppository

We made it to the scheduled night 2 camp in Oiseau Bay. This is approximately 1/2 way on the one way trail or about 35km. For those of you cross referencing with map miles, just give up! There is a big difference between the posted map Miles and reality. in fact, if you attempt this trail, please realize any posted map distance is probably only about 85% of the actual distance. 

Once again getting to our campsite early allowed us time to recharge our batteries for day two. Our 4 solo tents are nicely set up in sequence after Pierre picked the best spot for his. In reflection, getting to the camp early was perhaps one of the single most important factors in allowing us to successfully complete the hike. The upcoming day three hike would prove to be strenuous yet amazing. However had we have headed in to this hike fatigued from previous days I don’t think the outcome would’ve been as positive as it was. The fact that we woke up on day three well rested and well fed and in a good frame of mind, combined with great weather and fresh cut trail conditions had everything serendipitously converging for success.

2022 Pukaskwa Day 1

In many ways we were planning for this trip since spring. But in other ways we have been planning for it since we failed in our attempt to complete the hike last summer. KD and Pierre both successfully revamped their kit, and got in better shape both mentally and physically to complete the overall skill set required to make this hike at success.

As you may recall, last year we thought we had all the Time in the world to complete the proposed 16 km on day one. That had us overnighting in Sault Ste. Marie and completing a leisurely morning drive up to pack a saw and hitting the trail well after lunch. Even with such a slow go, this wouldn’t have been a problem except for the fact that the boardwalk was out of commission causing us to do a 4 km detour through a hack down temporary trail in a swamp. And we all know what happened after that.

This year everything worked out pretty good for day one. We arrived at the trail head by 10 AM and set off with boardwalk in tact and easily accomplished our goal. Conditions could not have been any better. We did everything we could do proactively from our end, This included all the mental physical and Kit prep already discussed. And the factors out of our control such as the weather and the trail conditions were ideal. We easily hiked the 16 km to Willow River and set up camp well before 5 PM. This fact alone, that being getting to the campsite early every day, allowed us significant downtime to recharge and to hang out sharing stories and bad jokes. We quickly began to realize that the highlight of the trip was often not only in the hiking but in the hanging out at the campsite at night on the shores of the giant melting ice cube watching the sun go down and listening to whatever we could pick up on the radio. The campfire was also very nice. Setting up on the beach may have been a bad idea however as the night time low was probably in the 5°C range and for some of us who are not prepared a rather uncomfortable night.