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.