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.
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…
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