Michipicoten River, ONT to Noisy Bay, ONT: Daily miles 7.7, Total miles 748.5
The bugs made sleeping last night tough. Apparently they were using the teepee to stay out of the rain as well. We ate breakfast at the lodge and caught a ride into Wawa with a group they were taking up the Pukaskwa for a guided trip. We didn’t need a full resupply but we have already eaten the twenty days worth of lunches and snacks we bought in Terrace Bay so we needed some of that stuff. We bought tons of snacks and weren’t sure it was going to fit in our boats. As we checked out one of the NSA guides came up and offered us a ride back, saving us a long walk. We repacked our food and loaded our boats before saying goodbye. As I pulled on my wetsuit, smelling pretty bad after almost 50 days, I started thinking about much I didn’t want to do this. I could really use a break. The weather looked nasty but we couldn’t stay another night. It would have been even harder to leave and I didn’t want to overuse the great hospitality we have gotten. We paddled out into the fog and wind. The waves along the beach were big, 4-6 ft, and Hannah wasn’t feeling well so after a mile we landed amongst big surf. We sat around and set up the tent in the only ant-free spot we could find just as the sun burned through the fog. We took a walk down the sand beach and complained about the 20-knot headwind. I lay around in the tent and eventually took a nap. I gave up all hope of going any further for the day. The weather forecast was bad and I resigned to a one-mile day. At 7PM we decided it was dinnertime and climbed out of the tent to find the wind had stopped and the lake was calm. By some miracle we mustered the motivation to pack up our gear and move on. We grabbed a quick snack and headed into the approaching darkness and settling fog. The high cliffs falling sheer into the lake made for beautiful paddling. You could see the cedar trees that clung to life on their faces drift in and out of the mist. The darkness grew and fog thickened signaling our need to stop, even though, with such calm water, I didn’t want too. We landed on a cobble beach with a few rocks smaller than my head. WE managed to find an acceptable spot and went about setting up camp for the second time today. There is a loud little waterfall a couple hundred feet down the beach. It gave this place it’s name, Noisy Bay, and it’s calming tone was a nice accompaniment to the fog. We didn’t make it too far but somehow today feels like a triumph. We could have just stayed where we were, like every other time this has happened, or even just stayed at Naturally Superior, which loomed in our view from the first beach like Shangri-La, but instead we moved ever so slightly toward home. It feels good.
