Between A Rock And A Hard Place

We woke up to a rainy and misty morning. We got out of the tent at about 9:45 a.m. There was a bit of a chill in the air but nothing that a good hike wouldn't take care of. 

​It was so foggy that you could barely see across the lake.  

Even the loons were trying to find their way through the foggy soup. Heather didn't want to travel in the fog over the wet rocks so we decided to stay until the fog lifted a little bit. 

The tent had stayed dry under the tarp during the night. It was only chilly when my zipper on my sleeping bag came undone once.  It would have been a great sleep except for one unexpected problem.... we were infiltrated by No-See-Ums. What are no-see-ums? They are a variety of biting gnat or midge that is so tiny it can hardly be seen with the naked eye. No-see-ums are so small that they can pass through the average door screen. I guess that they were attracted to the light we had on in our tent while we were playing cards before we had turned in for the night.  They had been biting me around my eyebrows during the night until I put a blanket over my face. They bothered Heather more than me because they were all over the place on her side of the tent. We could see bunches of little black dots, especially in one corner of the tent.  We sprayed the tent with bug spray before packing it up.  We also decided to try to get a different site on the way back since we would be spending another night at the Baldhead North campsites on the way back. 

I am not sure what time it was when we finally packed up and left, but it was definitely after noon. There was only a wee bit of rain. More like a mist really. 

Right away we came to a field of large rocks in the middle of the woods that we had to climb through to get to the more even trail ahead. 

It was only about 1 km to get to the fourth Baldhead campsite.  I am not sure why it was further away than the other 3. I am guessing because it is intended to be a site for canoers rather than for hikers. 

The trail led from the woods back to the shoreline. 

Despite the fact that it was no longer raining, no matter where you went, everything was wet and slippery. Everything that you usually use to help steady yourself .... rocks, tree roots, everything...  was wet and very slippery.  You couldn't trust anything beneath your feet.  

Cartsen was the first one to fall over and , as I call it, "turtle".  I call it that when you fall over and can't get back up due to the weight you have on your back.  When he fell over, Heather was too far ahead to see it happen and so I hurried to get to him to help him up.  However, he managed to roll over and take his pack off and get upright before I reached him. Luckily he wasn't hurt too much. A bit sore in places but nothing that required medical attention. 

When we reached Baldhead  campsite number 4 we took a quick look around. 

It was a spot we might consider for the way back. It wasn't as big as the last site we were on, but as long as it didn't have any no-see-ums then we could make it work. But we didn't have to think about that yet. That was still a few days away. 

And so we carried on.  The wet rocks may have been dangerous but they made the colours of the flowers pop out. It was actually quite beautiful. 

Before we knew it, we were in a section that was particularly rough. I highly suggest that anyone doing this trail make sure that they have really good hiking boots because you are gonna need them. 

There were places that were too slippery to climb with our packs on. In some places we took them off and threw them to the bottom of a crevasse and then slid down the rocks on our butts to get to the bottom. 

The day seemed grey and gloomy and yet it had a mystical beauty to it. But we weren't thinking too much of the scenery at the time because we had to keep looking down at where our feet were. 

However, even when you are looking down at your feet, you sometimes can't help but notice the flowers along the way. 

This trail is full of rocks of every different size. From the small grains of sand and pebbles to the giant boulders; you have to climb over it all.  And the rocks can be deceiving. There are flat ones that you think are sturdy but they move out from under you and then the round ones that you think will roll away on you end up being sturdy and still. You just never knew what your next step was going to be like. 

It was here that it became very clear how dangerous this trail can be. I ended up falling forward and getting my left ankle wedged between two large stones. My right knee got wedged between two other large stones. My right arm was under the weight of my body and my walking stick was between me and my right arm so that my arm was pinned under me. To top it all off, the weight of my backpack slid forward so that most of the 30 pounds of it was pinning my head to the ground. It was like having a small child sitting on your head. 

I was stuck. There was no way I could get up and since both my legs, and my head and arm were pinned I also could not roll over. It was taking all the strength I had to keep my body weight up high enough off my arm and legs so that I wouldn't break any bones.  And so what did I do?  .... I laughed!   I laughed and I laughed. I couldn't stop laughing.  I did manage to yell out to Heather and Carsten to come get me but I kept picturing how funny I must look.  Plus, I sometimes laugh when I get a bit of a fright. So I am sure that added to my laughing spell. 

Heather and Carsten rushed over to help me as fast as anyone can when you have to climb over slippery rocks to get there.  Carsten undid my backpack while Heather helped to lift me up and keep my weight off my pinned arm.   After being released from my rocky prison, it dawned on me that had I been hiking alone there would have been no one there to help me and I would have been in some serious trouble.  I checked myself over and luckily I was not seriously hurt. I am sure my shoulder will end up with a bruise and my ankle and knee were a little sore,  but that went away by the next day. So all was well.  We carried on through more rocks and forest. But we were now taking it super slow and gaging every step. 

When we reached the top of one of these rocky mountains we stopped for a long, much needed, break. We had traveled about 2.49 km by this point (according to the pedometer).  I took the opportunity to look down at the lake far below. The large rocks and boulders looked like small pebbles and stones from way up here. And  the water was a pretty greenish blue colour. 

We got started again at about 2:45 pm.  Some parts of the wooded areas were fairly dense and you had to fight your way through it.  The sun came out for a bit and things were starting to dry up just a wee bit. 

But not enough to dry up the large areas of thick mud on the trail. 

Even in the middle of the woods you couldn't escape the stones. Stones and water were everywhere.  These stones were actually the bottom of a small creek bed and water was running through them. 

We were in and out of the woods and climbing over rocks. We were starting to get a bit tired. 

The sun disappeared and it started to get foggy again. 

It wasn't supposed to rain again for the rest of the hike but the sky was looking like it had changed it's mind. Lake Superior is known for having weather that can change at the drop of a hat. 

We stopped for another, shorter break at one of the shore lines. We had gotten over the worst of the rocks and we weren't too far away now. 

So, Heather went on ahead of us. She is always faster than us. We had the walkie talkies so we felt comfortable splitting up for a bit.  We ran into a family of 4 who were going the opposite direction. They had come from Buckshot which was about 4 km away and were headed to Baldhead where we had just spent the night. We warned them of the rough terrain ahead. They looked tired already so I was a bit concerned about them and the terrain they were about to endure. 

We wished them luck and continued on our way.  In the woods, the moss covered rock walls that we hiked past were gorgeous. 

We were almost at the new campsite. Carsten stopped for a moment at a fallen log to wait for me to catch up. When I got there he laughed and said that he was waiting for the draw bridge to rise. The log was huge compared to the piece of drift wood that he had in his hand. 

In the water near the log a little Green frog peeked his head up. He thought we couldn't see him, I think. 

A few more meters and we had finally made it to the Sand Spit campsite. We arrived at camp at 5 pm. It had taken us 5 hours to get there. We had gone from doing a kilometer every half hour to a kilometer every hour now that the terrain had become rougher. 

Heather was already sitting on the sandy beach and taking her hiking boots off. They had gotten a little wet on the trek. 

This campsite was wonderful!  Easily my favourite site on the whole trip.  It had a beautiful view, and the best beach. It was well worth the trouble of getting there. 

From the beach we could see the family of 4 way off in the distance, climbing over the rugged stones of the coastline. From our vantage point they seemed to be having troubles navigating the area, but there was nothing we could do to help them except maybe say a little prayer for them. 

When the family was no longer in view we turned our attention to the wonderful things that surrounded us.. Wild roses were growing between the rocks. 

There were unique shaped logs and rocks to look at. 

And the Seaside Pea flowers were blooming everywhere. 

Carsten and I dropped our backpacks by the firepit and went to join Heather at the beach. We could put the tents up later. Right now we just wanted to relax. 

And relax we did!   Carsten found two logs to drape over and Heather just fell backwards into the sand.

The sun was fighting to stay out but it was starting to lose that battle. We had only been on the beach for about half an hour when it started to get pretty cold and super foggy again. 

Despite this fact, Carsten decided to go in for a quick dip. He swam to the big rock that was not too far from shore. 

Heather and I decided to stay on shore, wrapped up in our hoodies to keep warm.  Even on the hottest days, Lake Superior is a pretty cold lake. We  were not brave enough to venture into the water on a day with a cold wind. 

Instead I explored the water from the shore. I found a little frog trying to disguise himself as a rock under the water. 

And Heather called me over to show me a Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetle that was crawling around in the sand near her.  It looked kind of like a lady bug, but when the light hit it just right, the black part on the top of him shimmered  green - blue colour.  

Out on the lake a lone Merganser duck swam in the fog. 

We were beginning to wonder if the weatherman got it wrong and if maybe we were going to have more rain after all. But ever so slowly the fog started lifting and the sun fought once more to come out.  The bugs were getting particularly annoying. I actually got my first mosquito bite of the trip at this point. This reprieve from mosquitos was now officially over because I got may more bites during the rest of the trip after that. 

While Carsten was swimming I went to check out the campsite.  There was a creek running right next to it and we could sit and listen to the relaxing sound of the running water. 

The bathroom is one of the most private ones I have seen in a long time on a hiking trail. It was clean and in good repair too. 

Back at the shore, Heather spotted a dragonfly that was floating in the waves of the lake. It was trying to get out of the water but it couldn't. This is the second time in our backpacking experiences that we have had to rescue a dragonfly.  Carsten was no longer in his bathing suit, so he grabbed a long stick instead and we pulled the dragonfly from the water. 

It was a Four-Spotted Skimmer. It was cold, wet, and tired and did not want to fly anywhere for a good long time; probably a good hour or two at least. We could relate.

​Once the sun started to come out, the dragonfly got a little more interested in moving about. It crawled further up the stick, until eventually it just flew away. 

The sun finally started to come out just before sunset. The sky looked dark in the distance but the clouds were moving away. 

We started to think about setting up the tents now. We briefly considered put up our tents right on the beach. But then we changed our minds once we remembered how cold it was at Pukaskwa Park when we were out on a rock face with no trees to shelter us from the wind.  

In the shelter of the trees there were two spots for tents. One was near the firepit and the other was up the path a little. 

After the tents were up, we made a fire. Heather put her wet boots near the fire in an attempt to dry them out. It took a long time but eventually they got somewhat drier. 

We ate supper beside the fire. We noticed that all of a sudden the mosquitoes seemed to be completely gone. Not sure why. This is usually the time of day that they are coming out in full force. But we were enjoying the bugless evening and we sat around the fire talking for a really long time. 

We became aware that the sun would set soon and that we should put our food up in a tree. So we did that and then I went and took a little walk down by the beach in hopes of catching a few pictures of a beautiful sunset. 

But the colours were muted and the sunlight left fast. 

We went to bed at around 11 pm. We were too tired to play any card games and we knew that we had to get up in the morning to start the longest leg of our trip.  Tomorrow we were headed to Mermaid Lagoon.  The chart they gave us at the office said it was about an 8.3 km hike from where we were. On a normal trail that would be a bit of a day but not too bad. But on this trail, well.... it would be a long day. 

We got into our sleeping bags and listened to the sounds of the nearby creek as it lulled us to sleep.