Pukaskwa - Backpacking the Coastal Trail - Day 4

I woke up at 6:30 in the morning with my feet and lower body freezing like blocks of ice! It was so cold and I just couldn't get warm. When you are backpacking you don't carry a lot of extra stuff like an extra blanket. So I opted for a towel to wrap around me. That didn't help. By 7:30 I was still cold. So I resorted to putting on my jeans and wrapping back up in the sleeping bag. It wasn't perfect but it was warm enough for me to go back to sleep for awhile. 

We had wanted to be up by 8 and we had set a little wind up alarm clock that we had with us, but it didn't go off. So we ended up sleeping in until 9. I still had cold feet and even though the sun was shining it was still pretty cold out.  Heather told me that she had been cold all night too. We found out the next day that the temperature had dropped to zero degrees Celcius during the night. No wonder we were so cold!

We had a quick breakfast and then we packed up camp and headed back the way we had come the day before. We were aiming to stop for water at site P1 before heading to where we intended to set up a makeshift campsite just before the marsh. We hoped to be at our intended destination around 5 pm or later and maybe set up our tent at around 7pm. We figured most, if not all, of the day hikers would be off the trail by then. 

By 10:30 a.m. we were on our way back. It's funny how things look different when coming from a different direction. The sea of driftwood seemed even bigger. Although I hadn't used a walking stick the entire trip Heather and I each chose one from this massive collection of wood. It ended up coming in handy many times and I wondered why I hadn't looked for one sooner. 

There were many nice looking mushrooms near the bases of the trees. I know nothing about mushrooms so I never pick them. Some people know which ones are poisonous or not. I just assume that they all are just to be safe. 

Along the wooden bridge with the missing railing there were plenty of birds. I tink this was because we were so high up that we were close to the tops of many of the trees. This little Yellow-throated Vireo was kind enough to let me take his picture. 

It only took us an hour to hike to the suspension bridge. We stopped again for about a half an hour to rest and to enjoy the view. 

Heather wanted me to get a picture of the falls with no metal bridge in the frame. So I went to the middle of the bridge, got down on my hands and knees and took a few pictures through the holes in the bottom of the bridge. 

I am sure that if someone had come by at that time they would have thought I was bonkers. But it is a nicer picture of the water without the metal in the way.
   We picked up our packs and started hiking again at about noon.

Heather and I started counting the day hikers as they passed us. We would stop to say i and casually ask if they were going in for the day or if they were in for the night or longer. We wanted to know so that when we got to our makeshift camp we would know how many people were going to pass us on their way out before we would set up our tent. We aren't technically supposed to set up camp just anywhere unless you don't have much choice. So we were trying to keep it as low key as possible. 

So far the only person we saw all day was one jogger. I don't think I would want to jog on hiking trails. You wouldn't able to enjoy the birds and animals because they would all be scared away, and there are a lot of roots and brush and slippery rocks that you could get hurt on. 

We went back through the pine forest where the wildlife camera was. Two college age girls passed us at the beginning of this section and they were on their way to the suspension bridge. They were going pretty fast and we were taking our time. So they ended up passing us again on the way out before we had even finished leaving the pine forest area. Now the pine forest area is pretty big and goes on for a long time, but they still had to be travelling fairly quickly to pass us twice. 

When we got to the first sign for the Mdaabii Miikna Loop we met up with a couple from Ohio who were going to the bridge. There seemed to be quite a few people that come from the U.S.A. to hike in this park. 
   We were not tired yet when we got to the sign so we didn't stop to rest here this time. Instead we continued on to the second sign. 
   We got to the second sign at about 1:30 p.m. and we did stop there and had our lunch. Heather pulled out the portable stove and boiled some water for some instant noodles. 

While we waited for the water to boil a man came by with his dog and we chatted with him for awhile. The man's name was Collin and he was from London, Ontario. His dog's name was Maggie and Maggie was 11 years old and was wearing a little doggie backpack. I thought that a doggie backpack was a great idea, but unfortunately my dog is 15 years old and would never be able to make a trip like this one anymore. 
​  After Collin left I looked around the area while we still waited for the water to boil. I really liked the deep blue colour of the berries on the Blue Bead Lily (also known as Clintonia) that were plentiful in this area. 

The Trilliums with their brilliant red berries were also plentiful in this area. 
   Finally the water was boiled and we sat down to eat our noodles. As we were finishing up an older gentleman in his 70s came by and we chatted with him for a bit. He was wondering where the trail for the Mdaabii Miikna Loop was. We pointed out the little yellow ribbons because if you weren't paying attention you could easily miss where the trail was despite there being a huge sign there. It really didn't look like a trail at all yet. He thanked us and went on his way. We were on our way shortly after that too. It was almost 2:30 by then. 

We arrived at site P1 by 3 pm. We were amazed that we had gone 1.47 km in only 25 minutes. We usually take much longer than that but I guess since our packs were lighter and we weren't tired we had more stamina. 
    We were happy to find that no one else was camping here yet because this was our last and only stop to get water. We hooked up the platypus filter and got as much clean water as we could carry. 

While we waited for the water to fill up we were visited again by a Gray Comma butterfly.

We left site P1 at about 3:30 pm. Once again we went through the moss covered rocks that towered above our heads. It is such a beautiful section of the trail. 

By 5 pm we had made it to our destination. We put our packs down in the open rocky area and made it look like we were just stopping for a quick rest to the eye of any passers by. While we waited for evening to come we began to scope the place out and look for a good place to put up the tent. 

We had no bear bin here and the trees were not very suitable to climb and hang our food in. We weren't overly concerned about animals making off with our food because we were leaving the park the next day anyways. We knew we wouldn't starve if we had nothing left to eat. We ended up finding a rocky cliff area that you had to climb up to get to. There was only one way to get up to it and it was a cliff all the way around the sides. So we felt OK about leaving our food up there instead of in a tree. 
   We found a spot where a dead tree was laying across the rocks and made for a decent barrier between us and people who may still be walking down the trail. We chose that spot as our "makeshift campsite"

Next we began the task of gathering up suitable rocks and making ourselves a tiny little fire pit. It was just small enough to set a kettle on and not much more. We had no intentions of sitting around a fire for the evening. We didn't want to have to worry about accidentally burning down the forest because we didn't have a whole lot of water to spare, so we just kept it simple. 

Once that was done we just sat around and relaxed for awhile. There were a couple of mosquitoes and even a couple of black flies but they were not bothersome at all. 

There were much nicer bugs to look at too , like the bright green caterpillar of the One Eyed Sphinx moth. 

When we figured that all the hikers had gone for the day we went ahead and put our tent up.  We started the fire for our supper at about 7 pm and ate at about 7:30 pm. Then we cleaned up and I climbed up the rock to put our food away.
   It was such a nice night that we spent a few minutes watching the stars and the moon start to come out . But we wanted to get an early start in the morning so we went into the tent fairly early. We played cribbage until 9 and then decided that it was lights out. As I was drifting off to sleep I suddenly thought "Oh geez! We were worried about how to keep a bear from our food but never thought about other animals like foxes or mice! Oh well.... I am not getting out of bed to fix it now. We are leaving tomorrow anyways so if they get it then they get it."  And with that thought, I tried to sleep but I kept listening for animals outside the tent that might be getting into the food. I couldn't help it.  I almost wished for the sound of the rushing water of the falls so that I could not hear anything else and turn my thoughts to other things. Once I was satisfied that all I could hear was the sound of a Barred owl close by, my mind finally started to relax (at least a half hour later) and I was able to finally fall asleep.