It is about a nine and a half hour drive from where we live to Pukaskwa. My sister, Heather and I loaded up the car and left at about 8:45 in the morning. We stopped for a quick coffee break at the Timmies in Wahnapitae and then continued on our way to Sault Ste. Marie. There we bought a pre-cooked chicken dinner at the grocery store so that we could have a quick and easy meal for supper. We were going to stop in Wawa but we missed the turn so instead we stopped in White River at the Winnie The Pooh monument.
After eating we got back into the car. It stopped raining after only a few short minutes. We didn't have too much longer to go by this point. Maybe another hour or two. Since we were not familiar with the area we turned on the GPS on my phone and followed it's directions. Let me begin by saying "DO NOT FOLLOW THE GPS TO PUKASKWA!". It will lead you in the wrong direction! We were following the highway and the GPS told us to make a right turn onto a dirt road. We thought it was a bit odd that there were no signs posted for Pukaskwa but we didn't think too much of it because sometimes parks just don't have good signage.
I talked to the father for a little bit and sympathized with him saying "You must have people showing up at your door step looking for Pukaskwa all the time!" He said that he did.
We thanked them and then turned around and turned off the GPS and followed the little girls directions. Within a couple minutes we could see the Pukaskwa sign and a minute or two after that we came to the park office.
The campground where all the sites are is called Hattie's Cove and it is not an overly big campground so we were able to choose a site fairly quickly. We chose number 64 and then headed back to the park office.
She showed us a map and told us what to look out for in certain areas (ie where the bridges were out, etc). She told us that there were bear bins at each of the campsites. We were thrilled about that! The provincial parks do not provide bear bins in the back country trails. She told us that if there is an emergency (like a broken leg or something) the best thing to do is to write down an message and send it back to the office via any passing hikers. She gave us a "de-registration form" to fill out once we had returned from our hike. She explained that it was important that we fill it out and hand it in when we get back because they use these as a way to keep track of people. If they find that the de-registration form has not been handed in on your expected day out of the bush then they will wait about 24 hours and after that they will send people in to find you. It was comforting to know that if something happened to us that someone would be looking for us within a few days. That was pretty much the extent of the orientation. I really liked that they provided that for people.
We finished the orientation at about 8:20 and headed off to our campsite to get set up before it got too dark. Along the way we saw a wild rabbit on the side of the road.
We went to look for water and to find the comfort station that we had passed on the way in. It was only two campsites over. On the way down the drive way I noticed a raven sitting in the tree watching us.
Heather and I sat and talked until about 11 pm. Then we set the alarm for 8 a.m. and went to sleep. We were really looking forward to starting our hike the next morning.