Pukaskwa National Park - Hattie's Cove

I had heard about Pukaskwa (pronounced puck-a-saw) National Park from a co-worker who had said that there was a suspension bridge on one of the hiking trails there. Immediately I thought "that would make a great backpacking trip!". So I began planning the trip. My sister, Heather and I did our research and called the park to reserve our back country campsites. We planned a week long trip from start to finish with most of it being in the back country. 
   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. 

 We ate our chicken dinner at a picnic table near the Winnie The Pooh statue. The drive had been fairly nice but just as we were finishing up our meal it started to rain very lightly. We hopped that we weren't going to have much rain for the rest of the trip. 
   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. 

After a few minutes of driving down a dirt road we found ourselves on an Ojibway Reserve. When we came to a fork in the road we stopped in the middle of the road and just sat for a minute or two. We didn't know which of the forks to choose and we began to suspect we were in the wrong place. We could see a house in front of us with a little bonfire going in the yard and we considered going in there and asking for directions.        Before we could decide what to do a little girl about the age of 7 and her father came out from the yard and stood by the side of the road and waved us over to them. I drove up and rolled down my window and the father told us that the little girl had said to him "Daddy I think those people are lost. Let's go and help them." She was the cutest little thing and she was a little shy but in her quiet little voice she gave us the proper directions. "Turn back the way you came. Keep going straight. Cross the bridge and look for the sign". 
   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. 
   

   When we pulled up to the office and got out to register, the lady at the desk, Sydney, was super friendly and super laid back. She explained that in order to go into the back country  you had to do a mandatory orientation session. She was done for the day at 8 pm (it was now 7:40 pm) but that if we wanted to go into the park and choose a site and come back then she would stay a little past 8 to do the orientation with us so that we don't have to come back to the office in the morning. We thought that was really nice of her and so we got in the car and tried to choose a site as quickly as possible so as not to keep her waiting too long.
​    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. 

   We told Sydney that we would like site # 64 and we got registered and paid. We were very happy at the price. It was only $25.50 a night! Provincial parks in Ontario are over $40 these days. After we paid a few cars pulled up with people wanting to camp for the night so we decided to let those people go in front of us since it was getting dark and threatening to rain again. Besides we didn't know how long the orientation would take and we didn't want to hold everyone up. When one couple heard that we were waiting to do orientation they almost stayed to listen because they were curious about it. But they were tired and decided against it. While we waited for the other campers to register we read the signs outside the office that described how they had planned and carried out a prescribed fire back in 2012. 

   Finally all the other campers were gone form the office and we were able to begin our orientation. We were impressed that the park did an orientation because in the provincial parks they did not do that. She began by asking the usual questions that they ask before you go into the back country. "Do you have any medical conditions? What colour is your tent? What colour is your backpack? How experienced are you?", etc.  She told us that Pukaskwa's Coastal Trail is the 3rd most difficult in Canada. (Killarney's La Cloche Trail is the 2nd most difficult and the most difficult one is in British Columbia somewhere). When we told her that we had done some backpacking in Killarney she said that she had no worries about us on this trail then. 
   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. 

Hattie's Cove is a very quiet, small little campground. There are only 67 campsites all together and you can not make reservations for any of them. It's all first come, first serve. I liked it a lot. The roads are wide and well maintained. There is a nice mix of pines and deciduous trees and there is plenty of privacy. 

As a matter of fact, most of the campsites have a very long driveway for each of them. So your site is nestled into the trees and not right along the road side. There were a few right on the road but not too many. I backed my car into the driveway and we set up our site in behind it. 

There was room on the site for our tent and if we had needed to we could have put another tent there too. 

The fire pit had a flat area where you could put a kettle or frying pan instead of putting them on the grates if you wanted. But since we had already eaten supper and we still had to sort out our food for our trip before it got too dark we decided not to start a fire. So we didn't get to try it out. 

Once we were settled we tried sending a text message to various family members to let them know that we had arrived safe, but the cell service here was next to non-existent. One of the other campers told us that the Visitor Center had free wi-fi and suggested trying there in the morning since it would be closed at this time of day. 
   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. 

The comfort station looked like a little cottage in the woods. 

On the side of the building was the water tap, which I thought was convenient. 

At the back of the building were two showers and off to the side was a building specifically for garbage disposal .

And just to the side of the doors is a bulletin board where you can read about all the events that are taking place in the park as well as the weather forecast for the next few days. The weather looked as though it was going to be pretty nice for most of our trip. 

The inside of the comfort station had a dark, wood slat ceiling with recessed pot lights.  

The lights were on a timer in order to conserve energy. You just turn the dial when you go in and it will shut itself off. I have only ever seen this in one provincial park so far (I think it was Fushimi Provincial Park).

The comfort station was small and cozy with the usual amenities such as flush toilets, hand dryers, mirrors, etc.

But it also had a few things that you don't usually see in a comfort station, such as electric baseboard heaters.

And a shelf filled with books with a sign underneath that says that you can borrow, exchange or donate books on this shelf. I thought that this was a lovely idea. 

The only problem with the comfort station was that the door wouldn't always stay closed and you had to be careful about making sure that it was closed properly behind you. 

On the way back from the comfort station I saw the same rabbit that we had seen earlier. This time though we weren't in the car so I was able to get a closer look at it. It sat there for a bit waiting for me to make a move. When it figured that I wasn't going anywhere it continued to eat grass and then eventually hopped away. 
   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.