Oct. 18th - Lake Superior Provincial Park.

We awoke on top of a dilapidated ski-resort just north of Lake Superior Provincial Park and from there we continued down the road through a bunch more run-down towns complete with nothing more then A&W's and Robin's Donuts. We ended up getting coffee at an A&W before going into the park and it was not worth our money. It really is sad up here to see so many businesses out of commission and at first we thought it might be the off-season but it seems as if it is more then that. The run-down and closed down abound along the Northern North Shore of Gitchee Gumee and by the looks of it have been for quite some time now. It is strange to see so much of this between so many beautiful parks because although there was some of this in Arizona and Utah between Zion, The Grand Canyon and Arches the towns outside of the parks themselves were doing quite well and were continuing to grow. With all these stretches of lonesome closures I thought that Greg Brown's "The Poet Game" was a fitting sound for such sights.

  With all this said we were greeted by nothing more then pure beauty once we passed the Park's boundaries and we spent the day soaking up nothing but charming views and enchanting scenery. The day was highlighted by a game of cat and mouse with a rogue rain cloud which had seemingly broken away from the pack and was marauding on its lonesome releasing bouts of showers. We continually drove out of its reaches but would stop to hike, photograph, and relish in the park until the cloud would catch us drive us back into our car. We stopped at many a bay and lookout including Old Woman Bay, Katherine's Cove, Agawa Bay, Sandy River, and Rabbit Blanket Lake. Lunch was taken at the Park's head office where we had a lovely chat with a Canadian Police Officer who said that just North of the Park had received a snow storm just the the day before. From there we continued on to one of our stops for the day, Katherine's Cove, where I was able to strip to my skivvies and wrestle with the waves for a mere moment before a quick jog along the shore. I was only in for a bit but I still get to say I swam in Lake Superior on October 18th and I know my mother, Louise, would be proud.

 The rest of the day held a waterfall, biking, waiting on rain, and a beautiful little cove which we decided to call our camp for the night. It was at this cove that we were able to watch a wonderful sunset with the turquoise waters lapping at the rocks before settling into our bed for an evening of reading and writing (more on that later.) I started Naked Lunch: the restored texts last night seeing as I had just finished a wonderful book titled Hell on Two Wheels which Ellen and Mark gave me before the trip (there will be a short review coming soon.) Although both are good books Naked Lunch is a bit of a whirlwind after the documentary style writing of "Two Wheels."

Oct. 17th - Waterfalls and Run-downs.

After the windstorm we awoke to an overcast sky and the waves still pounding into the shore. I was the first one out of the tent this morning while Morgan tried to clear the sleepiness from his eyes. We packed up and rode out between rain showers, both of our legs sore from hiking the day before. Morgan was feeling under the weather this morning so I offered to do the driving. Our first stop was Ouimet Canyon. We made it all the way there and then decided a nap was needed. Eventually we woke up and decided to just continue on the road. The sights were beautiful today. Rolling hills, almost mountain-like, with views of the turquoise water of Lake Superior. I don't know what it is, but the lake is a different color here. It is much more bright, not like the grey/navy tones that come out in Duluth. Along the shore there are many islands with cliffs slicing into the nearly arctic water. We also saw waterfalls! Lots of them. We stopped at the Rainbow Falls Provincial Park and Aguasabon Falls for some nice hikes and beautiful views.

Since Morgan and I left the Sleeping Giant Provincial Park at 9:30 this morning we had beers and good food on our minds. It has been a couple of days since we had a nice meal inside of an actual building. Not that the meals we make in the woods aren't delicious, but we were looking forward to something a bit more comforting, like not eating outside with 30mph winds and trying to block pine needles from falling in our orzo, and that we felt was money well spent. Anyways, as we drove along the sloping hills of the shoreline we began to realize that we might have slim pickings for this type of thing. We came through the first town, Nipigon, where there were a couple of restaurants. One was a Chinese and Canadian food restaurant while the other was a Pizza Hut. We decided to go on and see if we could find something in the next town. It was almost the same thing. Only this time there was a Pizza Hut, Subway, and Robin's Donuts. As good as donuts for dinner sounded we moved along.

 

As we drove through these towns situated between the water and rocky hillsides we began to get a little glimpse of how the people here live. The houses are very run down and, really, there aren't many things for the residents to do. Nearly everything is closed down. The cities look as though the waves of economy have come through and drowned them. This reminded us of many cities in the U.S. that are going through the same economic difficulties, especially those that we drove through in Wyoming last spring. While sitting here at the Brews & Cues restaurant in Marathon, ON(yes, we found a place... sort of... at least they have internet?) I am not sure if the people here are enjoying living a simpler life or if they are fighting just to survive. I'm sure it is a bit of both.