I began the day working at this cute cafe nearby the campground. The log cabin look is all fake, and the backs of the buildings don’t even have cladding. But it was a nice enough place and great Wi-Fi! The breakfast sandwich was ok I guess. Bella stayed in her crate just outside the door where I could watch over her, and MOST people didn’t bother her. At first I tried ties up, and ALMOST NOBODY could resist interacting with her, that was just training her to be unfocused and disruptive. It all worked out in the end and we went on the road.
We did a couple of hikes and the Canadian Shield geology did not disappoint. It’s like the old growth forest of rocks! These rocks were around during the Age of Slime, when all life on earth was unicellular (that’s 90% of life on earth). So no fossils here! (They are igneous anyway). And I did see some iron as well but not the classic banded iron formation that I’ve seen in museum specimens.
This crevasse was formed by a disabase intrusive dyke that eroded away sometime in the last billion years. Cool!
The first hike was to see petroglyphs, which are a lot younger than the rocks. It’s a sacred site so no petroglyph pictures alllowed. Accessing them was… somewhat dangerous… I did think about how I might activate the SOS button in the water.
I also saw a cool two tone lichen that looks like a cute Japanese cartoon character. at least it did to me.
After all that working and fun and hiking and picnicking for lunch, it was already 4pm and I’d barely driven anywhere! I got down to driving and made some steady progress. That morning there was a terrible firey crash near marathon that closed route 17 (the main and only road) for many hours. So I couldn’t have gotten through earlier anyway. One man was airlifted away, I hope he is ok.
Even coming through in the early evening in an into stopped traffic for a while. Finally it cleared up and I saw north; apparently they cleaned up and reopened the road just as I was passing through. Everybody in northern Ontario, now free from the traffic jam, stopped for gas in marathon. I’d never seen anything like it! But the crush only lasted for 10 minutes or so.
After that I was on my way and the truck drivers were bedding down in whatever spots they find by the side of the road. That made the driving easier with some incredible vistas of hills and rocks and trees and fog. Truly a magical place, and I thought back about how magical the Olympic peninsula also is. I’m so glad to experience this moment, fully present. The fog was thick at times but I took it slowly and made my way to tonight’s campground on the shores of Lake Superior amazing!
I will probably need to boondock some nights (sleep by the side of the road), and observed where others were doing so, finding safe clearings well off the shoulder. But not night… at least this night I get lake superior outside my door and a nice shower tomorrow morning.
Good night!