Summer 2008 Lake Superior Cruise
14 July 2008 | Pulpwood Harbor
John
7/8/08
Pulpwood Harbor
After a brief rain delay and a breakfast of Swedish pancakes, we set off in the dinghy to the south end of Playter Harbor where it is possible to catch the coastal hiking trail which starts at Hattie's Cove and continues 60 km south to the other end of Pukaskwa National Park. Our destination, however, was the pedestrian suspension bridge over the White River gorge to view the falls that we'd previously hoped to see by dinghy yesterday but couldn't due to the high river levels that we had witnessed. The dinghy passage to Playter Harbor from Pulpwood would require us to cross 2 NM of open water, so I was definitely keeping an eye to the weather as we made the passage especially since Environment Canada had issued a strong wind warning for later in the evening. Whenever we go out in our dinghy, we always carry a "ditch bag" consisting of a patch kit, a pump, flares, a hand held compass, a handheld VHF and a handheld GPS. This equipment isn't required by law but it seems to make since to us to be prepared in case the weather turns unexpectedly foul.
We arrived at the suspension bridge after about an hour of rugged hiking through a spectacularly beautiful but dense Boreal forest trail with many mosquitoes in hot pursuit. The roar of the falls was almost deafening as we soon discovered the reason for our inability to navigate the river the previous day. Of course we have nothing to compare it to, but there were numerous trees underwater upstream of the falls and there was a small island that was being formed by the excess water that traveled around it. Hiking across the suspension bridge was a real thrill, but each of us managed to conquer it according to our own comfort levels. After eating the lunch that we had packed in, we returned to the dinghy to discover that a moderate SW wind had brought in a rather thick layer of cold fog as well as a bit of a chop. The fog made it rather difficult to navigate by landmarks so needless to say, we were glad to have the handheld GPS along. We returned to the boat cold and wet, but all of us agreed that this was a definite highlight of our trip. Later in the day, we returned to Hattie's Cove for more hot showers. While there, I took advantage of the unlimited hot shower water by carrying my dirty clothes in a bucket with some laundry detergent and hand washing them in the shower.