8 August 2016, Monday
We are on the road before breakfast today, driving 50 km south to Agawa Rock to view the pictographs there. There is mist over the road. Thunderbird must have been near last night fighting off evil spirits. We are the first to arrive at the rock this morning. The path down to the shore is rocky and steep, but short. There are many signs warning of possible injury or death on the slippery rocks. The sloping rock below the pictographs is too dangerous to traverse if Superior’s waves are crashing against it. There are knotted ropes hanging from the angled surface and some life preservers in case anyone slips into the water. We realize the knotted ropes can also be used to stabilize visitors to the pictographs who want to lean back to get a better view.
As usual, I am nervous on sloped, slippery rocks. I inch along until I am right next to the pictographs. There is a large painting of Misshepezhieu, a shape-changing spirit who is sometimes very troublesome and sometimes helpful to people. Today he keeps the waters calm while I photograph the pictographs. We make our way back to the car through a narrow crevice created by the erosion of a 1.2 billion year old relatively soft (compared to granite) diabase dike which intruded into the 2 billion year old granite of the Canadian shield.
Now we drive almost 20 km north to Katherine’s Cove where we prepare our breakfast on a picnic table near the beach. From here it is back to Gargantua Bay along the bumpy gravel road for our second attempt to reach Rhyolite Cove. The hike south along the Lake Superior Trail from here is said to be extremely challenging. At the cove is a geologic uncomformity where there is a 600 million year gap in the record of rock layers due to erosion.
The day is sunny and breezy. Despite the cool breeze we soon work up a sweat climbing up and down the ridges along Lake Superior. The scenery is beautiful. The rocky ridges bring to mind last year’s hike along the Minong Ridge at Isle Royale National Park. The trail is marked by cairns along the treeless rocky ridges and by blue tags on the forest’s trees.
We arrive at a steep rocky shoreline covered with sharply angled boulders. We use hands and feet to clamber across this area, often retracing our steps when we lose sight of the next cairn. We breathe a sigh of relief when we finally find a trail into the woods on the opposite side of the rugged cove. We follow the path up another ridge and emerge from the woods at yet another cairn with two bright blue tags on the trees on either side. We walk out onto another point of sloping rocks and tumbled boulders. Although we search for almost an hour we cannot find the path across. We have run out of cairns and tags!
We break out our lunch and eat while enjoying the splendid view across the lake. It is now 3 pm. Even if we could find the path there is no longer time to make it to Rhyolite Cove. We both agree that it’s been a great hike nonetheless and turn to begin the difficult task of picking our way back across the boulder-strewn cove.
We are hot, tired and hungry by the time we arrive back at the car. O drives up the pot-holed road once more. For several hundred meters a large raven flies before us up the road, suddenly doubling back and swooping over the car. Shortly after, a large black bear lopes up the road ahead of us and then disappears into the woods. We muse over whether Ojibwe spirits are leading us out of Gargantua Bay, perhaps on to our next adventure.
Back at camp, we prepare dinner. I run down to the washroom to clean up a bit. I meet a pleasant Canadian woman who is very curious about the strange state of American politics. She is not the first, nor will she be the last to question how an individual like Donald Trump could become a major party candidate. She assures me I will be welcome if I want to move to Canada. “We have lots of land and few people!” she says.