< Monday May 31st

Tuesday June 1st

We awoke to the prospects of good weather, with only the slightest chance of rain. However, the pools of water inside the tent had grown alarmingly overnight, so we were forced to switch tents once again. This wasn't such a bad thing, though, since the nights seemed to be warm enough to make using the colder North Face tent reasonable. Being a Northerner, I prefer the air around me to be very cool so that I can bundle up in blankets to keep warm.

Ian is not quite as tolerant as I am of the same food day after day (although he can eat cold cereal for years at a time). I'd packed several different kinds of hot cereal with the hope that he might not get too bored, but finally this morning he opted for some cold cereal we'd picked up in Wawa. But then again, this was not just any old cereal. This was Life cereal - a life-long favorite of both Ian and his dad.

I preferred the ritual of making the hot cereal, not to mention the cereal itself. Hot cereal is really just a vehicle for brown sugar and bananas. When else would I eat spoonfuls of brown sugar?

Since we didn't eat at the same time, I decided to eat on the beach to make up for the lack of company. I can't imagine why I had never thought of this before. It was quite a luxury. Ian joined me shortly, and we enjoyed the sunny morning and tiny lapping waves together.

On the way back from the beach, I noticed that our newest neighbors were up and about, and thought that they might enjoy the firewood we were not using. I approached them to ask about the wood, but they were leaving that day. They traveled in a truck with a small trailer on top, and lugged a canoe behind the trailer. They were 50-something and very fit-looking.

As it turned out, these were no ordinary mortals. They were quite serious about their long-distance bicycling, backpacking, and canoeing. They'd done rides that were many hundreds of miles. They had done a great deal of back-country backpacking, too. They were full of hilarious stories, and I spent a pretty long time listening to and laughing at these great stories. They were pretty good at using these stories to laugh chummily at each other.

In one of their stories, they were in their canoe facing some seriously dangerous rapids. However, they had just come from an island completely infested with mosquitoes. They were concerned that they could lose their lives while navigating these rapids. But they were quite certain that this danger was preferable to returning to the mosquito-ridden island! I've always thought that insects' primary weapon against humans was that they can cause absolute madness. Now I know for sure that this is true.

In another story, they had to cross a rickety rope-and-slat bridge over a deep canyon with rushing white-water below. The situation was complicated by the fact that they were backpacking with a dog. Now, dogs are not stupid. This dog did not want to cross the bridge. For that matter, the woman herself was not too sure about crossing such a flimsy structure while wearing a backpack weighing at least one quarter of her own weight.

Somehow the man was able to convince the dog to cross, with much cajoling and a little rump-pushing. The woman made it, as well. As I visualized this bridge, I figured I would have gotten down on my hands and knees and crawled across. I figure the dog had the best end of this deal - low center of gravity, and four limbs on which to balance! Mind you, the dog was carrying a backpack, too.

As they talked about their dog being on various trips, I wondered whether our dog Lily could have completed some of the trails we'd taken. I had doubts that she could have handled the Agawa trail because of some of its nearly vertical ascents and descents. I had seen her have trouble countless times simply climbing from the ground into the back seat of my Jeep. She's a graceful dog at the run, and can jump high in the air from a stand-still, but doesn't seem to realize her own potential when it comes to climbing up onto higher surfaces.

However, the couple had a good story about their own dog and a nearly vertical ascent. With a lot of help from the man and a lot of scrambling of his own, the dog had been able to complete the short but steep climb. This made me think of a harness-like contraption we might rig to help Lil with these types of geographic formations. There are plenty of rib-hugging dog harnesses, and we could even use the human climbing-harness that Ian bought years ago (but has never used) for her back-end.

We also spoke of the types of thoughts that run through one's mind on an ultra-long bike ride. The man and I shared the experience of thinking largely about the ride itself due to the various dangers and athletic considerations associated with road-riding. The woman, on the other hand, tended to meditate or free-associate while riding, and they both spoke of the time she blithely rode right through a stop sign while he watched from behind, filled with helpless dread. They both found the incident pretty funny now, though.

After I'd been visiting with our neighbors for quite some time, Ian ventured over, and was treated to a few of these amazing stories. Eventually, we parted ways so we could get on with our days - it was getting pretty late in the morning.

We had decided to do a somewhat easier hike today before re-attempting the Agawa Falls trail again tomorrow. This trail, called the Awausee, was a 10 kilometer loop. By the time we had packed our daypacks and reached the trailhead by car, it was already 2:15 pm. We've never been ones to get up early and hit the trail much before noon.

Only the first half-hour or so of the trail was at all challenging. After that, we were treated to easy hiking in a scenic inland environment. We stopped after an hour to eat and rest for a little while. I was determined not to repeat the mistake of waiting too long to eat and rest in order to avoid the extreme fatigue I'd experienced on the Agawa Falls trail. Such a scenario didn't seem likely on this trail, but I wanted to be careful just in case the terrain got more challenging.

Unfortunately, this was the last pleasant rest break we were to have on this hike. Half an hour later, we wandered into a veritable metropolis of bugs. We were bombarded from all directions by annoying but harmless bugs. Even insecticide was not enough to keep these sumbitches away - there were just too many of them.

The time to stop and rest came and went, and we passed by scenic outlooks just to keep moving through this plagued land. Finally, I decided that I needed to eat and rest somehow. We both put on more clothes, but Ian kept going, while I created a tent out of my clothes and scarfed down some food. I could hear the bugs all around me, but inside my tent I was safe, even if I couldn't see a thing and had to breathe hot, stale air.

When Ian looped back, I joined him and we kept going. Not long after, we seemed to pass out of the bug mecca and into a more sane environment. We were descending, and perhaps we were leaving the wetter environment that these insects preferred. The rest of the hike was as pleasant as the first part - the landscape was lush with plant-life, and the terrain was not too demanding.

During the hike, we changed our minds about attempting the Agawa Falls trail again. Neither of us felt like we had anything to prove by trying to make it to the Falls this time, and maybe we were both ready for a change of scenery. I had a vague hankering for a movie, and when I expressed this, Ian suggested that we take off tomorrow morning for Sault Ste. Marie for a matinee, and then head out to Manitoulin Island, where we could stay in a motel or cabin for one night. This sounded good to me!

Back at the campsite, after dinner, we were hanging out on the beach. The sun would be setting soon, and Ian suggested that we walk out to a rock point to catch the sunset. A number of others had had the same idea; there were already some people on the point, and another couple had already started up the beach towards the point.

The beach was rocky with smooth round stones. We made a loud crunching noise as we walked. I had to watch the couple ahead of us for a long time to figure out their respective genders; they both looked boyish. Finally, at one precise moment, something about the way the woman moved identified her as such, but whatever it was that changed was very subtle. I thought about how frequently this must occur these days. Ian and I look fairly similar both physically and in dress. We even have some clothing that is identical aside from size.

I could see that we were not going to make it to the rock point in time for the sunset, so I suggested we watch it from where we were instead of missing it. We watched the sun slowly slide beneath the horizon until it was gone. The water was very still.

As the people who'd watched the sunset from the rock point returned, we approached it. Once again, I experienced some gender-bending confusion. A group of older adults were approaching, and in the fading light, I pegged one of its members as the incorrect gender. As we got much closer, I realized my error, and also realized that gender ambiguity is probably not restricted to people of any particular generation!

We had the rock point to ourselves. Ian said that it reminded him very much of the McGregor Bay island owned by his father and uncles. That must have been quite the feeling of nostalgia because he hadn't been there in years, and did not seem likely that we'd be going there anytime soon, given the family politics surrounding such a trip. Yet, he had been there many times in the past, and memories of it are part of who he is, and still shape how he wants to structure his life.

We spent the rest of the evening in the usual way, reading under lantern light, and retreating into the tent once sleepy exhaustion took hold.
^ Up North, May - June 2004 < Monday May 31st Wednesday June 2nd >