Friday Island Wanderings

Friday

Woke up at 8 to rain, I heard it coming but wasn’t sure what to do so I waited and sure enough he rain made my decision for me, I was to stay. SO I headed down to let the camp lady know and pay for another night, also inquiring about things to do on this remote island. Sadly this meant not much, but some sightseeing and for some reason no one seemed to know much about hiking trails, but armed with some knowledge and a map which didn’t really think scale or consistency was an issue, I headed out for breakfast at S&J’s. Think Perkins/Trailer and you’ve got the idea. It was nice and the “chef” was kind enough to get up from his coffee, cigarette, and Olympic coverage to make us breakfast. In reality it wasn’t that bad and the two guys from the ferry, fortunate enough to get their tent down in time, were there too. So I got to watch some Olympics and had a cheap and filling breakfast and I was off. Essentially I had 3 cities to visit and 2 trails to look for. The first city was barely awake and so I headed to the second where I visited some art galleries. I don’t want to sound like an art snob, but with a few exceptions they art was poor. It looked like some if not all of the carvings were never finished, not like they meant too either, but rather the detailed areas just got skipped when it came to varnish or sanding. Oh well, off to the falls, bridal falls. Everyone talked highly about this the hike up to it, though beautiful, was a bit short and highly populated, I even took the “Extreme” route which led me into a field off the trail of some farmer. The falls that I hiked too also happened to be right next to the highway, and as I was settling in to enjoy the beauty a family of excited children showed eager to add their own song to the falling water. Oh well, off to the next city M’Chicheeng, an Ojibiway outpost of sorts. First stop an art gallery that was impressive, but the girl that was sitting there seemed to take my earrings for a statement on teen rebellion, and proceeded to enthrall me her tales of skipping out on school to do stuff that wasn’t “lame”. From there I headed to the Ojibiway cultural center that had a nice museum, which in the end was one of the more impressive display’s of artifacts and old photos. After which I headed out to the Cup & Saucer trail that everyone talked about as if it was the only thing to do on the island. So after a short drive I headed out on a poorly marked trail that had 2 trails an “easy” and a “hard”, well this I was soon to learn was not like the last trail here they meant it. It looked unassuming, with rocks all over the trail making it a bit difficult especially after the rain. Anyways I took the lower root and well it was quite nice, but then I had to scale a steep wall to get to the top which did I mention was beautiful. This then led up to a walk along the bluff with large overlooks that stretched out into the sky, allowing me to see what must have been just short of forever. Heading to the other side I found a slippery ladder down the other side and under the cliff which took on the aura of a scene from lord of the rings. But I couldn’t head on for ever so back I went to get to camp took check on my wine/beer which needed ice. I left them with the thought that it was to be rainy and cold, but alas it ended up the perfect, humid, day and I needed to ring my shirt out when I finished my hike. At camp all was normal, the local trailer folk had taken to the afternoon drinking, and I headed for a walk down the beach. The best part of the park was the fact that 100meters from my tent was the perfect beach staring out into what was soon to be a sunset on the far shore of the bay. I walked down to the boat launch and realized I was hungry and didn’t want to miss the sunset, so I hurried back to camp and got me some bacon, potatoes, onions, oh wait I’ve already typed this, about the same as last time but this time I had a nice bottle of Portuguese wine I picked up in Toronto. It was wonderful and I quickly put the last of the bottle in a water bottle, grabbed a cigar and headed down to the water. I sat on a rock near the shore smoking and drinking and watching a sunset that would have only been made sweeter with my sweety sitting there with me, though that might not have included the cigar, a sacrifice but a worthy one at that. So far I realized that time alone is nice but time spent with the one you love is better. I can’t wait to return someday with gab, and another sunset. Anyways off to bed I went and the earplugs I picked up in Chicago finally paid off while the neighbors partied until dawn. “EH!”