It was a beautiful sunny morning. Still sore from previous hikes, it was just too nice a day to sit around. We opted for Noisy Bay, not too far from us. It is a 3-mile out-and-back hike rated moderate that takes from 1.5-3 hours. There is a 500’ elevation change.
Like our other hikes, you need to watch every step. Look up and you are likely to trip, and one stretch goes over a boulder field. The forest is pretty, and soon the trail met up with a rushing stream. After the boulder field, we came out on Noisy Bay. It is a round-rock beach with the rushing river emptying into the bay, thus the name.
Like all of our views of Lake Superior, the water was crystal clear. It is a beautiful spot with no boats in sight. We sat for a bit before heading back. For us, it was an hour in and an hour back out. I was soaked in sweat when we got to the car. It was about 75 degrees with a lot of humidity.
Back at camp we had to move sites for the second time here, but we were pretty efficient with it, and we like our new site. We had lunch and Martha took the kayak out for a spin. I was going after her, but we had started a wash, so I went up to move them to the dryer. We had talked to nice fellow when we loaded the wash. On my way back up, I passed him, and he said he had moved ours to the dryer since there was a little time left on the dryer. Nice!
I set up the Cobb Cooker and started the charcoal while Martha fixed a cube steak with cut up potatoes and peas wrapped in foil. It was very good and made for easy cleanup.
In keeping with signs on the trails, our chipmunk left footprints and droppings on our picnic table..
A couple of campsites up, I talked to a nice gentleman with a cool bike. Some people think I am crazy to camp and travel with an Airstream. Maybe, but it’s a whole different level when one travels on a motorcycle, carrying a tent, sleeping bag, rain gear, food and more. Wearing a Dalhousie University shirt, he said he used to ride dirt bikes, and this bike is in between a dirt bike and a road bike.
It has five different modes; tour, urban, gravel, off-road, user-1, user-2. It has cruise control and even CarPlay. He had a bracket for his phone, but there is also a computer screen showing his route. He said bikes like this are developed for a race in Europe. Very cool indeed!
We got the kayak down and I went fishing on Rabbit Blanket Lake for a couple of hours. No luck after trying 5 trout spinning lures and a beetle spin. It is a shallow lake with cool water, but it has a lot of grass in it. In Virginia I consider grass as a sign of too much fertilizer in a stream, but that is not likely here. Martha had bought a rod holder for me, which fit into a slot on either side of the boat. I even tried trolling with the rod in the holder.
I turned it over to Martha, who took it for a spin around the lake, After all this walking, it felt good to do something different, and it is a pretty lake in a province that has 250,000 lakes, accounting for 20% of the world’s fresh water supply!
I went outside at 4am to see the stars and took 4 iPhone pictures while lying on the picnic table. I have no idea what this is.
We were sore and tired from hiking, but it was going to be a sunny day in the 60’s – perfect for a hike. Martha made a hearty breakfast scramble with eggs, bacon, onions, peppers and left over french fries and toast.
I glanced up and saw a beautiful red fox trotting past the trailer, up a little bank and stopped to poop. I quickly grabbed my phone, but he was gone. What’s with the pooping on our site?
We set off to the Nakomis Trail at Old Woman Bay. Some of you with great memories may recall that Nakomis was Hiawatha’s grandmother, who raised him.
According to the poem, From the full moon fell Nokomis/Fell the beautiful Nokomis. She bears a daughter, Wenonah. Despite Nokomis’ warnings, Wenonah allows herself to be seduced by the West-Wind, Mudjekeewis, Till she bore a son in sorrow/Bore a son of love and sorrow/Thus was born my Hiawatha.
Abandoned by the heartless Mudjekeewis, Wenonah dies in childbirth, leaving Hiawatha to be raised by Nokomis. The wrinkled old Nokomis/Nursed the little Hiawatha and educates him.
The Nokomis Trail is a 3 mile loop rated moderate taking 1.5 – 3 hours. We figured we could walk 3 miles. The clue was the 3 hours. It is a loop trail taking you up a mountain to beautiful views of Old Woman Bay. We walked it counter-clockwise, which proved to be a good guess. Starting the hike was a round-rock trail through a pretty forest, but you had to stop to look around. There was a lot of reindeer lichen, which woodland caribou love to eat. Unfortunately, they are no longer here, as the wolves and humans have taken their toll.
The path changed to dirt for a steady climb, then to rocks until we climbed to the top for an outlook on a huge boulder. We could see Old Woman Bay, the river and the Trans-Canada highway. On the way down there were two more overlooks and places that looked like filming of “The Last of the Mohicans.” The trail turned very steep going down, so we had to turn around like climbing down a ladder. We were coming down a long, steep stretch and I took a fall. I guess it is part of getting older, but all along I thought about all those hard, sharp rocks and the damage they could do if you slipped or fell. I was coming down, almost to the bottom when Martha reversed her direction. Trying not to run into her, I took a bad step and tumbled to land on my back. Very fortunately, there was no damage. My backpack saved me as there was a sharp rock underneath it. Whew!
I must say I admire the Canadian way of “swim at your own risk.” Hike at your own risk, look over a waterfall at your own risk, or just no sign at all, but you go at your own risk. I like that.
Old Woman Bey
Trans-Canada Highway
We took 2.5 hours to do the hike, including stops at all the overlook and 10 minutes for Martha to retrieve my hat after I fell. Martha rated the hike a 3.5/5.0 because of all the rocks, but all the young people just frolicked up and down the mountain, and the views are spectacular. A couple of young guys greeted us at the first overlook and Martha said, “I’ll trade you my legs for yours,” and one replied, “I’ll trade for your wisdom.” That brought a smile to her face. We saw our first snake on the trail, but it was going too fast to identify it.
I could have fished the lake in Rabbit Blanket, but the wind was blowing pretty good and I had no legs to hike down the river. Maybe tomorrow.
