Circle Tour Day 10 - July 22

Lake Superior Provincial Park

It was with great regret that I left Pukaskwa, which had almost everything I like in a campground, with the exception of solitude. Even that I found when I went hiking on a trail yesterday and met only one couple in two hours. I always wonder what campers actually do when they go camping other than swimming. Hiking never seems to be on the agenda in Wisconsin and not in the provincial and national parks we've visited here in Canada.

I did enjoy talking to people as I walked around. There was the watercolorists at the visitors centre who showed me their lovely arts.

The young couple with the seven weeks old baby and fourteen year old dog across the way shared a watermelon with us. I told them that the best lullaby ever written is the theme from Rosemary's Baby. Mia Farrow sang it to her devil child. I used it on my son, my grandson and in a daycare where I used to put six pre-schoolers to sleep with it. I even used it to calm down hyperactive kids in China. But my impression is they will not try it on their baby.

At the beach I talked to a member of the Pic River First Nation who was trying to get his teenage children out of the water so he could take them home for supper. He used to work at the pulp mill in Marathon but it was purchased by a clone of Bain who took 40 percent of the workers pension fund, declared bankruptcy and laid off all the workers. The mill is now being re-opened by a firm from India but he is now unlikely to be re-hired because he's too old.

A local couple was having their yearly picnic in the park. He works in British Columbia and flies home when he can. He is working on a hydraulic system for a fracking mine. He doesn't like fracking but it's a job. He likes his First Nation neighbors, especially the Anishinaabe and has adopted some of their ways. When a neighbor died, the relatives needed sage for the traditional funeral so they came to his garage where plenty was hanging to keep out evil spirits. I told him Gary smudged our campsites with

sage and then with sweet grass to bring in the good spirits. The fellow immediately wanted to know where he could get sweet grass but I get it in Oneida so I couldn't help him there.

Gary claimed there are no tides on Lake Superior so I went to find the ranger and asked about it. Yes, there are tides, but there isn't much of a change, not like the oceans. Lake Superior is the largest fresh water body in the world as far as surface area. The Caspian Sea would be larger but it has some salt content. There is another lake in Russia that is much deeper than Lake Superior but a smaller surface area so it probably has more fresh water. All of this is important as non-polluted water sources become more and more important.

And so we leave Pukaswa..and I am still mooseless.