Day 38- The Giant Goofy Grey Gander

I didnt end up getting up until atound 8:30 this morning because my alarm clock somehow got set back three hours, meaning my 6 AM alarm was actually a 9 AM alarm. As I woke up and fell back to sleep mosy of the morning, it didnt dawn on me for quite a while that it was way too light out to be as early as my alarm claimed. So I ended up getting a good 11 hours of sleep last night. I quickly packed
and then trekked my way down the 2 KM of dirt road out of the park. I rolled along between tall, nearly limbless pines, thrust skyward like countless spears. Once back on the highway, I had about 145 KM to cover to Agawa Bay today.

Thankfully it was an overcast morning, so I didnt suffer the loss of early morning riding too much. The low winds actually propelled me for once, along vacant forest highway, past more lakes and rivers. Everything felt particularly right with the world in that moment. I continued like this until today's only pit stop in the town of Wawa, where I ate lunch and snapped a photo of their oversized goose monument.
Perhaps they worship the noisey things. They can have all the ones that hung out behind my house in Victoria, honking all day and all night like rowdy neighbours.

After lunch I entered Lake Superior Provincial Park, 83 KM of beautiful wilderness highway. I climbed up and down more challenging sprawling hills, through heavily forested cliffs, and past beaches and lakeside vistas. At one particular bay, I stopped for a good ten minutes, just gazing across the water. You could almost swear you were looking across the ocean, the great lakes are so vast. Even the forest itself seemeed more beautiful here, somehow more vibrant and alive. It hasnt beened trimmed back 20 feet from the road like outside the park, so it extends right to the highway to greet you. There seemed to be fewer trucks today too. There were also no buildings anywhere apart from the park's main office. I felt like I was on a peaceful secondary route, not the bustling and noisy Trans Canada.

My good mood was dampened a bit by the wind, which was once again making the going a lot harder than it should have been now that I had changed direction and was heading south. I simply had to dig in, set check points for myself, and get through the challenging 80 KM. When it was all done, I was very grateful to pull into Agawa Bay Camp, a wooded camp right next to the beach, with a great view of Lake Superior.

Just as I set up, it began to rain, as seems to be the trend lately. Im glad it has been waiting until camp most days. Time for a meal and some well deserved rest. Tomorrow I will arrive in Sault Ste. Marie, and my wilderness challenge will be nearly done!