Some animal in the night decided to noisily check out my pot of water left on the picnic table. I slammed the side of the tent with my hiking pole and yelled at him to get out of here. It seems to have worked because he left and after I downed a benedryl I never heard another sound until 6 am. I also noticed before I took the benedryl that at night the loons and the barred owls are really quite vocal at Fairbank.
In the morning I heard a pileated and a red-eyed verio but I actually saw a hummingbird checking out my MSN fuel container.
This has been a bird/animal day because after I had a lovely hot shower at the comfort station and we were just nicely on our way we saw a rabbit, and later a sandhill crane, two deer grazing near the road and then an osprey in a nest atop a huge hydro tower. We stopped in Bruce Mines hoping to catch a glimpse of the double-crested cormorants that supposedly have a colony nearby but alas we saw only a lonely merganser land in the bay by the marina. We did discover that Bobber’s bakery and Restaurant in Bruce Mines serves wonderful butter tarts.
The north channel and Lake Huron were left behind as we entered Superior territory and made our way through Sault Ste Marie. I hadn’t made note of any special sites to check out there so after picking up a sub we carried on west towards Wawa.
The scenery along this route is spectacular. Chippewa Falls was breathtaking and, as it turns out, the Group of Seven thought so too. A number of their paintings are said to have been inspired by the Chippewa area.
We got to Wawa around 5 pm – a longer day than I will normally do – but I had wanted to spend a night in the place I was born. I’m ensconced in the Outdoorsman – a nice motel on the Main Street run by a lovely couple. Bus is asleep. I think I will wait until tomorrow to check out the town. It seems to close up shop early.
