I want to say that I remember every min of our trek. How could I forget the details of a trip I wanted to do for a year and a half!?! The truth is as I had to look up the name of our last two campsites. I was happy just to be there, breathing the air, enjoying the moment. 

On the day we were leaving for Lake Superior we didn’t set an alarm. No surprise we woke up an hour late from when we wanted to leave. We quickly gathered our things, threw the packs in the car and headed for hwy 17 the great Northern Road.  It was a beautiful clear day with warm wind in the car window. We only stopped twice-on the drive to the park. Once for breakfast and once for gas and a washroom break. We knew we were going to be late for the shuttle we booked. The time we tried to make up was not happening so we called the shuttle service and they agreed to wait an extra 30 mins they were amazing. 

Approximately 10 hours later and 20 mins late we arrive at the Agawa bay visitor centre where a tall blonde and her dog were waiting happily for our arrival.( the shuttle service) We scrambled to gather our things and start the ride to the trail head. It was starting to feel real, no way back now. It will be an 8 day hike back to the car. 

We arrived at the Gargantua parking lot, found the entrance of the Lake Superior Costal Trail. We didn’t have to go far as we stayed at Gargantua South. We put up our tent and spent the early evening on the beach. Across the shore line we could make out teepees and as the sun started it’s decent soft slow native drummers started to play. The drumming became faster and louder across the water as the sun when down, until all at once it was pitch black and silence. It was beautiful. We soon went to bed excited to start the trail in the morning. 

We woke up in the morning to a beautiful day. We had our coffee and breakfast, packed up camp and set out to Rhyolite Cove. The hike was everything we were hoping for as we heard this was a challenging trail. This section was a lot of big steps, steep declines with beautiful views. We stopped twice to take our packs off and stretch have a water break. We do not stop to eat lunch when we are hiking so these breaks are apox 10 mins max. It took us about 5 hours to reach Rhyolite Cove. We set up camp in the second site, had a much needed swim and changed into warm clothes. We had a fire on the beach that night, did some stretches on the beach. This site is beautiful with decent swimming. 

We woke up to rain on our third day.. and I mean it was down right pouring by the time we were less than an hour into the way to Beatty Cove. This did not seem to affect us as we were so happy to be on our way… it did however make the hike very challenging. Wet rocks that are very slippery with a heavy pack and very high winds slowed us down quite a bit.  Hurricane Ida was following the coast during our time on the trail and made for some big waves as well. This section was the hardest area of the trail for us. There are some very high cliffs made of smooth rock that if you fall … well your going into Lake Superior. I want to make it clear that there are parts of this trial you can get seriously injured if you were to fall.  We were hiking very slowly over some areas in this section. We made a rookie mistake and took off our rain gear because we were sweating so much from working so hard hiking.. It took us 7 hours to make it to Beatty cove. ( I think you could make it in 5ish on a clear day) we arrived at Beatty cove and once we stopped moving…we started freezing.. oh no…  so we put our tent up in pouring driving rain.. changed our clothes and put all our warmest gear on and made Mr Noodles to just have something warm….I have never been so soaked to the bone cold while in the woods.. we just felt this is part of the experience…was it our worst night..yes. But we didn’t complain. We went to bed early.. I was glad to be just warmer than I was all day….we woke up to more rain but had amazing hot coffee and breakfast …packed up all our soaked and muddy gear and trekked on…. Lol

We’re now on day 3 and hiking to Baldhead North … our day started out with rain but before we ended up at camp.. we had some nice dry weather come in and that gave us some time to put up a clothes line and dry out our tent, shoes and gear before we went to bed… we checked out all the sites here and decided the last one was best for us as so many had the trail going directly through them.

The wind picked up quite a bit on the day we were heading to Cold Water North. We arrived at Cold Water N much quicker than we were expecting I think it was under 2 hours… so I do recommend you keep going to Cold Water South if your hiking from Beatty cove. We took a good rest day here … the beach is not good for swimming but the site is very nice and large.. great fire pit, the area for the tent is nicely tucked away as well.. We woke up to another day of rain … Thank god for hot coffee.. lol 

We were on the way to Robertson Cove.. I couldn’t wait.. I have been seeing this site on line for a while and I was sooo excited … this is also the day.. I had a major fall. Think of the show wipeout… yup that was me… so as the rain was clearing up the top of the rocks were starting to dry.. and I was becoming more confident in my ability to rock scramble.. So what went wrong? Riiight…. So I was using my trekking  pole to stabilize.. my pole slipped and we were on rocks about the size an avg car.. my pole slipped into a hole and I face planted on a rock.. I heard my head crack on the rock and was stunned for a few mins… I had a goose egg, and a black eye by that night… I am a nurse and gave some important information to my husband ( things to look out for that would mean we would have to leave and get medical help ) and I consider myself to be very lucky I didn’t even have concussion symptoms… that being said.. its been almost a month since we finished the trail.. and I still have a small lump on my head.. and its still a bit sore…  back to the trail… so we arrived at Robertson Cove and on a nice day…this place would be amazing… for us.. it was storming, we had to put our tent up back near the privy … we watched storms move into shore off the lake.. waves were really high as well…. We met a few hikers as the trail goes though the site.. great fire pit here as well… 

Barrett North was our next stop… this was beautiful… well, I know it would have been if it was nice weather..  this was a full sand beach..

 (Barrett South.. all rock hint hint….. )

this is the only place we seen evidence of a bear… this site on a nice day.. would be amazing for swimming… all the sites are basically directly on the beach… you don’t want to miss these sites… 

We were on our way to Sinclair north… and walked by it and never saw it…….

 Some how we missed our site.. and didn’t realize it until we were so far passed we were seeing signs for Agawa Point.. we haven’t had any problems following the trail makers… we have never gotten lost on this trail.. so missing this camp site was disappointing… we decided to keep going to Agawa Point as keep our fingers crossed that a site would be open…. We arrived after a long day of hiking. Be careful around the pictographs area… go to the parking lot and find the map of the area.. the costal trial picks back up just past the map to the left if your going North to South… 

Agawa Point was a nice place to swim, the beach was rocky but once in the water its a nice place to swim.. be warned you will get day hikers walk past your site going to the pictographs… I don’t recommend skinny dipping in this site lol…. 

the last morning we woke up .. to heavy wind and lightning I was awake from 3am.. and we decided around 5 to go to the water and take a peek at the weather situation. We seen a storm coming in off the water.. lightning bolts.. not good.. so we packed up, had coffee and at first light 6am.. we set off for our last hike of the trip… 

This was the only time I was nervous during the trip… ( other than when I hit my head) 

We made it to our car in about 3 hours.. no rain just a lot of wind… they storm stayed out on the water… thank goodness.  

A spot called spit and sand is worth mentioning, I don’t remember where it was bc we had the old map and its not listed on that one… but here is pic.. book this site if you can it was like paradise 

Swimming here was the best swim we had.. it has a cool spot to explore just to the right… 

We are new to backpacking… this was our first trip! We do have an off the grid camp in Northern Ontario ( greenstone area) we have been going there for a few years now and we have years of camping experience… that being said.. we learned a lot on this trip… one thing is .. we love doing this.. and we cant wait for our next trip… 

We learned how to pack our backpack better every day.. I can tell this pic at spit and sand was earlier in our trip bc of the way I packed my bag… we learned that wet shoes are not a big deal to put on … we actually like dehydrated meals… and how being alone in the woods.. walking everyday (yes even in the rain)…was the very thing we needed.  The forrest was very calming.. the water was clear…. You need to walk here…