Day 3 - 4
From Sault Ste. Marie I headed north up along the great winding shoreline of lake Superior, passing through small towns and pulp trucks. I've passed the geographic centre of canada finally as well as the reached the northern watershed where all waters flow north to the arctic.
I drove out to Pukaskwa Provincial park to find out if I could find and photograph some Pukaskwa (pronounced puk-a-saw) pits. So what are these things you ask? Pukaskwa Pits are small holes dug in the ground by ancestors of the Ojibwa. Estimations of the dates of their digging range from between 1000 and 1500 AD on the near end, to 3,000 to 8,000 BC on the far end. These pits are dug in cobblestone beaches and are about one to two meters long and one and a half meter deep. Theories about the purpose of these pits range from hunting blinds to food storage pits to spiritual sites. They are located mainly in Pukaskwa National Park.
I was initially detered from seeking out these sites. They are not on any trail or marked, and due to there fragile nature are protected from public attention. After a little talking I was directed to Warden Stanely, a man who has spent 20 years in the park and is the person who has led teams of archeologists in to study these sites.
He spent an hour with me explaining through photos and diagrams how they document and keep a record of the sites over time, as well as the difficult nature in identifying most of the caches. from his photos these pits are impossibly hidden due to the fact that so little is left of them from thousands of years of weather on the North shore. It turns out that there are hundreds of them all along the northern shore of the lake from Thunder bay to the Sault. but the nearest identified site in the park is a 3 day hike and there wasn't likely a chance that I would be able to identify the sites myself. I was eager to do some spotting so Warden stanely drew me a map of a way to get to a cobblestone beach north of the park that was on my route near Marathon that he has never brought his team to explore but that he has seen on a rescue operation from a plane.
I jumped at the chance to do some bushwacking and see what I could find. So off I went down an unfinished dirt road that followed the train tracks and at it's end, bushwacked to a sand beach and crossed it to a portage trail that led to the far shore of the next cove. Singing all the way to myself just to let the bears know I'm coming. I scoured the entire inlet about 2km long for hours and photographed a few spots which to my unprofessional archeological skills looked like they could be pit sites well. Satisfied, and humbled by the great skills Archeologists must posses to read and interpret these sites a retired to my van. I am definatly planning a trip back here in the future.
From Marathon I drove still further north up and around towards Thunder Bay. Just about 15 Km east of the city on the Trans-Canada hwy is a small humble white post marking the spot where Terry Fox was forced to end his run. A small mowed patch of grass and a post with a marker reading MILE 3339 Terry Fox's "Marathon of Hope" September 1, 1980. I think he would have appreciated this marker much more than the giant statue of himself 12 km down the road on top of a hill.
Passing through Thunder bay which is kinda scary I spotted a classic car rally with some sweet machines (see flickr). I drove all the way out to Quiteco Park before darkness fell and I set up camp. Oh! I saw my first Black bear too. Did i mention Northern Ontario is really big and beautiful.
p.s. - watch out for swamp donkeys!
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