Archive for the ‘Lake Superior Provincial Park’ tag
written in stone 7 comments
Picking up where I left off in yesterday’s post, last Friday, part of my journey led through Lake Superior Provincial Park. By Ontario park standards, it’s large, being 1,550 square kilometers (600 square miles). As the weather has been unusually cold recently, I decided not to try to camp there during this trip — instead, pushing on to visit with friends at their cabin near Thunder Bay. However, after stopping several times to linger along small rivers, I began to regret that decision and have already vowed to return to spend a few days here next year.
One of my stops was at a river trail known as Pinguisibi, or Sand River Trail – a trail along a river with many rapids and falls. Sabrina and I explored the lower section, wandering about on the great slabs of rock.
At this time of the year, the rocks were cut through by a narrow torrent. Evidence of their wear leads me to suppose that this river must appear quite different during the spring freshet.
Most of the rocks are patterned with swirling striations such as those in the above photo. Click on the image to see a larger view — I’ve posted quite a large image, so you can scroll around to see it a bit better. Unfortunately, the images don’t really give a true sense of the appearance of these rocks — you’ll have to go there yourself to appreciate them. I could spend a day or more just studying that one little section of river.
The view upstream was almost too much for me and it wasn’t long before we had wandered upriver over the tumble of rocks. We could have gone on like that for hours but that I had hopes of reaching my friends’ cabin before dark.
Along the shore, I spotted this Eastern White Cedar, appearing to beckoning from the forest’s edge. In this place, it’s not difficult to imagine that there must be forest spirits, and perhaps even the trickster, Nanabozho calling me into the woods.
I did venture a few paces along the woodland trail and soon discovered a wonderful knot of cedar roots joining two trees growing upon the rock. I’m not sure if Nanabozho intended this to be a lesson or message for me, but perhaps I will take it as such — that two beings can have lives that are so interwoven as to be like one.
