Day One - Pancake Bay

I woke up at roughly 5 am and continued with my final packing preparations for the trip. Thankfully there weren't many people up at this hour and I was able to load my car without too many interuptions during the long trip from the 15'th floor to the basement. I set up my netbook to play music, and headed north on highway 400. My first destination would be Sudbury as a halfway point on my trip.  The weather report earlier stated that I'd be facing a long wet drive, and sure enough I did. Sunny breaks were few and far between, but for the most part the rain drove me onward towards my destination. I visited a small rest stop on my way to take a short jog and releive myself I did not spend long there as the break in the rain was short, and I did not wish to dig around for rain gear.  Back on the road again, I passed the french river rest stop and was amazed to find it overgrown with grass and replaced by a huge pillar of a sign and a fully laid out visitors center.  I had no cause to stop at this point and lunch was approaching, so I continued on to Sudbury. Perhaps I will stop on the way back.

I arrived at Sudbury at around 11:50 and stopped by Burger King for a whopper and mostly to use their facilities. Sudbury has changed a great deal in the last 10 years. First of all, it's clean. I vaguely remember there being dirt on everything when I was there last. This time it reminded me of Lindsay – with french people. That's right.. I had to stop in Canadian Tire to pick up some stuff I forgot and there were knots of people saying 'si vous plait' and 'oui' I'm sure they were saying more than that but it's not nice to eavesdrop. I got myself an inexpensive Knife, a hat, and a piece of rope for the tarp. Strangely enough they don't have a knife case like the others I've been to.. you just walk in and take a knife. I guess they don't have shoplifting issues. I left Sudbury and set my gps for thunder bay, knowing there was only one route so I'd just stop when I wanted to. I passed by Rare earth and the big nickel.. but by the time I was there it was full on pouring again so I didn't stop. There was little but rain and darkness for the remainder of my drive to Sault Ste. Marie.
Sault Ste Marie

I stopped here for gas. This is literally the second time I've had to. The first time being somewhere before sudbury. This car as excellent efficiency compared to the shadow. I remember hunting and scraping for basically any gas station I could find. I only used about 1 tank of gass for the entire trip to pancake. I digress. Actually, I just stopped for gas here.. along the route I took, there really isn't anything eye catching enough for you to want to derail your whole trip for.  You could stop by the border or watch ships go through, but being so close to my destination I wanted to spend LESS time in a city, not more.

Lake Superior - Pancake bay

She welcomed me back with driving rain, drops the size of silver dollars and wind that would knock over a 5 year old child. I had to slow down to around 50 km/h for about an hour while the storm passed because I couldn't see squat. Thankfully the Mazda's de-frost system, though unconventional compared to what I'm used to.. works like a charm. Set the AC to on, then turn up the heat and the fog is gone in seconds. It does not have a 'defrost' setting like the old car did, save the rear window one. I got a camp site down by the lake. It's actually very close to the site I had when I stopped there on my last trip. The weather board in the gatehouse says it's going down to 5 degrees tonight. And. 100% chance of even more rain. I hope the rest of the trip isn't like this. Cold I can deal with, rain sucks. It let up enough for me to pitch my tent.. 7 times. Getting the pegs in firmly enough so my tent doesn't blow away is difficult in the sandy soil. Note, I arrived at about 5pm.

After getting my tent up, I noted a large, black cloud looming out over the lake.. and watched it approach fast. I wasn't going to get the tarp up in the wind by myself so I put it away. Quickly grabbed my stove and some water and decided to use the instant Ramen I'd picked up for just such an occasion. The little Brunton stove works like a charm. I didn't have to block the flame at all and it heated my 2 cups or so of water in under 5 minutes to a rolling boil. I poured the water in the bowl and added the soup packet. It was only then that I noticed the little cartoon jalepeno pepper breathing fire on the little cartoon shrimp.. who was crying and running away. It was real Ramen noodles imported from japan. 99 cents.. it was definitely higher quality than the usual 'mr noodles' brand but unfortunately … or maybe fortunately it was spicy as hell. Hopefully the other bowl is more tame. This is also where I learned yet another valuable lesson. Do not eat spicy ramen while leaning over it when the rain starts.. especially when each drop lands like a meteor in the bowl and splashes very very spicy soup in your eye. I spent roughly 10 minutes in absolute agony. I had paid 121.95 for the weekend, and monday. It seemed a bit steep, but the gate guy explained it was because of the HST. Thanks government, surely the economy will recover if you take all my money...

I had a small fire to burn my garbage, and even used my fancy magnesium block to light in the rain. It works quite well...though I couldn't get the flint to aim right so I just used my lighter. By the way, the picture on the box with the little silver pile on the log.. yeah that's crap. You'd need some sort of grinder to do that. I had silver dust all over everything. It still worked though. The rain broke for roughly an hour and I went down to the beach and took some pictures, and there was a crack in the clouds that some sun peeked though. I read for a while, and then turned in around 9pm the sun being gone at around 8:30. It's not as dark at night as I remember however it's completely overcast and that is likely why. For the first few hours the wind battered my tent so hard I imagined I was sleeping on the side of a mountain. I remember seeing footage of people climbing Mt.Fuji and seeing them calmly talking inside their tent as it seemed to barely hold up to the wind. I was sure I was going to hear the sound of my fly tearing off any second but thankfully that never happened.. what DID happen.. is I got my own personal resovoir of water by the door. It isn't clear if it came in under the fly or if the wind merely forced it through the fabric of my front door. The sleeping bag I bought is marvelous though. It kept my toasty warm, even with the foot of it damp. As of right now it's 6 am, and it's still overcast and cold out. I'm going to hang out in here a bit longer to see if the sun comes up and brings some warmth. It's still raining. I'm not going to be very happy if this keeps up for the whole trip