Pinguisibi

Six days into our Lake Superior vacation, my body was feeling the effects of sleeping on the ground. And while the sound of wind through the trees and waves lapping on the shore are soothing for sleep, the trucks that roared past the campground on the Trans-Canada Highway broke that serenity.

I was still tired from paddling Old Woman Bay and hiking the Nokomis Trail. And as we looked out onto Agawa Bay as we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, we saw that the wind on Lake Superior was causing some serious wave action.

We deemed it was risky to get the kayaks out on the water.

Our camp site was on a prime spot of the campground: a short distance from the comfort station, in a fairly quiet part—though, not in a radio-free zone—and looking out onto the beach and Agawa Bay. There was pathway beside our site but we had rope that kept people from cutting through our site to get to the beach.

Our site was inviting and we chose to take the morning to just chill. I needed the slow pace, as we had been going pretty hard for most of the week; and as I said, I wasn't sleeping well.

By lunchtime, we decided that we should go for a hike. We had paddled to the mouth of the Sand River on our first day of kayaking, and we decided that we'd try the trail that follows the river upstream.

We knew that there was a waterfall just before the river flows under the Trans-Canada, but we wanted to see what else there was to see on this trail. Maybe, another waterfall.

Though the river is called Sand River, the trail that follows it is called Pinguisibi. Pinguisibi is the Ojibwe word that means “river of fine white sand,” so that tracks.

The trail runs for three kilometres before the river meets a portage put-in or take-out, depending on the direction you're heading. At this point, Sand River is calm and you can paddle upstream, but it's also the turnaround point of the trail.

Along the way, you pass three waterfalls, including the one near Highway 17. There are also several sets of rapids, so if you love fast-moving water, this is your trail.

It took a couple of hours to hike the full six kilometres but we took extended stops at the waterfalls. The trail is easy to moderate and we did not burn ourselves out, but I was tired by the time we returned to the car.

We returned to our campsite for dinner and watched the sunset, as was our evening ritual. But our time in the park was growing short and we knew we still wanted to get in our kayaks. We hoped that the next day would be calm water.

Stay tuned.