Pukaskawa NP, Quetico Provincial Park and Truck Problems

 Hello from Quetico,

It has been an eventful few days.  Our drive on Saturday was along the northeastern shore of Lake Superior (or as Indigenous People call the great lakes:  Gitche Gumee).  We arrived in Pukaskawa National Park to cloudy skies.  It was supposed to rain all that evening and the next day, but instead we woke Sunday to partly cloudy skies.  We had a great day to hike and the rain didn't arrive until late in the evening.  Felt very, very lucky.  We really liked this park, huge campsites, good amenities and close to the water.

On our drive to Pukaskawa, the truck lost power twice, causing us to have to pull over while Ralph tried to figure out the problem.  The road was small with only two lanes, but fortunately had wide shoulders and very little traffic.  The truck reset itself when we restarted it and allowed us to proceed but did it again one more time.  

Yesterday while starting out on our drive to Quetico, it stalled again just a few minutes after leaving our campsite.   Ralph pulled over, turned the truck off and back on.  We had no cell service.  It did it three more times in the next eight miles.   The last time it did it we had cell service so we called a Ford dealer 200 miles away in the city of Thunder Bay.  They told us it was safe to continue driving the truck and that there was a dealer about 40 miles away.  They were great, knowledgeable, and looked up the problem but said they couldn't get the part needed in Canada.  They suggested we go into the US where parts are available. They said the problem would occur when it had been raining and once the truck was warmed up it shouldn't be an issue and we found that to be true.  We have had no further issues and will warm it up thoroughly before setting out on our drives.  It was a very stressful couple of hours.

Of course, our arrival in Quetico yesterday was supposed to be at about 1:00 PM and we arrived at 4:30 and that is after gaining an hour to CDT.  This is just a one night stop.  Today we will be back in the US to Minnesota and Voyageurs National Park. We will be Canada one more time in a couple of days to visit Crystal City, Canada where Ralph was born and then will be back in the US for good.

We have loved our time in Canada.  It is beautiful, vast and remote.  And we will be happy to be back in the States (and cheaper gas)

It just started to snow here!!!  Guess it's time to get going!

This is the dealership of  Figliomini and Sons in the tiny town of Schreiber.  Seemed like the dealer was the only business in town.  They were great, and as you can see, their showroom contains vehicles a little different than the ones we have in California.

A few photos from our campground.  In the last one you can see Lake Superior off into the distance.

These are photos from our hike on the Bimose Kinoomagewnan trail in Pukaskawa.  It was one of the best hikes we have gone on so far, with the trail including boulders and stairs.  Because the trails included boulders and wasn't always well marked, we did get lost once.  Note the tree cut down by the beavers.  Obviously the log was too big to haul away.

Many of the gas tanks are now above ground, we assume due to the cold winters and the ground freezing.  We paid $7.83 a gallon for our most recent gas, translates to about $5.87 with the rate of exchange but still very, very expensive.

Our huge campsite in Pukaskawa.  THIS is camping.  We will go to an RV park when we need full hook-ups but this is really how we love to camp.

Ralph took this great photo of a Spruce Grouse.