The Speares

Rabbit Blanket Lake Aug 11th - 16th 2019

The summer's wearing on, and it was time to head out for another camping adventure. this time we chose Lake Superior Park because of its stunning scenery. Most people tend to stay at Agawa Bay or even Pancake Bay, so we went up to Rabbit Blanket Lake. People seem to mostly just camp there for a day or two, probably doing the Lake Superior trail. Anyhow, while the sites are no hell there is a fair bit of privacy because no one's beside you most of the time.

 

Aug 11 Going North

 

Sunday was a day of driving mostly. We had everything all packed up the night before so in the morning we just had to hook up the trailer and blast off. It's a nine hour trip to Rabbit Blanket, and we made it by about 5:00. Just time to set up and then crack something cold and put the kebobs on the grill.

 

Aug 12 Peat Mountain and South Old Woman River

These are the hikes that you can do right from the campground, and in fact, right from our campsite as there was a little side trail joining onto the main loop. We decided to knock Peat Mountain off the list before lunch, but that turned out to be a little optimistic so we had a somewhat late lunch. After digesting for a bit we did South Old Woman in the afternoon. this trail is rated as easy, but don't you believe it. there is no even footing and it's all large rocks to walk on. Good hikes today. Then back to the campsite for something cool and a nice pork roast.

 

Aug 13 Nokomis, Orphan Lake, Trapper's

Nokomis is the Old Woman, as in Old Woman Bay. Apparently there's a rock cliff that resembles her but I've never been able to see it. Anyway, a fairly typical Lake Superior hike.

 

Orpan Lake is a somewhat longer hike, and it took us almost three hours to complete.

 

Trapper's is a very short hike, so we decided to do that on the way home. It just goes around a small lake. At the end is an elaborate board walk where they say you can sometimes see critters. We didn't have any patience for waiting after such a long day, so we did the hike in record time and then back to the campsite for refreshments and homemade hamburgers.

 

Aug 14 Wawa, Awausee, Katherine Cove

The nice thing about Lake Superior is its isolation. The bad thing is it's isolated. So at about half time you need to go get gas. The nearest place is near Wawa, about ahalf hour's drive. That made us a little late for the rest of the day's adventures, so we didn't start Awausee until noon.

 

Then we decided to see what the fuss was about Katherine Cove. There are a couple of nice beaches there and a little ways up the trail there is Bathtub Island, which is supposed to be a kind of a natural jacuzzi. There was a very determined breeze when we were there, so it didn't appear to be safe to swim. Pretty place, though.

 

Then it was back to home base for some spaghetti and leftovers.

 

Aug 15 2/3 of Towab

The Towab hike is 24 K there and back and climbs up to the Agawa waterfall. It's supposed to be spectacular, but it is recommended to do it as an overnighter. We didn't have any overnight stuff with us other than emergency stuff, so we decided to just hike as far as we could and then turn around. We made it about 7K, so around 14 there and back. Nice trail. Maybe next time we'll get a crack of dawn start and see if we can do it.

 

Aug 16 Home

Home again. About a nine hour drive with a couple of stops. Well worth it. We'll probably be back next year, or maybe stay a night or two somewhere in Lake Superior as part of our tentative Giant's Tomb adventure.

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