Rain

​Into each life some rain must fall​. (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, from the 1842 poem The Rainy Day)

Into some lives a LOT of rain will fall. (Tim Friend, from his 2025 trip around Lake Superior)

The forecast called for rain today.  Looking at the weather map, the radar showed a big storm system heading to the north east, but it was unclear whether it would hit us or not.  We had planned camp at Pukaskwa National Park, but, if it was going to rain, we would just put some miles behind us.  We’ll just have to play it by ear.

So we headed east.  A little over an hour’s drive to Marathon where we stopped at Pebble Beach.  An interesting name for this beach as from a distance it looked like pebbles, but, close up, the smallest stone was the size of a grapefruit with the larger ones being close to the size of basketballs.  Hardly what I would call “pebbles”.  Beautiful beach, though.  Several people came and just sat in their cars, probably to watch the storm come in over the lake.

We decided to take the side trip into the national park.  Pukaskwa National Park sits on the largest stretch of undeveloped Lake Superior shoreline and is known for its wild, unspoiled scenery.  It’s so unspoiled that the road into the park takes you to the visitor center and the campground, just a few miles.  Nothing more. The rest of the park is only accessible by hiking or paddling.  And even the established trails cover just a few miles in all.

So we got out and hiked a few of the trails, all the while watching the weather radar whenever we could pick up a signal.  The last hike was supposed to be to a couple overlooks, but we were halfway there when we started hearing distant thunder.  I managed to pick up a signal and the weather radar showed rain bearing down on us so we turned around and hiked back to the RV.  Slow going, also, as the trail had many rocks and roots.

As we drove out of the parking lot, rain started to spatter on the windshield.

We stopped for lunch at a turnout along the road and ate to the sound of pouring rain drumming on the roof.  When we took off again on the Trans-Canada Highway, the rain became so heavy that the wipers could not keep up.  The water was running in rivers down the road, making hydroplaning a real risk, even in a vehicle weighing over five tons.

We figured that, as long as it kept raining, we would keep driving.  No sense attempting to camp or hike or paddle in the rain.

It kept raining for five hours.  So we kept driving.  Several things we had planned on visiting are now in the next time bucket.  One of those was swimming in Lake Superior in Batchawana Bay, apparently a favorite of the locals.  We stopped at a rest area right on Batchawana Bay and made dinner,, but, of course, it was raining, and the presence of lightning made swimming out of the question.

The rain let up when we reached Sault Ste Marie and we crossed the bridge into the US, taking all of about a minute at the border crossing.  We stopped at the Soo Locks and just missed a gigantic freighter going through the locks.  It was just leaving when we walked up to the viewing platform.

Driving for five hours in the pouring rain does tend to tire one out and the nearest place to stay was the Walmart in Sault Ste Marie.  As we parked, the skies opened up again and it poured buckets for another half hour.  At least that brought the temperature down.  We’re used to the upper 60’s around the north side of Lake Superior, now it’s 80 and humid.  We’ll be heading home to very hot/humid which will take a little getting used to again.

369 miles driven today.  This means we will be getting home a couple days earlier than planned.