Lake Superior Provincial Park Coastal Trail: May 8-11, 2012

* I have recently completed the entire trail.  For a full report see here.

Lake Superior Provincial Park is one of the largest provincial parks in Ontario, covering about 1,550 square kilometres (600 sq mi) along the northeastern shores of Lake Superior between Wawa and Sault Ste. 

The Coastal Trail (65 km) is the most challenging and demanding trail in the park and takes you along the high cliffs and rocky beaches of Lake Superior.  The trail extends from Agawa Bay to Chalfant Cove. The map here is taken from a thru hikers blog: http://www.suluk46.com/adventure%20-%20Coastal%20Trail%2009.html

The campsites are where he camped during his hike.

I previously had hiked south from the end of Gargantua Road to Orphan Lake, so this time we hiked north from Agawa Bay. We drove two vehicles and parked one at Orphan Lake and one at Gargantua as we had not fully decided how far we wanted to hike.  My friend, Austin, arranged for a shuttle to the Agawa Bay visitor center.

Through the woods

Agawa River

The trail went on the side of the road as we used a bridge to cross the Agawa River.

 Then it returned to the Lake Superior Shoreline.

At times, we lost the trail as sometimes it sticks right to the coast, but sometimes it will go inland to avoid dangerous terrain.  We discovered that if we would find ourselves with steep rocks or cliffs in front of us that we missed where the trail went in land.

We found the ladder that we had viewed in pictures online.

We took a break to eat some food with the view below.  Our break became extended as we fell asleep.

Agawa Rock Pictographs

The trail continued north to Gargantua.

It was getting cloudy and looked like it might rain, so we set up camp at Sinclair Cove.

There are many islands on the edge of many of the coves.

We found a nice campsite, stopped to start a fire, and ate some food.

As we continued we encountered a beautiful sandy beach, which was enjoyable after much time spend scrambling over rocky terrain.

We eventually decided to call it a day and set up camp.

It was a beautiful evening with a spectacular sunset.

The following day we continued further north while encountering both rocky and sandy trail.

We decided to set up camp at Robertson Cove, which was my favorite campsite.

The following day we decided to hike to the Orphan Lake Trailhead and finish the journey.

 We had the special opportunity to witness eagles flying overhead to their nest.

Baldhead River

Overall this was a great hiking experience which provided a contrast to the sierras.  We saw very few people on the trail, only a few day hikers.  The weather was sunny and temperate.  Sometime I plan to return to hike the entire Coastal Trail at once.  It provides one of the most remote hikes along Lake Superior shores.