#travel // Day Hiking Ontario, Canada

Our days in the vacant, rural side of Canada were winding down as we continued on the highway that would lead us into Toronto. Before hitting the big city, we had a couple final days hiking with the crisp, fresh air. While we had a grand ole time exploring hidden gems of rural Canada, we were getting ready to be back in civilization! 

 In case you're new here, this is part of a seemingly never-ending series about my autumn road trip, going around all five great lakes with my German boyfriend, Torsten. You can view pasts posts by clicking here! 

All these photos are a mash-up of all the random breaks taken during the long drive to stretch our legs, enjoy the views and hear the waves crash on shore. It's incredible to think our only other company on these walks were chipmunks and hawks. Even though the nights could be near freezing, we lucked out with having great, sunny weather for nearly all of our time in Canada. 

One of our final, longer hikes was to these falls (blanking on the name right nowl). Somehow we managed to veer off the official trail early on and were surprised how rugged it was, only to meetup with the actual trail three quarters into it. We didn't care so much as we had a squirrel accompany us for awhile and we had fun climbing around large, lichen covered rocks. I like to think we took the scenic route!

In the photos, the falls don't look like much, but between the width and ferocity of the water rushing through, they were actually pretty impressive. The day was sunny and warm enough where relaxing next to the falls was practically mandatory before heading back for another few hours in the van. 

As usual, we had to have one more secluded sunset before making our way into Toronto. From here on out our road trip exclusively led us through cites. Keep an eye our for Toronto, Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis and St. Louis! Like I said, this series is never ending! 

Cheers!

#Travel // Alone Together in Canada // October 2013

As we passed the border from Northern Minnesota in to Canada, our first day was spent exploring the unknown and having it all to ourselves. Let me tell you, the other 8 billion inhabitants of this earth have no idea what they're missing when it comes to the north shore of Lake Superior in the midst of autumn!

There's a smattering of small towns along the way (one boasting to being the home of a 1998 female curling champion!), but as far as I'm concerned, the only served as a place to take a break, refuel and continue on to the wilderness. Our first major attraction was the Ouiment Canyon, and like any canyon, no photos could possibly do it justice! 

There is an expanse of really awesome trails along Lake Superior, and as alluring as they all were, we stuck to the smaller, easier ones, unsure how long our new road trip route would take to lead us back to Chicago before Torsten's departure flight. 

The rest of the day we mostly just made stops are really stunning rest stops on the side of the highway. Every five minutes there was a new, amazing few that made us want to stop the car and just soak it all in. It's probably the only reason it took us so long to cover this chunk of the coast! At least we were able to see a bobcat lurking on the side of the road, no photos as it didn't dawn on me until after we'd passed it that it had to be a bobcat! There is still something so exhilarating about even getting a glimpse of an animal in the wild that you'd never expect to see!

There was no way we were going to find anything open 24 hours by the end of the day, so we decided to stray off the highway and find somewhere low-profile that we could get away with parking the van for the night. I couldn't tell you where we parked, because I have no idea the road that led us off the highway to this secluded bay. We crawled around rocks as one of the most magnificent and surreal sunsets painted the sky. It was changing every 30 seconds into something more and more beautiful.

Eventually it got really chilly, where Torsten and I ended up having a couple beers as darkness overcame our beautiful bay. After a day of fresh air, we had one of our best, most relaxing sleeps of the trip, alone together in our makeshift, Canadian wilderness, camping spot. Pure bliss.

#LastHurrah

 [ To add to the nostalgia factor of this post,  play "Good Riddance" or "Friends Forever". Don't be shy, I know you all have them in your iTunes. ]

My days of checking in gleeful tourists for their "full-day sea caves adventure" and nights of drinking local microbrews to Lake Superior's stunning sunsets has officially come to an end. 

The last week was spent having our last hurrahs, packing-up and saying our goodbyes. It was a bittersweet moment as we definitely made the most of our experience, but by the end a lot of us, mostly the guides, were getting worn out with working so much and dealing with our less than ideal living quarters. Don't let my balcony photo fool you, while outside was gorgeous, there is a reason why you've never seen photos from the inside. I think there'd be a unanimous vote that it was probably breaking soooo many codes.

Nonetheless, getting to experience Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands made it all worth it. 

Here's to the trips made, skills learned, goodies consumed, the people watching, wildlife spotting, meteor showers, birthday celebrating, dinners shared, street fights witnessed, spontaneous dips in the lake, games in the park, gin and tonics, weather watching, lightning storms, jamming on the deck, girl talks, live music, surviving captian dave's, star gazing and best of all

....

 getting to know all these cool cats. 

It was a summer of some great and interesting experiences that I will always remember. 

Cheers!

#LongIsland #FullMoon #Cruise

  

...

There are nights you remember the summer by.

They typically revolve around the most gorgeous sunsets you'd swear you've ever seen, with some of the most amazing humans you know and a fire so large you can focus your eyes on anything else other than it's glow while shenanigans are happening in the distance.

...

The week stated out with a sign on the kitchen screen door advertising a full-moon cruise to one of the islands with eats and spirits-a-plenty. 

More than enough to reason to go.

The day arrived and a larger than expect crowd gathered outside the corner of the Bayfield Inn while we waited anxiously for “our captain” to arrive. After waiting for awhile, about three full drinks worth (not that I was counting), numbers started to slowly dwindle. The rest of us just gathered on the rooftop bar overlooking superior for drinks and a dip into the snacks, basically preparing for the worst and making ourselves comfortable.

Eventually we were given word that everything was ready at the pier to load ourselves and our belongings, which consisted mostly of beer, food and musical instruments. On arrival to the pier, all of our illusions of the cruise were shattered as we thought there'd be this big huge yacht like thing waiting for us outside.

Instead we were given three little fishing boats.

The numbers dwindled yet again.

The rest of us, already buzzing, were still stoked to be going on a boat so we loaded and set off for long island*. The sun was starting to set over the lake, the islands with Bayfield disappearing in the distance. While loading, it may have seemed sketchy at first, but I think we all knew we were making the right decision. Or at least there are worse ways to go down than with boats filled with beer and good company. 

As our boat approached the shore of Long Island we watched as the others arrived, unloading and starting a ferocious fire in what seemed like a snap of a finger. We rolled up our pants and waded to shore. It didn't take long before everyone had a beer in hand and music started being played.

We had landed just in time to watch the most spectacular sunset, where the full moon was already shinning bright, rising over the horizon. During the last rays of sunlight, a group of us followed the beach towards the bright glow of the moon. We went as far as the beach went, sitting next to the breakwater. Contemplating life, or whatever, I'm sure. 

We hung out in our quiet corner for a while. As we headed back we joined the others and all sat around the fire. It didn't seem like long before we were staring to gather everything up to head back to Bayfield. 

As we approached the bright lights of Bayfield, the party didn't end. With the most prime location in town, and a balcony overlooking the bay, our place was the natural choice to continue the night's festivities. 

 I'm not totally sure what time we started winding down, but whatever few hours of sleep I was able to log I still woke up with the sun at 6 AM, escaping a hangover and with enough energy to last at least half of the day at work. 

*Long island is not technically an island anymore since it has connected the mainland 30 years ago, now making it a peninsula.