I Woke up around 1:30am, Coughing and sneezing. The air coming in through the top vent of my trailer smelled like Acetone and Melting plastic. Yes, the Smoke from the Quebec fires has returned. This really impacted my rest, as my adrenaline was now up, same thing happens if someone start smoking where I'm sleeping, my heart rate increases, my eyes go wide and I can not rest properly. Regretfully, I shut down all my windows and vents almost completely, this was a bit better, but I lost whatever fresh air I had. I must have passed out sometime around 2am, and woke again around 5:00 am with a scratchy throat and a cough. I planned to leave by 7:00 am at the latest, to make time for the potentially 6 hour drive to Rabbit Blanket. I was juggling with the idea of having a 'proper' breakfast, or if I'd just put some milk on some granola and pack up immediately. I decided to warm up my new cast-iron and test the seasoning that I'd been working hard on over the last month. I put a sliver of butter in there, and used the Brunton so I could choose a flame that wasn't 'blow torch' or 'off' like the other random cheap stove I got from Canadian tire when I though i'd lost my Brunton a few years ago during another trip. It works for boiling water and cooking things that require boiling water, but not so much for things that require careful heat control. The butter got melted slowly, and did not scorch brown, which let me know the pan was the perfect temperature. I tossed in two strips of back bacon, and got it to a nice golden brown, before two eggs with a small brick of cheese. I finished those over-easy and the slid nicely out of the pan into my lid bowl. It was pretty good, but I might be biased. After doing my dishes and packing things up, I did my final checks on the wedge, and headed out around 7:30AM. On the way out, I passed by the Comfort station, and saw a very stern warning for people not to bathe in the toilets. I want to know that story behind that..

I was determined to not make this a marathon run, it was going to potentially be 6 hours, and I hadn't taken such a long drive in quite a while. The smoke was visible on the road in some cases, and smelled like melted plastic, I set the vents to recirculate and headed west. I stopped along at any rest stop that made sense, first Serpent River, and then Missisagi, then Bruce Mines. There was a nice full size Husky Station outside Salut St Marie, and I topped up my half tank of fuel for $50 and grabbed a coffee and an oatmeal cookie before heading out again. The next stop was Batchewana Bay, for my first look out at Gitche Gumee in about twenty ears. I found an involuntary grin pulling at my face, which grew wider as I kept seeing the lake to the left and the huge ancient mountains to the right. My little subaru managed just fine, and in fact there were several ocasions where this one van pulling a tent trailer passed me and then couldn't even maintain the speed limit and I climed past them maintaining that speed limit. My fuel mileage was 11.5 km/l after finally making it to rabbit blanket lake where I was to camp.

And about, that - reserving a site online is great and all, but a site that looks pretty great on the map and in pictures isn't really always amazing in person. I've found that out twice this trip. Currently, I'm at an intersection of the road, there are roads surrounding me on 3 sides. since there are not many campers here now, it isn't much of a problem, but the other issue is.. I cannot fit my trailer into the site itself, there is a 'pull through' driveway, but it has about a 25% grade. Rolling down the hill in the night when I toss and turn in my sleep isn't great. So, I put my trailer at a 90 degree angle to the grade, and stacked rocks in front of and behind the tires. I could have bought wheel chalks at any time in the past, or even made them, but I kept forgetting. This time, it really bit me. I'm lucky I was able to use my stabalizing jacks to somewhat bring the thing into level. I set up my shade tarp, got my panels out and got everything online. By the way, this place is not monitored - there's no one in the gatehouse. even though i looked in the window and they had computers and everything set up, but turned off. I had to drive about 10 minutes back after setting up to get my permit and everything. At this point, I saw the Canadian Flag, the Provincial flag, and then the hateful rainbow flag flying next to them. My smile turned upside down. I did my best to be polite and get things done, but I didn't even get my usual park sticker.. I'll have to go back later to get it. I don't understand why we need to respect people for their kinks, and why they need to be on the same level as our whole country, or even our province. I think its about time we stop treating individuals with certain kinks as special class citezins.

It is roughly 4:00 PM, so time to think about dinner. Tomorrow morning I'm planning to head to old Woman bay around 2:30-3:00 AM for star photos, but smoke might roll in. I'll have to take the risk. I'll get an early night and wake up early. After that, i'll come back to the site, have breakfast and then head back to Agawa bay to see the petroglyphs and from there i'll figgure out what next. There's no paper maps, no park fliers anymore. I have access to the website, but it just isn't the same. I would happily pay extra for those things.