If you want the first part of the story,.you have to see my facebook post from today.
The second part of the story picks up with us sitting at tbe park in Atikokan ( if you have to look that up you wouldnt be the first, suffice it to say it is north of Quetico Park.
From Little Falls park we made a quick stop at the ranger office for a fire update. Surprise! The park IS going to closed, an email came out. Not an update of the Alert page, an email. Nice to know that it is not only our govt that runs a shit show. I feel my bonded with fellow North Americans.
But now what?
Well, first order of business was to help out the other hapless canoeists in the ranger office by meeting them at Canadian Canoe Outfitters. While we cooled our heels as they got set up we went over our options. 1) get a hotel and wait it out ( sold out), campground (meh, it is 95F), try and get back to Ely (that sucks we just spent a 2 grand and and 2 days getting to Canada).
What we ended up doing was none of the above. Bud suggested, and we accepted, a new adventure – explore crown land. So we have a new map, (marked up) with a lollypop loop on it that we are going to take 7 days to complete. I really am not that sure where I am, but when we come out we will find out about what is going on with closures and re-asess our options.
So Bud dropped us off (somewhere) at about 6pm, and we had a campsite by 630pm. Not bad either.
Very busy, and very loooong day. My last text was to friend Nate, who teases me because "everything always seems to work out for Matt".
I'll take it!
Location Post – July 14, 2026
