We had a good sleep in at the hotel in Thunder Bay. We had decided that we needed to see what was happening with the blackberry and the support line was not available until 9 am. This meant that we had to stay at the hotel until after that time so we could phone in since we could not use the blackberry, to make the call. What we shortly discovered is that there is no coverage for the newer systems between Winnipeg and Sault St. Marie. We had checked on the Bell website for coverage and it appears to be so, but was told that the coverage we saw for Thunder Bay was EVOS technology and not the newer ones. We are relieved it is not the SIM in the blackberry as the problem. We can live without the blackberry for a couple of days.
Once that was sorted out we headed down the road towards Sault St Marie. We looked at the map and figured that it was doable in one day, but we wanted to keep the driving to less than 500 km per day. The speed on the highway is set to maximum of 90 km per hr which surprised us since the roads clearly could handle faster speeds. So we set our speed at 98 and were passed by most, but not all drivers. We observed that Manitoba drivers – by in large that we met – liked to drive between 70 and 80. Ontario drivers seemed to prefer something over 100, but we are not sure how much since we never kept up with them. Alberta and BC were generally more our speed.
There is no doubt that this really has some of the nicest scenery we have seen since the Rockies.
Views of Lake Superior were spotty but wonderful each time. It was like being teased about what could be. When not overlooking Lake Superior, it’s islands or shoreline, we had a chance to study the Canadian Shield bedrock. There does seem to be lakes around every corner, in fact at one point we passed a small lake called Dad Lake, then on the opposite side we saw Baby Lake. I commented that there must be a Mom Lake somewhere and sure enough, around the corner we found it.
The highway now does have corners. I would consider them very long and slow curve but for some of the prairie drivers it must have seemed extremely sharp requiring a crawl up to and around them. Not to worry, they made up the time lost by stomping on the gas once around the corner and speeding back up quickly. Don’t think you will be able to pass them, a straight stretch means FAST and slow only on corners.
At lunch time we stopped at a community called Marathon. What caught out attention was that there was a ski lift beside the highway as well as an information center. We had to have a look at the ski hill to find a drop of about 500 feet or more with a variety of runs. There are several runs as you can see, but none looked to me like nothing more difficult than the Martin but Wes disagrees with me.
Regardless it was interesting to see the hill that service as a ski hill in 'northern Ontario'.
One of the things we both had a memory of was Wawa – the giant goose.
Of course we had to stop and look it over. This mining town was part of the ‘gap’ in the trans-Canada highway and the official “closing of the gap” occurred in Wawa. (1960) The goose was part of that celebration and today is the town symbol known around the world.
We finally arrived at Lake Superior Provincial Park where we had decided to stop for the night. We were fortunate to get a site and to be close to the lake as well. Once again, after the tent site was set up, Wes headed to bag another lake for swimming.
It was not long before I sampled the water myself and deemed it warm enough for a swim (I know, you want to warn me about getting crazy with this swimming in open water thing – what can I say?)
After dinner we made a quick trip to the Aqawa Rock to look at the pictographs. This involved a short drive and a short hike down to the water. What we learned was that the pictographs are on the rock face and the ‘ledge’ to get to see them is very slippery.
One slip and you are in the water. This must occur often since there are ropes strung over the edge to the water so people can climb back up. I had on my sandals and when I stepped on the rock I started to slip immediately. I decided that it was stupid to go any further. Wes did venture out a bit further since he had on running shoes but again he was not comfortable to go far and returned.
We did get so see 2 pictographs but were not able to get to see the rest. The next time we go there we will have proper shoes or maybe canoe to the rock instead.
We returned to the campsite to join the camp park attendants on a journey down memory lane as we walked around the beach and trails hearing about the development of the trans Canada highway through this area (celebrating 50th year of opening or ‘closing the gap’ as it is called.) The building of this stretch of the Trans Canada highway was one of the most complicated and expensive sections. Only building in the Rockies and in a couple of areas of Quebec was considered more difficult. It was great to hear about some of the history of the area.
We met several other campers at the same time and enjoyed chatting about what everyone was doing. One fellow was planning on leaving the next morning to hike along the ‘coastal trail’ taking 7 days to go ½ way and returning. This is similar to our West Coast Trail, only it is along Lake Superior. He is also a photographer so he and I talked alot about pictures and compared our sunset pictures.
This has been quite a day and we both were ready for bed early.
No comments:
Post a Comment