Monday, September 25
Trip from Sault Ste. Marie to Wawa
The trip to Wawa was
not as interesting as it could have been due to the weather.
It alternated between pouring down rain and sun peaking through
the clouds all day until sunset. It prevented us from wandering
very far from the car, for example to take a hike, even a short
one. So, we had to be satisfied
with stopping every so often to view Lake Superior, which is
gorgeous, from the road. The sky, although annoyingly wet,
really made for some dramatic photo opps. Lake Superior is
surprisingly blue, often aquamarine, due to the varying depths
near the shore. I had expected it to be gray because of the
cloud cover. Not so at all. The waves were also larger than
expected.
There was quite a nice little information center and museum at Agawa
where we picked up some local history. The fall foliage along this
stretch of the TransCanada Highway was pretty colorful, even with
the rain.
We reached Wawa around 5 PM and were greeted by not
one, but two large rainbows. Too bad I couldn't find a good backdrop
for them. Wawa’s claim to fame appears to be a very large statue
of a Canadian goose,
the first of which was erected in 1960 when the last leg of the TransCanada
Highway (Rt. 17) was completed through this area. The highway missed
Wawa by a mile, and the rather upset townspeople decided to erect
a fake fowl large enough to be visible from the highway that would
attract visitors to the town. Since then,
the goose statue has been replaced a couple of times, but still stands
guard at the entrance to the town. The town and its goose are looking
a little tired, and the button you could push to have it honk (?)
at you was dysfunctional, but the townsfolks there were hospitable
enough. (Actually we saw another smaller goose statue with a plaque
under it in another location as we were leaving town, leading to
some speculation on our part as to whether or not we had seen the "real" Wawa
goose.) We ate an unremarkable meal at the Viking Restaurant, walked
along a boardwalk next to the town’s lake, then repaired to
our dinky, but Internet wired room at the Sportsman’s Motel.
Tuesday, September 26
Trip from Wawa to Dorion
What a disappointing day! It rained cats and dogs all day long.
We drove all day long. White River had absolutely nothing
of interest, that we could find. Aside from stopping to eat
the sandwiches we had prepared before we left (probably at
the visitor center) and buying a pair of hand-crafted copper
earrings at the Indian trading post, we didn't spend much
time there. The next stop was Marathon.
The visitor center at Marathon doubled as a ski lodge for
a very tiny ski hill with one chair lift. The park ranger
manning the desk there was friendly and interesting. He handed
out paper samples made at a local pulp mill, and related
how Marathon had grown from 1,500 people to 5,000 souls because
of two gold mines that had opened up east of the town on
Rt. 17. He encouraged all arriving visitors to sign the guest
book as the number of people logged in September would determine
whether or not the center would be open the following September.
Before leaving Marathon, we visited Pebble
Beach where I liberated Canada of four of its large,
surf-smoothed granite rocks.
At Rossport, we stopped at the Serendipity
Garden Café for a cup of tea as it was pouring,
cold, and dismal. There, we became engaged in an interesting
conversation with another customer who was staying at the
guest house there for the week. She was a creative writing
professor on sabbatical from the University of Wisconsin,
working on a book about Lake Superior. She passed along a
lot of information about where to go and what to see as we
rounded the Lake. We didn’t leave the café until
almost an hour and a half later!
That hour and a half cost us a room in Nipigon,
where we had planned to stay for the night; when we arrived,
we found that all (of the not very many available) motel rooms
were taken. Apparently it had been very dry in this region
until the present week, and there had been over 300 forest
fires the previous week. Firemen were arriving from all over
to help mop up. While searching for a place to park ourselves
for the night, we landed in front of a paper mill in Red Rock
where some workers were just getting off their shift. One of
them took us under his wing and escorted us west on Highway
17 to Dorion to the Dorian Inn Motel where there were still
a few rooms available. The room was okay, but rather smoky,
despite its status of "non-smoking" room, and there
was no Internet access. Also, there was a train track very close
to the motel (see photo taken out our window) that the fast-talking
desk clerk didn't mention and that we didn’t see until
we were going into our room. Fortunately, the trains were stopped
from coming through all night because the track was being repaired
nearby. We lucked out because when the first train came through
very early the next morning, it was tooting its whistle loud
enough for the next three towns to hear. The room didn't rumble
much, but the motel's restaurant, aptly named the Rumblin'
Inn, was rumored to experience a pretty good train shake. It
didn't affect the food in a negative way though—it was
good.
Wednesday, September 27
Trip
from Dorion to Thunder Bay
Our first stop of the day was the Amethyst
Panorama Mine where we received a short orientation before
being sent out to search the rubble pile (probably restocked
each night) for $3 per lb. amethyst scraps. We came away with
$12 worth of purple rocks and a couple of necklace pendants
(not found in the rubble pile). The photo here shows amethyst
side by side in a rock with iron ore (the red part).
We ate our pre-packed lunches at, where else, a tourist info
center (this one had a namesake: the Terry Fox Memorial after
a young man who had excelled as an athlete in foot races
in spite of having cancer and only one leg).
The rain was still putting a damper on outdoor
sight-seeing, and we were beginning to realize that waiting
until evening to find a place to stay was getting a bit risky,
especially since we would soon be back in the U.S. during prime
fall color season. So, we decided to head for Thunder Bay and
do some advance reconnaissance. We wanted to look for a book
about Lake Superior that the writer from U. of WI had told
us about (The Ultimate
Guide to the Region by
Hugh Bishop) and find an Internet hotspot for nailing down
room reservations for the next couple of nights.
Finding the book and a WiFi connection wasn't
as easy as we thought it would be. The search led us back and
forth across Thunder Bay. The Chapters bookstore didn’t
have the book and the Starbucks there didn’t have an
Internet connection. Finally, Luke at Starbucks sent us to
Grinders, where we bought white chocolate drinks and set up
shop at a table with the laptop for the next hour and a half,
making reservations for the next couple of nights.
And
then, finally finally it stopped raining for long enough to
do some sightseeing—we went to Kakabeka
Falls, the spot that inspired Wordsworth to pen the Song
of Hiawatha based on the story of a young Indian girl named
Greenmantle who was captured by the Sioux, then led them to
their deaths over the falls during a raid on her own people,
the Objibwe.
We stayed in Thunder
Bay that night at the Landmark Hotel. Awful place, the
Landmark—we were supposed to be in a non-smoking room,
but the smoke from other rooms leaked into our room through
the vents all night. The restaurant was okay. We spent the
evening making more advance plans and reservations, without
the help of the Bishop book, which we didn't find in Thunder
Bay.
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