Wide open skies beyond a cold grey lake and tumbled rocks in soft warm colours
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
THE NORTH SHORE & LAKE SUPERIOR PROVINCIAL PARK
THE NORTH SHORE & LAKE SUPERIOR PROVINCIAL PARK
30th September – 3 October
The day we set off from Thunder Bay was a blustery, drizzly fall day, the greens and yellows and the occasional dabs of orange felt damp and muted. Ravens were plentiful and vocal, disturbed, perhaps, by the circling turkey vultures.
After about 100 kms we drove through the remarkable Red Rock area, the distinctly red cliffs rising steeply, edged by the greens and yellows above and below.
We were treated to many breath-taking views of the lake as the highway, at times, gouged its way, the road-cuts exposing the red granite of the Canadian Shield, and wound along the shoreline.
Stopping for lunch at the Rainbow Falls Provincial Park, we donned our hats, gloves and jackets to make the short walk to the falls. Brrrr!
By late afternoon we reached Shreiber where we braved the weather and took a walk around the sleepy town, before hunkering down for the night in the empty campground.
The first of October heralded promises of possible flurries later in the day. Not wanting to have to contend with snow while towing a trailer, the plan for that day became to aim for somewhere close to Sault Sainte Marie, still about 500 km away. From Shreiber the road follows the curves of the shoreline for another 100 km or so before arcing inland east and then south, meeting the lake again at Wawa, thus cutting off a large square nose that extends into the lake.
Once south of Wawa we entered Lake Superior Provincial Park and here we began to see the glorious oranges and reds of the maples along with the yellows of the aspens and birches. There were periodic breaks in the clouds by afternoon and the patchy sunlight added lustre to the marmalade hillsides, the pink granite outcrops and shadowed dark green rivers. Here too mountain ash, which we hadn’t seen since being in the Rockies, grow abundantly, their narrow tapered leaves all gone now till next year, and only the bunches of deep red berries left on grey branches. These will provide winter food, rich in iron and vitamin C, for birds, squirrels and bears.
Toward the southern end of the Provincial Park, to my delight, we came upon the Agawa Bay campground. We were glad to stop driving and spend a couple of nights in this beautiful place.
Lake Superior Provincial Park was another special place for me on our journey.
The campground, lined by a pebbly beach, faces west towards Agawa Bay and the vastness of Lake Superior beyond. Here at last I felt able to stop and be still and fully take in its magnificence. The evening air was cold in the wind, but that didn’t dampen the glow of the sunset or later the moon dropping its sparkles into the waves.
The Visitors Centre had been recently expanded and renovated and the next morning after exploring our options we decided to hike a section of the coastal trail.
Lake Superior is an “international treasure”. It has “the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in the world and it holds 10% of the Earth’s precious surface fresh water.” It is also the deepest of the Great Lakes and “could hold all the water of the other four, plus three more Lake Eries”. It seemed more like an ocean than a lake to me, with the waves constantly rolling, I found myself looking out into the distance in search of whales or seals. It’s interesting to me that no mammals have evolved to live in this vast expanse of fresh water. The rock pools seem strangely empty of animal life; there are no sea stars or urchins here in the crystal clear water.
Lake Superior Provincial Park is one of several parks and protected areas around the lake, and 11 trails explore the variety of landscapes, “rocky shores, beaches, lakes, and rivers, waterfalls, transition forest, wetlands and rolling hills”. This time we had time for only one day’s hiking, the other trails that take one into the interior will have to wait for another longer stay.
The Coastal Trail is 65 kms in total and to hike the whole length would take 5 or 6 days. We began our walk a short distance north of the main Agawa Bay trailhead at Sinclair Cove. We decided we would walk for 2 hours heading north before turning back.
This trail from all accounts is the most challenging one and certainly it was slow going. Clambering up rocky cliffs took us into the wind, which had the bite of the approaching winter though the day was clear and sunny. We were thankful to find some protection as we dropped down to boulder beaches nestled in coves and lined by red and white pines. I especially loved the patchwork of pink and white granite and black diabase, cobbles rolled round and smooth after centuries of waves lashing against the shore.
I felt the yearning to spend more time in this beautiful wild place. I believe its call reminds me that this type of experience is an essential component of my human life, along with my other more urban involvements.
Our final stretch along the shore of Lake Superior was an easy drive from Agawa Bay to Sault Ste. Marie The colours became increasingly vibrant as we drove south and I wanted to soak in those last views of the lake. It was wow, wow, wow, all the way along.
30th September – 3 October
The day we set off from Thunder Bay was a blustery, drizzly fall day, the greens and yellows and the occasional dabs of orange felt damp and muted. Ravens were plentiful and vocal, disturbed, perhaps, by the circling turkey vultures.
After about 100 kms we drove through the remarkable Red Rock area, the distinctly red cliffs rising steeply, edged by the greens and yellows above and below.
We were treated to many breath-taking views of the lake as the highway, at times, gouged its way, the road-cuts exposing the red granite of the Canadian Shield, and wound along the shoreline.
Stopping for lunch at the Rainbow Falls Provincial Park, we donned our hats, gloves and jackets to make the short walk to the falls. Brrrr!
By late afternoon we reached Shreiber where we braved the weather and took a walk around the sleepy town, before hunkering down for the night in the empty campground.
The first of October heralded promises of possible flurries later in the day. Not wanting to have to contend with snow while towing a trailer, the plan for that day became to aim for somewhere close to Sault Sainte Marie, still about 500 km away. From Shreiber the road follows the curves of the shoreline for another 100 km or so before arcing inland east and then south, meeting the lake again at Wawa, thus cutting off a large square nose that extends into the lake.
Once south of Wawa we entered Lake Superior Provincial Park and here we began to see the glorious oranges and reds of the maples along with the yellows of the aspens and birches. There were periodic breaks in the clouds by afternoon and the patchy sunlight added lustre to the marmalade hillsides, the pink granite outcrops and shadowed dark green rivers. Here too mountain ash, which we hadn’t seen since being in the Rockies, grow abundantly, their narrow tapered leaves all gone now till next year, and only the bunches of deep red berries left on grey branches. These will provide winter food, rich in iron and vitamin C, for birds, squirrels and bears.
Toward the southern end of the Provincial Park, to my delight, we came upon the Agawa Bay campground. We were glad to stop driving and spend a couple of nights in this beautiful place.
Lake Superior Provincial Park was another special place for me on our journey.
The campground, lined by a pebbly beach, faces west towards Agawa Bay and the vastness of Lake Superior beyond. Here at last I felt able to stop and be still and fully take in its magnificence. The evening air was cold in the wind, but that didn’t dampen the glow of the sunset or later the moon dropping its sparkles into the waves.
The Visitors Centre had been recently expanded and renovated and the next morning after exploring our options we decided to hike a section of the coastal trail.
Lake Superior is an “international treasure”. It has “the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in the world and it holds 10% of the Earth’s precious surface fresh water.” It is also the deepest of the Great Lakes and “could hold all the water of the other four, plus three more Lake Eries”. It seemed more like an ocean than a lake to me, with the waves constantly rolling, I found myself looking out into the distance in search of whales or seals. It’s interesting to me that no mammals have evolved to live in this vast expanse of fresh water. The rock pools seem strangely empty of animal life; there are no sea stars or urchins here in the crystal clear water.
Lake Superior Provincial Park is one of several parks and protected areas around the lake, and 11 trails explore the variety of landscapes, “rocky shores, beaches, lakes, and rivers, waterfalls, transition forest, wetlands and rolling hills”. This time we had time for only one day’s hiking, the other trails that take one into the interior will have to wait for another longer stay.
The Coastal Trail is 65 kms in total and to hike the whole length would take 5 or 6 days. We began our walk a short distance north of the main Agawa Bay trailhead at Sinclair Cove. We decided we would walk for 2 hours heading north before turning back.
This trail from all accounts is the most challenging one and certainly it was slow going. Clambering up rocky cliffs took us into the wind, which had the bite of the approaching winter though the day was clear and sunny. We were thankful to find some protection as we dropped down to boulder beaches nestled in coves and lined by red and white pines. I especially loved the patchwork of pink and white granite and black diabase, cobbles rolled round and smooth after centuries of waves lashing against the shore.
I felt the yearning to spend more time in this beautiful wild place. I believe its call reminds me that this type of experience is an essential component of my human life, along with my other more urban involvements.
Our final stretch along the shore of Lake Superior was an easy drive from Agawa Bay to Sault Ste. Marie The colours became increasingly vibrant as we drove south and I wanted to soak in those last views of the lake. It was wow, wow, wow, all the way along.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
THUNDER BAY
27th – 30th September THUNDER BAY
Thunder Bay, with a population of about 110,000 people, is the largest city along the north shore of Lake Superior.
Europeans first settled in the area in the late 1600’s with 2 fur trading posts. These were later abandoned and in the early 1800’s Fort William became a permanent settlement. Several years later Port Arthur was established a few miles further north.
In 1970 the 2 cities were amalgamated and renamed Thunder Bay.
Amethyst is found in rich supply on the north shore of Lake Superior near Thunder Bay and is Ontario’s mineral emblem. Two mines close to the highway are open to the public where you can bring your own hammer and dig for yourself. We did not make it to a mine ourselves but I was able to buy a few gorgeous rocks, with the reflective purple crystals still attached to the grey rock.
“The earliest mention of amethyst near Lake Superior dates back to the 1600s, but the first large deposit was discovered in 1955 just east of Thunder Bay. In the Thunder Bay area, amethyst crystals formed in cavities created during the faulting of the Lake Superior basin about 1.1 billion years ago.”
Sleeping Giant Provincial Park is east of the city on the Sibley Peninsula, which juts into Lake Superior. On Sunday 28th September we headed out with a picnic lunch to spend the day in the park.
“The Sleeping Giant is a formation of mesas on Sibley Peninsula which resembles a giant lying on its back” when viewed from Thunder Bay. This is the main feature of the park, which has lakes, a campground and many miles of hiking trails.
We walked one short trail to see a spectacular landform known as the Sea Lion, jutting out into Lake Superior. This is a “diabase dyke formed after molten rock had squeezed up into a crack, hardened, and the surrounding softer rock eventually eroded away over time.” It was a bit of a stretch to see the sea lion in the rock, but the waves are battering away at it constantly so perhaps it doesn’t look so much like that anymore. To me it looked more like an elephant.
At the south tip of the peninsula, outside the border of the park, there is a small seasonal community named Silver Islet, consisting of privately owned cottages and a general store. A short distance off shore is a small rocky island of the same name, where a rich vein of pure silver was discovered in 1868. At that time the island was only 50 sq metres and 2.5 m above the waters of Lake Superior.
“In 1870, the site was developed by Alexander H. Sibley's Silver Islet Mining Company, which built wooden breakwaters around the island to hold back the lake's waves and increased the island's area substantially with crushed rock. The islet was expanded to over 10 times its original size and a small mining town was built up on the shore nearby.”
This was the first silver mine in Ontario and was in operation for 16 years.
“By 1883, most of the highest quality silver had been extracted and the price of silver had declined. The final straw came when a shipment of coal did not arrive before the end of the shipping season. The pumps holding back the waters of the lake failed and the mine shafts which had reached a depth of 384 metres were flooded in 1884.”
The houses on the tip of the mainland that were built to accomodate the miners are now the small group of privately owned cottages. Silver Islet Store, built at the water’s edge is 130 years old and the only original building still standing from the days of the operation of the mine.
“Throughout the spring breakup and fall, Silver Islet was cut off from the rest of the world. As the mine’s principle warehouse of supplies for the miners, the store was an important structure.” I’ll say!
“The store’s quarried stone foundation accounts for its longevity.”
Today, an older couple, the Saxbergs, owns the store, which has retained its historic character. Eric and I came upon it and wandered in. Mr Saxberg works the front of the store, selling groceries and hardware items that are kept on shelves behind the counter. An amiable man, he was seemed eager to chat to Eric about the history of the area. At the back of the store there is a Tea Room decorated with antiques and pictures from the mining period. We followed the aroma of homemade soup and baking and found an aproned Mrs Saxberg busily rolling pastry for pies in the kitchen. Wow! Sitting at a sunny table by a window looking out at the crashing waves of Lake Superior and the rocky outcrop that is Silver Islet, on a chilly windy fall morning, we ordered coffee and warm cinnamon buns with melting butter. We couldn’t believe our sheer good luck, a real old-time tearoom, where nothing else tastes this good.
The next afternoon we decided to visit the Fort William Historical Park, on the west side of Thunder Bay, which tells the story of the North West Company and the Canadian Fur Trade in this area. We were taken on a tour of some of the 40 buildings, depicting the fur trade life, as well as the medicine, business, domestic life and heritage farming of the time.
Fort William was an intermediary point between the west and Montreal, from where the furs were shipped to sell on the European market. Top hats made of beaver felt were all the rage in Europe in the 1700’s. Furs were brought to trading posts across North America, such as the one we’d visited at Fort Langley near Vancouver or Fort William, where they were traded for such items as blankets, glass beads, needles and provisions. The French Canadian voyageurs then undertook the dangerous journey, transporting the furs in 26ft. birch bark canoes along the fur trading routes, ultimately reaching Montreal.
A beautiful 9 ft. bronze statue of Terry Fox, set on a granite base, commemorates the courageous young man, who had lost one leg due to cancer. He is shown running his “Marathon of Hope”, raising money for cancer research. The site of the monument is on the outskirts of Thunder Bay and overlooks the massive Lake Superior. It is close to the point on the highway where he finally had to end his run, in August 1980, stricken by his illness. He died on the 28th June 1981.
Thunder Bay, with a population of about 110,000 people, is the largest city along the north shore of Lake Superior.
Europeans first settled in the area in the late 1600’s with 2 fur trading posts. These were later abandoned and in the early 1800’s Fort William became a permanent settlement. Several years later Port Arthur was established a few miles further north.
In 1970 the 2 cities were amalgamated and renamed Thunder Bay.
Amethyst is found in rich supply on the north shore of Lake Superior near Thunder Bay and is Ontario’s mineral emblem. Two mines close to the highway are open to the public where you can bring your own hammer and dig for yourself. We did not make it to a mine ourselves but I was able to buy a few gorgeous rocks, with the reflective purple crystals still attached to the grey rock.
“The earliest mention of amethyst near Lake Superior dates back to the 1600s, but the first large deposit was discovered in 1955 just east of Thunder Bay. In the Thunder Bay area, amethyst crystals formed in cavities created during the faulting of the Lake Superior basin about 1.1 billion years ago.”
Sleeping Giant Provincial Park is east of the city on the Sibley Peninsula, which juts into Lake Superior. On Sunday 28th September we headed out with a picnic lunch to spend the day in the park.
“The Sleeping Giant is a formation of mesas on Sibley Peninsula which resembles a giant lying on its back” when viewed from Thunder Bay. This is the main feature of the park, which has lakes, a campground and many miles of hiking trails.
We walked one short trail to see a spectacular landform known as the Sea Lion, jutting out into Lake Superior. This is a “diabase dyke formed after molten rock had squeezed up into a crack, hardened, and the surrounding softer rock eventually eroded away over time.” It was a bit of a stretch to see the sea lion in the rock, but the waves are battering away at it constantly so perhaps it doesn’t look so much like that anymore. To me it looked more like an elephant.
At the south tip of the peninsula, outside the border of the park, there is a small seasonal community named Silver Islet, consisting of privately owned cottages and a general store. A short distance off shore is a small rocky island of the same name, where a rich vein of pure silver was discovered in 1868. At that time the island was only 50 sq metres and 2.5 m above the waters of Lake Superior.
“In 1870, the site was developed by Alexander H. Sibley's Silver Islet Mining Company, which built wooden breakwaters around the island to hold back the lake's waves and increased the island's area substantially with crushed rock. The islet was expanded to over 10 times its original size and a small mining town was built up on the shore nearby.”
This was the first silver mine in Ontario and was in operation for 16 years.
“By 1883, most of the highest quality silver had been extracted and the price of silver had declined. The final straw came when a shipment of coal did not arrive before the end of the shipping season. The pumps holding back the waters of the lake failed and the mine shafts which had reached a depth of 384 metres were flooded in 1884.”
The houses on the tip of the mainland that were built to accomodate the miners are now the small group of privately owned cottages. Silver Islet Store, built at the water’s edge is 130 years old and the only original building still standing from the days of the operation of the mine.
“Throughout the spring breakup and fall, Silver Islet was cut off from the rest of the world. As the mine’s principle warehouse of supplies for the miners, the store was an important structure.” I’ll say!
“The store’s quarried stone foundation accounts for its longevity.”
Today, an older couple, the Saxbergs, owns the store, which has retained its historic character. Eric and I came upon it and wandered in. Mr Saxberg works the front of the store, selling groceries and hardware items that are kept on shelves behind the counter. An amiable man, he was seemed eager to chat to Eric about the history of the area. At the back of the store there is a Tea Room decorated with antiques and pictures from the mining period. We followed the aroma of homemade soup and baking and found an aproned Mrs Saxberg busily rolling pastry for pies in the kitchen. Wow! Sitting at a sunny table by a window looking out at the crashing waves of Lake Superior and the rocky outcrop that is Silver Islet, on a chilly windy fall morning, we ordered coffee and warm cinnamon buns with melting butter. We couldn’t believe our sheer good luck, a real old-time tearoom, where nothing else tastes this good.
The next afternoon we decided to visit the Fort William Historical Park, on the west side of Thunder Bay, which tells the story of the North West Company and the Canadian Fur Trade in this area. We were taken on a tour of some of the 40 buildings, depicting the fur trade life, as well as the medicine, business, domestic life and heritage farming of the time.
Fort William was an intermediary point between the west and Montreal, from where the furs were shipped to sell on the European market. Top hats made of beaver felt were all the rage in Europe in the 1700’s. Furs were brought to trading posts across North America, such as the one we’d visited at Fort Langley near Vancouver or Fort William, where they were traded for such items as blankets, glass beads, needles and provisions. The French Canadian voyageurs then undertook the dangerous journey, transporting the furs in 26ft. birch bark canoes along the fur trading routes, ultimately reaching Montreal.
A beautiful 9 ft. bronze statue of Terry Fox, set on a granite base, commemorates the courageous young man, who had lost one leg due to cancer. He is shown running his “Marathon of Hope”, raising money for cancer research. The site of the monument is on the outskirts of Thunder Bay and overlooks the massive Lake Superior. It is close to the point on the highway where he finally had to end his run, in August 1980, stricken by his illness. He died on the 28th June 1981.
Friday, November 7, 2008
GETTING TO THUNDER BAY
26th – 30th September GETTING TO THUNDER BAY
I felt a strong sense of Ontario as home as we approached Kenora. I had never been this far north before but the landscape of the Canadian Shield felt stirringly familiar to me.
Kenora is situated on Lake of the Woods, the second largest inland lake in Ontario. One third of the lake extends into Minnesota. The map of the area looks like a jigsaw puzzle of land and water, with islands and bays and rivers and creeks, and the town taking hold where it can. We had to negotiate some major roadwork as we bumped our way to a campground in the late Thursday afternoon.
The days were getting shorter and colder, the early mornings were dark and it was definitely more difficult getting out of bed in the morning. We spent one day in Kenora, browsing gift shops and the local museum, where we were surprised and interested to find a traveling exhibition of the submissions to the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
This commission was formed to look into aboriginal abuse in the residential schools, and the displays included many photos and letters and recordings submitted mostly by victims of abuse. Working toward reconciliation is distressingly difficult and tenuous, and since that time in Kenora, the chairman, Justice Harry LaForme has resigned, citing difficulty working with the 2 other members of the commission.
It was a full day’s drive from Kenora, through the wilds of Northern Ontario, and the small but significant towns of Dryden, Ignace, Upsala and others, to Thunder Bay. I was struck by the remoteness of these frontier communities, far from the heavily populated southern corridor that I’m familiar with. These are hardy folk, hunters and fishers and boaters who drive 4-wheel drive trucks and know how to cope with the harsher extremes of the Canadian climate.
The black spruce and tamarack of the boreal forest stretched on and on for miles and miles, framing the highway with the earthy green and bedraggled look of trees accustomed to withstanding long cold winters. In the rockier, drier areas there were stands of whispering aspens and white birch, their colours beginning to change to warm yellows, catching the light in the warm sunny early fall day.
The boreal forest is a “world-wide band of conifer-dominated forest that stretches across Russia, Scandinavia, Alaska and northern Canada.” This eco-system, apparently stores more freshwater in wetlands and lakes, and carbon in trees, soil and peat, than any other.
A steady stream of transport trucks towered over us as they barreled past in both directions along this Northern Ontario highway.
By mid afternoon we reached Kakabeka Falls on the Kaministiquia River, 25km west of Thunder Bay. These impressive broad falls drop 130 ft. into a dangerously eroding gorge, with rocks that contain some of the oldest fossils in existence. The water in the river is a deep reddish brown due to the rusty nature of the native ironstone in the area.
There is a legend of this area which tells of an Ojibwe chief who “upon hearing news of an imminent attack from the Sioux tribe instructs his daughter, Princess Green Mantle, to devise a plan to protect her people. She entered the Sioux camp along the Kaministiquia River and, pretending to be lost, she bargained with them to spare her life if she would bring them to her father's camp. Placed at the head of the canoe, she instead led herself and the Sioux warriors over the falls to their deaths, sparing her tribe from the attack. The legend claims that one can see Green Mantle when looking into the mist of Kakabeka Falls, a monument to the princess that gave her life to save her people. Other versions of the legend say she came across the Sioux herself, and later jumped out of the canoe ahead of the falls and swam to shore, leaving the Sioux to go over the falls, then ran back to the camp to warn her people.”
We arrived in Thunder Bay ready to stop and spend 3 nights in a KOA campground.
I felt a strong sense of Ontario as home as we approached Kenora. I had never been this far north before but the landscape of the Canadian Shield felt stirringly familiar to me.
Kenora is situated on Lake of the Woods, the second largest inland lake in Ontario. One third of the lake extends into Minnesota. The map of the area looks like a jigsaw puzzle of land and water, with islands and bays and rivers and creeks, and the town taking hold where it can. We had to negotiate some major roadwork as we bumped our way to a campground in the late Thursday afternoon.
The days were getting shorter and colder, the early mornings were dark and it was definitely more difficult getting out of bed in the morning. We spent one day in Kenora, browsing gift shops and the local museum, where we were surprised and interested to find a traveling exhibition of the submissions to the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
This commission was formed to look into aboriginal abuse in the residential schools, and the displays included many photos and letters and recordings submitted mostly by victims of abuse. Working toward reconciliation is distressingly difficult and tenuous, and since that time in Kenora, the chairman, Justice Harry LaForme has resigned, citing difficulty working with the 2 other members of the commission.
It was a full day’s drive from Kenora, through the wilds of Northern Ontario, and the small but significant towns of Dryden, Ignace, Upsala and others, to Thunder Bay. I was struck by the remoteness of these frontier communities, far from the heavily populated southern corridor that I’m familiar with. These are hardy folk, hunters and fishers and boaters who drive 4-wheel drive trucks and know how to cope with the harsher extremes of the Canadian climate.
The black spruce and tamarack of the boreal forest stretched on and on for miles and miles, framing the highway with the earthy green and bedraggled look of trees accustomed to withstanding long cold winters. In the rockier, drier areas there were stands of whispering aspens and white birch, their colours beginning to change to warm yellows, catching the light in the warm sunny early fall day.
The boreal forest is a “world-wide band of conifer-dominated forest that stretches across Russia, Scandinavia, Alaska and northern Canada.” This eco-system, apparently stores more freshwater in wetlands and lakes, and carbon in trees, soil and peat, than any other.
A steady stream of transport trucks towered over us as they barreled past in both directions along this Northern Ontario highway.
By mid afternoon we reached Kakabeka Falls on the Kaministiquia River, 25km west of Thunder Bay. These impressive broad falls drop 130 ft. into a dangerously eroding gorge, with rocks that contain some of the oldest fossils in existence. The water in the river is a deep reddish brown due to the rusty nature of the native ironstone in the area.
There is a legend of this area which tells of an Ojibwe chief who “upon hearing news of an imminent attack from the Sioux tribe instructs his daughter, Princess Green Mantle, to devise a plan to protect her people. She entered the Sioux camp along the Kaministiquia River and, pretending to be lost, she bargained with them to spare her life if she would bring them to her father's camp. Placed at the head of the canoe, she instead led herself and the Sioux warriors over the falls to their deaths, sparing her tribe from the attack. The legend claims that one can see Green Mantle when looking into the mist of Kakabeka Falls, a monument to the princess that gave her life to save her people. Other versions of the legend say she came across the Sioux herself, and later jumped out of the canoe ahead of the falls and swam to shore, leaving the Sioux to go over the falls, then ran back to the camp to warn her people.”
We arrived in Thunder Bay ready to stop and spend 3 nights in a KOA campground.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
THE PRAIRIE DRIVE
22nd – 25th September 2008 THE PRAIRIE DRIVE
On the sunny, chilly Monday morning Eric and I were at our posts preparing for take off; Eric outside hitching trusty van to trailer, getting torsion and sway bars into position, and me inside ensuring that the fridge doesn’t fly open and off-load its goods along the way, and that dishes and glasses stay put in the cupboards.
It was time to leave Alberta, a province, which I have to say I absolutely loved. The landscape is stunningly varied, with high mountain ranges on its western border, rolling green hills along its mid section, flat prairie farmland and pockets of badlands in the south. The badlands were so-named by the early French immigrants who found it to be no good for farming. Northern Alberta, which we didn’t get to, is a vast expanse of wilderness, much of it inaccessible by vehicle, as is true of all the Canadian provinces.
By the way…
Hoodoos are the “oddly shaped pedestals of earth or pillars of rock that develop through erosion by wind and water, especially in the areas where sedimentary layers alternate between hard and soft material.”
Coulees (in Western Canada and US) are “deep ravines, usually dry, that were formed by running water.”
Our return trip through Saskatchewan took us through the prairie towns of Swift Current and Moose Jaw.
This is the land of the long straight trains and the wide-open skies. Flat lands transform into humpy grass covered hills then flatten out again. Pastel colours extend far out to the horizon, textured by patches of sunlight illuminating golden fields, and bales of hay as far as the eye can see.
Our stop at the end of the day was at a campground, Buffalo Lookout RV Park, just east of Regina.
We spent one day looking around Regina, which, though it is the capital city of Saskatchewan, is smaller than Saskatoon and has a population on about 200,00 people.
It is not easy to tap into the unique jewels of a city when it is completely unknown and we’ve had no recommendations. So my feelings about Regina were mixed.
We headed into town with the morning traffic, and made our way to Wascana Centre, an urban park in the heart of Regina. This area surrounds the Wascana Lake, which is fed by the Wascana Creek, and within its boundaries are the Legislative building and the University of Regina.
A network of walking and biking trails wind through the park. There are picnic spots, a ball diamond, a cricket pitch, canoe and kayak rentals and the like, a busy place in the summer I’m sure. But all was quiet the day we were there, in late September.
From this parkland we walked several downtown blocks, no different from other small city downtown blocks, and found ourselves a mediocre lunch. Actually mine was a bad salad.
Saskatchewan is a narrow province from west to east and by the next day we’d traveled the populated southern corridor and crossed the border into Manitoba.
We by-passed Brandon, which was where the trailer had suffered from a severe dose of disintegrating tires, three months prior. At that time we were moving north to intersect the Yellowhead Highway, this time we were heading due east.
We arrived at Portage La Prairie by evening and found a spot at the almost empty town campground, on the banks of the Assiniboine River. As evening came, a beautiful sunset provided a backdrop for hundreds of noisily honking geese landing and taking off from the gently flowing river. They come here in droves at this time of year to rest and feed, all part of their migration south.
Janet and Mike Bell had recommended to us Bill’s Sticky Fingers restaurant, so we sought it out and this time had a very satisfactory and tasty meal. Eric enjoyed their famous ribs and I the chicken souvlaki.
We skirted north of Winnipeg, stopping for a couple of hours at the Hammock Oak Marsh. I had hoped that perhaps we’d see something of the thousands of migrating shore birds and snow geese that travel this way in the fall. However for the most part they take off early in the morning to feeding grounds, returning to the marshes in the evening to rest.
Nevertheless we did enjoy lunch and a peaceful walk through prairie grass and marshland before continuing our trip, back onto the Canadian Shield and towards Kenora in Northern Ontario.
On the sunny, chilly Monday morning Eric and I were at our posts preparing for take off; Eric outside hitching trusty van to trailer, getting torsion and sway bars into position, and me inside ensuring that the fridge doesn’t fly open and off-load its goods along the way, and that dishes and glasses stay put in the cupboards.
It was time to leave Alberta, a province, which I have to say I absolutely loved. The landscape is stunningly varied, with high mountain ranges on its western border, rolling green hills along its mid section, flat prairie farmland and pockets of badlands in the south. The badlands were so-named by the early French immigrants who found it to be no good for farming. Northern Alberta, which we didn’t get to, is a vast expanse of wilderness, much of it inaccessible by vehicle, as is true of all the Canadian provinces.
By the way…
Hoodoos are the “oddly shaped pedestals of earth or pillars of rock that develop through erosion by wind and water, especially in the areas where sedimentary layers alternate between hard and soft material.”
Coulees (in Western Canada and US) are “deep ravines, usually dry, that were formed by running water.”
Our return trip through Saskatchewan took us through the prairie towns of Swift Current and Moose Jaw.
This is the land of the long straight trains and the wide-open skies. Flat lands transform into humpy grass covered hills then flatten out again. Pastel colours extend far out to the horizon, textured by patches of sunlight illuminating golden fields, and bales of hay as far as the eye can see.
Our stop at the end of the day was at a campground, Buffalo Lookout RV Park, just east of Regina.
We spent one day looking around Regina, which, though it is the capital city of Saskatchewan, is smaller than Saskatoon and has a population on about 200,00 people.
It is not easy to tap into the unique jewels of a city when it is completely unknown and we’ve had no recommendations. So my feelings about Regina were mixed.
We headed into town with the morning traffic, and made our way to Wascana Centre, an urban park in the heart of Regina. This area surrounds the Wascana Lake, which is fed by the Wascana Creek, and within its boundaries are the Legislative building and the University of Regina.
A network of walking and biking trails wind through the park. There are picnic spots, a ball diamond, a cricket pitch, canoe and kayak rentals and the like, a busy place in the summer I’m sure. But all was quiet the day we were there, in late September.
From this parkland we walked several downtown blocks, no different from other small city downtown blocks, and found ourselves a mediocre lunch. Actually mine was a bad salad.
Saskatchewan is a narrow province from west to east and by the next day we’d traveled the populated southern corridor and crossed the border into Manitoba.
We by-passed Brandon, which was where the trailer had suffered from a severe dose of disintegrating tires, three months prior. At that time we were moving north to intersect the Yellowhead Highway, this time we were heading due east.
We arrived at Portage La Prairie by evening and found a spot at the almost empty town campground, on the banks of the Assiniboine River. As evening came, a beautiful sunset provided a backdrop for hundreds of noisily honking geese landing and taking off from the gently flowing river. They come here in droves at this time of year to rest and feed, all part of their migration south.
Janet and Mike Bell had recommended to us Bill’s Sticky Fingers restaurant, so we sought it out and this time had a very satisfactory and tasty meal. Eric enjoyed their famous ribs and I the chicken souvlaki.
We skirted north of Winnipeg, stopping for a couple of hours at the Hammock Oak Marsh. I had hoped that perhaps we’d see something of the thousands of migrating shore birds and snow geese that travel this way in the fall. However for the most part they take off early in the morning to feeding grounds, returning to the marshes in the evening to rest.
Nevertheless we did enjoy lunch and a peaceful walk through prairie grass and marshland before continuing our trip, back onto the Canadian Shield and towards Kenora in Northern Ontario.
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