Lake Superior Circle Tour Thru Ontario Canada

Day 20 - Here we are in our beautiful neighbor to the North and it won’t stop raining. Oh, Canada, where is your sun? We stopped at Fort William Historical Park in Thunder Bay, Ontario to camp last night, but it was sprinkling and too late in the afternoon to visit the historical fort, not to mention there was a wedding going on. We self-registered for a campsite.

The campground is basically just a big grassy field with electrical and water hookups, overtaken by dandelion puffs at the moment. The ablution block including toilets and showers was situated in a couple of mobile units. It rained all through the night, thunder rumbling in the distance and in the morning, the weather  was still very wet, gloomy, cold and raw. We’d spent the night swatting at ravenous mosquitoes. During a brief break in the rain, we had unrolled the insect screens which helped, however there was already a mighty swarm inside. In between swats, I evidently slept soundly because I woke with huge, itchy bites on the few parts of my body that had been exposed… hands, neck and head.

When the U.S. tried to tax the Northwest Company in Grand Portage, they moved their headquarters about 75 miles north, as the crow flies, to Fort William near Thunder Bay, Ontario. Most of the the Fort William historical park experience, we learned, is an outside affair… similar to Grand Portage, we thought. The rain showed no signs of letting up, so we opted out.

The Resolute Forest Products plant was absolutely enormous, with immense mountains of wood chips midst huge pieces of equipment.

We spent a little time in the city of Thunder Bay, but it’s a very industrial city and most tourist  activities were geared toward fishing and outdoor activities. It’s also a major railroad hub based on the network of tracks we crossed. We tried to find the lighthouse, but struck out. The GPS was useless as were our local maps and after three tries, we gave it as pass. We did learn that Persians are the local  pastry of choice in Thunder Bay. They are oval-shaped doughnuts, deep-fried and frosted with berry icing. Try as we might, we couldn’t find one. Guess you gotta know where to look. Persian photo credit: Sameer Vasta/Creative Commons

By the time we left Thunder Bay, the rain had progressed from showers to heavy rain to a torrential downpour with accompanying winds and a significant temperature drop. Streets were beginning to flood. Rivers were roiling. Waterfalls emerged along the side of the highway. Though it was midday, the sky became darker and darker. Thunder roared and lightning flashed. The good news? The huge collection of bug guts Blanche had accumulated on her windshield was washed away.

We tooled along the TransCanada Highway (17). Like the U.S., there were lots of construction projects in the works and going was slow in some areas. The roadside was heavily forested, and though we knew the lake was nearby, we only picked up glimpses once in awhile.

We stopped for the night at Penn Lake Campground. It was windy, cold, raw, and wet. During a brief respite in the rain, we managed to cook up a pot of chili, but retired to Blanche to eat it when the rain commenced once again.

Day 21 - Surprise! More rain! All night long, the rain continued pummeling Blanche’s roof. At one point, it hailed for a short time, but switched back to heavy rain. The wind howled. The thunder boomed and clashed. Lightning cracked and flashed. We were thankful we weren’t in a tent. Checking the forecast, all we could see was rain for the next couple of days. It was a restless night and hard to wake up in the morning.

Heading south now, we saw signs for the town of White River, all with a picture of Winnie the Pooh prominently displayed. We wondered why. Sure enough, as we entered the town, there was Winnie, bigger than life in a roadside display.

According to an info sign, here’s the story in a nutshell

In August 1914, Lt. Harry Coleburn of the Canadian Army Vet Corps, purchased a black bear cub at White River, Ontario while en route overseas. He named the cub, Winnie, after his hometown of Winnipeg. The bear became the soldier’s mascot. When Coleburn served in France, Winnie became the ward of the London Zoo. When Coleburn returned to Canada, Winnie became a permanent resident of the zoo, watched and loved by many zoo patrons, including A.A. Milne and his son, Christopher. In 1926, Milne immortalized Winnie forever in his Winnie the Pooh character.

A couple of thoughts on this story. He ‘bought’ a bear cub while en route overseas??? How did he manage having a bear cub on a ship/plane? Did he room with the bear? What did he feed the bear? Bear chow? Just wondering.

Though we haven’t seen any moose yet, frequent road signs warned us to be on the lookout.

Our next stop was in the town of Wawa… we wondered about its name. (Lots of wonderment this day!) The most noticeable thing as you drive into the Visitor Center there is the huge Canada goose sculpture. Wawa, we learned, translates to ‘wild goose’ in the native Ojibwe language. When the final link of the Trans-Canada Highway was completed connecting Wawa and Sault Ste. Marie, the goose was constructed by the local townsfolk as an attraction to lure visitors into town. There have been three ‘wawas’ over the years. The first disintegrated within three years. The second was made of steel representing Wawa’s iron ore industry, but it rusted and deteriorated over the years and was finally replaced by a stainless steel and bronze goose in 2017 to commemorate Canada’s 150th anniversary. Yet another story for the curious.

The rain and cold continued off and on all day. We had thought to camp out again in Pancake Bay, but as we neared Sault Ste. Marie, the thoughts of a hot shower and a warm, cozy room got the better of us. We used hotel points for a room with a view. Once the rain stopped and the fog began to lift, the view was lovely.

In anticipation of a visit to Mackinac Island, we watched ‘Somewhere in Time’ with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. Sorry to say, it was a bit lame watching it this time around, but the venue at the Grand Hotel had us primed for our visit to Mackinac (pronounced Mack-a-naw) Island.

Day 22 - In the morning, the hotel was close enough for us to walk to Parks Canada Sault Ste. Marie Canal Historic Site. Built in 1895, the canal was the world’s longest lock at the time and the first to operate using electricity. It was celebrated as the last link in an all-Canadian navigational path from the Atlantic to Lake Superior. Today, the Canadian locks are used for recreational craft only and commercial vessels travel through the U.S. locks. Below, we walked along the Canadian lock, but no vessels were heading through at the time.

Admission to the park is free and after a stop at the Visitor’s Center for a map, we wandered the grounds, admiring the old historic buildings and getting a good view of the locks.

On the way back, we had hoped to try out a Beavertail, which looked like a heavenly morning treat. Beavertails are flat, oval-shaped Canadian doughnut-type desserts traditionally coated in cinnamon and sugar and resembling the shape of a beaver’s tail. The shop was unfortunately closed. Bah, foiled again! Below, a classic Beavertail. Photo credit: Jon Kilbert

We’ve since learned that Beavertails are very popular in Ottawa. We’ve got them on our ‘must try’ list.

It was early afternoon when we crossed the International Bridge ($4 toll) and uneventfully cleared into the USA. We were only in Ontario for three days and covered Canada’s 436 miles of the Lake Superior Circle Tour almost entirely in rain.

Back in the USA, the original plan was to head west along the southern shore of the lake to finish the Lake Superior Circle Tour in Duluth, but the weather forecast was at last calling for a few days of sunshine. Since we were intent on visiting Mackinac Island, hopefully when it was fair and sunny, we decided to flip-flop our circle tour and instead head south to St. Ignace where there was ferry boat access to Mackinac Island. St. Ignace is also the end of the western portion of US-2, so we figured after our Mackinac Island visit, we’d travel back to Duluth on US-2 to complete that section of the Great Northern, then turn around and come back to Sault Ste. Marie on the south shore of Lake Superior to complete the Circle Tour route. Sounds complicated, but we reckoned it would work.

We found a perfect camping spot for two nights at Straits State Park in St. Ignace, so named for its location at the Straits of Mackinac. We checked out the weather once again (sun predicted), the ferry schedule (a ferry shuttle would pick us up at the campground) and settled in for the night, anticipating tomorrow’s adventure.

Join us next time as we visit legendary Mackinac Island. It’s beyond wonderful!