In The North Country

Saturday, August 29, 2015

We had an interesting day.  It thunder stormed much of last night, blanketing the whole area in pretty dense fog this morning.  Our original plan was to drive north up Hwy11 toward Lake Nipigon, stopping along the way to hike the Pititawabik Pallisades trail.  Its about 3 to 4 miles, the first mile climbing 500 feet to a rock ledge.  But when we there, about 25 miles north of Nipigon, the fog was still very thick, so we continued another 25 miles to Beardmore. This little map will help you understand where we are.

Click on the map and you can enlarge and pan around to follow our path.  Look first for Nipigon toward lower right then find Hwy11and follow it up the map.

A 6 mile trek down a secondary blacktop road (580) brought us out to Popular Point Park on Lake Nipigon.  The furthest north the two of us have been.

A short distance from this park was High Hill Marina.  It appears to be a marina with commercial fishing boats.

Working our way back south again, we turned down a road to Rocky Bay, looking for another access point to the lake.  This was a First Nation village of Ojibwa.  We saw a large gathering of folks so we went over to find out what was going on.  It was a Pow Wow celebrating their traditional world of sacred gathering with other nations.  We asked permission and were welcomed by some very friendly folks. 

There were opening ceremonies conducted in their native tongue.  No pictures were allowed during this portion of the ceremony.  Then dancing began with a band from Minnesota that played traditional Objiwa music.  We didn’t really understand all that was going on but it was very interesting to witness.  Some pictures follow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before leaving we tried a Bannock Burger.  It really is a hamburger, but these had a “special sauce” (didn’t ask, but yummy) on a Bannock bread bun.  Bannock is unique to northern regions and is an unleavened bread common with Eskimos, Indians, and folks living in northern Canada and Alaska.  It really made the burger special.

By this time it was really getting late in the day, so we by-passed our Pallisades hike.  This picture shows the ridge from the road.

 

Next stop, Red Rock, about 5 miles south of Nipigon as the crow flies, but our Ford ain’t a crow, so it was 10 miles by highway.  Red Rock had a paper mill that closed in 2007.  They are working on a makeover with a new marina and lakefront park.

There is a trail that connects Red Rock to Nipigon, so we hiked up to the first lookout.  The sun finally came out, its about 5:30.  Following are a couple of pictures from the lookout.

A view of Red Rock Marina.

Our adventure continues as we make our way to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park tomorrow.  We are staying out near the tip of the peninsula.  This will likely be our last post for a while.  It’s doubtful we will find WiFi until we make it to Thunder Bay.  Hope you’re enjoying the ride as much as we are!

Nipigon, Ontario

Friday, August 28, 2015

We arrived in Nipigon about 2PM for our stay at the municipal marina / campground.  The marina looks nice with an adjoining park that is nicely landscaped.  The campground…. not so much.  The campground consists of the gravel parking lot used for parking boat trailers.  We have 20 amp service and water, and amazingly, WiFi.  There are bathrooms and showers on the other side of the parking lot. 

Surprisingly, all 10 spots in the joint are taken.  This just supports the fact there aren’t too many places around here to RV camp.  For a couple of nights it is doable. 

Tomorrow, if the weather cooperates, we plan to drive the 40 miles north to Lake Nipigon.  There are a couple of hikes we want to take, if we can handle them.  This is rugged country.  Lake Nipigon, actually considered here to be the sixth of the Great Lakes.  When you are watching the weather on TV sometime, notice the blue blob above Lake Superior, that is Lake Nipigon.  Its 1800 sq mi, making it bigger than Lake St. Clair.  There are three dams / falls between it and Superior, so if you want to boat on it, you need to haul it up there.

It forms the head waters for all the Great Lakes.  Here in town the big deal seems to be their new Paddle-To-The-Sea Park, based on the children’s story of a young boy in Nipigon who carved a little boat and dumped it in the Nipigon River.  Since all the Lakes flow to the Sea, little Paddle-To-The-Sea, so the story goes, travels all the way out to the Atlantic.  Google it if you are not familiar with the story.  Lynn had heard of it but never used it in her lessons.

More tomorrow.

Marathon–Day 4

Thursday,  August 27, 2015

Today we are headed to Neys Provincial Park located about 15 miles west.  During WWII Canada, as well as the US, had POW camps.  Neys was the site of a German POW camp from 1943-1946, housing about 34,000 prisoners. It was referred to as Camp 100 and handled the most ardent Nazi supporters.

The prisoners did logging and roadwork and were paid 50 cents/day.  Living conditions and food were very good, in the words of many interned here.  In fact, after their release back to Germany, 25% returned with family to live in the area.

There is very little of the camp that remains.  It served as a Canadian-Japanese relocation camp for a couple years after the war.  The camp was dismantled in the 50s.  A few foundation sections are visible in places within the park, if you know where to look.  The wood was used by area residents for housing and so forth. There are some boat remnants from the logging activities resting on shore that we came across on a hike we took.

The scenery is outstanding along the shoreline.

 

And there was also the little stuff.

The “Up-North” version of Spanish moss.

Another interesting mushroom

Tomorrow we head to Nipigon.

Marathon Day 3

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

It’s still cold, 50 degrees and misting.  The forecast is for clearing, so we decided to take our planned trek to visit three small towns west of Marathon.  The first was furthest west, Rossport.  Figured we might as well drive first in hopes the weather will clear when we get there.  The draw here was to see the harbor with large boats at anchor and an old Victorian style hotel built in 1884 by the Canadian-Pacific Railroad.  Rossport was like a ghost town.  No boats in the harbor and the hotel has been remodeled into a bed and breakfast.

Undaunted, we continued back east to Schreiber. Here a railroad museum, a beach, and some older buildings to see.  The RR museum was closed, but we did see some older buildings and houses. Some of these houses are maybe 20 ft from the tracks.  We bet the entire house shakes when the train goes by.  What?  Sunshine?  Hallelujah the clouds have broken and the sun is out! Perfect timing as we got over to the beach, which was pretty.  It is a pebble and cobblestone beach, sort of a combination of the  one at Lake Superior PP and Marathon. 

Saving the best for last, hopefully, was Terrace Bay.  Their signature icon is a 50ft lighthouse they constructed in the middle of “downtown”.  This thing has steps allowing a panoramic view out of the lake and the town.

Just west of Terrace Bay is a waterfall, the Aquasabon Falls, dropping into a gorge, then flows into the lake.  There is an observation platform above the falls that gives a nice view.

Our last stop here was their beach, another sand beach.  We have been quite surprised to see so many sand beaches.  These do not exist on the south shore of Lake Superior, only cobblestone beaches.

We also saw some wildlife.

This little guy was up in a tree chucking at us, like “Get out of my woods!”  Actually, we saw a bear at the edge of the highway on our way home.  That was a surprise.

With all the islands and channels along this north shore, its easy to see why this area would be popular for cruising.  Only problem, we haven’t seen any real marinas.  Folks must anchor out and dingy into town.  Our next stop at Nipigon has a marina, we’re staying at it, so we’ll see.

Here are a few other pictures from today.

Marathon–Day 2

Tuesday, August, 25, 2015

It rained most of the night and this morning it’s 50 degrees, with fog and heavy clouds.  We decided an indoor activity would be best, so we stopped at the Marathon History Museum to learn a little town history.  Fur trappers were in the area as early as the mid-1600s, but the town of Marathon didn’t really take off until the 1800s.

The story is boom or bust, first a railroad boom 1880s, fishing boom 1930s (until the sea lamprey killed it), logging / paper pulp boom 1940s, and gold boom 1980s.  Gold is still mined here. Unfortunately, there were busts between these booms.  One year during the railroad construction the population soared to over 11,000.  Within a year after the railroad was completed, population dropped to 23 (current population 3333).  The paper mill shut down about 7 years ago and half the town became unemployed. So this is a town desperate for a new boom.

The town is named after the Marathon Paper Pulp Co., headquartered in Wisconsin.  This area was chosen for its abundance of clean water and plentiful timber, along with access to a railroad and a deep water shipping port. Surprisingly, they have a state of the art hospital facility here thanks to the paper mill.

Their public beach is Pebble Beach.

  

Hmm… it should be called Rock Beach, those are not pebbles.  Most are softball size or larger.

We took a short drive to Pic River and the Pawaskwa National Park.  Our objective was to learn about the fur trading activity here during the 1600s to 1800s.  Their visitor center was useless.  Pic River was very active in fur trading with Hudson Bay and North West companies operating here.  There was also a fort to protect the companies, we think from Indian attacks, although the Ojibwa were not aggressive.  Today Pic River is an Indian reservation occupied by Ojibwa.

We took a couple hikes around the park.  Pictures follow.

Hattie’s Cove

The last one is a replica of a typical Ojibwa hut,  No Teepees, this is constructed of birch bark.  It is questionable whether this could survive a winter.

Hopefully, the weather will improve for our exploration to the west tomorrow.

Marathon, Ontario

Monday, August 24, 2015

Today we arrived in Marathon and unfortunately, the crappy weather came with us.  Scenery along the way, with many lakes, would have been spectacular if the weather had cooperated.  It’s raining and a damp 57 degrees here.  We are in Penn Lake Park, a township park run by Marathon.  The site backs up to a pretty little lake that would be ideal for our little Bote, but it’s at home.

We hope the weather clears a bit, but its not predicted to.  So we headed out for groceries.  The first time we bought milk in Canada many years back, it came in a bag!  I’m sure most are thinking, Huh?, milk in a bag?  What are they thinking??

We were prepared this time, so it wasn’t a big surprise to us. 

Our stay in Marathon is several days, as there are some towns and sites to see.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that Mother Nature will cooperate.

The Big Goose

Sunday, August 23, 2015

The signature icon of Wawa is the goose statue.  We were interested in its history and significance; thought you might be curious also.  In 1960, the last link of the Trans-Canada Highway (Hwy 17) in Ontario was finally completed linking Wawa to Sault Ste. Marie and Western Canada. The highway by-passed the town’s downtown business core, located on Hwy 101. Local businesses worried that travellers would pass them by.

A local entrepreneur, Mr. Al Turcott, came up with the idea to place a large scale monument of a Canadian Goose at the junction of the new Trans Canada Highway and Hwy. 101 at the entrance to town. Wawa means “Wild Goose” in Ojibway so it made sense that a Goose monument would welcome visitors on Canada’s newest highway. The first famous goose monument was erected on September 17th, 1960 and was made of hand mixed plaster and chicken wire. With the new goose constructed, the next thought was would this work? Well it did! The goose is what Wawa is known for all around the world and millions of visitors have stopped to view it and take pictures. As a matter of fact, several postcard companies say it proved to be the best selling card on the Circle Route around Lake Superior. There have also been pictures of it in papers in Australia, Germany, Japan, and of course in the U.S.A.

The original plaster sculpture did not stand up to local weather and in 1963, the Township had a new monument constructed from the Algoma Steel which was more representative of Wawa and its large iron ore mine. This is the monument that still stands today, but is rusting around the edges, so there is a drive on to fund a new goose.

The town of Wawa is a small, quaint, little place with mostly motels, restaurants, and gas stations.  It had its heyday back in the late 1800s when gold was discovered, but that lasted only a couple of years.  A big logging boom occurred through out the 1800s.  The Magpie River was used to float logs into Superior.

The area has iron ore and was a major supplier of steel during WWII.  Today no mining takes place around here since the ore is too low grade.  So not much commerce goes on.  Not sure what folks do for money other than tourist related stuff.

It is situated on Lake Wawa, which is quite pretty, and has a decent beach.  It was surprisingly colder than Superior, but that may be because it’s spring fed.

Tomorrow we head to Marathon about 120 miles north and west.