Cross Canada and Back, Part 63

Kenora, Ontario to Manitoba and Saskatchewan

18th and 19th of September 2011, days 126 and 127

Kenora was windy and rainy over night. We had taken in the slides, and were swaying all night long

Tourist info center in Kenora, Ontario

Liz taking in the art exhibit upstairs in the tourist center.

We were staying at Anicinabe RV Park right on Lake of the Woods.

It was Sunday morning and we drove downtown to explore the town. Well except McDonalds and Timmy's it looked very deserted. Some lonely native people walked the streets.

Tons of hotels and motels show that in summer it would be very busy. It is a cute town, even though it was originally called "Rat Portage".

This name probably described in the pioneer days the portaging through all these islands.

We find the brand new City of Kenora tourist information building. Wow, the building is beautiful.

It is designed by a local architect with huge wood beams and glass features. It reminded me of "The Rooms" the art gallery in ST.Johns, Newfoundland. Upstairs nice local art was on exhibit.

The rain really closed in. It looked grey in grey. It was time to leave town. We went back to the RV park, packed up and drove west into Manitoba.

Driving West toward Saskatchewan

A good harvest in most places.

Oak Lake Campground.

We passed Falcon Lake around noon where we stayed on our way east in early summer. We drove through Winnipeg and all the way to Oak Lake Campground past Brandon, Manitoba.

We were on a mission to drive west and home as fast as possible. Sorry Manitoba! We will have to come back and really visit here.

It looks like there would be so much to explore and discover in Manitoba's arts and culture and recreation places.

I think we were just traveled out. Our brains could not intake more information.

Monday morning Anders woke up with a nasty cold. Soon we were on the road again and in no time we were in Saskatchewan on highway 1 toward Regina.

From Regina we took Hwy 11 toward Saskatoon where we merged in to the number 16 Yellow head hwy.

The weather improved the more west we came. Our drive was very pleasant, rolling gentle hills on Hwy 1 and then along the Saskatchewan River toward Saskatoon.

We arrived in the middle of the afternoon at Anders' sister Rose and Allan' place on Jack Fish Lake just past North Battleford, Saskatchewan.

We stayed with Rose and Al for about 5 days.

For more pictures of this part of the trip, check out our on line photo album.

Here are some shortcuts to all the blogs from our Cross Canada Trip. Just hover over the number to see where it will take you

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Cross Canada and Back, Part 62

Neys Provincial Park to Kenora, Ontario

Sept 17th 2011, day 125, Saturday

Time to change drivers

This was a eleven hour driving day. We drove all the way from Neys Provincial Park on Lake Superior to Kenora, in eastern part of Ontario close to the Manitoba border.

Again we started very early.Beautiful sunshine and cold weather. Terrace Bay has a smelly pulp mill, but sits pretty on the hill overlooking the bay.

Rainbow Falls and Rossport are gorgeous. Anders and I switched drivers about every 1 1/2 hours, but Anders took the longer hours.

Liz's turn to drive.

Fort Frances Area

We by-passed Thunderbay and headed for Hwy #11 toward Fort Frances, all the way along the US / Canada border.

Lucky that Anders took Diesel in Thunderbay. There was not a gas station, village, or supplies for the next 250 km +/_ until Fort Frances.

This Hwy # 11 was great, not too many up and downs, no pot holes, and basically no traffic.

We were surprised that there were Bell Towers along this stretch of highway, yet along Hwy. 17 we often had no reception?!?

Along this stretch of the highway it is called " Mom's Highway". But I think there are mostly dads travelling here. Maybe it should be re named?

It looks like fishing and hunting country. There are a few native villages. The area is remote with no street numbers. The odd driveway and homes are marked as : "Sue and Craig Bell" or " GrandPa Joe".

Fort Frances is a dusty border lumber town in the Rainy River District. It has a very interesting

Anders love this area.

history:

From Fort Frances we took Hwy 71 north through the Lake of the Woods area toward Kenora. The Lake of the Woods area is amazing. It has over 14,000 islands.

In other words it is a paradise for water sports, fishing and hunting. Nestor Falls and Sioux Narrows are resort towns along here. We stop at Sioux Narrows and talk to the visitor information agent.

They have a lot going on: Spring BBQ and Oktoberfest celebrations and in Nestor Falls, residents enjoy the Annual Pig Roast on August Long Weekend. They also have a very popular Winter Carnival.

Each summer, this cottage town hosts an Arts Festival which draws local artisans as well as exhibitors from far and wide to display fine art, woodwork, pottery and more.

When we arrived in Kenora, we had just over 30,000km showing on our Cross Canada Trip mater.

Here are some shortcuts to all the blogs from our Cross Canada Trip. Just hover over the number to see where it will take you

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Cross Canada and Back, Part 61

Manitoulin Island to Neys Provincial Park

Sept 16th 2011 , Friday, day 124

Anders woke me up at 6 am. We just made coffee, packed breakfast and lunch, broke camp. At 7 am

7 am, sun is just about to come up.

we were rolling over the Little Narrows bridge direction Espanola. Not a cloud in the sky, minus 3 degrees Celsius, a beautiful crisp autumn morning.

The mist and fog was steaming off the ponds as we drove Birch Island and Whitefish Falls.
After Espanola we were heading west toward Sault St.Marie.

The drive along the North Channel, Lake Huron, between the mainland and Manitoulin Island was spectacular that morning.

Wonderful drive and beautiful landscape.

We drove up steep hills and down again, in and out of fog and sunshine. From time to time we could see distant views of the lake.

Then all of a sudden we were right down by pristine beaches, like in Culter and Blind River. In Serpent River it is minus 2 degrees Celcius.

We drove through Sault Ste. Marie, then north along gorgeous Batchawana Bay, Pancake Bay, Montreal River. This is a great drive that should not be missed.

Camped right next to the beach. Just wonderful.

Liz for a walk on the beach. Feeling much better now!

Anders and Liz  on the beach at Neys Provincial Park

We stopped from time to time to admire the lonely and raw country side.

We continued through Lake Superior Provincial Park, Wawa, and Marathon to Neys Provincial Park.

We liked this park a lot when we drove east in early summer, so we decided to came back here, right on Lake Superior.

I was a little woozy from the long drive and all the up and downs through the rock cuts of Highway 17.

I was soon feeling better. Amazing what a bit of food and some wine can do.

After supper, and we went for a nice walk on the beach in a golden sunset.

This park is very special and if you travel this route you just have to visit here.

We were camped right next to the beach and it is just so wild and wonderful. Ontario at its best.

For more pictures from this part of the trip, check out our on line picture album.

Here are some shortcuts to all the blogs from our Cross Canada Trip. Just hover over the number to see where it will take you

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Cross Canada and Back, Part 60

Manitoulin Island, Ontario

Thursday 15 September 2011, day 123

We went for a long drive around Manitoulin island. Small villages, small farms, some cottages and a lot of bush land and grass. Manitoulin Island is the largest lake Island in the world.

We drove from Sheguiandah to M'Chigeeng. We dropped into some arts and crafts stores. In one they had all kinds of original native art and handicrafts.

They also had a small museum in the back mostly with porcupine quill baskets and cedar baskets. I

Anders going shopping

just bought some trinkets like all tourists.

Quill baskets with native birds and animals they had behind a glass enclosure were exquisite. I loved one with a Blue Heron on a small box with relief tail feathers. But it was way  over $350.00, so we drove on.

Yesterday we looked at some humorous native paintings at the Ten Mile Point Gallery. We loved one of the paintings, but decided that we do not have the space to display more paintings.

Today we continued our journey through Kagawong to Goore Bay.

This area of the island seams to have more agriculture going. Some of the field are looked after and dairy cows or cattle are grazing.

Getting late in the day. Happy Hour anyone?

We drove back over Honora and Aundeck Omnikaning to Little Current. There we shopped for some food and Anders washed the truck.

I visited Manitoulin Island in 1968 and looked at a very colourful Pow Wow. The dancers were incredible. Anders and I were too late in the season this time to see any special presentations.

Just looking at the 2013 calendar, all the Pow Wows were from June to the 1st of September. Too bad. A good reason to go back.

This was our last evening on this island.  We made supper and prepared sandwiches for the road next day.

The next day we started driving west towards home.

Here are some shortcuts to all the blogs from our Cross Canada Trip. Just hover over the number to see where it will take you

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Cross Canada and Back, Part 59

Manitoulin Island Bound

September 14th 2011, day 122 Wednesday

We are working our way back home, still travelling east bound in Ontario. Yesterday we went to the Tobermory Ferry Terminal on the Bruce Peninsula. Our plan was to take the ferry from Tobermory to South Baymouth on Manitoulin Island on the other side of Georgian Bay.

The ferry attendant was very helpful, but warned us that the ferry may not run or be a very rough ride because of the high winds. He even called the captain of the sailing that morning. It did not sound good, the waves were a good 6-8 feet with the wind blowing from the south west, which is the worst for this crossing. The captain warned: "It is not for the faint at heart".

Driving around Georgian Bay

Anders was very nice, I am the faint at heart, I am getting seasick in the shower as he says. So we went for a coffee and made a tough decision. The ferry ride would have cut off about 600 km of driving with our "pull-shack" vs a the 2 hour ferry ride. We did not want to wait for better weather, so we will drive around Georgian Bay.

Late last night we drove back to Owen Sound, Collingwood and all the way to Parry Sound. We arrived late at the Trailside Park RV Park. I think we woke the park attendant up, oh well he get over it. He gave us a spot and took our money. I think this park would be very nice, but we arrived late and left in the early morning fog.

Liz at the wheel

We had a beautiful drive on Hwy 69 through the Ontario forest turning to fall colours, along rivers, and scraggly rocks toward Sudbury. Sudbury itself was kind of ugly, or at lease we did not like it.

It rained like crazy when we drove through. They are still working on the highways. The factory chimneys were spewing out smelly stuff.

We turned west onto Hwy 17 to Espanola and from there south on Hwy 6 to Little Current on Manitoulin Island.  Manitoulin Island is the largest freshwater island in the world.

We booked into Batman's Cottages and Campground just past Sheguiandah. This is a very nice park .

Wonderful views

We liked our wooded spot on the lake.

After setting up camp, we visited Unceded Wikwemikong Native Reserve. Here live 3 native bands which never signed a treaty. It is an interesting place.

There are signs of started projects. We hoped to find an art or gift shop, but did not find one. Their history is very interesting. "ahnnii" in Odawa-Ojibway, it means" welcome"

We have more pictures from this part of the trip in our Picasa Web Album. Have a look.

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Cross Canada and Back, Part 58

Bruce Peninsula on Georgian Bay

12th and 13th of September 2011, Days 120 and 121

We said good bye to Jeanie and Ed, and we were on our way to the Bruce Peninsula on Georgian Bay.

We decided to take a smaller and less traveled roads first. So we drove past Orillia again, then HWY 22 to Craighrust. It is very pretty around there.

Beautiful Drive along Blue Mountain.

From there we went on Hwy 26 along Georgian Bay, Lake Huron over Collingwood. The beaches and towns between Collingwood, Meaford and the Blue Mountain areas are beautiful. Toronto money must vacation here and or retire in one of the pretty places. Blue Mountain has a ski hill.

Around Meaford we see a lot of fruit trees, mostly apple orchards.

Owen Sound right on Georgian Bay is a nice town.  The Niagara Escarpment passes through Owen Sound on its way to the Bruce Peninsula.

Cattle grazing.

Here we took Hwy 6 north all the way to the end of the Bruce peninsula to Tobermory. The peninsula is very flat. The soil seams to be not very fertile. specially further north it was mostly pasture land. Cattle were grazing.

We stayed in Tobermory Village Campground. This is a well run family place, organized, quiet, and friendly. It is also convenient to the parks and the town.

We may have been on Lake Huron, but it looked like weather on the west coast. The winds were howling and the lake was churning.

Fathom Five National Marine Park

We wanted to go with the glass bottom boat to Flowerpot Island in Fathom Five National Marine Park. But the boats did not run, it was too rough. So we visited the part of this park on the very northern tip of the peninsula.

We climbed the view tower. Talk about windy. We had to hold on to the railings. Nice views though out to the islands of the park. We took the short 1 km walk to the rocky shores.

Bruce Peninsula National Park

From Tobermory about 12km south is the entrance of the Bruce Peninsula National Park at Cyprus Lake Road. We drove along, past the park's campground, and then walked to the Indian Head Cove and the Grotto.

It was a glorious autumn day. The water sparkled in deep blue, cyan, and green.  The waves were hitting the rocky shores. The stunted and bonsai-ed shrubs and trees were defying the weather as they did since many years.

Liz and Anders on the rocky coast line

We climbed the cliffs and rocks, it was beautiful and exhilarating.

The Grotto is a huge rock being slowly eaten away by the water and wave actions.

For some more great pictures from this part of the trip, check out our Picasa Web Albums from Fathom Five National Marine Park and pictures from Bruce Peninsula National Park.

Here are some shortcuts to all the blogs from our Cross Canada Trip. Just hover over the number to see where it will take you

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