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59.70 miles. Maximum 26 mph, rating: 8
Got up about 5:30 after a pretty good sleep in the tent. Too cold to sleep outside the sleeping bag, but I sweat in it. Always have a stiff neck in the morning, but it passes quickly. We breakfasted at the A&W where we had pitched our tent, of course, then had muffins at the first restaurant (about 20 miles). The only wildlife I saw was a German who stopped right in the traffic lane to clean his windshield.
11 AM. Cool today, but not as cold as it has been, maybe 48°F. It warmed up later.
Wildlife: chipmunks, sounds of some kind of duck or goose, woodpeckers, a half inch toad, and the high point – a doe moose. She walked across the road, and stopped on the left side. I sprinted to get as close as possible before traffic scared her off. I got within about a hundred meters before a car crested the hill and she trotted sedately off into the woods.
There’s some lovely granite here. Jacky said she saw some newly exposed surfaces from construction blasting yesterday, that were even prettier.
A pickup stopped where I was standing by the road. Two people from the Department of Natural Resources asked if I’d seen a killed moose calf. I hadn’t. They had a report of a traffic kill yesterday, but figured someone had picked it up for the meat.
The rock here is granite, slate (?!), and quartz. There’s lots of evidence of mining. There are processing plants visible from the road, at least five big plants at Mineral Lake, west of White River. There are also signs on the side roads, identifying them as gold mines, or as being the property of various minerals companies. The name Hemlo is big in gold mining. There are also lots of logging trucks.
Smells: a paper mill. Filling a propane tank at a gas station. The still, marshy water of a lake. A truck carrying a load of new lumber.
I only just now realized that we’d crossed several borders. Near Ainsworth, Nebraska, we went from the Empty Quarter into the Breadbasket. Duluth is clearly a border town back into the Empty Quarter (ore, timber, grain).
Hoped to do the 91 km to Wawa by 12 or 1. However, ‘no’ hills proved to be quite a few hills, and we pushed into a strong headwind about 12. Almost no towns between White River and Wawa, but the road is wider and has more traffic. Moving back toward civilization.
We ate lunch about ten miles out of Wawa at a Husky station with a car dealership and a restaurant. Dave sat on the drive-around lawn mowers while he waited. In the restaurants, two Canadians were changing light bulbs (so now we know how many it takes).
Wawa is the Ojibway word for wild goose. The geese use the lake here for migration. There’s a big goose statue at the entrance to the town, which is a kilometer or so off the highway. The town’s raison d’etre is gold mining (including some tourist gold).
Vigorous town – two grocery stores, three banks, laundromats, and a shower. Heaven. I wore my swimsuit to clean my bike. Did laundry, had a beer. Walked downtown, saw the hotel with wooden statues. Nice lake. Ate pizza, had another beer. The stores were open, even into the evening! Local colour: a man riding home from work, wearing his work clothes and hard hat, on a ten speed, no hands.
A picture not taken: she’s washing the windshield. He’s working the gas pump. In the background, there in front of God and everybody, large letters proclaim “Service Centre.” I suppose it’s many years too late for anyone to see any irony in this scene.
102.00 miles. Maximum 33 mph, rating: 7
Triathlon in Wawa today, 1 km swim, 8+k run, 16k bicycle race. Saw a guy at the restaurant last evening with a NY City Marathon tee shirt. Decided not to stay and watch (participate?).
The road from Wawa goes south, and just slightly west. When we left this morning, the sun was in my eyes – via my rear view mirror! Foggy golf course. Gorgeous river. Spectacular rock cuts. Marbled rocks. Bird calls (geese). Lake Superior provincial park, huge and beautiful. Long, long climbs. First or second gear, but reasonable cadence.
11:00, Mom lake (near Dad lake and Baby lake, in Lake Superior provincial park, all of them Lacs Empoissonées)
Really beautiful country today. It’s been beautiful north of Superior, but this is even better! Jacky says this is the prettiest country since the Sierra. It’s hilly country, with exposed rock and forest everywhere. You notice the conifers, but if you look, there is a healthy mix of decids. There are lakes everywhere. The country is so steep that only the largest are blue. The others are dark green, reflecting the forested hillsides, or even black.
Nice to be able to read the French signs now. Ten years ago, they were Greek to me. But why do the English signs say ‘Voyageurs,’ and the French signs say ‘Explorateurs?’ Also interesting that the road signs are bilingual heading east, but not west.
Wildlife: a flock of ducks or geese with a clear warbling call. If I find a ranger or naturalist, I’ll try to find out what they were.
Jacky colour: After she told an Illinois tourist our story, I asked, “Don’t you love blowing people’s minds?” The reply – an emphatic “Yes!”
Jacky colour note 2: A teenage girl said, “I can’t imagine taking six weeks getting from California to here.” Jacky, coolly: “Oh? How long does it usually take you?”
The Soft Shoulders sign came too late. I pulled off onto the gravel too fast and fell. Skinned and bruised my left knee. A few minutes later I was blown off the road by the blast from a semi, but didn’t fall.
5:30 PM, Pancake Bay
Western Wheelers could run a century on this route. No one would complain that there weren’t enough hills! And pretty! Lake Superior provincial park stretches for 80 km. Nice hiking, sight-seeing. We picked the one sandy beach for our snack at noon, a picnic at Katherine cove. Replace the firs with palms, and you’d think you were in Bermuda.
Sand is said to be carried in by the Sand river (what else?). But when we saw it, the Sand river was rocky, not sandy.
At 3:30 we got a real lunch at the Trail’s End lodge at Montreal river, which has a deep, spectacular, extremely narrow gorge. The lodge has a rocky beach, islands, all the accoutrements. We need to come back here to canoe, hike, and be lazy.
There’s a sign at the Agawa gas station: Last gas for 142 km. In much smaller letters: with service bay. Truth in advertising.
Due to a cartographic error, we reserved for tonight at Batchawana Bay. Then we discovered it’s a century! The motel people said they drive it in an hour and a half. Pretty good pace for rough country, with a speed limit of 80 km/h.
If we’re going to be late getting to our destination, we try to reserve ahead. Our experience at White River taught us that, around suppertime, drivers start looking for a place to stay, and after five o’clock or thereabouts, there’s no guarantee of lodging at any particular town along the way. This is especially true on weekends.
Our motel was just across the road from Lake Superior, and I went for a swim. Gentle, sloping, sandy bottom, with water much warmer than its overall average of 42°F (thank goodness).
Bluewater motel took me till nearly 8 PM to reach. The family restaurant had no booze, so we toasted the completion of 3000 miles with water.
43.98 miles. Maximum 32 mph, rating: 8
Ate breakfast, oatmeal with brown sugar, at the family restaurant, and headed for Sault Ste Marie a little after 7. Jacky’s knee swelled up last night from her fall. She iced it, but it’s sore today. I hope a short day will be ok.
From Marathon to Wawa, the road was pretty good, with a paved shoulder most of the time. From Wawa south, it has a good surface, but rarely a paved shoulder. We’ll be glad to get off it. Far too much traffic for a road without a shoulder!
We’ve decided to leave the trans-Canada highway north of Manitoulin and go around the south end of Georgian bay, primarily to avail ourselves of side roads (but also to see once again the ferry and the Bruce peninsula).
I write this stopped along the shore of Batchawana bay at a regrouping point, watching distant shores, haze over the water and small fishing boats, enjoying a last look at Lake Superior. The road was flat until we left the lake, then turned hilly.
Not pleasant the first 35 miles: hilly, bad road, heavy, rude traffic. One or two really steep hills. Dave riding ahead 15 miles at a time.
Halfway point
Trans-Canada highway
This is marked at a historical plaque. Who would have thought it would be this far east? The highway was only completed in 1962! Until 1944, when Highway 11 was completed, you couldn’t drive all the way across Ontario!
Got to a rather miserable café just after they opened at 12. I had french toast and sausage. Dave had a pizza burger. They had a picture map of Sault. We located the C of C on the Great Northern road (17B) coming into town.
Split again and had a fast ride into Sault Ste Marie. Finally a shoulder. We regrouped at the C of C. We called Pauline’s B&B. She had been out of town and had an empty reservation book. The price was okay, too. We got there about 2:30. Pauline’s home is near downtown, on a street that isn’t as quiet as one might like, but it was fine. Pauline proved pleasant and the place very cosy. She kicked her adult grandchildren out of the most desirable room and gave it to us. Pauline works at a crisis intervention center and was on night duty this week.
Locked our bikes in the garage, had a nap and showers, and went for a walk on St Mary’s island, to explore the Canadian lock and the path near the rapids. Beautiful red local sandstone, mottled with gray, is used in many of the buildings. Nature trail with bilingual signs. Beaver dam, cattails, international bridge, railroad bridge we saw closed, then open (though we missed seeing it open).
Most shops and restaurants closed, including the brew pub in the Stel hotel. Their Greenhouse restaurant was good, but didn’t serve their own house-brand beer. We had french onion soup and salad bar, couldn’t finish our chicken stir fry. Nevertheless, we finished up with strawberries and fudge pie.
The restaurant evening ended on a down note, when someone at the next table lit up a horrible pipe and the convection patterns blew smoke into my face. I left my seat and finished my coffee perched a few feet away. I complained when we left about the lack of a non-smoking section.
Sault Ste Marie
This town was named for Saut (sic) du Gaston, a brother of Louis XIII of France. The Ste Marie (St Mary) was added later. Soo might be a border town between the Empty Quarter and the Foundry. There’s no evidence of Breadbasket here.
The American locks were the original ones. But the US refused passage to the military expedition sent to quell the Louis Riel rebellion. All the men and matériel had to disembark below the rapids. The Americans allowed the empty ships to pass, and they re-embarked above the rapids.
This provided an incentive to build a Canadian lock, and no wonder! The lock is now unused, and said to be in disrepair, though we couldn’t see any obvious damage.
The St Mary’s river connects Lake Superior with Lake Huron. Most of the water is diverted into hydroelectric turbines, with about a 20’ head, but there is still a wide rapids and some little narrow rocky stream channels. It’s nothing like the Niagara river.
St Mary’s paper company is on the river, upstream of the bridge and locks. We saw logs falling from a conveyor down a slalom chute into the mill. There was no smell, somewhat to our surprise.
Algoma Steel is further upriver. We didn’t see much of the steel mill, but there was a large scrap pile near downtown. Much of its content was railroad wheels.
Algoma Steel was built to exploit the iron ore discovered at Hearst; the Algoma Central railway was built to transport the ore. The ACR also exploits tourist potential by running an Agawa canyon train up into the back country of Superior provincial park. If we had had an extra day, it would have been a picturesque excursion.
Rating: 9
Woke up at 7:05 to the smell of Pauline’s coffee. She served us bacon and scrambled eggs. Then I noticed a hole in a molar. Called the dental emergency number and got an appointment for 3:10.
We walked through the town and up the Great Northern road to Verne’s, the only ‘real’ bike shop in town. I got a pair of black shorts, but Dave was unimpressed with the place and didn’t buy a spare cable to replace the one I broke at Marathon. Got a copy of Pedal and found that the Canadian women did well in the Tour de France. The women’s tour is about one third the length of the men’s.
Downtown is not dead by any means, but it’s nothing like what you’d want to see. Ate lunch in a neat yuppie restaurant called Zak’s. (But they still serve white bread, and they have no non-smoking section. And expensive!) Both of us had phyllo pastry with spinach filling and Greek salad on the side. Got a Newcastle brown ale. Jacky had peach crisp and I had grasshopper pie.
For as long as we’ve known each other, we’ve always been a little amused, a little embarrassed, and a little frustrated by our tendency to order virtually identical selections from menus. About this point in the tour, we decided to just relax and enjoy. We both have good taste and valid reasons to select the same things.
I couldn’t resist a picture of a store closed on Sunday “for your shopping convenience.”
I did some map study last night. It looks as if we have about 1200 miles to go. I got my tooth fixed quickly and competently. Then we went to an art gallery, bought George and Meredith a pewter spoon, spent an hour at the library.
There are a lot of Italian restaurants. When we asked about non-good-ole-boy cuisine, Pauline recommended the Wild Rose, just around the corner, with Lebanese proprietors. We were disappointed that we’ve still found no Indian restaurants, even though we’ve been in Canada a week already. The Lebanese restaurant was fine. Mid-eastern good-ole-boy. We went to the movie Parenthood, with Steve Martin and Jason Robards. It was so-so.
