Leaving Virden behind we drove through Manitoba and headed into Ontario. I had googled a campground near Kenora Ontario, which was roughly a six hour drive. I thought it would be nice to camp on one of the lakes at “Lake of the Woods”. The campground I selected was Pye’s Landing Camp and RV Park. “Your summer destination on Lake of the Woods”. The photos showed it was right on Clearwater Bay. There was a nice dock right out over the water. Sounded great. There was no real address, just “Trans-Canada Hwy Clearwater Bay”. Of course the GPS in the truck was not helpful, but Google Maps was, or so I thought. I have found on this trip that Google Maps is my go to GPS and have started relying on it instead of the truck.
Let me tell you about Lake of the Woods. It is over 70 miles long and is one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world. Well, it is the 36th largest in the world. I watched a documentary on the lake a few years ago. At the time of the filming of said documentary, Lake of the Woods was considered to have the most expensive cottage real estate in the country,,,,but I Googled it and see that Lake Rosseau is one of the most expensive. Lake Rosseau is also in Ontario. Ontario has over 250,000 lakes!
To get back to Pye’s Landing. First of all Google Maps took us off the highway down a dirt road, where we had to do a U-turn in the middle of the road (Ray did that with no problem,,,,he loves a challenge). We got back on the highway and stopped at the local store/service station. The lady there told us that we had driven past it. So following her directions instead of Google, we went back down the road and did see a tiny little sign on the north side of the highway (not the lake side) and a very suspicious skinny driveway. What we found once we went up the narrow driveway was a huge gravel parking lot with hook ups for campers. There was probably about 300 RV's there. It was not on the lake at all and you could not see the lake. Oh well,,,,as we had driven more than our 4 hour drive, we stayed there. It was pouring rain, so did not even go out of the trailer!!
Pye's Campground
Kakabeka Falls
The weather since crossing into Ontario has been raining and cool. Definitely not “short wearing” weather. Due to the lousy weather we were now on a mission to get down to Riki’s place in Kitchener. We decided to head towards Thunder Bay. Originally I had wanted to drive down towards Fort Francis and then back up into Thunder Bay coming through Quentico Provincial Park. But Ray said he just wanted to head east. Kakabeka Falls was 6 hours away, so we headed there. The Falls are 30 kms west of Thunder Bay on the Kaministiquia River. The Falls are 130 feet high and are known as the “Niagara of the North”. Although I don’t see the comparison. But call it what you will,,it is still beautiful!
I chose "Happy Land Park" to "park" our butts for the night. We have stayed there in the past, but the photos online indicate a pool. Not that it was warm enough to go for a dip, but I did not recall a pool in the park previously. Well on this trip, I still did not see a pool.....but the site was perfect, except for the storm we had! We did meet a couple from Oklahoma. They were on their way to Lethbridge Alberta for a family reunion. The fellow was asking Ray when was the last time he greased his wheels. (uh? grease the wheels,,,,wouldn't that make for a slippery ride?). Ray told him that he had the trailer checked out by a mechanic just before we left, and the wheels were good. "Hell no!" Says the guy from Oklahoma. He got out his grease gun,,,,,and went to town greasing the wheels! Now we are good to slide our way to Kitchener!
Looking for somewhere to have a bite to eat and to see if there were any local craft beers to sample, was a bust. There was however a liquor store. We checked it out and found quite a few local brews. Then it was decision time. I went with what the employee suggested and bought a couple from Lake of the Woods and a couple from Thunder Bay. My favourite was “Skull Rock from Sleeping Giant”. A dark stout.
Wawa
Onward from Kakabeca Falls we continued the next morning through Thunder Bay. Overlooking Lake Superior, on the east side of town was the statue of Terry Fox. The memorial for him is above the highway and is such a peaceful place to reflect on Terry's journey across half the country and on what his effort has done for cancer research. Terry has made all Canadians proud!
There are a few amethyst mines in the Thunder Bay Area. Some are open to the public who are invited to try "mining" themselves. I have ofter thought about stopping in at one of them, but as I do not do well in enclosed spaces, we have never stopped. There is also a gold mine in the area, but it does not appear the public are invited to stop in. We followed the great Lake Superior all the way from Thunder Bay to Wawa, where we had planned to stop for the night.
Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes. In fact it is the largest fresh water lake in the world. It is 350 miles long and 160 miles wide. Driving by, it looks like an ocean rather than a lake. It is known to the Ojibwe peoples as "gichi-gami". The trans Canada highway weaves around the lake, but mostly through forests.
We drove to Wawa (Home of the big goose), which was about a 7 hour drive. Do you see a pattern? We had wanted to do 4-5 hour drives and take our time, but as most of you know how Ray is, he has a hard time sticking to a shorter driving time. He just loves to drive! I fear that when we start heading west through the US, he may want to do 8 hour drives! We stayed in the Wawa RV Resort & Campground. We have stayed here a few times in the past. It is a nice campground with lots of trees and the sites are flat. Unfortunately because it was storming overnight that the ground turned to mud, so was a bit of a mess in the morning! You may wonder why I put the name of the campsite in these blogs. It is for my reference if we were to travel the same route in the future. Also, putting them in my blogs, is like putting something in the "vault". I have won a few arguments when Ray thinks I am wrong in where we went or where we stayed. I just open up the blog and prove I am right! See a method to my madness!!! Lol
So you may be wondering about the moose at the top of this blog. In Ontario and all the way to the east coast there are signs on the side of the road, to watch out for the moose. Well this guy was at the big general store (tourist trap), just hanging around on the porch!
Sudbury
Next top was Sudbury. This was the longest drive yet. With service station or Tim Hortons stops, it was an 7 hour drive. We found an excellent campground just south of Sudbury. It was called Mine Mill Local 598 Campground and is owned and operated by local 598 of the Unifor union. Apparently about 20 years ago the union bought the property and started having their annual family picnic days there. One thing lead to another and they started putting in campsites and now have over 130 full hook up sites. It has great wifi, a nice sandy beach on Richard Lake.
No comments:
Post a Comment