Beavermead Beginning
As with other things in life, the anticipation can be
as much fun as the event itself. And so it is with RVing. At the beginning of
the season there are a myriad of things to do to get one’s summer cottage on
wheels ready to rock and roll. Check lists as long as one’s arm need to be
attended to. Bike’s need to be checked that they are in good order. Water must
be loaded, and grocery shopping done. Every last detail must be thought through
and attended to.
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| Carla, Neil and Cher on banks of Otonabee River |
Beavermead campsite in Peterborough is one of Ontario’s best kept secrets. Please don’t tell anyone else about this. If you do, please ask them not to tell anyone else. The campsite is beautifully shaded, the sites large and the prices reasonable. It is located close to downtown Peterborough and is run by the municipality. It is close to Little Lake, the Trent Severn Waterway, the Lock Lift, numerous paved cycle routes and is alongside kid’s playgrounds and splash pads. To top it all the local Zoo is free of charge. Most years we spend a few days there with Sammy and Esther, while Elaine gets ready for a
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| Carla and Neil and inflatable kayak |
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| Rob and Carla - cooling off in the Otonabee River |
Carla and Neil had recently bought an inflatable double kayak and were keen to try it out. To keep them company we decided to bring our canoe. I have yet to figure out how to carry the canoe on our RV, so Cher had to bring our van towing the trailer with canoe loaded on that. Having the canoes and kayaks was fun. It opened up all kinds of fun activities. On our first day we decided to see how far up the river we could paddle before we could not go any further. We paddled across Little Lake and headed upriver. After a while we spotted a coffee shop perched over the river’s edge, along with a docking area. We decided to pull in for a coffee and snack. For Cher and I this was the first time we had eaten out, since Covid struck so we did so, with a bit of trepidation. All was well and we enjoyed our refreshment interlude. The river was dammed a bit higher up, so we turned back having warmed up our canoeing and kayaking wings for the week.
Another day we did a long bike ride up the beautifully paved cycle path. The advantage of riding along a river is that the hills are eliminated. That was fun. Another day we decided to do a longer canoe and kayak trip down the Trent Severn Waterway on the Ottonobee river heading for Rice Lake. We had to go through one lock which was an interesting experience from the vantage point of a canoe. The trip down river was lovely. We got a chance to window shop the riverside cottages along the way. It was Canada Day, so many folks had their waterfronts decorated with bright red chairs and occasional flags. After a while, the cottages thinned out and we were mainly seeing forest alongside the river. It was an extremely hot day, so at one point we pulled over and had a cool off swim, which was fun. At lunch time we spotted a public picnic area and pulled over for lunch and another swim. Eventually we got to our pre-determined destination where we had left Neil’s truck and our trailer earlier, to carry us and our gear back to the campsite.
After our canoe adventure we were exhausted. It took me about two days to recover. We figured out we had paddled about 18 kms. It had looked easy on the map when we planned it, but I now have a better idea what we can manage comfortably and what we can’t.
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| L. to R. Cher, Carla, Neil, Rose and Al - enjoying the good life |
My brother Al and wife Rose drove up from Whitby one
afternoon to visit. Al and I did a nice
bike ride almost into Peterborough town proper. In the evening, the six of us
had a good time shooting the breeze together. Old friends telling and
re-telling old stories. The stuff of which good company is made. Too soon our
first week of RVing was over and it was time to head home. We had road tested
the RV and we needed to get re-stocked and loaded up for our three-week trip to
Lake Superior which was a week later. We were looking forward to that.
Lake
Superior Beckons
On a trip a few years back, we skirted most of the
south shore on the USA side. This year with the border being closed we were
limited to staying on the north shore on the Canadian side. This suited us fine
as we have heard good things about how beautiful it is and besides, beggars
can’t be choosers. Covid19 rules and we must obey.
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| Cher and Esther doing some touch up on Elaine's car |
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| L. to R. Rob, Elaine, Esther, Sammy and Apacha |
In planning our route, we had hoped that Elaine, Sammy and Esther would be able to join us. Elaine is planning on homeschooling the kids in the upcoming year and she felt she could not spare the full three weeks which we needed to do the whole trip. Also, she keeps an eye on Apacha, Alex’s dad, who lives next door and she did not feel good about leaving him all alone for three weeks.
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| Sammy and Esther - enjoying the outdoors with us |
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| Sammy got to enjoy a socially distanced birthday party this year. Guests were on the street |
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| The grandchildren had a grand time "social distancing" at a back yard gathering in early July |
Once Elaine starts home schooling, we are expecting to
be giving her a hand a couple of times a week, so we are looking forward to
that time with them all. I think we are going to find this a challenge as the
kids threaten to surpass our rather antiquated academic prowess. Both Sammy and
Esther love to read and it’s not unusual for them to borrow a dozen books from
the library each week, just to keep their hands in.
Lake Superior Highlights:
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| The Big Chute - an amazing engineering feat |
On route we noticed signs to the Big Chute. This had been on our small b bucket list for a while so we made an unscheduled stop. This was a lock on the Trent Severn Waterway with a difference. Instead of bridging the water height gap via one or more locks, the engineers had built an amazing railway system to move the boats from one lake to the next. This involved a massive cage lifting the boats up out of the water in one lake using rubber straps inside the cage and transported up and over the road on the railway line and deposited back in the water in the next lake along. Quite a feat. I have always had the greatest admiration for engineers who seem to take delight in doing things just to show they can.
We had a campsite booked at Grundy Lake for the night
of the 12th, but had decided we would like to see more of it than
just an overnight stop so took a chance that we would find a free campsite a
day early. As it happened, when we arrived, we lucked out with the last
electrified campsite available.
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| The scenery at Grundy Lake was gorgeous |
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| Combinations of granite, water and forest are very pleasing to the eye. |
Grundy Lake is a big and busy campsite. It has five or six camping areas on three lakes, each with their own beaches. We explored the whole site initially by bike and then the next day we ventured out on a couple of hikes by foot. The terrain is very much Canadian Shield granite which blends beautifully with the lakes and forests. Cher is a keen bird watcher and we managed to see a few birds of interest but by and large we have been surprised at how little bird life there has been in these forests. On our second hike of the day, we observed, on the far side of the lake, bunches of teens jumping off some quite high rocks into the lake below. I was very tempted to give it a shot. I think if we had had a bit more time, we would have come back to it, but that will have to wait for another trip. On our second walk of the day, we were the only folks on the path, and it got quiet and eerie. We wondered what we might do if we came across a bear. As we came to the end of the trail, we realized we were just on the opposite side of the road to the camp dump. The next day when we dropped off our garbage there was a big sign up to beware of an “Active Bear” in the area. This gave us both a little shiver up our spines. More about bear encounters later.
Grundy Lake was a big thriving campsite, with probably
a couple of thousand people staying there. Since then our campsites have been
smaller and definitely have a more isolated feeling about them.
Monday July 13th – Thursday 16th,
2020 Pancake Bay Provincial Park
We managed to leave Grundy Lake around 9am. We were on our way to Pancake Bay Provincial Park. It was a trip of about 450kms. We wanted to get there early enough to check the place out after arriving. We travelled about 70kms north to Sudbury and then headed west following the northern shore of Georgian Bay on Lake Huron for about 300 kms to Sault Saint Marie. This stretch of road is quite busy with lots of trucks going both ways. Fortunately, every so often the road widens to two lanes to allow for overtaking, which has been a nice feature so far. We stopped in and found a nice shady parking spot at the Sault Saint Marie waterfront for a late lunch overlooking the park and river frontage.
West of Sault Saint Marie is the beginning of Lake Superior. From here on we were officially beginning our tour of the northern shore of the lake. The drive to Pancake Bay was another hour or so heading north west.
On arrival at Pancake Bay PP we got checked in fine, but we were told that the water supply was off due to a pipe breakage which “should be fixed by this evening”. Fortunately, we had filled our water tank before leaving Grundy Lake, so knew we could manage for a short while. We would need to conserve water though until we knew we could top up again. Swimming would have to replace showering for a while. As it happened the water supply was only restored on the last afternoon of our stay. We have been reminded never to travel with an empty water tank.
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| Pancake Bay - pristine beach and waterfront |
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| Beautiful sunsets - a daily bonus |
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We got settled into our site which was big, flat and reasonably private, one of the advantages of most provincial parks. We were amazed to find the layout of the campsite was long and thin. It followed the lovely white sand beachfront for about a kilometre and a half, with the front row of campsites literally overlooking the beach. It then went back three of four rows with the back row literally 20 or 30 feet from the Transcanada Highway. We were glad to be in the second row not the fourth.
We did an exploratory walk along the beach. We had been warned that Lake Superior is cold but had not expected it to be freezing. There were a few scattered folks on the beach, and almost no one in the water. The only two hikes in the park were closed for maintenance. We wondered what people did with themselves if the beach was unswimmable and the hikes out of service. Cher and I decided that we were here, and we were going to swim. I braved it first. The water was quite shallow for a long way, so it took quite a bit of running before I plucked up the wherewithal to dive in. It was very brisk, and I immediately turned and ran for the warmth of my towel. Cher followed me with much the same result. So now we did not need to shower for awhile or at least that’s the way we figured it.
We spent a couple of days riding our bikes, hanging out, reading, and walking on the beach, which isendless and beautiful and watching gorgeous sunsets. We had noticed the weather up in these areas has been probably 5 – 10 degrees cooler than “down south”. This was a surprise as we expected it to be hot in the middle of summer.
On our last day, we decided to pack up the RV and go
exploring the area. We have a list of 7 “must see” waterfalls along the length
of our trip. First up was the Chippewa Falls a little east of Pancake Bay. We
found it and did a bit of hiking up and around the falls which was fun. We had
read about an Austrian restaurant at Bachawana Bay nearby which served amazing
Wiener Schnitzel, so decided we would treat ourselves and went in search of it.
The road ended in a native reserve with no sign of the Austrian restaurant. On
inquiry we were told “they have closed”. Not sure if that was Covid related or
just the natural order of things.
On the way in to Pancake Bay we had seen a sign for
the “World’s most famous Apple Fritters”. After our wiener schnitzel
disappointment this sounded irresistible and we went in search of that. It is at
a little trading post with a gas station, gift store, restaurant, motel and a
sign, saying “No gas for the next 150 kms”. They are sitting on a gold mine.
The place was buzzing. We filled up with expensive gas and treated ourselves to
a patio lunch and ordered the world-famous fritters for dessert. By the time we
got to the dessert we were so full we could not face it. We took one with us
for afternoon tea. I can confirm, the fritters were particularly good.
Delicious does not quite capture it. Also, one is more than enough for two. World
class? Definitely.
We got back to our campsite early afternoon in time for
our necessary nap. I have found on this trip that my normal 10-minute power nap
has steadily deteriorated into more of a 30 to 40-minute affair. I must say,
this has suited me fine. I am surprised I have not stumbled on to this
remarkably civilized approach earlier in life.
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| Sun, Sand a good book and a beautiful babe. What more could a man want? |
It was a gorgeous hot sunny afternoon. We decided to
pop down to the beach for a final swim and look see. We took the umbrellas, chairs
and books and were set up for a while. For the first time, there were lots of
people on the beach and some were even swimming and staying in the water. I
decided to dip my toes in. The water was practically warm, so not looking a
gift horse in the mouth we both took a longer swim than previously. It was so
nice and the lake so perfect that we could not bring ourselves to leave. Cher
went and got some snacks and we stayed down there until around 7.30pm. We have
noticed that sunset in these parts is close to an hour later than back home.
This is nice, but we have found ourselves occasionally heading for bed while it
is still light outside.
Friday 17th – Sunday 19th,
2020 Ney’s Provincial Park
We left Pancake Bay around 9am, sad to be leaving
Pancake Bay, but keen to see what was next. We had about 350 kms to travel to
Ney’s Provincial Park, which has had some good write ups. We were a bit puzzled
because we had been checking out the weather in Ney’s for a few days and were
keen to resolve a mystery. Whenever we checked out the weather it was about 10
degrees colder than Pancake Bay. We checked Thunder Bay, another 250 kms west
from Ney’s to find the temperatures normal again. We were convinced that there
must be a Ney’s Provincial Park in the far north and we were looking at the
wrong one. We would find out when we got there.
About an hour into our trip we stopped in to check out the Native Pictographs which are painted on a wall of rock immediately facing the lake. It was a bit of a trek down to the paintings with all kinds of dire warnings about potentially being swept into the lake by freak waves. It was quite a challenge to view the pictographs. The only viewing vantage point is gained by gingerly stepping onto slippery, angled rocks which slip directly into the lake. There were some half-hearted chains in place to hold onto and several lengths of rope to pull oneself out of the lake if one did fall in. It was fun, but definitely on the riskier side of our comfort level. I do think the Provincial Park supervising this site could do a better job of conserving these works of art, as one of the ways to make one’s way over to view them is by clinging to the rock face and the paintings themselves. There’s a limit to how long they will withstand that level of handling. It wouldn’t be hard to build a proper platform for people to view them safely from a few feet away without damaging them.
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| It looks easy, but the sign assured us it was not necessarily so! |
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| There's nothing like a well worded sign to give a frisson of excitement |
We stopped for lunch further west at the mighty city
of White River, best known as the original site of the world’s most famous bear
Winnie the Pooh. The Canadian officer, heading to Britain during the First
World War had bought the baby black bear in White River to accompany him to war
as a mascot. He named the bear Winnie after his hometown of Winnipeg. On
arrival in Britain he ended up donating Winnie to the London Zoo, where he was
a great hit with London’s children, one of whom was Christopher Robin. And the
rest is history.
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| Winnie the Pooh - makes White River famous |
Our final planned stop for the day was the Mink Falls, one of our seven that we are trying to see. We were told it was a bit tricky to find and so it was. There wasn’t anything resembling a signpost and we never did find it. Maybe on the way home it will jump out at us.
We arrived at Ney’s Bay and checked in. Sure enough it
was about 14 degrees. I asked the receptionist why it was colder than other
places. She just shrugged her shoulders and said, “you’re right we do seem to
always be a few degrees colder than other places”. I guess that’s what one gets
when one hires summer students and don’t take the time to orient them properly.
Ney’s camp was set up in a similar fashion to Pancake Bay, with beachfront sites for about a kilometre with two or three rows of sites behind them. The one stark difference to Pancake Bay which we do not like about Ney’s is that the beach is covered in washed up debris. We figured that this is the natural look of the bay and the powers that be had decided to leave it that way. Cher got us chuckling. I had bought firewood along the way a couple of times at the Park offices. Each time, the wood had been wet and hard to burn. Cher took one look at all the lovely dry driftwood on the beach and started surreptitiously stuffing bits inside her coat. I have some hilarious video footage of my wife sitting on a log hugging her coat in an effort to conceal her ill gotten gains, while she denies any wrongdoing. All the while with a sweet smile on her face.
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| Cher - borrowing free firewood from the beach at Ney's |
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| Gorgeous views were the norm on our various hikes |
The weather at Neys was mainly overcast, misty and rainy. Every now and then when the weather cleared temporarily, we would venture out to explore. At the office we had picked up a brochure titled “What to do if you Encounter a Bear”. It was filled with stark warnings. I was alarmed when they suggested that pepper spray is a must and “some people carry a long-handled axe” when they go walking. At White River, the home of Winnie the Pooh we had read that in Ontario there are an average of 50 bears every 10 square kilometers. If you do the math, this means we might have more company on our nice peaceful forest hikes than we had previously imagined. We did do a couple of shortish hikes in our two day stay, but both carried long sticks, which made us feel better, which is pretty much all the good they would have been. We survived and enjoyed a couple of beautiful walks.
Monday 20th – Wednesday 22nd,
2020, KOA Thunder Bay.
Our trip to Thunder Bay was not long, about 270kms, but we packed in a couple of interesting sights along the way.
Our first stop was at Aguasabon Falls, a few
kilometres west of Terrace Bay. The people we met there were at least as
interesting as the falls themselves. As we arrived at the entrance area, we met
a youngish couple who were emerging from their car looking very bedraggled. He
with a mat of long hair over his shoulders. She tattooed copiously. It looked
like they had been sleeping in their car. We asked them where they were headed.
“Tofino on Vancouver Island” was the reply in a thick Quebecois accent. This is
about as far west as one can go in Canada. The next stop is China. “What will
you do when you arrive”. The reply with a smile, “We will see when we get
there”. We wished them luck.
As we approached the path to the falls, we saw three
bikes, loaded to the hilt with panniers tied to a post. We walked down the path
towards the falls and met up with their owners and chatted briefly. They were three
young guys, in their early twenties, who had left Victoria in BC some six weeks
earlier en route to St. Johns Newfoundland. We asked them where they were
staying. They said, “wherever we find ourselves or with whoever offers us
accommodation”. They were so young, enthusiastic, and fresh faced. It was great
to meet them. We wished them well and moved on to check out the falls.
The falls were quite something, with an impressive volume
of water coming over them in a torrent. If you are ever driving this route,
these falls are a must see.
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| Nipigon suspension bridge - very impressive |
After Nipigon we turned off in search of the Ouimet (pronounced We met) Canyon Provincial Park, which was about 10 kilometers off the main road. The road was paved but must have been built in sections of about thirty feet. Each section was very badly joined to the next one. It was like riding a roller coaster with the effect enhanced by the long body of the RV. The only way to eliminate this effect was to drive at a snail’s pace. It was a short walk to the viewing platform which was suspended out over the edge of the canyon. The view was spectacular, of the canyon three hundred feet below. Looking south, the canyon opened out into a lake and river with Lake Superior visible in the distance. It was impressive.
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| Ouimet Canyon - indigenous folklore tells an interesting story about the canyon |
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| Ouimet Canyon - we finally found someone to take a photo of the two of us due to Covid concerns |
While we were there, a group of four young women
arrived. We got chatting. They were students from Western University in London,
heading out to BC for the summer. Covid19 had modified their other plans so
this was their fall-back option. They were camping en route. I asked them if
they had seen the three young guys heading east on their bikes. “Yes”, was the
reply. If they hadn’t been heading in opposite directions, I’m guessing they
would have enjoyed meeting each other.
Next stop was the KOA campsite in Thunder Bay. After
10 days of staying in Provincial Park campsites, the KOA was like a country
bumpkin arriving in downtown Toronto. There were two heated swimming pools,
laundry facilities and we could do full hook ups (hydro, water and sewer) at
our site. We felt like we had died and gone to heaven. The one big downside was
that our neighbors on either side of us were very close and visible, so our
privacy quotient was not high. We set up the RV and headed down to the main
center to get the laundry going, while we sat around the pool, read our books,
and swam. Thunder Bay is on the far west side of the time zone. We have noticed
that the days have been getting longer purely by us heading west, so we have
been loving the long evenings.
The weather outlook for our two days in TBay as it’s
known, wasn’t great, but we were here, and this was our chance to see it. We
took a URide, (Uber equivalent), the fifteen-minute drive into town and rented
a car. This gave us legs to do some exploring. Having said that we drove a
couple of kilometers down the road to City Hall where we had been told we could
find maps and ideas of what there is to see. The two cities of Fort Willian and
Port Arthur were merged in 1970 into the city of Thunder Bay. The result is
that TBay now has two downtowns.
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| Cher delighting in some of the local architecture |
We decided to start our exploration with a self guided walking tour of some of the grand old homes of Fort William. I love history and was keen to learn some of the background of the city. Cher can take it or leave it but gamely agreed to humor me. We walked the area and read the descriptions of the various houses. In short order we had become reigning experts on pyramidal and hipped roofs, polygonal towers, hooded moldings, lancet windows and more. It was like a Cole’s version of Architectural Basics 101. By the end, my poor wife was looking rather glassy eyed. We decided to go to the Port Arthur downtown to check out the waterfront and find some late lunch.
The Port Arthur waterfront has been done very nicely.
It is a mix of parks, walkways and marina and goes on for quite a way. We had
hoped to find a restaurant patio down there, but no such luck. We decided we
would have to venture into the downtown to see what we could find. We were
sitting having a quick snack to keep us going when we got chatting to a couple
walking by with their dog. We asked them for ideas as to where we could eat.
Thunder Bay area has the highest population of ethnic Finnish people outside of
Finland. Somewhere we had read that we needed to sample the Finnish fare. The
couple suggested we go to The Nook for that and gave us directions. We decided
to take the high overhead walkway into town, over the busy road, only to
discover, it was closed “due to Covid19”. We headed back to our car and
navigated our way over to there. After scoring a free parking spot, we walked
down to The Nook to find it was only doing curbside pick up and to add insult
to injury, it was an Italian restaurant. We enquired at a local Finnish
bookshop what our other options were. The gentleman suggested the only place
that he was sure would be open would be a couple of blocks away, “an easy walk”.
Off we went. They turned out to be long blocks and when we arrived the place was
a dump, and thankfully was closed “due to Covid19”.
By now we were both feeling a trifle fractious. We had
spotted one restaurant on our way over to The Nook, with an outdoor patio with
bright pink umbrellas and decided, in the interests of family harmony, that we
should go there and forget the Finnish fare. We will do that next time we come
to Thunder Bay. We finally got there, to find a rather overpriced menu but
pleasant outlook on the street. We took a deep breath, decided to call it
dinner, which it wasn’t far off of by then, and it felt better when we paid the
bill. By then our cell phone told us we had walked 14179 steps, eight kilometres,
and headed back to the RV for some down time.
We had been waiting for better weather and the next day delivered on that front. We took a thirty-minute drive west from TBay to Kakabeka Falls, known as the Niagara of the North. These falls were very impressive. The Provincial Parks have done a wonderful job of building a beautiful walkway on both sides of the Kaminisquia River to get the best possible views. The Voyageurs used to use this river to head further west in search of furs and trade. Getting up and around the 120 forr falls was a major problem for them. Eventually they found another route via Grand Portage on the current USA/Canada Border which apparently was more manageable.
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| Rob and Cher with Kakabeka Falls in the background |
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| Kakabeka Falls - known as the Niagara of the North |
We had been advised that the Fort Willian Golf and Country Club served a good lunch and it was enjoyable to watch the golfers whilst eating a modest meal. We headed over there after the Kakabeka Falls and watched a bunch of guys doing some great putting on the practise greens while we ate. It was only towards the end of our lunch, that we noticed that we had not seen a single women golfer in the whole time we had been there. It had a slight “Stepford Wives” feel about it and we beat a hasty retreat.
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| Terry Fox - a Canadian hero by any measurement |
We had one final thing left to do on our wish list in
TBay. We had been told that we had to visit the Mt. McKay Lookout, which
apparently offers spectacular views of the whole area. It is on the local
Native Reserve and there was some concern that it may be closed to the public
“due to Covid19”. We had asked our waitress at the Golf Club if she could
direct us there. She said, “actually I went there yesterday. It is officially
closed, but you can walk up the mountain and it’s only an hour and a half
walk”. Hmmm. Dillemma. Walk for three hours up and down or miss the promised
view. We eventually opted to “do it the next time we visit TBay”.
On our way back to the KOA we came upon the Terry Fox
Memorial and popped in to check it out. It is a beautiful memorial to this
remarkable young man. Having lost one leg to cancer already, he embarked on a
cross country run from St. John’s Newfoundland, to raise funds for cancer
research. For over 120 days he ran the equivalent of a full marathon, with one
stump leg eventually clocking over 5000 kilometres before the cancer caught up
with him in Thunder Bay and he was unable to continue. After all these years in
Canada I finally realized why Terry Fox is such a hero. I am told that since
then, over $1 billion have been raised in his name towards cancer research, so
his legacy lives on.
