Another two day entry. I am typing this on Tuesday afternoon outside the campground laundry and shower facility.. laundry gets done when we can. Yesterday was a long day. We left ‘the soo’ by about 10:30 with Lake Superior Provincial Park in our sights and figured that we would get there around 1:00 or so..and we did but it was a rainy and foggy day and the first camping area we stopped at just didn’t have any spots that could accommodate our unique little rig, so we pressed on to the next area and the rain began in earnest. We opted to find a hotel for the night.
The Trans Canada Highway is spectacular by the way. It has not disappointed at all, we could have had better weather as the fog and drizzle hid a lot of the scenery from us, but what we did see was enough. We feel blessed to be able to drive these roads and see and too what we are doing. Somewhere along the route, before we hit the first town with hotels, we stopped at a place called Sand River, where a ranger told us we could hike along a waterfall. Well let me tell you, Niagara has nothing on these falls. Oh my goodness were they spectacular, not in a scenic pretty way but in a ‘Holy Crap stand back’ kind of way. Amazing! We hiked up the trail a ways and left a fee in the box as requested and started our search for a hotel.
At 3:30 we arrived in Wawa, home of the famous giant roadside goose, don’t ask. . . not a single room available in town, for the next four hours, town after town, no vacancies at all. In the town of Marathon, Ontario we parked and I called every hotel in town, nothing. Since the weather had cleared a bit, we made our way to Neys Provincial Park to see if we could get a campsite. Along the way we saw our first moose and a little later a bear, right there on the roadside looking confused. Success, but it was 7:45 before we pulled into our slot on the shore of Lake Superior, late nite for us. I like to be set up before 3 so we can explore. We booked it for two nights. We had camp all set in about 45 minutes, a new record, and I pulled out the stove and we made some fantastic pork chops and beans for supper..tasty and filling. The thing that amazed us as we sat by a smoky fire, was that it was still light out. The sky was still light when we turned in at 10:45. Somewhere we had purchased a foam pad (a suggestion from our camping friends from the cape) to put on top of the air mattress. What a difference, we both slept extremely well and I didn’t get out of bed until after 7:00, very late for me.
All the usual morning activities happened and by 8:30 we were eating breakfast. Carol had oatmeal and toast and I had ham and eggs with toast, and coffee, lots of coffee. Soon we were off exploring and started our hiking for the day. What a cool place this park is. We hiked a trail called ‘Dune Trail’, and then out to ‘The Point’ and the ‘Under the Volcano Trail’ - all in all we hiked over 5 miles. We ate some snacks out on the point, a large rock area, remnants of a volcano of 1 billion years ago and still showing scars from a glacier of 100,000 years ago..amazing world. So now it is laundry time and soon there will some fixing of supper, I’m thinking chicken stir fry tonight and maybe another of those smokey fires. Below is a gallery of the days at Neys and some pix from our stops along the roadside.
Click any image for a larger view.
