North of Superior

When we left the blueberry farm near Wawa, we travelled north and west. Our next stop was the city park in Nipigon, the most northerly town on the Lake Superior shoreline. We stayed for three days.

During that time, we took two side trips. The first was to Red Rock. We were particularly interested in seeing Red Rock again because the town hosts an annual Folk Music Festival, and we have fond memories of attending one of those music festivals on the spur of the moment twelve years ago. If you type the words “Red Rock” into the search window that appears in the top right corner of this blog, you can see what we wrote in 2014 about our experience at the festival. This year’s festival was scheduled to begin on the weekend after our planned departure from Nipigon. We debated deferring our departure but decided against it.

We also took a side trip to view three hydroelectric dams along a 40-kilometre stretch of the Nipigon River. These three generating stations have a combined generating capacity of just under 300 megawatts.

The landscape along this 40-kilometre stretch of the river is rugged, and you can’t help but marvel at the effort that must have gone into building these three plants. The first plant, Cameron Falls GS, was built in 1920. The second plant, Alexander GS, depicted at the top of this post, went into service in 1930. As you can see, they were spilling water beside the dam on the day we visited. The third plant, Pine Portage GS, went into service in 1950.

On our way back to our motorhome, we saw a black bear. Unfortunately, we were not quick enough to capture the moment. So, you have to take my word for it. If you want to see a picture of a black bear, you need to look elsewhere.

On the way west from Nipigon, we took a side trip to Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park. The park features a hike to a couple of lookout points where you can take photos of the canyon.

We found some interesting interpretive signs that offered an explanation of how the canyon was formed starting some 1.5 billion years ago. One such sign that we found particularly curious indicated that the canyon floor was 1000 kilometres deep below our viewing platform. AI says that the error in the sign was reported to Parks Ontario in 2023. The error has yet to be corrected. That sign wouldn’t have generated nearly as much interest if it had said 100 metres.

Our next planned stop was a Harvest Hosts location at Loch Lomond Ski Area near Thunder Bay. This location was really very quiet and conveniently close to Thunder Bay. We stayed for five days, during which time we visited the city of Thunder Bay several times, including two bike rides.

The roads in the downtown core are being rejuvenated, so travelling through the town involves navigating detours. That said, those streets that are finished do look like they are pedestrian- and bike-friendly. The traditional curbs have been swapped out for shallow ramps that accommodate wheelchairs and bikes easily, and the new streetlights are really quite attractive.

In 2014, we stopped at Kakabeka Falls. Our blog in 2014 says that we wished we had camped there, so we considered doing that this year. But we found it more convenient, and cheaper, to stay at the Loch Lomond Ski Area and visit Kakabeka Falls on a day pass.

It is Jackie’s opinion that Kakabeka Falls is one of the most attractive waterfalls that she has ever visited. It doesn’t have the volume or the elevation of Niagara Falls, but it makes up for it somehow. I agree.

Just a few kilometres from our motorhome at the ski area, we entered the lands of the Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) First Nation reserve. First Nations gas stations sell fuel at prices significantly below those at other gas stations. Disappointingly, since our motorhome’s fuel gauge was still at three-quarters full, we didn’t need to buy fuel at the Ojibwe stations.

We actually started looking for a gas station as we were returning to Thunder Bay after visiting Kakabeka Falls in our car. We saw a few gas stations on the highway as we approached Thunder Bay, but they were all closed. I suppose that’s because they cannot compete with the prices offered by the Ojibwe stations. We did manage to fill up our Ford Escape or our “toad” as it is known in the RV world, at an Indian Reserve station.

Since we are not members of any First Nation, we cannot buy fuel without paying the applicable provincial and federal fuel taxes. Nevertheless, as we trek through Ontario, we have found that fuel from First Nations stations is significantly cheaper because of differences in business costs, competition and pricing decisions.

While in the area, we paid a $10 toll to visit Mount McKay in the Ojibwe Reservation. Mount McKay overlooks Thunder Bay and lookouts towards the city and the Sleeping Giant (a peninsula to the south and east of the city). The views were advertised as spectacular. They were very nice, but the picture above with the canon was taken in town at Hillcrest Park. We thought the views from there were even better than on Mount McKay.

As we pulled into the Aaron Provincial Park Campground, we were welcomed by the deer depicted above. The creature never moved a muscle while we watched it for quite some time. I suppose it thought that if it stood very still, we wouldn’t notice it.

We crossed from the Eastern Time Zone to Central without knowing it on our way to Dryden, Ontario. Luckily we had moved our Thursday night card game to Wednesday, or our friends would have been waiting an hour for us to join them. We arrived at Aaron Provincial Park, east of Dryden, with half of our clocks displaying Central Time and the other half still on Eastern Time. We have been here a couple of days now, and we still haven’t figured out how to get the Google devices to recognize that we are now on Central Time.

Max the Moose is the main attraction in Dryden, Ontario. Actually, he just might be the only attraction that would be of any interest to a tourist. There is also a nature walking trail along the river in Dryden, but the suspension bridge over the river is closed for the season. So, you can’t go very far on the trail.

Our next stop, still in Ontario, will be Kenora.