Ontario

Ontario

Arrived at Thunder Bay at 3:30 so time to set up and check out our surroundings 

Happy Land, RV Park (25 mins west of Thunder Bay)

The park has a huge network of trails through the forest, a large soccer field and large sites.   One section is cabins and another section permanent residents.   The owners (Altmans) have owned and operated this clean, spacious and quiet park for 52 years and is now up for sale.

Looks like parts of Northern BC - except the soil is sandy.

DOWNTOWN THUNDERBAY

Lakehead Marine and Industrial Inc

Thunder Bay, with a population of over 121,000 is often referred to as the "Lakehead", or "Canadian Lakehead", because of its location at the end of Great Lakes navigation on the Canadian side of the border.

The Current River fish ladder at the Current River Hydro Station and Military Field.     Smallmouth bass are the prominent fishing source here.

View of Industrial Buildings on edge of a calm Lake Superior.

Thunder bay is composed of two formerly seperate cities, Port Arthur and Fort William.  The Port of Thunder Bay is the largest outbound port on the St. Lawrence Seaway System. The Port Authority manager Keefer Terminal, built on a 320,000 sq metre site on Lake Superior.

Forest industry operations, and Bombardier Heavy equipment manufacturing are some of the major employers in the city.

Photo courtesy of Farmnorth.com

The Monument honoring Terry Fox is on the outskirts of Thunder Bay.   Terry set out to run across Canada in 1980 to raise money for cancer research.   Despite having lost his right leg to the disease, he ran 5,373 km (nearly a marathon a day for 143 straight days) before being forced to stop east of this spot in the community of Shuniah when his cancer returned.      His journey came to a halt on August 31, 1980 when the cancer spread to his lungs.   He died nine months later.   As of Aug 2017, over $750 million has been raised worldwide for cancer in Terry's name.

Marine Drive - a distant view of "The Sleeping Giant"

The Sleeping Giant is a formation of mesas and sills on Sibley Peninsula which resembled a giant lying on its back when viewed from the west to north-northwest section of Thunder Bay.   Its high cliffs are some of the highest in Ontario.

Kah-Kah-Pee-Kah

(means "sheer cliff" in Ojibwa)

Looking downstream, the falls appear shallow and peaceful.

"As we passed...we could feel....

the earth quaking under us from the great concession produced by the fall of water."

- W.H. KEATING, 1825

Marc's iPhone panoramic

40  meter (131 foot) high Kakabeka Falls 

(the 2nd highest waterfall in Ontario with year round viewing).

Tazz and I went for a walk along the walking trails on the south end of the falls.

Signage like this, gets one concerned about ticks . . .

Will keep on checking as we walk through forests and fields.

Endangered Lake Sturgeon spawn at the base of these falls in spring and salmon spawn in the fall.

Heading to Sault Ste Marie for three nights at Blueberry Hill (20 mins west of the city of Sault Ste Marie).   Approx 9 hours with stops.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

A viewpoint view of Lake Superior

Still cool temperatures, just above freezing in the AM (yes, we leave early  - by 7 am after unhooking and packing up which usually takes about an hour), the lakes still show signs of the thaw.  (Watson Lake).









Wawa - the name of the town is derived from the Ojiwe word the the Canada goose.  



We were thinking of staying here (after five hours) but decided to carry on to Sault Ste Marie.










Chippewa Falls

This area is at approximately the halfway point of the Trans-Canada Highway, which runs from St. John's, Newfoundland to Victoria, British Columbia.

Getting close to Blueberry Hill Motel and RV Campground

We see this type of terrain 

and

Alot of these signs.

(but - no moose!)

Arrive at Blueberry Hill Motel and RV Campground - fifteen minutes west of Sault Ste Marie.   Planning on a three night stay.

I skip ahead a couple of days and will post about our stay in and around Sault Ste Marie once I get back to internet access and settled a few days: 

BUT ..... our second day of driving in downtown Sault Ste Marie - this happened:

This young buy passed us on the left (in a left turn lane / straight thru), Marc had his left turn signal on- hadn't merged yet and quite a way from the intersection when he came flying past on the left and cut in front of us - completely taking the bumper off.   His beater car didn't do too well.   We were probably at about 20 km/hr and he was about 70.

We are fine, no one was injured.    We ended up staying for ten days.   

Will post more about how things came down and our dynamic stay.   

In the meantime, we are getting ready to hit the road again soon and sightseeing, so will catch up at the next opportunity.