The Drive to Lake Superior

Monday, June 25th – Vermillion Bay to Thunder Bay, Ontario - Day 164

Gen woke up around 6:30am unable to sleep anymore with the traffic on the TransCanada nearby. She started to cook farmers sausage and egg for breakfast. The farmers sausage was delicious. We packed up the trailer and went back to Vermillion Bay to see the town. The town was small, but we went to the public dock and enjoyed a boardwalk along the lake. It was nice enough that we decided to go for a swim in the Lake of the Woods. Very refreshing before a long drive.

Our goal was to camp near Thunder Bay, a four hour drive. The first town we reached was Dryden, home to a huge pulp and paper mill. We stopped at a little park to walk a short trail to a suspension bridge. There was a beautiful, tiled mosaic in the park that we stopped to appreciate. The suspension bridge had a great view of the water used to power the paper mill. Before we drove through downtown Dryden, we stopped for gas, a car wash, Canadian Tire to refill propane and have a picnic, and then Max the Moose. Downtown Dryden was quaint but had a slight odour.

Moving onwards, we had two hours to drive to get to Thunder Bay. The drive was forest with views of the Canadian shield. Jo-Ce wanted to stop at Kakabeka Falls and was willing to pay the $5 admission to do so. I’m happy she did. The falls were stunning. You could see the layers of slate-like rock making up the falls. At the bottom was a flat, solid sheet of slate that the water ran over. We saw the falls from one side and decided to visit the viewpoint and visitor centre on the other side. A small hike and a t-shirt purchase, and we were back on the road.

Thunder Bay was thirty minutes away and we checked out one dispersed camping spot. The parking lot was full of cars so we thought it might be awkward setting up our camper. We pressed on to Fort William Historic Campground. A crew was tearing down a concert from the previous weekend. The campsites were empty so we set-up and had a dinner of mashed potatoes and mung bean curry.

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