Skip to main content

The Transition from Superior to Huron

Thursday, June 28th – Sault Ste. Marie to Oliphant, Ontario - Day 166 

The alarm went at 8am which wasn’t appreciated. No breakfast or coffee in the trailer today, we had a date with the Breakfast Pig, an eatery Gen found recommended on ioverlander. We were in the parking lot beside the visitor centre, so the Jo-Ce took the kids to visit while we packed up. The Breakfast Pig was fantastic; the fried chicken eggs benedict on waffles was delicious. 

The day started to speed up a little bit. We mapped in our trip to the Manitoulin ferry and found out it was a 4.5-hour drive. This left us with three hours to spare. We went to the Sault Ste. Marie Canal National Historic Site where a lock transitions boats from the higher Lake Superior, past the St. Marys River rapids, to the lower Lake Huron. We were able to walk across the locks and over two islands to get a view of the rapids. 


 Hurrying back to the car, we drove through the downtown towards Algoma University where a former residential school has been transformed to a school building with an exhibit on the first floor. We didn’t have that much time, we read some powerful statements on the process of forced assimilation endorsed by the Canadian government and the hurt done to Indigenous people by the residential school system. 


We were left with forty minutes available to spend between Sault Ste. Marie and Manitoulin Island, so we started to drive. Our stops featured the giant Loonie in Echo Bay, a stop in Thessalon where Jo-Ce had spent some time in her youth as a junior ranger, a bathroom break in Serpent River and ice cream cones in Espanola. We had to drive straight to the ferry terminal and arrived with seven minutes to spare. 


The Chi-Cheemaun ferry is a beautiful boat. The native artwork on the boat is very colourful and the sight of it entering the harbour was powerful. We spent most of the hour and three-quarter ride on the deck admiring the sunset on Lake Huron on a lovely warm day. 

 When we reached Tobermory at 9:30pm, we drove the hour to Oliphant to set-up the camper at the cottage. Mary and Mary Catherine were there to welcome us after our long trip. We had a great night hanging out with each other.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Desert Forest

Saturday, May 28th – Joshua Tree National Park - North to Joshua Tree National Park - South, California– Day 107 Our campsite was a large open dirt area with some scrub around the outside. In the dark we had managed to park beside the pile of horse poo and shaving. Horses were allowed in this site. Gen stepped in the middle of a pile.   The Joshua Tree National Park visitor centre was a five-minute drive away. The town of Joshua Tree was packed with college age millennials communing with nature. There was a market with kombucha, organic greens and a few small tortoises. It was all very pleasant but very busy. The laundromat was at the edge of the market, I charged the devices and did the laundry. Gen bought some produce from a guy loading a truck. I even snuck in to buy some watermelon kombucha.   The drive into the park was ten minutes followed by a ten-minute line to show our pass. A quick stop to fill up our water bottles and we were into the park. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Desert Forest - Part 4

We finally decided to move to our last destination before the sun set. The Arch Rock Nature trail was next. We reached the parking lot and saw the rocks in the distance, we were debating what we wanted to do. We just started moving and once we did, we found ourselves racing down the trail to the rocks. The kids wanted to play monster and once they started running, everyone else was running as well. We had another poo-mergency with no restroom in sight, the evidence is buried in the desert. There was more climbing on the rocks. We took pictures of the sun setting and took a quick look at the Arch rock before starting back to the car.  Gen was behind the wheel, an hour later we were leaving the park’s south entrance. We stopped at the Ranger station to freshen up in the bathroom and fill our water bottles before heading to our campsite. Luckily, the site was the overflow campsite for the park so was minutes from the outside of the park....
Post a Comment
Read more

Canyonlands is Another Planet - Pt 3

Thursday, May 12th – Moab, Utah – Day 91  Our day was shortening already, our next hike, the Grand View Overlook was closed due to a search and rescue operation. Apparently, falls and accidents happen quite a bit at National Parks; Gen looked up the top ten most dangerous parks and Canyonlands wasn’t there (it was number 12).  We got a recommendation to hike the White Rim Overlook trail, a 0.9-mile easy hike. The kids were running out of energy. They made it most of the way and then decided to stop to climb a rock. Gen and I continued the short distance to the canyon edge to see the sights. Canyon after canyon after canyon was what we saw. We stopped to sit and marvel at the scenery as the shadows started to lengthen.   On our drive back, we saw the sun set and we stopped at the visitor centre one more time to see the view from just across the road. I couldn’t get enough canyons; I was in love ...
1 comment
Read more