The Canadian Shield

11 June 2017

Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay

We woke to a warmer morning than usual. It was 21C when we left this morning but cooled off quite a bit as we continued up along Lake Superior. Our first stop was a Canadian National Historical Site that labeled the half way point along the Trans Canada Highway between St. John's Newfoundland and Victoria, British Columbia. 

We drove straight north for quite a long way, driving through Lake Superior Provincial Park and the towns of Wawa, White River, White Lake, Terrace Bay and on to Nipigon. Nipigon is the furthest north we traveled on Lake Superior.

There were so many signs for this stop of interest that we decided to stop and check it out. It featured many aboriginal crafts such as shoes, moccasins, blankets, jackets and much more. Also art work such as carvings and paintings. We chose to purchase only one item and that turned out to be an Aboriginal painting.

Our first close up view of Lake Superior. The water was still quite cold but very clear.

There were so many opportunities to take these amazing pictures.

I was not expecting this drive to have so much forest. I guess I expected more rock and small vegetation growth. A very pleasant surprise.

The highway was very nice and the speed was 90km but if you went that, you would be the slowest one on the road.

This was an often repeated picture. The road, the trees and the lake in the background.

There were many islands that you could see from the shoreline. Many with cabins near the water.

The shoreline varied depending on where we looked at it. Often it was rocky like this.

Rocks along the shore but as you can see the water is crystal clear.

Often the highway passed through these cuts in the rock. This exposed some very unique and colourful rocks.

At other times the shoreline was a sandy beach.

A large variety of trees grow along the shore of the lake.

As we neared Thunder Bay we could see some larger hills or small mountains in the distance. Maybe tomorrow we can figure out where they are.

Here is a great example of the colours of the cut outs. This reflected a variety of purples.

This cut out, like a layer cake, reveals various layers of colours.

Just before we reached Thunder Bay we stopped at the Terry Fox memorial. This is near the spot where he had to abandon his Marathon of Hope dream of running across Canada, because his cancer had returned and he lost his battle a few months later.

The view toward Thunder Bay from the memorial.

A very quiet, peaceful, fitting memorial to him. We have now driven the length of the distance that Terry ran. A remarkable feat by this young, determined lad.

On the face of the arch is inscribed the crests of the 10 provinces, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. (Nunavut wasn't yet a named region)  

Another big day and looking forward to a good nights rest. We are both very grateful for the fact that we chose this route. The other option was to go south from Windsor and travel through Chicago back to Winnipeg. This beats city for sure.



Tomorrow we hope to drive all the way to Winnipeg. We will gain an hour somewhere on the drive tomorrow.