We encountered something this morning that we haven’t had to deal with on this trip so far: Rain. It rained for the first few hours of the morning and we had the opportunity to examine closely the leak that has plagued this RV for the past few years. It always appeared to be coming in the window over the table, but this time we could see that it was dribbling down from above the window. Something to examine more closely when we get back.
The primary mode of transportation was the birch bark canoe, which could transport a surprising amount of cargo for its size and weight.
The National Monument displays all this in a series of reconstructed buildings and artifacts. It is a very well-done exhibit. Of special note is the workshop where several birch bark canoes are stored. Here, volunteers keep the craft alive by teaching others and continuing to build birch bark canoes in the same way that the Ojibwa built them in the late 1700’s. One of the canoes being built was done by a 14-year-old native girl who was there helping out with the exhibits.
The fur traders took the Ojibwa designs and made them bigger, resulting in canoes that were 30 feet long and could hold several tons of stuff.
We got there over an hour before it opened because we have remained on Michigan time, so we hiked to the top of Rose Mountain behind the heritage center and enjoyed the view from up there.
We strolled the grounds of the exhibits for a while and talked to a few more of the volunteers. It was nearly lunch time when we left.
We stopped at an overlook to make lunch and then stopped at Grand Portage State Park, which sits right on the Canadian border. Here, the thing to do is hike to High Falls, one of the big obstacles in the river making the Grand Portage necessary for the fur trade. This falls is the highest in Minnesota and would certainly be a show stopper for a canoe with several guys and four tons of cargo.
The border crossing was relatively painless and now we are in a foreign country. At least they drive on the correct side of the road here.
We left the traditional Lake Superior circle tour route to go see Kakabeka Falls, a provincial park about a half-hour in the wrong direction. But being the second largest falls in Ontario after Niagara, the falls are rather impressive.
We stopped at a Walmart in Thunder Bay to pick up some supplies. We had considered stopping overnight at one of the Walmarts here, but we saw warnings online that at least one of them was not a good place to stop overnight. And it was the one we were stopped at. Vagrancy is apparently a problem here and we could see several people hanging around and graffiti on some of the buildings and walls in the area. So we decided to move on.
There was some vacancy at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park so we made reservations there and headed that direction. Deb saw a place online that sold smoked fish and we stopped there, arriving at 6:01pm. They closed at 6pm. They were still there and graciously allowed us in the store. We came away with some smoked whitefish and a large piece of carrot cake that we had for snack later. It was really good.
After checking in at Sleeping Giant, Deb wanted to go on another hike so we hiked to the Sea Lion in the waning daylight. This is a rock arch right in the water that used to look like a lion crouching until the head fell off. Now it just looks like an elephant with no ears. But it was a decent hike, despite the fatigue from a long day.
146 miles traveled today. Seems like it should have been more than that.
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