Storyline: Road Trip with Milan 2018
Our last stop during this road trip was on the shores of Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world (by surface area). We love it there, although we still have to visit north of Wawa. It never ceases to amaze.
Over the years Alex and I have hiked some of the Lake Superior Provincial Park trails,
camped at Pancake Bay and Rabbit Blanket Campground, when we could still sleep in tents that is, dined at the restaurant (Salzburger Hof) on Batchawana Bay owned by an Austrian couple and stayed at their motel (alas their site says that the property is sold, after 47 years, but everything has an end),
walked through Sault Ste. Marie where Lake Superior drains into Lake Huron, but never stayed at the northern end of the park. Our cabin was part of Rock Island Lodge B&B.
In general, the lodge is full because of its partnering with Naturally Superior Adventures, which offers sea-kayak, canoe and paddleboard training, renting and tours.
In season the lodge is always full and one can’t book without participating in the adventures.
But again, we were in the shoulder season and I had managed to secure the only independent cottage (the rest of the rooms are in the lodge).
The B&B prides itself for offering the only waterfront accommodations over the 250 mi (400km) of the Lake Superior Circle Tour. Our room overlooked the Michipicoten River as it flows into Lake Superior to the south.
Lake Superior Provincial Park boasts towering cliffs, pristine lakes, vast sandy beaches, beautiful waterfalls and many accessible hiking trails. Driving on Hwy 17, part of the TransCanada Highway and the only road that cuts through the park, is spectacular. I always say, every place has its noncomparable beauty. Wawa, the “land of big goose” in Ojibwa, is at the north end of the park.
After stopping in Wawa for take-out dinner and wine that we’d have later by the lake (the lodge offers dinner but take-out was a better option for us) we arrived at the lodge early afternoon. It was spectacular!
The weather could not have been better. We’d had rains and gray days, it had been cool to cold. But here, with calm blue waters of the lake, and clear starry skies, everything lined up to provide a perfect stay.
We strolled on the grounds of the lodge and the adjacent camping area, then settled in the Muskoka chairs and benches around, sipping our wine. Alex and Milan decided to gather wood for a bonfire later in the evening.
We had our dinner in the quietness of the lake shore: listening only to our own chatter, watching the loons, bathing in the blue waters of the unusually still lake.
As dusk approached, Alex lit the bonfire. It was so magical! The fire pit was positioned in the middle of the rocks, between the lake’s waters either side of a small peninsula, with the shores of Wawa to the north and the Michipicoten Post Provincial Park to the south.
Perfect location to watch and photograph the sunset. After dinner other lodge occupants joined us around the fire.
We watched the sunset, then the moon-rise and the stars at night (I kept getting up and watching them from our window).
Next day we decided to visit the Agawa Rock Pictographs. The lake was still calm, so we had a great chance to hike down the steep rocks. This is one of the few pictographs (or pictogram) sites in Ontario accessible by foot (when the lake is calm that is).
We first walked down to Old Woman’s Bay and checked the water temperature. No, didn’t plan to swim or even step into it, but the guys had fun skipping a few of the flat beach-stones across the mirror-like surface.
We’d been to Agawa Rock Pictographs in a hot summer years ago and hoped we could reach them again. Agawa Rock is a sacred site for the Ojibwe (also Ojibwa or Ojibway) people and the pictograms are believed to be from 17th or 18th century, but are possibly much older. Transcribing our memories of this trip over two years later reminded me about the pictograms in Magura Cave, Bulgaria (believed to be 10,000 years old) that we visited just a year before this road trip, and the pictographs of the Jawoyn and Dagomen aboriginal peoples on the rocks Nitmiluk Gorge, Katherine, Australia (believed to be 40,000 years old) that we visited in 2019. These messages from the past, no matter where in the world, record the story of life, the story of the people, their dreams, fears and happenings. Art has been and is an integral part of human expression and existence.
The rocky trail to the Agawa pictograms is short but often slippery, and this time was no exception. It descends about 30m (98 feet) though the sheer cliffs and broken rock boulders (one dramatically handing in the chasm between the rocks).
I watched Alex and Milan, whose shoes were better prepared for wet rocks than mine, going down, as I waited on the viewing platform just above the pictograms. Stepping onto the edge of the rock shelf requires caution even when lake is calm.
Superior conditions are notoriously fickle, and the smallest unexpected wave can easily wash unwary visitors into the brutally cold and unforgiving waters.
After Agawa Bay we turned back north towards the lodge. It was time for lunch and Sand River Falls was a convenient stop for this. There were quite a few people climbing the boulders but by the time we settled for our lunch in the late afternoon, most had gone. Here is the start of the Pinguisibi Trail – a short and popular trail in the Park. Pinguisibi is the Ojibwe name for the Sand River.
Beautiful sunny day to conclude our trip. Add another bonfire in the evening and star gazing later then… we had to say goodbye to the spectacular natural beauty of Lake Superior.
This will also conclude our road trip, although we had to spend an unplanned night in a crummy motel near Sudbury due to a road accident ahead of us near Iron Bridge on hwy 17. The highway was completely closed and our only alternative was north a detour on 546 to 639 south and then 108 through Eliot Lake and back to hwy 17 near Serpent River. It was an interesting drive if it wasn’t for the big trucks going both directions on sometimes very narrow road. Including the hour or so we spent discussing with others whether we should just wait or take the detour, we arrived in Sudbury about four hours later than expected. We decided that it would be wise to find a place for the night in the outskirts without going into the city.
Many others had the same problem, so it wasn’t an easy task, but finally we managed to get two rooms near the suburb of Mikkola.
Next day we’d breeze to Toronto.
Milan and Alex would then visit Niagara Falls (there is a video in the footer of this blog from that day trip) and we also took Milan, who is an amateur artist, to The McMichael Gallery in Kleinberg. Alas, everything has an end and shortly after it was time to drive him to the airport.
He probably will be the only Bulgarian friend that will manage to visit us in Canada. After losing Dora (Milan’s wife as most of you know) many years ago, last year we lost Krasi, another very close old friend of mine and the husband of my other Bulgarian friend Vanya. I don’t believe Vanya will ever manage to visit no matter her desire and no matter our youthful dream to travel around the world with a campervan. Her health is not great and her phobia of travel is even worse. But as you know, Alex and I bought a campervan last September and named it Doranya (after Dora and Vanya). So, these two will travel with us in our hearts.
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