It was a cold, wet spring in Northern Ontario and I think we experienced the brunt of it. And we did not help the situation with the route we chose to drive from Kenora to Thunder Bay. Normally you take the Trans-Canada Highway 17 but we thought, been there, done that, it is a boring drive through the woods. Lets try Highway 11 through International Falls and Atikokan instead.
It was a pretty drive:
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| In spots the road was lined by granite cliffs |
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| Lots of beautiful birch trees |
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| Interesting marshes |
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| Pretty lakes dotted with small islands |
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| Many small waterfalls where rivers spill into lakes |
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| Wild rice growing in the lakes and rivers |
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| This is not a touristy area but in Souix Narrows we found this shop selling native arts and crafts, among other things. |
This is fly-in fishing country so we saw several businesses designed to accommodate sportspeople with money:
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This was a two-day drive for us. We planned to spend the night at a city park in International Falls but the park was still flooded with the spring run-off and pretty much un-usable. Although it was open.
So we went on to Atikokan, a Native community known as the canoe-making capital of Canada. It was pouring rain when we arrived to another flooded, town-operated campground.With no potable water, a flooded dump station and minimal electricity. Cost $30. What can I say.
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| The view from our front window. |
The rain did stop eventually so we thought we would head out and see what we could learn about canoe making but - when the rain left the mosquitos arrived. BIG mosquitos, HUNGRY mosquitos, NASTY mosquitos. So we quickly settled in to enjoy a quiet, indoor evening.
The next morning we were up early and on our way to Thunder Bay. During the trip we crossed into Atlantic Watershed:
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| up until now all streams flowed north into Hudson Bay. |
Ontario seems to be on a bridge-repair binge. It do not think we crossed one in the north that was not under repair.
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| This one was nearly as narrow as the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York that we crossed last year |
Eventually we arrived in Thunder bay:
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| We were pretty happy to see these ugly grain elevators at the Port of Thunder Bay. |
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