Penn Lake to Serpent River camp, Spragge ON

Lake Superior view

A beautiful day for a great drive along Lake Superior, especially south from Wawa. We even had little wind today, makes an easier drive.

Cathie was hunting wildlife at our camp last night on Penn Lake. Most of the wildlife was mosquitoes, but she did track down this snowshoe hare, almost completely changed from winter white to summer brown:

skeeter protection

First we headed east to Wawa, for fuel. Once again the Petro Canada station in downtown Wawa was typical for Petro this trip - the cheapest diesel around. We topped up again in SSM (Sault Ste Marie) at a Petro station at the southeast end of town, right on the highway, for $1.80 /litre. Earlier at an Esso on the north end of town, again on the highway, they advertised diesel at $2.45 /litre. I kid you not. 65 cents cheaper per litre at opposite ends of the same small city. We've bought most of our fuel this trip at Petro Canada stations. Remember Canadian Tire also uses Petro Canada as a supplier now for their gas bars.

Anyway, back to the views. Just a sampling of what we saw:

And one of the many patches of lupins we saw along the hwy.

On the way south from Wawa we again stopped for a fresh baked apple fritter, same as we did heading north /west:

We cut just one in half of course

 

Our lunchtime view from one of their picnic tables

The Store

Of course some construction today:

Getting close to the end when paving starts

 

After dithering for a while about where and when to stay tonight, we ended up at a place new to us, Serpent River Campground, near to the town of Spragge. Here's the layout:

They have different camping areas. We're parked at the lower left in an unserviced area, where all the black squiggles are, under the P. Cabins K1-3 look good. We and the cabins are right along the Serpent River:

 

Several families of Canada Geese use the river

 

We're doing something different to finish off this trip. We've never been to Manitoulin Island, so have booked a ferry to Tobermory tomorrow afternoon. I requested a day like we've just had; the agent said he'd do his best. :)) 

All being well we should be home tomorrow (Thursday) evening, tired and bedraggled.

 

 

Dryden ON to Penn Lake Marathon ON. Back on EDT now.

Lake Superior

We left Walmart just after 7am today, trying to keep ahead of a large storm system that's over Winnipeg right now and moving east. A good quiet night here and a pleasant morning.

Mostly a driving day, so only a few pictures:

A nice pond gave us window-washing water. Lots of bugs on the roads.

And, of course, several construction delays. None serious.

Working to stabilize the rock cut walls

Lots of heavy equipment active

A few pictures at a rest stop at the Nipigon bridge:

The viewing platform. Nice climb after a long drive.

You'll have seen our pictures of this bridge before. Modern cable-stayed method. 

I got to look down on the van for a change

Looking out over Nipigon

A "Group of 7" piece on display here

A few views of Lake Superior. A really nice day for it:

 

A route note: a long time ago, we used to take the hwy 102 bypass around the north end of Thunder Bay to avoid taking Hwy 11/17 through town. Then the Hwy 11/17 route was improved over the years, and we've been using that the last few times.

On our way home from our previous route west (ie heading east) we missed an important left turn in town, and got ourselves mired in town back streets. Even the GPS couldn't figure out where to go. We did of course, eventual get straightened out.

Today we decided to try the 102 bypass from the west end  to the east of Thunder Bay. It was great. The bypass road has been improved immensely, like most of the highways around here.  No problems at all. The GPS said this route was 15 minutes shorter than the one through town, and it was likely at least that. No traffic or traffic lights.

Easy access to the Petro Canada station as the bypass joined up with 11/17. Diesel at $1.65 in Ontario was a nice surprise. Way less than other stations.  

And finally, camped at Penn Lake. This has become a regular stopping point for us along here. A few mosquitoes tonight, but still very nice:

 

 

Brandon MB to Dryden ON Walmart. Yes, back in Ontario tonight. Still Central Daylight Time though.

Picture by Grade 9 class artist

We decided to try to get to Dryden today. It seemed a long way but we drove steadily with several breaks, and made it ok. 

It started out as a damp morning, with some rain overnight. Several other campers stayed overnight here at the Brandon Walmart, a nice quiet night until the garbage trucks started about 5am:

Oh yes, there were large fireworks somewhere nearby too, about 11 pm. 

 

After slipping away a little after 7am, we slid through Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and all of a sudden were in Ontario: 

A nice new 4-lane section of road welcomed us to Ontario. Quite soon though, it reverted to a hilly curvy drive with just 2 lanes of good pavement. Quite an improvement from years ago around here though.

We had been thinking of stopping in Kenora and taking a short boat ride tour, but until next week that tour only operates on weekends. Since this weekend is likely to be quite busy everywhere, we decided we'd continue heading for home. 

We did stop in to Kenora along the way though. With the hwy 17 bypass you need to turn off the main hwy to get into town. Maybe someday we'll come to Kenora for a week or two and explore Lake of the Woods by boat.

The tourist info place is on the edge of town:

 They had a pretty nifty-looking canoe on display:

 The canoe is a mosaic made from glass and mirror pieces. 

 

Inside, artistic pieces were on display, made by a 9th grade class:

There were also some 3D displays of natural objects:

 

Outside, the centre backs on to a beautiful blue lake, blue today under the blue blue sky anyway:

One of those giant chairs

Boaters having some fun on the water

A barge delivering an excavator, likely to an island property

Giving some idea of the number of lakes around here