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

 

Medicine Hat AB to Brandon MB via Buffalo Pound MB. 2 days.

 

World's tallest tepee (claimed)

First day, Medicine Hat AB to Buffalo Pound MB 

We got away in good time on Saturday Jun 20. Soon after we started, we stopped in at the large tepee display that's right on the TCH (Trans Canada Highway). It's becoming a Medicine Hat landmark.

Even bigger than it looks from a distance

 

Lots of people at work here today, adding finishing touches and landscaping:  

Some native artwork

View of the tepee from the rear. It overlooks a large coulee

The coulee or valley

There's even a golf course down here

 

Here and there along the highway are places that look like old homesteads. It sure would have been quiet except for nature sounds out here, back in the day:

 

Later we dropped in to the small town of Maple Creek. We stopped overnight in their nearby tourist info area on the way west. The atmosphere of the town reminded us of Verden SK. It's small but healthy looking. We got a few groceries and some genuine Western Pilsener-style beer, got to balance those diets.

Maple Creek street

 

Often there are flags denoting sited of historical interest along the highway. We stopped at this one for a look. It's in honour of the hamlet of Antelope. Yes, the animal:

Hope you can read this ok.

 Across the highway, a little old (?) house all by its lonesome:

The house that's across the highway looks maybe Antelope vintage 

We were aiming to stay the night at Buffalo Pound Provincial Park SK. Our GPS search picked the Buffalo Pound View Campground instead, a bit out of our way, and definitely not part of a provincial park:

The road got a little patchy, but still paved ...

  

... until it wasn't. Sharp drop and curves

 

Guard peacock

 

I think I heard banjos strumming...

With the friendly proprietor's help we got sorted out, and on track to the actual park about 6km away. We found out at the park that the lake is Buffalo Pound Lake, and many businesses etc in the area use Buffalo Pound in their name. 

We were too tired to drive back to the Bison area tonight, will have some supper and a short walk. It's a beautiful evening.

Our little outdoor gas cooker does a good job

  

The slope on the other side of Buffalo Pound Lake from us

 

 

Next Day, June 21 

So after we broke camp today we drove to the buffalo area for a viewing. The interior road went from decent pavement to very bumpy, and that was still the paved part. The road into the buffalo area was gravel of some sort:

Lots of washboard

 

and mud. I wasn't sure we'd get out of here without help. As usual these pictures make the grade look less steep than it was:

We had to climb this hill with our 2wd street tires. Made it!

 

We made it out because I knew to turn off Traction Control on the van, and that was needed here. Traction Control limits your wheel speed and power when the drive wheels are spinning. To get up a muddy road though, you need power and spinning for this mud.

There were other slippery patches, but none so much fun!

 

We saw the compound where the buffalo had hay to eat, but never did see any animals. The road in should have been closed, so on the way out I moved a barrier across the entry road. The barrier was clearly there to close this road when needed, but nobody was out there warning us today.  A couple of times I thought we'd be calling Matt's OffRoad Recovery to get out of the ditch.

 

Back on the highway, it's really hard to see what this is. It was more obvious while he was passing us than from this angle. As you can tell, a wet windy day:

It's a helicopter, being trucked somewhere

 

As the rainy windy day progressed, we decided we'd head home now. Our plans to visit Moose Jaw were canned by the weather, and the forecast for the next few days all across the prairies is not good. Several areas have been virtually drowned out.  

So we picked a reachable destination for the day, and ended up at the Brandon MB WalMart. We've stayed here before, and it's still open to RV's to overnight.