We left The Voy, our hotel in Schrieber, well caffeinated and ready to push on to our second camping location, Quetico Provincial Park. The Voy was a joy: recently purchased and renovated by Takreem Mazhar of Dubai, the hotel has undergone the most pleasant revitalization: refreshed and charmingly retro rooms that are clean and tidy, a spacious restaurant / cafe with inexpensive and dependable food and employees who are friendly and welcoming, it is a great stop over spot for those looking to break up the drive along the north shore!
The drive from Schreiber to just outside Thunder Bay is a stunner: long climbs and descents along the TransCanada as it meanders in and out along the shores of Superior. The ancient granite of the shield dominates and imposes itself on the landscape: trees cling to rock through a thin layers of glacial sand and sphagnum, their presence a testament to the hardiness and timelessness of the land itself.
As you approach Thunder Bay you pass “Mile 3339”, the point on the highway where Terry Fox finally abandoned his iconic Marathon of Hope on September 1, 1980. This point comes shortly before the beautiful and solemn monument to Terry Fox which sits high on a ridge overlooking Lake Superior, the harbour to Thunder Bay and the Sleeping Giant. For those who have driven across the top of Huron and Superior, even imagining how someone fighting cancer could run a marathon a day on one leg from St. John’s, Newfoundland to this point seems unbelievable, if not impossible.
We made a couple of quick pit stops in Thunder Bay. The first was Bennett’s Bakery and The Persian Man for lunch and two of the famous “persians” to go – a fried pasty covered in birthday cake frosting. It is a favourite spot for locals and for Lakehead University students, and on the occasion of our son Stew’s graduation from Lakehead all of the graduates and their guests received “persians” after the ceremony. I highly recommend the chicken wrap and pirogies, but all of the food is reasonably priced and delicious according to the locals we stood in line with!
Our second stop was Lakehead University itself where we took advantage of the opportunity to eat our persians as a sweet toast to Stew and his time here. Cheers Stew!
On to Quetico! About two hours north-west of Thunder Bay, Quetico Provincial Park hugs the border with Minnesota. It is a massive park with over 2000 lakes to explore, and by all accounts rightly famous for its backcountry camping and canoeing opportunities. Our visit was only for a couple of nights, so we were hoping to fit in one decent day hike and some time in the water. The best part about our visit, however, was that it coincided with Dan and Christine DeSouza’s visit, a coincidence Dan and I discovered when chatting about summer plans at a book club meeting in June!
After setting up camp, Robin and I packed a bottle of wine and headed off on the “Teaching Trail” path to find Dan and Christine. This path connected the two front-country campgrounds in the Dawson Trail section. We had expected that the trail would be a fairly accessible “family” style path rather than the up and down and overgrown ankle buster that it was, but the views of French Lake along the way were certainly worthwhile. As you can see, it was extremely hazy from wildfire smoke coming down from The Northwest Territories that evening.
We had a great catch up with Dan and Christine, chatting about retirement, teaching, travel, and camping. Dan and I reminisced about coaching and the great teams and players we were both blessed to coach. Plans were made to hike The Pines trail the following day, heading from our campground through to Pickerel Lake with the hope that we might find a quiet spot to go for a swim.
The next day was a beauty: the wildfire smoke had cleared, the sun was out, and we set off late morning, accompanied by the DeSouza’s one year old lab, the inexhaustible Junie B. Jones. Junie had a delightful time running up and down the trail to check on all of her humans, snapping at deer flies and wading in muddy streams. Much of the hike was spent with her nose to the ground on the heels of whomever was at the head of the pack, with occasional forays into the bush after red squirrels and grouse. The rest of us thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as well, even though the trail had some very overgrown sections and the mosquitos were a little more voracious than is usual at the end of July. The reward was a magnificent sandy beach, a picnic, tetra-pack wine (ah, the good stuff) and a refreshing swim before we turned around to head back to the campsite. All in all, a spectacular day made even better by being able to share it with such great people.
Thanks Dan and Christine (and Junie)! Looking forward to more outdoor adventures together.
Next stop, Manitoba!
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