Thunder Bay to Wawa

2011/08/21

Today started out really well.  I was on the road earlier than usual: 11am.

Made a brief stop at the old Terry Fox memorial. This is just outside Thunder Bay, where Terry Fox had to give up his marathon because his cancer returned.  There’s a nice statue and monument here, plus a great view of the Sleeping Giant:

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Next stop, the nearby amethyst mine – I’ve always been partial to amethyst even though it’s just colored quartz.  The mine isn’t much to see – just a big pit:

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But they give a 15-minute talk about the origins of the stone and this particular vein.  Apparently this is the largest known amethyst vein in North America, and they’ve mined less than one quarter of it so far.  The gift shop is good – they have various nice stones and carvings, but the real bonus is tables and tables of raw amethyst rocks at $3 per pound.  I bought several pieces totalling eight pounds.  They had pieces large enough to make fireplaces or lawn ornaments out of – running into the thousands of dollars.  When I have a place of my own to decorate, I just might come back for a large piece.

Next stop, not far down the road, Eagle Canyon and Quimet Canyon.

Eagle Canyon is a commercial tourist trap. For $20 (a bit excessive) you go on a 20-minute hike that takes you across the canyon twice on suspension bridges – one of which they claim is the longest in Canada at 600 feet. Here’s that bridge as seen from the shorter one:

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And here’s what the long one looks like from one end:

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They also have what they claim is Canada’s longest zipline, starting at the opposite end of this bridge and running down the length of the canyon to the lake at the end. It’s another $60 if you want to do that – I didn’t.

Quimet Canyon is a provincial park and admission is by donation.  It’s a bit more spectacular:

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Note the rock pillar at the lower left of the first picture – local legends about that, obviously.  The canyon floor is a protected area, as its peculiar climate makes it home to plants normally found only a thousand kilometers north of here.

 

The remainder of the day went not so well.  I didn’t spend especially long at any of these places, but somehow when I got back on the road it was 4pm, and I still had an estimated four hours of driving ahead to reach the Rock Island Lodge, which I had made a reservation at because it looked like the only quiet place to stay in Wawa.

So I drove and drove and drove, and finally arrived just after sunset, around 9pm.  That really sucked.  I was very tired and frazzled from the long drive and I don’t like driving in the dark.  I got my room, offloaded the day’s data and went to sleep.

It is actually a pretty nice lodge – I could hear the Lake Superior surf crashing on the shore, which was really nice – it’s like an ocean away from home.  And it was pitch black until the moon came up. I just wish I had arrived in time to photograph the sunset.

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