Ontario and its "Superior" Ways ...

Slowly bringing the blog closer to where we are. We've just arrived in Quebec City, and Ontario is sinking in ....

Ontario has been startling with its hugeness in every aspect:

• the enormous distances
• the lakes that go on for countless miles and feel like oceans, even creating their own weather patterns
• industry - the enormous steel mill in Sault Ste. Marie gave a first taste

We seemed to follow the arrival of spring, heralded by lilacs, till somewhere in mid-Ontario

Depending on your definition of lakes, Ontario is said to contain over 250,000 lakes!! Greater Sudbury claims 330 lakes within its borders alone.  And the the remarkably picturesque, twisting Lake of the Woods claims 14,542 islands.  We now more easily understand why Ontarians are always talking about cabins on "the lake" -- there are an awful lot of lakes to choose from!

Lots of venerable train stations throughout

Kenora is a sort of gateway to Ontario from the west as well as being the gateway to the entire Lake of the Woods region.

A small sample of Lake of The Woods

From there, we went south on the reportedly prettier Trans Canada route which took us to the U.S. border at Fort Frances.  We ventured over to the American side -- International Falls, Minnesota. First time for either of us to set foot in that state.  A major economic driver there seemed to be the particle board factory.

It was interesting that there was a toll to cross the rather small bridge, collected on each side of the bridge -- and collected by the Americans each time ...  The cheaper gas across the border is an enticement, given the appetite of our van. When we maintain our conservative highway speed of 90 kph, we get in the range of 17 miles per [Canadian] gallon.

Raw materials for the International Falls particle board factory

After Fort Frances, however, the road became somewhat monotonous -- through forest for almost the whole 300 or so km. to Thunder Bay, with little to capture the attention.  It's been the least interesting stretch of the road for us so far.  We found the Thunder Bay to Sault Ste Marie portion much more interesting, though we've heard that part described as boring.

Kakabeka Falls, west of Thunder Bay - 2nd highest falls in Ontario, after you-know-what ...

Thunder Bay was a pleasant surprise.  We felt it to be quite welcoming - starting with the International Friendship Garden.  There were also facilities to dump our holding tanks and refill our fresh water tank -- something we need to do about every 4 days or so.


It was still rainy weather on and off, complete with plenty of thunder -- this was near the end of June.  We understand the city's name, now!

Thunder Bay!!

This was also our first glimpse of the Great Lakes - beginning with the giant -- Lake Superior.  Amazing statistics in the attached photo.



Hard to imagine that this one lake alone contains about 10% of the fresh water reserves on the entire planet, and contains more water than all the other great lakes combined!  Ontario's southern border consists pretty well of all the the Great Lakes which are in Canada.  Lake Michigan actually is entirely in the US ... and huge chunks of the other Lakes are also within US territory, including the lion's share of Superior's perimeter.

Superior is so huge that it creates weather systems of its own -- we were able to see some of the cloud formation directly off the lake one day.

Weather blowing in off Lake Superior

More Lake Superior weather

And the waves off the Great Lakes are weather-created, not tidal.  There are no daily moon-created tides off the Lakes.

The older among us may remember learning about the two cities on Lake Superior -- Port Arthur and Fort Williams.  They were formally integrated into the single municipality of Thunder Bay in 1970, and you can still feel the distinctly separate town centres, as well as plenty of new development.

As in many older centres, the waterfront was originally based around industry, not beauty.  Efforts are being made to beautify it now, however, at least in certain parts.  There is major redevelopment and improvement in the Marina area, including enjoyable walkways, gardens, celebrations circles, artwork, an amphitheater, a huge Tai Chi circle, and a festival area with built-in infrastructure.  And condos, restaurants, etc.

At Thunder Bay's Marina

From there, you can see the long peninsula which actually creates the bay -- a formation known as the Sleeping Giant.  Look carefully at the photo, and you can see the head on the left, with the arms folded on his chest, and his legs below.