Fall 2017: Destination Dakotas

Day 1: October 2

Go East? Go West? With hurricanes and storms still lurking in the Atlantic, we decided on West. When we woke up to the news of the killings in Las Vegas, I was nervous. But it was time to trust and to go.

First, we decided to go up the east and north sides of Lake Superior. We left at noon for a leisurely drive to Parry Sound. We made several trips this way in our kayak camping days. We had a lovely overnight stay at the Walmart there, with this lovely view from my chair:

Day 2: October 3

Our travels next took us along the North Channel of Lake Huron. we never did make this kayaking destination, but the drive was nice. We saw a Bald Eagle outside Iron Bridge, hay stooks and Amish/Mennonite farms and people, “Echo Bay: Worth Repeating”, and migrating Sandhill Cranes in one field.

Our first, guided, kayak camping trip was on Lake Superior, and we remembered the six-foot swells that kept us shore bound and scared!

We pulled into Wawa and found ourselves a nice little spot for the night near the Lions Beach Park, just behind the Health Centre.

And this was the view from my chair:

Day 3: October 4

Up early and out. If you know Wawa, you know the significance of Goose, Goose, Goose:

We saw some signs and sights as we travelled up the east side of Superior towards Thunder Bay:

• Manitouwadge: The Stompin’ Grounds that Stomp Right Back
• Marathon: Built on Paper Laced with Gold
• White River: The Birthplace of Winnie the Pooh:

• The Aguasabon Gorge/Falls:

• The Terry Fox Memorial (and Milepost 3339, where he was forced to stop his Marathon of Hope):

We decided to stay at the Fort William Campground (Site A1, $28.75 CDN, No Services) and planned on taking the tour of the Fort in the morning.

Here’s the view from my chair:

Day 4: October 5

I took a quick stroll down to the river and saw Eagles:

We walked a trail towards the Fort and saw many more swooping along the river.

When we got to the end, we ran into the start of the tour (it left an hour earlier than we were told) so we joined in and had the BEST time with the actual Curator, Sean, and only six others. He had keys to everywhere, even the places that were closed for the season.

Sean is an excellent storyteller, and we learned so much about the Fort (this is a re-creation of the original fort that was destroyed over time). In the 1800’s, this was the place for a three-week “Rendezvous” where Voyageurs arrived from Montreal with goods to sell and others paddled from the north with skins to trade. And where the Ojibway from the area also traded. It was fascinating.

Here are some pictures:

Later we visited the farm and met the Interpreter and a sweet Little Lamb:

Here’s Daddy:

On the hike back, we saw at least EIGHT Bald Eagles, amazing!

After lunch, we decided to continue west, and the landscape just kept getting more and more beautiful:

We got to Fort Frances and stayed at the little, noisy Walmart (so no view tonight).

Day 5: October 6

We woke to Frost on the ground! The Duty Free was a little building. You bought, handed the package to a driver, he drove to “no man’s land” before the border, and he handed the package back through the car window. Too funny.

The grumpy border guard (I swore we were going to get searched) quickly turned sweet and we were on our way!

We saw two Crows and a Bald Eagle eating a dead Fox in the middle of the highway! Then we saw our first Magpie of the trip.

There were a lot of bright orange toques, hats and jackets in all the pickups driving the highway. Yep, it’s that time of year!

Highway 2 in Minnesota, Mandy’s 24th state, is a great drive, paralleled by field upon field of asparagus, corn, soy beans and, we finally realized, sugar beets (which explained the Sugar Beet Museum in one of the small towns).

Best sign was the “On Site Fish Cleaning and Kennel” service at the hotel in Devil’s Lake!

The fields are full of ponds, so we saw thousands of waterfowl, obviously migrating south. Amazing.

We pulled into Jan’s RV in Leeds, a Passport America park (Site 1, $12 USD, Full Hookups). The sign at the registration building said: “Hunters, bags to use to double bag bird entrails”. Yay!

Here’s a sunset view from my chair: