CROSS CANADA MOTORHOME TRIP 2019 – ONTARIO

Off to Ontario, only a couple of hours to reach the border. We travelled on a two lane secondary highway that had gravel shoulders and deteriorated to no shoulder with pavement falling off on the sides. From what we have seen Alberta and BC have much superior roads, that, we take for granted.

We stopped at Beausejour, Manitoba to view the Day Lily Gardens but just starting due to the cool weather. Weeds are doing fine though! Lots of deer again on the way.

Weather is drizzly, which is welcomed in these parts by everyone that we talk to. Reached Kenora, in the Lake of the Woods, which is rocky terrain, pines and beautiful lakes. I remember this country from holidays as a kid growing up in Manitoba. We had scheduled on our trip to take the MS Kenora on a lake cruise but too early in the year for that.

We checked into our campground at Rushing River Provincial Campground amid beautiful scenery. Site are very private and we are off to hike the trails. Nice hiking with well marked trails but drizzle cut the 8km hike to 6km. The only sounds we heard were the woodpeckers doing what they do and the lonely calls of the loons

The rain stopped, so decided to do another hike after supper. More beautiful scenery.

Off the next day to the Kenora Golf and Country Club for a game of golf. Course had a great layout but a cool spring left it a little rough.very enjoyable though. Course had a high difficulty rating but we did ok.

.Today is the xxth birthday for Marg, so a game of golf, stay at a B & B and a nice supper are planned. Our pal Cindy helped me shop for the birthday present. I owe her.

off to the boathouse in Kenora, a 8 minute walk. On the waterfront, recommended by our host, Craig at the Kendall a house B &B, and food was great.

Very quaint B & B, Kendall House, down by the water, built in 1895. We had the attic suite, only because it had an integral washroom, that the princess insisted on. It is her birthday so you should have your own washroom on your birthday.

Had a great breakfast from our hosts Craig and Rob at the Kendall and off for one of our longest trips so far, six hours, to Thunder BayThe terrain on this leg of the trip is very similar, rocky and lots of timber, so made the trip a little long.

We stopped at Kakabeka Falls to check out the waterfalls there. Very beautiful!The river flowing thru is the Kaministiquia and although the falls seem to be muddy, they are more of an orange colour. It cascades 140 feet and thus is very noisy.

From here we cut across country to stop at a well known Dutch Cheese Farm.

Thunder Bay is a city of 108,000 people located on the north shore of Lake Superior. It was formed in 1970 by the amalgamation of Port Arthur and Fort William but has its roots back to the 17th century as a fur trading post. Today it is a port for lumber and other goods for the lake shipping route.

Tonight we stopped at a KOA just east of Thunder Bay and are off early tomorrow to Sault Ste. Marie.

Off early for a short drive to the Terry Fox Memorial. The memorial is situated on a lookout to Thunder Bay and is located four kilometres west of where Terry ended his run on August 31, 1981Lots of driving today, as Sault Ste Marie is 700 km away with the highway following Lake Superior for a lot of the trip. For us westerners, we did not have a grip on just how large this lake is. We drove for eight hours and did not reach the end of it. The lake is quite beautiful.

My navigator was napping so we missed one of our stops in White River. The Winnie The Pooh Display at the Museum.

Arrived in The Sault and checked into the KOA. You can tell that they have had a lot of rain as a lot of bugs.

Some observations about Ontario driving:

– speed limit is 90 on all highways that we have seen so far, even 4 lane trans canada

– they post on big signage the dollar amount fine for 110, 120 and 130 and $10,000 and impound for 50 over.

– I set the cruise at 104 and passed several speed traps. No worry

– many semis passed me at 104.

– we drove by hundreds of beautiful small lakes today and did not see any migratory birds on the lakes. None, must be something to do with the flyways.

– so zero roadkill in 700 km.

– passed mileage sign 1100 from Man border and maybe 1/2 thru Ont

We are off to Manitoulin Island today which is a short three hour drive

Manitoulin is part of Ontario, located in Lake Huron and at 1068 sq miles, is the largest fresh water island in the world. The soil is very alkali so any farming is limited but the hawberry tree is prominent and produces a fruit that is harvested in the fall

You travel onto the island by bridge at Little Current. Really old one lane bridge that swings up for any boat traffic, so took a bit to get across.A couple of sites here that we want to take in, The Cup and Saucer hiking trail and Bridal Veil Falls.

The Kagawong River flows from Kagawong Lake over Bridal Veil Falls to the North Channel of Lake Huron

The last couple of stops were in the northwestern part of the island and roads were a little sketchy. We stayed the night at a little motel in Manitowaning, clean place and comfortable.

The rear of the motel was wood siding which the woodpeckers loved at 6:00 AM. A grumpy man went out and chased them away.

The South Baymouth Ferry terminal was a 45 minute drive to the two times a day ride from South Baymouth to Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula, and the scenic trip takes 1 3/4 hours to navigate.The Bruce Peninsula extends right to Georgian Bay and is a big vacation spot.

As luck would have it, we travelled thru Wiarton, Ontario, the home of Wiarton Willy. Willy sadly died in 1999 at the ripe old age of 13 and is infamous for his predictions. Willy IV is the reigning prognosticator in Wiarton

We reached our campground at the Elora Gorge near Cambridge Ontario and settled in. Sites are very small, not level and very expensive which is typical we have found in Ontario.

We had wanted to tube the gorge but the tubing does not start until next week because of the cool spring, although today was 27. Too bad, would have been fun.

We had a nice bike ride through the park to check it out. Our freezer latch broke, so I will have to go to a Triple E dealer, likely outside of Montreal. We had a Viator day trip to Toronto planned for tomorrow, but will forego that to move on to Kingston in case I have to make a detour to Montreal.

The campground looked so good online, but sites are tight, everybody has fires, very smoky, and sites are not level, so a real challenge. Lots of loud music at night despite an alcohol ban, so we are out of here! And mosquitos are ridiculous, which is what we anticipated in Manitoba but the last two days have been the only challenge in that regard. Temperature has been warm, so they will dissipate