Saturday July 4, 2009

Happy 4th of July to our U.S. neighbours!

After I posted my blog last night we decided to go out for sunset. The plan had been to go east on Hwy 101 out of Wawa. First we stopped at the Visitor Centre to check out the view there for sunset. While there we looked at a map posted outside and discovered Michipicoten River Village and what looked like a road that we could get to Lake Superior. Wawa is slightly inland from the Lake and we thought we'd have to go south to Lake Superior Provincial Park to get a view.

Note - you can click on the photos to make them larger.

Since Michipicoten River Village is quite a bit closer we decided to check it out and other than the pretty bad gravel road, the views were awesome! There is a falls on the way called Silver Falls which apparently consists of three waterfalls but we could only see one from the road (it's the second falls. You could hear the third falls but not see it.

Silver Falls (2nd falls)

The Government Dock Beach has awesome views for sunset and there is also an overlook but there are a lot of trees around as we've found is usual for lookouts.

This photo was taken from the lookout

We stayed at the Government Dock Beach for sunset. Amazingly beautiful! I think this sunset was as pretty as the one we saw at Joshua Tree National Park in California in 2005.

Waves crashing on the shore at Government Dock Beach

Sunset

We stayed till the sun set. I sure was glad I had my gloves with me! It was chilly!

I got up around 8 a.m. today and the temperature was only 7C (45F). By 10 a.m. it still was only 9C (49F) but the sun was starting to come out and the cloud and mist from my morning walk were history. I had to wear my heavier jacket and gloves this morning - on the 4th of July! Where is that Global Warming anyway?

After the fog burned off this morning we had a bright blue cloudless sky so we set out to see what we could see. We went to Magpie High Falls again and to Silver Falls where we found a road that took us to a view of the third Silver Falls.

Scenic Magpie High Falls


Silver Falls (3rd Falls)


We drove on south looking for the entrance to the Michipicoten Post Provincial Park. There was once a Hudson's Bay Trading Post at this location. We could not find the road, no signs, no nothing. As we had driven quite far south by this point we decided to go to Old Woman Bay again and take some photos with blue sky. Gordon was hoping for some fog in the photo but no luck.

Old Woman Bay beach


However as we were heading back toward Wawa you could see the fog rolling in and it started to get cloudy. We drove down to the Government Dock Beach again as well as Sandy Beach (we were there last night but there was a couple there who had a tent and a fire going so we left). This time it was deserted.

Wow, blue sky!

And blue sky with fog rolling in

Fog over the hills

Sandy beach

Fog at Government Dock Beach


Wild rose bud


Silver Falls trail

New shoots on the evergreen trees

A daisy in the clover


On our way home we stopped at Young's General Store in Wawa just to see what was there. It was mostly overpriced stuff 'Made in China' so we passed on buying anything but it's nice to browse around. They did have some interesting stuff on the front porch.

Old coke machine on the front porch of Young's General Store

Moose on the front porch of the store

We then continued to the grocery store as Gordon wanted hamburgers and I didn't have any in stock.

Once home, we both had naps, then I made some stew and Gordon cooked his burgers on the BBQ.

From there, home for a rest. It was bright and sunny again here at the RV park. It's amazing to see the fog roll in so quickly and then you're socked in cloud. There's no fog on the ground just in the sky. Interesting!

By the way, our high today was only 13C (55F).

Thanks to everyone who commented and gave me ideas for my sausage casserole recipe. I'll try it next time.

Friday July 3, 2009

It was a gray morning but at least it wasn't raining so I continued on my merry walk. I saw the big rabbit again munching clover but didn't take my camera with me this morning. I noticed when I was out that there are quite a few tenters here. Spots for tenters are mostly along the Magpie River. These are the unserviced sites although some prefer to camp near the washrooms. I know I would if I was a tenter!

This morning I vacuumed, cleaned and washed floors. I also spent a lot of time on the computer and chatted with Dee on Yahoo Messenger for a while.

I had another walk around the park this afternoon but didn't see much to photograph as it was still cloudy. I did notice that the lilacs are just coming in to bloom. They're really late up here in the north woods.


I bought sausages (ones that Gordon can eat) yesterday at the grocery and when I opened the package there was a recipe with them but it was too late to make it last night so I made it for dinner tonight. It was pretty good but lacks something. Here's the recipe if anyone would like to give it a try and make some suggestions to give it a little oomph. I was thinking maybe a broth instead of water.

Italian Sausage and Potato Casserole

1 small onion
2 small green peppers
Pepper
2 tbsp salad oil
5 large potatoes
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp dried basil leaves
6 Italian sausages

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thinly slice the onion. Pare potato and onion in bottom of greased 1 ½ qt casserole. Wash green peppers and remove seeds. Cut into rings. Arrange on top of potato and onion in casserole. Sprinkle salt, pepper and basil. Pour salad oil and 1 ½ c. of water over the peppers. Arrange sausages on top. (I cut mine up.) Cover tightly with foil and bake 1 hour or till potatoes are tender. Remove foil and bake 30 min longer. Makes 6 servings


Around 3:30 we went out to the grocery store to pick up a couple of items I didn't know I needed yesterday and then we drove around the town of Wawa. Back on the Trans Canada going toward the campground we decided to go a bit further north to see what we could see. We wound up going down a gravel side road called Steephill Dam Road to see how far the dam was. We decided it was too far to travel on that road but did see a beautiful lake and a river. The sun had come out by the time we started out so we had some beautiful clouds again. They make for great photo ops with the scenery around here!

Such beautiful wildflowers blowing in the breeze

Lots of these sized rocks along and on the road


Doesn't this look like a moose should be here?

Pretty lake with dead pine tree in foreground

Pretty river setting

Interesting clouds

Big rock reflection in lily pad pool

Our high today only got to about 16C (61F).

Thursday July 2, 2009 - Lake Superior Provincial Park

It was still cloudy when I woke up but at least it wasn't raining so away I went on my walk after stashing our garbage safely in one of the containers.

Lots of toadstools around with all the rain

One of the cabins in the campground

Walking in the back of the campground

After breakfast we started getting little peaks of sun so we decided to head south to Lake Superior Provincial Park. Lake Superior Provincial Park is a 1, 600 square kilometre park located along Highway 17. The southern boundary of the park is 130 km (a 90 minute drive) northwest of Sault Ste Marie, Ontario and the northern boundary is only 15 km (a 10 minute drive) south of Wawa, Ontario. The park itself is also made up of several smaller parks. We stopped at quite a few of them. There is a fee if you are stopped to take a trail or have a picnic but not if you're just going to take a few photos.

Old Woman River

Katherine Cove

Sinclair Cove

Agawa Rock

At the Visitor Centre

We had no rain while we were out and quite a bit of sun. It started to get cloudy on our return trip.

When we got back to Wawa we stopped at the local grocery - John's ValuMart where I managed to part with some $$$$, then home to rest and get dinner ready.

Wednesday July 1, 2009 - Scary June Expenses

June Expenses

OK, the long and short of it is that June was a very scary month financially.

We replaced the tires on the truck, had the truck and RV serviced and Gordon bought a new camera body and a wide angle lens. The camera stuff he paid for through his photo sales so $2000 plus can be knocked off the total.

With over $4000 in camera & maintenance costs we actually only spent $3266.78 on day to day expenses and considering we are traveling in Northern Ontario where everything is more expensive - campgrounds, fuel, food etc. I'm happy overall with the total. If I wasn't happy with it there isn't much I could do about it anyway. LOL!

It wasn't raining when I got up this morning so I went for a nice long walk and took some photos along the way.

Not sure what this was behind this big motorhome, it was all wrapped in plastic

Really big rabbit up by the office, there was another tinier one across the road

Walking along the Trans Canada Highway

Late this morning we got ready and headed out for a drive along Hwy 101 which goes east out of Wawa toward Chapleau, ON. We didn't drive that far but we wanted to see what was down that way - lot of trees and lakes. It rained on and off while we were out.

Jackpine River

Lot of wildflowers around

Trail at Potholes Provincial Park - I only walked a short ways on it as it started to rain pretty hard.

Tiny little Christmas tree surrounded by red wildflowers

Kinniwabi River

Wawa Lake - this is a really big lake that goes nearly 11 km (7 miles) east of Wawa - it starts right in town

We got back around 1:30 p.m. and I started working on June's financials and then read for a while which ended in a nap.

I doubt very much if there will be any fireworks here at the campground. Quite a few RVs came in this afternoon so you never know.

Tuesday June 30, 2009

For Gordon's tale of yesterday click here.

I woke up this morning to....you guessed it! Rain! I had to take the garbage out to our garbage can. They pick up the garbage every morning so the bears or birds don't get into it.

So while I was dressed for rain I took a short walk/run around the park. I was pretty wet when I got back but it looks like the next few days will be rainy so I'd better get used to it.

We just hunkered down inside for the day today, keeping dry. I think our high today was only about 13C (55F).

View from our rear window complete with rain spots and dirty windows

View from our side window

I made a Peanut Thai noodle dish for dinner with baked chicken & peas.

Tomorrow is Canada's birthday - Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians!

Monday June 29, 2009 - Now in Wawa, ON

It was supposed to stop raining by 8 a.m. today. At 8:15 I said to Gordon, "we may as well dress in our rain gear and start packing up since it looks like the rain is going to continue from the radar". So we did. It wasn't raining really hard and we probably got wetter from sweating in our rain gear than we did from the rain.

Gordon did a great job of backing out of our site thru the mud puddles. He backed all the way over to the road that goes to the dump station, drove to the dump station, dumped and then backed out again. He really got lots of practice backing up today!

Our drive from Batchawana Bay to Wawa was uneventful. There are some steep grades but we made it. We had some rain, some sun, some cloud, some fog, just a real weather mish mash.

We saw quite a bit of fog on our drive but most of it was high above the road.

There was one spot where it wasn't

Another Lake Superior view

And another

A row of fog over the hills

Fog over the hills

A lot of pretty lakes along the way

We are coming in to Wawa

There have quite a large Timmy's here

The turnoff the Trans Canada highway to go into town

We arrived at the Wawa RV Resort & Campground around noon and got into our pull thru site with internet satellite and TV by 1:45 p.m. It just started to rain as Gordon came in from setting up the TV dish. This is a nice campground in the pine trees but there is enough opening toward the Magpie River for the satellites. Thank goodness as it's the only game in town!

We've arrived!

Driving in the entrance

View on the Magpie River

This is our row in the RV park, we're at the end

Looking toward the river - these sites have no services

This is the row that runs behind us. Each site is enclosed on the sides by a row of pine trees making them more private.


When we got set up I put in a load of laundry. The laundry is right next to us so it's convenient. This is the load I didn't get done last week when I did the rest. These small campgrounds tend to have 2 washers and 2 dryers and I typically have three loads to do.

We took a walk down to the Magpie River and as we were walking another RV came in. They're from Vancouver and just finished a trip across the northern US and into Nova Scotia and now they're on their way back home. We got some photos but the mosquitoes were bad down there. Apparently a moose is seen quite often across the river on the opposite bank to us. Glad we stocked up on bug spray!

After a nap, we headed out for some sightseeing, the sun came out for a while and it rained for a while but we got to take a photo of the famous Wawa Goose,

and a photo from the deck of the Tourist Bureau

and the beautiful Scenic Magpie High Falls

Back home in time for dinner of hot dogs, green beans & potato salad.