Journey Day 4 - Sault St Marie to Terrace Bay

Last night we stayed in the Quattro Conference centre which was decidedly lacking in a conference but provided very comfortable accommodation and an excellent breakfast. I'm not usually a fan but the small herb roasted potatoes with scrambled egg and thin crispy bacon was too much to resist.
I had made myself a little unpopular last night catching up on two days of blog and finished downloading tracks from GPS this morning to get the posts up as we didn't expect WiFi tonight.
Tonight's stop is a traditional lodge motel on the highway and not close to any town so we are self catering. We left around 10 to find a supermarket. We had tried Walmart on the first day and found everything to be in bulk; no use to us. So we tried Independent just back down the road and collected a microwave meal and beers plus fruit, bread, pizza slice for lunch and some other bits. Then fuel; advised that there was little fuel on the next 24 hours (which was an exaggeration; longest gap was 150 km).

On the road about 11:15, later than intended, we were again on cruise control at 90 kph. We were aware that we had climbed on the way in to town last but we quickly found ourselves faced with an amazing descent into rolling forested hills as far as the eye could see with Lake Superior above and beyond. These Great Lakes are confusing because they feel like the sea and everything in your head says they are at sea level and should smell of salt. The waves, and in this area sandy beaches, all say sea but the fresh water smells different and the grass and other vegetation close by is not salt poisoned or tide affected so grows in close.

One of the bays on Lake Superior

As we drove along we passed bays and drifted close and far from the Lake before climbing into the hills. This section of the Trans Canadian Highway was the last to be completed. A hundred miles or so remained missing for 20 years to the 1970's before completion. This is not surprising given the number of blasted out cuttings we pass through and huge embankments; this part has been a massive engineering challenge. There are actually very few bridges but many sections passing through the middle of lakes, presumably with culverts under the road.

291 Miles of Trees

Many comments had been received before we left that our trip would pass an awful lot of trees and indeed, today, for 290 miles and 7 hours we constantly passed trees and in any direction you looked on higher sections of highway, other than lakes, the only thing visible as far as the eye could see was forest covered hills.
This sounds monotonous and indeed I was worried that it would be like driving through British planted forest with a uni-culture of trees all the same age presenting dark walls along the road. I am delighted to say that it is nothing of the sort.
The TCH cuts a swath about 50m wide and white, yellow and purple meadow flowers are growing in a space before the forest begins. The road is a single carriageway and mostly 3 lanes, two uphill and one down though in level sections it contracts to one lane each way often with a double centre line so no passing. The forest itself is a self seeded wild expanse with different firs and many deciduous including birch and aspen. This mix results in a massive array of textures, heights and shades of green. The highway itself is often changing direction as it makes it's way so the lighting is also changing angle. The whole drive was full of variety and beauty.
Among the trees,water, from small pools and creeks to large lakes added to the variety and in the early afternoon these were pools of blue as the sky had cleared.

The rock adds a further dimension with the blasted sections cutting through pink and red boulders and cliffs. Some of the rock faces had many colours to them and looked exceedingly hard; I'm no geologist but I believe much of it is volcanic. The Canadian Pacific Railway never made it through this area and I assume that was because tunneling in this stuff would be nigh impossible.

Trees as far as the eye can see

After lunch the temperature was a balmy 25C but as the afternoon went by the sky clouded over taking waay some of the colour out of the forest canopy. We turned off the road at Wawa to see the Giant Goose statue.This was erected by the town after the Highway, which they had campaigned for for 10s of years, was completed passing their town 2km away. The Goose is well publicised and does draw attention to the town. Guiltily, as downtown was 2km off the road we visited the Goose then returned to our route.

Lynne meets the Giant Goose of Wawa

Another town with odd claims to fame was White River.  A giant thermometer stands next to the garage as the town once experienced the lowest temperature recorded anywhere in Canada -57C in 1935.
The same town claims a role in the story of Winnie the Poo. Apparently, a soldier purchased a black bear cub in the town which was exported to London Zoo around the time of the First World War. The bear had been named Winnipeg which was contracted to Winnie, the inspiration for the Winnie the Poo stories.

Winnie the Poo playground at White River

Giant Thermometer, White River

Half an hour out from our destination, mist began to roll in sitting on the hills just above us. The lakes we passed looked as if they were  steaming, presumably the humid air condensing near the cold water. It dropped further and we were pleased to arrive at our lodging before it got worse.

Mist hanging above a bridge on the Highway

The mist didn't actually drop further but dark cloud crept in from the South. As the light disappeared under the approaching cloud, the trees around our lodge began to swirl in the wind lashing in all directions as a precursor to a period of torrential rain and a few lightning flashes before moving on.
It remained cloudy and cool; we had no issue with the lack of air-con as it was only 14C last time we checked.  Rather a shame as where we are the sky is reputed to be very dark and we had hoped to see the Milky Way tonight but there is no chance of that.

Today's Statistics

Statistics: Miles today: 291; Miles so far: 910 ; Fuel added so far: 65.7 litres, 17.4 gals; Provinces: Ontario; Time Zone: UTC-4 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)