Journey Day 5 - Terrace Bay to Thunder Bay

Misty

It was a cool start to the day as we left The Coach House Motel by Jackfish Lake. It was a simple stop and enjoyable for being away from the brands and out in the sticks.

The Coach House Motel

The mist had not cleared from last night and though there was visibility to maintain a good speed, the forest beyond the trees at the edge of the road did not exist replaced by a white fog. As we progressed, occasional breaks in the sky would reveal blue and the temperature jumped up and down between 13 and 17 depending on the depth of cloud above.

We drove on passed a few View Points as there was nothing to see but I decided to turn off to view Aguasabon Falls and Gorge. A short walk from the car park was steel gantry to a look out over a high fall dropping into a narrow canyon. It was misty and poor light but it was still spectacular.

Aguasabon Falls

Threatening Skies

Roadworks

The mist did eventually burn off and hot sun took over. Our progress was slowed several times by roadworks today. The quantity of heavy engineering going on was impressive with huge boulders blasted out to widen the road and massive embankments being widened and huge culvert pipes installed under them.
One section of widening we saw 5 separate core drilling rigs working to place explosives to cut the wider routes and huge machines to move stone and hardcore about to sculpt the upgraded road. Miles of road had been scraped ready for a new surface. This is road engineering on a massive scale and we guess it is gradually moving along the 17.

Changing Character

Away from the roadworks we continued through forest and encountered a new bridge at Nipigon. A beautiful bridge which they had kindly built a 40ft viewing platform to admire their work. The view from the platform covered 360 degrees across the hills.

Nipigon Bridge

Bays leading to Lake Superior from Bridge Viewing Tower 

Viewing Tower

Moving on, the rock visible at the edge of the road had changed to sedimentary with visible layers topped by a crumbling soft red. Along with this,the forest changed character; it no longer had the full lush feel to it with lower growth and less mix of firs.There were more gaps with undergrowth and the edges seemed scraggier with less wild flowers.
This change in character continued as we neared Thunder Bay and it was nowhere near as attractive as yesterday's forest. 45 minutes out and the road itself had changed with wide dual carriageways with wide gaps between filled with chippings and weeds. More properties appeared in gaps in the trees and gradually, the 17 turned into a  wide urban highway approaching the heart of Thunder Bay.

Thunder Bay

'Thunder Bay' sounds romantic but it is a merger of two former grain ports and it's population is over 110,000. The ports used to be the main route for grain from the prairies to the West but economics changed and the trade move to the Pacific ports leaving these two rival towns in a bad way. Rivalries aside, the towns merged into the new Thunder Bay which is now a thriving town though with a lot of derelict industry.

Thunder Bay Silos and approaching Freighter

We arrived early in the Thunder Bay area as planned around 1:30, a refreshing 150 miles today; but we continued to the the South of the town to visit Fort William Historical Park.

The site at Fort William was where the fur trade actually traded. To the West the trappers of  The North West Company and the Hudson Bay Company would collect skins and the 'Voyagers' would bring them to Fort William by land and canoe. In the other direction, products from Europe were arriving via Montreal and the Great Lakes. It was here that these product passed over with the Voyagers taking the European goods West to sell or exchange and the furs, particularly the beaver for top hats, heading East to Europe.

90lb packs of furs; each Voyager carried 2

Bark Canoes

Cold Forge

The museum was excellent and we passed the whole afternoon there.

A walkout from our hotel for a Chinese Meal. Walking back to the hotel at 8pm in a scorching sunny evening 25C plus. Somewhat different to last night.

Today's Statistics

Passed 1000 Miles!

Statistics: Miles today: 163; Miles so far: 1073 ; Fuel added so far: 112.7 litres, 24.7 gals; Provinces: Ontario; Time Zone: UTC-4 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)