In reply to RedGT:
Some say they are still adrift on Lake Superior to this day...
In reply to RedGT:
Some say they are still adrift on Lake Superior to this day...
We made it back. There didn't seem to be much interest, so I never finished it.
Hmmmm. The wife took over 100 pictures on her own camera. 
Love you, Toyman.
Waiting on the best night of the tip and the fallout from mom's angry emails to the marina.
Adrian_Thompson wrote: Waiting on the best night of the tip and the fallout from mom's angry emails to the marina.
This!
Must've missed this thread the first time around.
So.. What happened next?
So, I guess I'm picking this back up where I left off.
Monday evening we spent some time going through a book my parents had bought, about boat cruising around Lake Superior. We found that we were anchored within a couple of miles of some pictographs that were only visible by boat.
Tuesday morning we weighed anchor and headed that way. It took some searching, but we finally found them. Supposedly they were painted 400-2000 years ago. That's pretty good ink.
From there, we headed back past Red Rock and west toward Thunder Bay.
This is a shot of the Red Rock Inn we wanted to visit. It's apparently falling into disrepair.
The lake was being very cooperative. Clear skies and reasonably smooth.
Every hour or so, we would pass a house or cottage perched on the edge of the lake. What a great place to spend a week or so in the summer. Winters would be truly painful.
This looked like a government facility. It was also in the middle of nowhere.
My parents traveling partners. They are Canadians from Midland ON area. My parents met them 10 years ago while boating and have traveled with them off and on every since. Great people.
The next stop was a small cove that the book mentioned. It was supposed to have a really nice waterfall and be very secluded. It met and surpassed all expectation.
Once anchored, we dropped the dingys overboard and went in search of the waterfall.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/BmZuDQiOoxQ
As evening approached, everything got still. What a beautiful place.
These are my favorite picture taken during the entire trip.
That brings Tuesday to an end.
More to come.
Thanks for picking this up again. The call of the Loon is one of my favorite parts of vacationing up north.
Here is a small intermission.
There had been some interest in my parents boat.
It is a 2002 Symbol Trawler named Simitry II. It's 45' long, sleeps 4 comfortably, 7 in a pinch. They have put about 15000 miles on it cruising from Edisto Island up into Canada over the past several years.
It is powered by a pair of 330hp Cummins Turbo Diesels. 660 HP will push it to 21 knots if you love burning lots of fuel. Dad usually runs it at a more efficient 9 knots, which nets him about 3 miles to the gallon. Not bad for a 20K+ pound boat.
Looking aft in the salon.
Looking down into the galley from the salon.
At the moment it is cruising on the Saguenay River and preparing to cruise around Nova Scotia and the coast of Maine. I wish I could make the run up there again this summer, but it's not in the cards.
The next day was a run from the cove to Thunder Bay.
All in, it was a beautiful day on the water. Cool, calm, and relaxing. I'm just going to do a picture dump for this one.
Really cool light houses.
More light houses.
Looking at Thunder Bay, across Thunder Bay.
More light houses.
Next stop Thunder Bay.
IMHO pictographs are ancient vandalism. Thousands of years from now, examples of "Kilroy was here" will be found and scholars will decide that this Kilroy must have been a world traveler and announced his presence by drawing this inscription at each of his destinations.
I forgot to but this in my post above. Will there be a continuation to the trip report?
I really do need to finish this, don't I.
Here's the next installment.
Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Not a bad city, and city it is. Much larger than I expected. A lot of the city has a fairly industrial feel to it. Not in a bad way, but it's definitely a working town. They appear to be trying hard to attract some tourist dollars. The waterfront looks to be recently renovated.
One thing I did like about Thunder Bay is their Live on the Waterfront series that happens every Wednesday. We got into town early enough to walk down to the main stage and catch the act.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/7j5IkKRLo1o
Edited to add the below.
The Canadian couple we were traveling with said we had to eat dinner at Hoito Restaurant which is in the basement of the Finnish Labour Temple. So, off we went, hiking across town to find it. The couple of blocks turned out to be a couple of miles, but it was a interesting hike.
There is some amazing architecture around Thunder Bay.
The food wasn't bad, kind of a Canadian twist on a diner. That was my firts real taste of poutine. Makes me glad I don't live up there, I'd be fatter than I already am. Pretty sure I could feel my arteries clogging as I ate it.
That brings Wednesday to a close.
Thursday morning looked like this. Dreary and actually a little on the cold side.
So the decision was made to rent a car and go get my truck that we had left in Red Rock.
My Father, his Canadian friend, and I made the run down to get it. While there we stopped in the Red Rock marina and went through their Interpretive Center. For some reason I didn't take a lot of pictures in there. It was pretty neat and covered the history of the area.
Then it was back to Thunder Bay with the truck.
We spent the rest of the day wandering around the waterfront.
I like the way the town put the skate park right in the thick of things rather than shoving it off to the edge of town like I lot of cities do. Everyone seems to hate skaters, but they are much less annoying if they have somewhere accessible to skate.
My youngest son and the Canadian gentleman we were traveling with.
I'm going to have to go back and edit the last couple of posts. I just found a pile of pictures and video on my HD that I need to upload.
I'll continue this tomorrow.
Edited the above two posts with more pictures.
Thanks for the trip report! I've been looking to do a trip around the lakes for some time and have enjoyed your commentary pictures and video. Thunder Bay's waterfront is beautiful compared to my last time there in the early 90's. It was not so nice then.
In reply to YA:
I was impressed with the waterfront area. A lot of the pictures I found yesterday are from down there. Check the above posts later this evening.
thanks for sharing! did I miss the part about momma dynamite's email?
DuctTape&Bondo wrote: thanks for sharing! did I miss the part about momma dynamite's email?
My mother fired off a email to the the Red Rock chief administrative officer, the economic development officer and the marina manager, as we were pulling away from the dock, We had been refused dock space because the person running the marina didn't know what transient dockage was. She was just a little upset with the general management of Red Rock, and particularly the person managing the marina while the usual manager was on vacation.
My mother's plans were to spend the afternoon and night at Red Rock. Stock up on groceries, have dinner at the Red Rock Inn and move on toward Thunder Bay in the morning. The person running the marina said we couldn't stay at the marina because she didn't have space, even though there was better than 400' of empty dock. The reason given was the empty space was for transient boaters only and she didn't know when one would show up. ???? After trying to explain what the definition of transient is for 10+ minutes we gave up, loaded the groceries, parked the truck and left.
My mother was livid. She does not appreciate it when stupid people screw up her plans. I didn't read her email, but I can tell you the tone of it was much like a parent scolding a particularly naughty boy. She does not raise her voice, she does not use curse words, but everyone knows just how very badly they have misbehaved. BTDT many times.
My mother knows to the penny, how much their two boats spend when they tie up to a dock and it's not a small amount of money. She also knows how tight the boating community is and particularly the Looper community. Marinas that get a bad reputation don't last long. (Think GRM and Hennessy Honda) Red Rock had lost their mill, they desperate for the infusion of cash, that the boating and tourist community can and will bring to town. It's the entire reason they had built the marina facilities and interpretive center in the first place. The piece of mind she passed on to the marina staff and town organizers apparently lite a fire under some persons ass.
When my father, his friend and I showed up to get the truck, word apparently spread pretty damn quickly, because not long after we pulled, the marina manager and the economic development officer showed up to talk to the two boat owners and apologise profusely for the mix up in the slip usage.
Someone in Red Rock learned a valuable lesson that weekend and I'll bet they can define "transient" in their sleep.
On with the report.
The next stop was Fort William Historical Park. There is a surprising amount of history in the Thunder Bay area. Fort William is worth the trip if you are ever up that way.
They were setting up for Fort Fest when we arrived. That would have been pretty cool to stay around for, but we were going to be hitting the road the next morning.
The band list was interesting to say the least. Bret Michaels, Loverboy, Blue Oyster Cult, Great White, Harlequin, The Romantics, Tommy Tutone.
The first thing that caught my eye was the ferns. We have ferns in the woods around here as well, but damn these things were HUGE.
The Fort has done a really good job of preserving the past. Time for a picture dump.
That pretty much brings the Thunder Bay and Canada part of the trip to a end. Next we are headed south.
I still have some pictures that are missing on a HD somewhere. As soon as I dig them up, I'll continue this.
Edit: Found them, I'll get them uploaded tonight and post again tomorrow.
This is great. I missed it when you first posted it.
When I was a kid we did a trip around lake Michigan. I loved watching the boats go through the locks at S. St. Marie. The bridge from the UP is famtastic unless you are on a motorcycle.
Crap, I got a little ahead of myself.
Before the Fort, we went here:
Kakabeka Falls
Totally awesome. Incase you missed it earlier, I LOVE waterfalls. I will drive 100s of miles to see one. I will spend days wandering around the mountains looking for them. From tiny trickles that fall a couple of feet to this. There was no chance I wasn't going to see this one.
We hiked all the trails to see all the angles. It was spectacular. Not much else to say. You either love them or you don't.
The crowd, except my wife, who was standing behind the camera.
In reply to Kia_Racer:
The vivid blue of the water under the Mackinac Bridge was actually shocking to me. I'm used to browns and grays, even the occasional turquoise, but that almost neon blue was amazing.
It was literally this color. No camera tricks, no color adjustments.
I was wishing for a traffic jamb so I could get out and drink it in.
I fully intend to go back up there in SanFord when I retire and spend a month or two wandering around Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. There is so much to see. Boundary Waters alone would be worth the trip.
Toyman01 wrote:DuctTape&Bondo wrote: thanks for sharing! did I miss the part about momma dynamite's email?My mother fired off a email to the the Red Rock chief administrative officer, the economic development officer and the marina manager, as we were pulling away from the dock, We had been refused dock space because the person running the marina didn't know what transient dockage was. She was just a little upset with the general management of Red Rock, and particularly the person managing the marina while the usual manager was on vacation. My mother's plans were to spend the afternoon and night at Red Rock. Stock up on groceries, have dinner at the Red Rock Inn and move on toward Thunder Bay in the morning. The person running the marina said we couldn't stay at the marina because she didn't have space, even though there was better than 400' of empty dock. The reason given was the empty space was for transient boaters only and she didn't know when one would show up. ???? After trying to explain what the definition of transient is for 10+ minutes we gave up, loaded the groceries, parked the truck and left. My mother was livid. She does not appreciate it when stupid people screw up her plans. I didn't read her email, but I can tell you the tone of it was much like a parent scolding a particularly naughty boy. She does not raise her voice, she does not use curse words, but everyone knows just how very badly they have misbehaved. BTDT many times. My mother knows to the penny, how much their two boats spend when they tie up to a dock and it's not a small amount of money. She also knows how tight the boating community is and particularly the Looper community. Marinas that get a bad reputation don't last long. (Think GRM and Hennessy Honda) Red Rock had lost their mill, they desperate for the infusion of cash, that the boating and tourist community can and will bring to town. It's the entire reason they had built the marina facilities and interpretive center in the first place. The piece of mind she passed on to the marina staff and town organizers apparently lite a fire under some persons ass. When my father, his friend and I showed up to get the truck, word apparently spread pretty damn quickly, because not long after we pulled, the marina manager and the economic development officer showed up to talk to the two boat owners and apologise profusely for the mix up in the slip usage. Someone in Red Rock learned a valuable lesson that weekend and I'll bet they can define "transient" in their sleep.
Hahaha that is awesome, not the part where they denied use of transient docking of course.
Thanks for sharing your trip, enjoyed reading along and seeing the pics!
Man, I miss Northern Ontario. Thanks a bunch.
The next morning it was time to start the long trek home. The plan was 3 days with stops in Wisconsin, Tennessee and North Carolina. I didn't want to be in a super hurry to get home and wanted to be able to stop if we wanted to.
We rolled out headed southwest on 61. The next stop was the border. I've heard horror stories about the gestapo at border crossing, headed into the US. Before we left Thunder Bay we cleaned up the camper and made sure all the bags were accessible in case we were the lucky ones at the inspection station. What a surprise that was. I pulled up to the gate, handed the gent our passports, answered two questions and that was it, we were across and pulling into the parking lot for the hiking trail to High Falls.
The river is the border. Near side, USA. Far side, Canada. Nice fence.
The falls were definitely worth the hike.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/W4kzjqBiuqo
This was a great stop. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. Beautiful, peaceful, perfect. We really needed to hold that thought for the next stop.
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