August 12-14, 2020

Lake Superior Provincial Park

We weren’t in a big rush to leave Rainbow Falls, so Chris slept in a bit, while I took Daisy for a walk. Another day, another amazing view over breakfast and coffee. Packing up took longer than usual as we were continuously admiring the view. After one more walk around the campground with Daisy, a chat with the other Airstream owner and a quick conversation with the family (also packing up) camping in a VW Vanagon, we were ready to push off at about noon.

We were warned that when going around Lake Superior, we should get gas at every opportunity, so we stopped right away in Schreiber (only a 15 minute drive) and then stopped again 10 minutes later in Terrace Bay. There’s a cute lighthouse and some shops (mostly closed due to the pandemic) along the main strip. We picked up some coffee, scones and bagels at a little shop called The Visitor Room Coffee Shop, some White Claws and Beer at the LCBO and a some groceries to get us through the next few days. The grocery store had a few nice BBQ options, so I chose bacon wrapped chicken with cream cheese and jalapeño peppers (which I needed to remove!) and skewers of chicken and veggies. Delicious! (and we knew we’d arrive at Lake Superior PP right around dinner time:)

During our drive, each time we went around another corner, the views were just so gorgeous. The colour of the water was the most beautiful deep blue colour, but it looked cold! Add the backdrop of evergreen trees combined with red/orange rock, and the scenery is just so spectacular. Except just east of Marathon, we noticed the river was brown. So odd.

Our drive from Rainbow Falls PP to Lake Superior PP was the one day where we saw the most Airstreams on the road. Another Bambi not far from Rainbow Falls, a larger Airstream on the side of the road heading towards Thunder Bay, just near Terrace Bay, and two more somewhere between Terrace Bay and White River. We stopped at the Winnie the Pooh rest stop in White River (to walk Daisy, use the bathroom and get gas) and parked right in front of a 28 or 30 foot Airstream. Our little 16 foot Bambi looked TINY in comparison! We actually met the family travelling in it and had a nice conversation with them. We saw one more vintage Airstream closer to Lake Superior Provincial Park. And of course there was another Bambi at Lake Superior PP - Facebook friends from Ottawa that we had connected with a few years earlier and were finally meeting in person!

Our final stop was in Wawa, to fill up our gas tank yet again. Of course, we took some photos with the Goose! It was a stinking hot afternoon and the A/C in the car felt so refreshing.

We pulled into Lake Superior Provincial Park (yet another park with a no vacancy sign out), dumped, filled up our water and finally got to our site. We had lucked out and been able to book site 147, which is a water view site that you back into so the front window faces the outstanding view. Our site had quite a few trees on it and Chris expertly parked Holly between them, leaving just enough room to put out our awning if we wanted (we didn’t end up putting it out, though). Despite all of the trees, the site was quite large with our picnic table behind Holly and the fire pit to the side. We didn’t realize until a day or so later, that the comfort station was almost directly behind us because it was so hidden by bushes and trees. Our site had a fabulously unobstructed view of Lake Superior!

Our set up time was fast and I started a fire while Chris took Daisy for a walk. Our next door neighbour, Paul, came over to ask me about our Airstream and we chatted for a while. We talked to he and his wife Gwen often over the next two days and really enjoyed our conversations - we have lots in common. Their trailer is a Safari Alto that they had just bought, second hand in October 2019. They have done lots of camping - both tenting and back country, but are enjoying their new trailer. They had their site booked for 8 or 9 days and had both a canoe and a SuP with them. Interestingly, they were also planning a trip out to Alberta in summer 2020 (to see their son) but instead ended up only going as far as Quetico. We realized that we were both at Sleeping Giant and Quetico at similar times. They have older kids (21 and 24, I think?) and were camping with their dog (not their kids).Just like us! It’s so fun to meet others who are in a similar stage of life and figuring out this whole nearly empty nest thing.

Both times we stayed at Lake Superior PP, the wood was wet and this made starting a fire harder than it should have been. I persevered and eventually got it going. As I was talking to Paul, Chris came back with Daisy and then Justin and Anna (our friends in the other Airstream) came by. We sat at the picnic table with Justin and Anna and had a drink – it was great finally meeting them in real life! They stayed for a while and my fire went to coals. I only started cooking our meat after they left and the coals were not quite hot enough so we ended up finishing it in the frying pan. We ate much later than intended (but what does it matter? We’re on holidays!) and then headed to bed.

We woke up a bit late on Thursday morning and relaxed in bed for a while. We took Daisy for a walk to the dog beach at the other end of the campground, (close to the Visitor Center) and she loved going in the water to chase rocks. She was even putting her whole head in the water and seemingly diving for the rocks! The morning was a bit cloudy to start, although the sun did come out later in the afternoon. On our walk back to our site, we ran into Paul and Gwen with their dog Jasper, and then saw Anna and Justin at their site and stopped for a chat. We finally headed back to our own site. We hadn’t even had coffee or breakfast and it was getting close to noon! But after SO MANY months of lockdowns and seeing hardly anyone, it was REALLY great to see other people and get to have real conversations with them. I suspect there were many campers in this same boat over the summer of 2020.

After all of our socializing, we finally made it back to Holly for some coffee and cereal for breakfast (or was it brunch by that time?) and then I made lunch and snacks to take on our afternoon adventure. 

Our first stop was the pictographs, just a short drive away. When we arrived in the parking lot we found that dogs weren't allowed on the trail leading to the pictographs (bummer), so Chris and Daisy went to Sinclair Cove right nearby and I did the short hike alone. As I began, another couple just in front of me were taking the trail, with their dog, but we didn’t want to chance it with Daisy. The trail was short, but up and down and the ground was uneven. The scenery by the water was so pretty (even on a cloudy day). Once I got down on the rocks near the water, I found a chain that I could hold to keep myself steady. I thought that I wouldn’t need it, but the rocks are slanted towards the water and a few times my foot slipped a bit, so I decided to hang onto the chain, just in case! The water was pretty calm, so the walk along the walks was easy. There are a number of pictographs to look at, all very interesting. I think I only took one photo - it wasn’t an easy place to be taking photos! There were some people out kayaking near where I was and it would have been gorgeous to be out on the water that day (and we don’t even kayak or really love the water - that’s how beautiful it was!).

I finished the hike to the pictographs and met up with Chris and Daisy. Chris thought Sinclair Cove was beautiful, so we made a quick stop there so I could see it as well. More beautiful views. I wish we’d had more time to hike there. Next, we headed to Sand Lake and started out along the Sand Lake Trail. We hiked to the third waterfall, which was only about 2 km of the 3 km and then turned around to head back. It probably took us WAY longer to do this trail as there were many opportunities for photos! The waterfalls and the river made a stunning backdrop for all of our photos. While we did see others on the trail, it wasn’t heavily used and we saw maybe 30 people in the space of 2.5 hours. We stopped at the second waterfall on our way back to eat our lunch. It was so relaxing and sunny and hot! There was also a really great place along the trail where Daisy could chase rocks into the water. After Sand Lake, we drove a little further up the highway to Katherine’s Cove. It’s quite a long beach, with nice shallow water for a distance. Even though it was close to 5:00 pm and lots of people had already left for the day, it was still fairly busy. Sadly, no dogs were allowed in the area, so we didn’t stay. 

We returned to our campsite feeling accomplished but a bit hot and sticky from our afternoon in the heat, so I went for a swim in Lake Superior. The timing was perfect and it felt so refreshing! The water was was a bit cool but I still stayed in for longer than I expected. Once I finished, Chris headed out for a 6 km run while I read my book and hung out with Daisy. Chris also went for a swim after his run. We ate our chicken kabobs for supper (also very delicious!) and then went to watch the sunset. After the sun went down we walked over to join Anna and Justin at their campfire for a drink. We stayed for a while, enjoying getting to know them and realized that we have quite a bit in common as well! The time flew by and we finally walked back to our campsite at around 10:30 pm. The sky was perfectly clear and stars were so bright and beautiful!

In our efforts to conserve our battery, we went to bed with the window open but kept the fan off. It was still warm enough that Chris got up around 4 am to turn on the fan, which is unusual as it’s me who’s normally too hot these days!

In the morning, Chris took daisy for a quick walk while I started the dishes and breakfast. We had bacon and eggs (yes, I cook bacon and eggs in Holly:) to sustain us for our drive on the next leg of our trip.

Just as we were almost finished cooking the bacon, our propane ran out. This one tank lasted for not quite 15 days, which seemed good to us! Since we didn’t have any electrical hookups, our fridge was on propane the entire time and we also used it for the stove and hot water heater. It was warm enough each night that we never needed to put on the heat. We would have burned through our propane much more quickly if we used our furnace. Luckily, there are two propane tanks, so we weren’t in any trouble – we just needed to open the second one that was still full. 

We finished packing up, went to the Visitor Centre (which was closed again for cleaning so we never actually got to go in, as it was closed all three times we tried). I made some coffee for the road and threw out the garbage while Chris took Daisy to the dog beach one last time to run off steam. We finally pulled out of the campground at about 1:15 pm.

We really enjoyed Lake Superior Provincial Park and were glad that we decided to return here on our way back east. There was so much beauty in the park, but it was a different type of beauty than what we’re used to. We saw a LOT of butterflies during our stay and they were so pretty that it made me wonder if there were a lot of caterpillars in the spring? Also, I loved all of the trees that were so tall, majestic and interesting. They don’t provide much in the way of privacy, but they provide a really pretty scene. The campsites aren’t especially private as you can generally see your neighbours on both sides, but we enjoy this type of campground and would prefer a gorgeous view of water over privacy any day. Also, with the sites not as private, we were able to more easily meet out next door neighbours, who we thoroughly enjoyed chatting with while we were there.

 Next stop: Chutes Provincial Park

Rainbow Falls - Terrace Bay - Wawa - Lake Superior Provincial Park

Towing: 374 km

Driving: 39 km

Batteries: We weren’t super diligent about our batteries, and we ended up this leg at 11.9 or 12.0.

Fresh Water Tank: We used most of our fresh water tank, without having to supplement with our smaller container and we left Lake Superior PP with 15% left in it.

Combined Grey/Black Water Tank: We used our large bucket for our grey water from dishes mostly and we dumped it once. Clearly, we weren’t especially diligent here either because this tank was still 85% full! We decided that there was still a little room to use our toilet while travelling, so decided to dump only when we arrived at our next campground.