Week Eleven: Riding Mountain, Blue Lake, and Back in Our Time Zone

Thursday, August 11/18

The temperature had dropped significantly during the night, which was our survival. Once again, smoke was covering the sun and the air was hazy. The showers at this campground were disgusting and of all the campgrounds we’ve stayed so far, we ranked this one at the bottom.

Riding Mountain National Park was only a five minute drive from the campground. We parked the car at Clear Lake and to our surprise we were in the middle of a small town, which is very unusual for a park. But this town was different. Cottages in various styles and ages lined the streets and the Lakeside. Restaurants, souvenir and clothing stores were on one side of the Main Street.

A long sandy beach, already populated with families, where children built sandcastles, others played tag in the water and parents watched from their lawn chairs,  painted a colourful scene.

Just off the beach at a private dock, Bijke had his first swim. We walked back to the village and had coffee at the White House Bakery. Next, we hiked the 2.5 kilometre boardwalk trail along the shore of Clear Lake.

A plaque at one of the restored cottages read, that this family cottage had been built in 1930. We admired the structures that had been renovated to their original state, others had additions built on and we also saw newer, more modern style cottages. The trail followed right in front of these places and we met many families on their bikes and many visitors with their dogs.

Every now and then, a sad looking sun tried to brighten up the world, but she never succeeded.

We enjoyed our hike and returned to the White House Bakery for lunch. After we finished eating our vegan lunch, we fell off the plant based diet wagon. The bakery also sold sausijze broodjes, which reminded us of a treat from home. We bought the dutch, ‘meat’ treat to take home to the snail house.

We returned to the park, later that afternoon and Bijke had a second swim.

Bijke: A and M let me swim and roll in the dirt, I had a blast, but then they spoiled it by forcing me to stick my head through the hole of a wooden beaver cutout! So THEY could take a picture and make fun of me. I felt silly. I’m not a BEAVER!!!

We could’ve spent a whole week at this park. There were so many lakes and trails and opportunities to learn about the history of this area. At the north end of the park, the cabin of Grey Owl has been preserved, but unfortunately we had no time to visit all the areas of the Riding Mountain National Park.

We texted with Rikst and heard that the smoke was very bad on Vancouver Island. The BC government had declared a state of emergency. Rikst and Loesje had been blackberry picking, but Loesje ate the berries much faster, than Rikst could pick them. Needless to say, they brought only a few berries home for Dad.

On Friday, we left for Winnipeg. We were not impressed with the highway. Manitoba drivers didn’t seem to notice, or were used to the bad conditions of their roads and highways, because they passed us full speed.

We found the Superstore in Winnipeg, but the parking lot was crazy and even inside the store it was confusing. Many customers spoke Russian and one isle was dedicated to foreign foods. We decided to eat lunch  in the trailer, at the very hot parking lot.

We were glad to leave Winnipeg behind with its road construction and detours. Even the perimeter road north of the city, was plagued by delays.

Later that afternoon, we arrived at the Great Woods Campground in Beausejour. The site was spacious and we were shaded by a wall of trees.

When we went for a walk, two crop-dusters were spraying the fields of grain, adjacent the campground. AARRGG! Smoke and pesticides! Too much destruction to Mother Earth!

Just before supper, Albert assisted a lady with a tent trailer, who had trouble backing into the site. Of course after eleven weeks of practicing backing in a trailer, he has become a pro!

Bijke: Did I mention how many times A and M have dropped something on me? I’ve been startled out of my skin by falling towels, which completely covered me and made me sit in the dark, facecloths, coffee filters, coffee filter baskets, pill bottles and not to forget the water they dripped on me every time they did the dishes!

This was the first night we didn’t get much sleep, because a group of campers decided to have a really loud party till 3:00 am.

We enjoyed a lazy morning, went to a book sale and bought books to support a charity organized by members of Good Sam.

In the afternoon, we drove to the town of Lac du Bonnet and Bijke went for a long swim in Lac du Bonnet. We even found the Lac du Bonnet Senior School, where I had presented readings to grades 6 - 8 in 2003, during the Winnipeg International Writers' Festival. I remember, I received such a warm welcome at the school and the students were very engaged and super well behaved.

The sky threatened us with rain on the way home, but it stayed dry. Albert cleaned the car and trailer windows as they were completely covered in dirt, due to driving on dusty gravel roads.

There was no wifi at this campground and it was fun to see the kids biking and playing hide and seek between the campers.

We packed up, what ever we could and found it hard to imagine, that by tomorrow night we would be back in Ontario.

On Sunday, we ended up in Ontario, but we almost didn’t make it. We were stuck in Manitoba as we couldn’t get the snail house hitched to the car. After many, many trials and an hour and five minutes later, we finally succeeded. And if that wasn’t enough, our next disaster happened at the sani station. We lost a piece of the sewage hose, it got stuck in the tank and ripped.

Highway 44 was okay for the first part of the trip, but became the highway of hell after the 11/44 junction. The pot holes and ruts were so bad, that Albert couldn’t drive any faster than 40 km/h. It was going to be a long day. Near the end of Route 44, as we referred to this road while driving on it, we entered the very small town of Rennie, just before the Manitoba/ Ontario border. A giant welcome sign made us laugh:

Welcome to Rennie

Home of something or…

somebody … or someone

famous… some day!

A big sigh of relief from both of us, and maybe Bijke, too, when we finally drove onto the Trans Canada Highway. We met a yellow Alto trailer with a retractable roof and when we stopped for lunch at the Manitoba Info Centre, we saw another snail house just like ours, except this one had no solar panels but air-conditioning.

We found it strange to enter Ontario. It had been a while since we left, but the roads were definitely in much better condition. The scenery became more familiar as we passed many lakes, rocks and boreal forests.

That afternoon, we arrived at Blue Lake Provincial Park in Vermillion Bay. The campground covered a large area. A sandy beach with play structures, picnic tables and shelters along lake was busy with families. We had a large campsite, shaded by tall pines, birch and black spruce.

During our walk we discovered several trails and we planed to hike at least one of them, tomorrow. Bijke had again a great swim. Most sites were occupied by vacationers from Manitoba. We heard later that this whole area is considered the Muskoka for Manitobans.

Monday morning greeted us with sunshine and a clear blue sky. We enjoyed a leisurely morning. I did some laundry and managed to ruin one of the two still working washing machines, by getting my quarters stuck. Even the parks’ maintenance people couldn’t fix the the problem or the machine.

After lunch, we hiked the Rock Point Trail. It started off as a boardwalk, which made for easy walking, and we assumed the 4 kilometre hike would be a breeze, but soon the path changed into much rougher terrain. The trail became challenging at times, with steep climbs and tricky descends. We walked through areas with many different species of moss that varied in colours from light to dark green, brown, silver and almost yellow. The tall Black Spruce kept us shaded from the sun and the heat. We climbed rock outcrops and through narrow paths between large stones and trees. In some places, enormous tree roots made the path treacherous. It soon became clear that our hike certainly wasn’t a breeze, but every step needed to be negotiated as not to stumble over roots, rocks, logs or narrow stone steps. At the lake we encountered two enormous beaver lodges. We didn’t see any beavers, but they had undermined the trail and as we maneuvered our way along the trail, we held onto tree trunks until we reached a plateau.

Half way down the trail stood an outhouse at a 20 degree angle. The door hung wide open, but we didn’t feel invited to use the facility and the bushes looked much more comfortable.

Every time the path brought us close to the water, Bijke got excited, but then the trail veered right into the woods again and stayed clear of the lake. In the end the 4 kilometre trail felt more like 40 kilometres and we were glad to see the buildings of the campground.

Bijke: I smelled the water all the time, but A never let me have a swim. After a long, slow walk, I finally plunged into the water and barked and snapped at the waves and had the time of my life.

Blue Lake Provincial Park became one of our favourites. If we had to rate campgrounds, and this is campground # 25, this park would be at the top of the list, right up there with Qualicum Beach First Nations Campground. The facilities were excellent, the sites spacious and the park itself gorgeous.

We made soup in the Instant Pot, and after dinner we walked one last time along the shore of Blue Lake.

We woke up to another glorious morning and it didn’t take us long to get ready and head east. Road construction after road construction set us back in time. We finally stopped for a late lunch at Raleigh Falls, a quiet secluded spot right at the falls. We should have counted the number of waterfalls we’ve visited on our journey, we’ve seen so many.

At a picnic area, past Upsala, right at the place where we crossed the 90 degree longitude Western and entered the Eastern Standard Time Zone and where we lost another hour, we made coffee and Bijke had a pee.

In the parking lot, a Father and son were practicing riding a unicycle.

At the intersection of highway 17 and 11 at Shabaqua Corner, we realized we had come full circle. Here, we had turned onto highway 11, direction Fort Frances and International Falls, at the beginning of our trip.

By 5:30, we arrived at the Attemas in Thunder bay. This time we camped in their driveway. Sjoerd and Ghislaine had prepared a lovely dinner and Mia had baked vegan brownies, especially for us.

After dinner we played Crazy Eights with Allie, Mia, Femke and Sjoerd. It was a lot of fun as the girls are quite competitive.

We caught up on emails and retired to our snail house.

Bijke: I smelled the humans, I was so happy. I smelled them before. I know the dogs, too, and we sniffed each other. The big one was all over me until the grownup humans all yelled, “Stop Migs! Stop humping Bijke!”

After a quiet night in the Attema driveway, Ghislaine went to work and we did groceries.

Albert helped Sjoerd cut glass for the bathroom window, for which he had built the frame. The project ended in disaster when Albert shattered the glass and the two of them spent a  large part of the morning cleaning up.

In the afternoon we walked to the waterfront and the marina with Bijke and Poppy. The weather was perfect, but the girls found it too hot. Bijke had a swim at the boat launch, but Poppy didn’t swim or enjoy her walk. The loud noises, traffic signs and the train made her nervous. Before we went home, we stopped at the Gelato place and we all enjoyed our treat.

I helped Sjoerd cook dinner - Thai noodles with vegetables and marinated meat.

We ended the evening with several games of Crazy Eight and Allie won numerous times.

Sjoerd had a hockey game at 11:00, but we were all too tired to cheer him on.

Bijke: I’m glad the big guy is leaving me alone. He even let me chew on his bone for a while, but then he took it back.