June 7, 2019 - Wawa, ON to Manitoulin Island, ON

June 7, 2019

We packed up camp right away this morning and decided to hit Tim Horton’s in Wawa for coffee rather than fussing with making it in camp. We got there and holy Toledo, we have NO IDEA where all the traffic came from but it was jam packed with line ups outside the door. We managed to get there just before the worst of it and sat and watched the chaos ensue as we drank our coffee. It was nuts! And there’s nothing in Wawa so even the staff had no idea where everyone was coming from. 

We fueled up at the Esso and chatted with our gas attendant who is originally from Newfoundland. He gave us a good tip to go and see Old Woman Bay about 30kms south of Wawa so we did. It’s a lovely spot. Among the signage there, were warnings to kayakers about how quickly the lake conditions can change and how cold the water is. Back in Rossport, our server, Heather, (who is an avid kayaker) talked about how careful they have to be on the Great Lakes. She said that if you end up in the water, you have just minutes to get back out before hypothermia sets in so tipping your boat is a very dangerous thing. 

It reminded me of the Gordon Lightfoot song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald...

“The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

Of the big lake they called 'gitche gumee'

The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead

When the skies of November turn gloomy”

Truly, Heather said this is the case, especially during the storm season. Not far from Old Woman Bay, we crossed the Chippewa River where it flows into Lake Superior. It made me smile to be in such an iconically Canadian place. 

The road all along the east side of the lake is a spectacular motorcycle route and the views open up and you see more of the lake. Today it warmed up a bit (a perfect 24 degrees) and the skies were clear blue. The lake was so calm that it was hard, at times, to see where the edge of the lake and the sky joined on the horizon. 

We stopped to buy gas in Batchewana Bay at The Voyagers’ Lodge and Cookhouse and, without a word of a lie, they have world famous apple fritters. We were told that last year, they sold 12,000 fritters and this year, they’ve already sold 6000 and their goal is to sell over 20,000. They’ve got 2 full-time fritter makers and, if you haven’t tried one, you really must. It’s worth the trip to get one. One of the local campsites summed it up best with their name: Betchewana Stay in Batchewana Bay! 

We made very good time today - all the stars were in alignment. We found fuel when we needed it and didn’t get bogged down in too much traffic. The ride was spectacularly beautiful and the weather was perfect. We hustled through Sault Ste. Marie and carried on east. From The Soo, we came out of that really coastal terrain and into lovely farmland. Everything is so lush and green with all the rain they’ve had. We rolled through lovely little village after lovely little village and managed to make up the lost time from yesterday. We hung south at Espanola on Highway 6 and made our way onto Manitoulin Island. 

We stopped at the Green Acres campsite which was OK but we were mostly put off by the man who either owns or runs the place. He was a crabby old fart and completely unhelpful. I asked about the ferry off the Island and no he didn’t know the schedule and no they don’t have wifi and there was no effort made to help us figure out what time the ferries leave tomorrow.  He says he’s been there for 29 years and maybe it’s time for him to do something else. He doesn’t seem like a very happy fellow. 

The campsite is OK but it was very waterlogged due to the heavy rain so it was a very good thing we weren’t tenting on the ground. The bathrooms were OK but no hand soap, no paper towel, no water taps in the tenting sites... it was just a bare bones site which, for the price we paid, was disappointing. The best part about this campsite was the mother duck who had a nest of eggs under a tree about 10 feet from our tent. We didn’t know she was there right away when we pulled in but she didn’t seem too worried about us and was content to sit on her clutch of eggs through the night. 

Today was also the first day we’ve had to do serious battle with bugs. Around 6pm, the black flies came out and the only saving grace was that it got very cold in the night (probably near freezing) so they didn’t plague us while we slept which was great. 

Funny Tidbit:

A couple days ago, Lynn and I were heading to the wash house in a campsite:

Me: I’m going to have a shower but I don’t think I’ll wash my hair. I hate having wet hair in my helmet.

Lynn: How will you do that?

Me: What do you mean?

Lynn: You can’t have a shower without getting your hair wet...

Me: Um... yes you can... you just don’t put your head under the shower.

Lynn: No. How? Water will splash up and get your hair wet anyway.

Me: Well, not really and it’s not that WET, it’s more damp than wet...

Lynn: But it’s still wet though.

Me: .... are we really having this conversation? This is a dumb conversation.

Lynn: Yah, it sort of is.

Me: OK. So can we not have it then?

Lynn: OK. 

Me: That’s one of the things I really like about you.

Lynn: Oh yah? What’s that?

Me: We get to not have dumb conversations...