Took another day trip but this time, to the north of my home town here in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario.
The first stop on the Trans-Canada Highway was the halfway mark, Chippewa Falls.
http://transcanadahighway.com/Ontario/ChippewaFalls.htmWe pulled up in the parking lot and saw mostly Americans, even a few brewing some java off their truck tailgates. Spoke to a pair who hails from Detroit. They come up at this time of the year each year to fly fish.
I didn't get to see the falls as we were in a bit of a hurry to make some good time on the road. However, I did notice a few different things apart from the dozen fisherman I could see from my limited view of the falls...
This brand spanking new sign.
And an artist chair permanently cemented in place in front of this artist styled easel.
I did take a quick shot towards the falls to show some of the nice foliage.
In fact, the main reason we decided to head this way was to catch the fall colours. Simply stunning. I didn't get any shots of them as I was trying to make my destination...but just stunning. We actually went north of the deciduous tree line, hence, along the way towards our destination, we got to see the pin tree take prominence. So for you folks wanting to see wonderful fall colours, do not head too far north as they definitely decline until you won't see any specimens to marvel at colour wise.
Now moving north along highway 17 (The Trans-Canada), we did our usual pit stop at the Agawa Indian Crafts, The Canadian Carvers, and the Camper's store in Pancake Bay. This place is a must stop over as it is the only gas until you hit Wawa. Likewise, there are a lot of goodies to see and buy here ranging from native crafts to camping supplies.
http://www.pancakebay.com/ourarea.phpKeeping on the highway, we passed through Lake Superior Provincial Park. If you enter the park on the south side, you come across the visitor center at Agawa Bay. The visitor center is a nice restroom stop as well as a worthwhile place to visit. This is my second visit and we saw things we missed the first time around.
Here is the entry to the visitor center.
What? Next to the entry is another of those new Group of Seven artist info easels. I guess there are probably more around somewhere...just don't know where.
Inside the center walking towards the showroom.
Glass replicas of the Agawa Pictographs. I can tell you something here. I saw the real things when I was around 8 years old. I was scared out of my mind. It is a bit of a rough go and they are precariously on this not that safe ledge just above the waves. I am more than happy to see these glass facsimiles instead.
More info on these pictographs.
http://lakesuperiorpark.ca/index.php/activities/23-pictographsThe visitor center is very well done...
First time I noticed this bronze statue outside in the surrounding forest. i am told there may be more of them hiding out there. We only saw this elk.
Ouside the visitor center, you can walk the Agawa Bay beach area. Simply stunning. These photos do it no justice.
And the back of the visitor center. If you are going this way, a stop here is a must. It is free...and there are washroom facilities. There is even a cute little souvenir shop.
After hitting the highway once again, our next destination is Wawa. Wawa is a nice little community of around 3000 folks. It is the largest community in the area. I was a bit disappointed this time as I found out nobody sells firearms here anymore, including the little trading post across from Lake Wawa that had a few rifles the last time I came here. Irrespective, it is a nice little community to visit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wawa,_OntarioWith that said, a place you need to visit is Young's General Store. This large rambling store has quite a lot of interest in it. They pride themselves in having an old time feeling including a large pickle barrel, as well as a few other things you would associate of old style general store. Not only do they have a lot of stuff in here, but they also have a lot of touristy attractions as well.
You can't miss it as it has this at the road.
They also bought the old historical first Wawa Goose which incidentally is in better shape then the replacement which is visibly rusting away at the Tourist center yard.
Young's General Store has plenty of attractions in their yard.
I didn't take any photos inside, but I did come across this sign in their outhouse style washroom with real working toilets (Thank you from this traveler
).
After visiting Wawa, my girlfriend thought we might make a trip to White River. I have never been there, nor has she...which means ok, lets go for it. White River is about 40 to an hour north of Wawa depending on your speed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_River,_OntarioWe quickly found out there wasn't much here. The biggest claim to fame is Winnie the Pooh. The real bear was bought here.
Here is the jeep waiting for us to return from visiting the above monument to Pooh.
Time for some A&W, which from what I saw was the only chain restaurant in White River. Luckily enough, the restaurant is attached to an Esso, so fueling was required as well. When I asked the bar attendent what was here to see for a tourist, he smirked and told me you already saw it. Yeah, not much to do up here or to see I guess.
Touring White River, I quickly learned that the railway is big here. There is a largish shipping cargo terminal here, which explains the few highway signs we saw stating "if you have a flatbed trailer and are looking for a load, White River will load you up to anywhere".
White River also claims to be the coldest spot in Ontario...but that isn't true. Still didn't prevent the locals in trying to capitalize on that however...
We noticed a sign to Dubreuilville, and without knowing how far, decided to hit that on the way back to Wawa from White River. Now this is a long little stretch of the highway as there is nothing to see but pine trees upon pine trees. It was only around a little over 30 minutes away from the highway turnoff. Now this is one weird little town. All signs are in french with english as an afterthought. This is something I haven't see except in Quebec. Another odd thing was that wherever we went, everyone stopped what they did and stared at us.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DubreuilvilleThere is nothing to see here, which may account to the rarity of strangers I guess...based on the reaction of the locals. We stopped at the now closed tourist center to take some photos as proof that we were here. The locals just stared at us. It was getting a bit uncomfortable.
When I turned my little camera in this direction, I had a heavily tinted red pickup slam on its brakes and just stay there off the side road staring at us. That was a bit unusual. I was getting the feeling that we were most definitely not welcome to Dubreuilville.
After that, we went to drive around rather quickly, which didn't take anytime at all. I did find out that what I took a photo is a gold mine. Might be one of the reasons why folks were weird. I have no clue. I have no plans to go there ever again.
So that about sums up the trip. The way back was uneventful.
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