Algonquin Provincial Park ... and More Bad Luck

As we left Sault Ste. Marie on Sunday the skies magically cleared, and the temperatures rose into the pleasant 70s, or above 22 degrees for those of you that speak in Celsius.  The terrain also changed and it became more pastoral and less rocky and mountainous.

Hay fields and pastures east of Sault Ste. Marie

I have previously mentioned the Group of Seven.  The Group of Seven, also sometimes known as the Algonquin School, was a group of Canadian landscape painters active from 1920 to 1933. Believing that a distinct Canadian art could be developed through direct contact with nature, the Group of Seven is best known for its paintings inspired by the Canadian landscape, and initiated the first major Canadian national art movement.  Throughout most of our route on the Superior north shore we have been on the so-called "Group of Seven Route".

The Group of Seven

I'm not really a connoisseur of fine art, but I am fascinated by the art of this school of artists.  Following is a sampling of the work of the Group of Seven.

This was a leisurely day and the weather was great. We stopped at most rest areas.  Each was along the bank of a pretty river. Canada has nice waysides.

Rest stop #1

Rest stop #2 and lunch

Rest stop #3. Matilda says "Where did everyone go?"

After a drive of 332 miles we stopped for the night at the Walmart Supercentre in Huntsville ON.  There we pumped 101 gallons of diesel at $3.18/gal USD, by far the cheapest diesel we have seen in Canada. This fill-up will get us well into the US where we hope to find much lower diesel prices.

Camp Walmart Huntsville ON 

These were boats from the Canada Outward Bound School

Shortly after departing Huntsville we entered Algonquin Provincial Park.

Algonquin is a canoe Mecca, much like the Boundary Waters in Minnesota.

We were a little anxious about getting a camp site in Algonquin.  Many campgrounds in the park had closed for the season. When we reviewed the on-line reservation system, it was not clear if or how many sites were available without reservations.  At the West Gate entrance station the ranger said no problem and recommended we stop at Mew Lake, however, when we arrived at Mew Lake CG, there were no sites suitable for our rig. DANG!  That ranger called to Lake of Two Rivers CG, just a few miles down the road and reported they had plenty of sites. Right.  We've heard that before.  However, it turns out they did have plenty of sites at Lake of Two Rivers. We took a ride through the loops and chose site 105 with 30/15 amp "hydro" (Canada-speak for electrical service).

Site 105 at Lake of Two Rivers

Lake of Two Rivers is a really nice campground.  The sites are HUGE!  Their web site showed many sites to be 30 meters wide and 40 meters long.  We are used to sites being characterized by the length of the driveway, usually something on the order of 30-50 feet, not the dimensions of the whole site.  However, on these sites there was no driveway per se.  You could park anywhere on the site you wished, the one restriction being not to park on a picnic table or any of the numerous 3' wide jack pine trees on the site.  All the sites were very open and covered by a nice carpet of pine needle duff.  Three years ago we visited Algonquin and stayed at Canisbay Lake CG, but I believe Lake of Two Rivers is much nicer.

Ferns behind our campsite

Faithful readers will remember that we have had a series of misadventures on this trip, and I am sorry to report that our bad luck is not over yet  When we arrived at our camp site I found that the tailpipe had separated from the muffler on the coach. OUCH!  I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but we didn't notice it when we left Huntsville 47 miles back.  Thankfully, between the clamp on the pipe and the flared end on the tip of the exhaust pipe, the tailpipe was not lost. As breakdowns go, this may not be the worst thing that could happen. The engine still runs, and we could move if necessary, but I would be concerned about the hot exhaust gasses scorching the paint on the side of the coach.  I'm not really sure what to do.  Can a truck repair shop weld it back together, or do I need a new muffler?  If I need a new muffler, I'm sure it's a special order item, and we are many miles from a qualified service shop and many days from receiving the part.  I did locate D&H Heavy Equipment Repair about 25 miles away, just outside the park. I called, but the guy was not encouraging. He said he would be away from his shop for the next 3 days, but that he would be driving through the park that evening and would stop by our camp and take a look.  COOL!  However, when I called him back later in the afternoon he said he was running behind and may not make it after all.  In the end he never showed.  DANG!

Tail pipe says goodbye to muffler

So here we are not sure what step to take next. So we'll sleep on it and figure something out. We always do.  In the meantime we will explore the park and try not to let this new problem ruin our stay.

We visited the Algonquin Outfitters store which has a Swift Canoe and Kayak factory store.  In Algonquin Swift Canoes are everywhere. We once owned a Swift Yukon, a 17 1/2 foot Royalex behemoth that we used for river camping trips.  Swift Canoes are not common in the South, and there are no dealers anywhere near home.  In 2001 I called the factory and spoke with Bill Swift Jr. directly, and he shipped the Yukon to my home in Winston Salem.

A tribute to Bill Swift Sr 

I want a USB port on my next Swiss army knife

A gaggle of Swifts

The Swift Keewaydin 16 Carbon Fusion Innegra is the most high tech canoe I have ever seen

In addition to a carbon fiber hull, it has a carbon fiber portage yoke

And carbon fiber seats

The boat weighs 33 pounds and costs $5500.  We liked it so much we each bought one.

Following is a photo of our Swift Yukon while camping on the Buffalo River in northern Arkansas in 2004.

A blast from the past: Dorcas and Izaak by our old Yukon

Some boats have seen better days. This one looks a lot like our old Yukon

I don't know who makes this trailer, but it was way cool. It had a highly polished aluminum exterior and the entry door was on the front over the hitch.  Very unusual.

An alternate mode of transport

On Tuesday we paddled on the Lake of Two Rivers and its tributaries

Uh oh. Beaver dam ahead

Where there is a beaver dam, there is likely a beaver lodge

After sleeping on the tail pipe problem, or rather not sleeping and fretting all night, I decided to make the best temporary repair that I could with whatever materials I had on board.  I cut down a steel soup can and made a cradle for the tail pipe. I pop riveted the can to the muffler to support the inboard end of the pipe.  Then I took two wire coat hangers (the only 2 we had on board, thanks to a recent shopping spree at Goodwill; Dorcas likes fancy hangers) and wrapped the hangers around the pipe and a frame member just above the pipe to support the assembly.  The hangers were very difficult to work with. They were hard to bend, and were brittle and tended to break when I tried to twist the ends together.

Let this not be a judgment on my engineering skills

Then I several used 3" pieces of 1" x 1/4" wood furring strips around the body opening on the coach to stabilize the outer part of the pipe.  Don't ask me why I am carrying lumber all over the country in the motor home; I frankly could not explain it. However, they fit just right; it was a miracle.

It looks silly, but it seems to be stable 

This is far from an ideal solution.  There is not a complete seal between the muffler and the tailpipe, but it should pass most of the exhaust.   The wire hangers are brittle and may break.  The wood strips may scorch or even catch on fire. I tried to find out the temperature of diesel exhaust gasses. I learned that at the exhaust manifold it ranges from 800-1000 degrees F, but could find no data on the typical temperature at the exhaust tip.  The muffler and the tailpipe should get good airflow when the coach is underway, so I'll hope for the best and stop often to make sure we aren't scorching the coach paint or the Honda. At the first hardware store we come to I will buy some 16 gauge steel wire to replace the hangers.  Our goal is to limp home and make permanent repairs there.  Between the upcoming rally in Boston that starts in 3 days and the plethora of doctors appointments I have the following week when we get home, we really can't afford to stop for any length of time to make repairs. This is a developing story; more to follow.

Fall foliage

Today we leave Algonquin headed east. At Ottawa we will turn right and hopefully cross the border back into the US this afternoon.  We have our fingers crossed and are holding our breath.

The saga continues ....

Terrace Bay to Sault Ste. Marie Ontario Canada

Today we drove a whopping 37 miles from Terrace Bay to Neys Provincial Park.  We had tried to camp at Neys Provincial Park in August 2016, but they were full up then.  Today the campground was practically empty, and we found a nice pull-through site that fronts the beach. When we parked we didn't see the site number, because it was facing the other way.  When we put our registration card on the post, we were dismayed to find we had chosen site 13.  Can our luck get any worse?  I don't think so. We kept the site and are proclaimed that our bad luck is over.

Neys Provincial Park

Please ignore the clutter on the dashboard.  That's just the way we roll. 

Site 13 at  Neys Provincial Park

Sunset on Lake Superior

Neys Provincial Park is located on the site of a WWII POW camp.  Click HERE to read more about the history of the park.

The Group of Seven visited the Algoma region as they traveled and painted all through the Algoma region and the North Shore of Lake Superior in the 1920-30s.  We have seen several monuments such as this one, documenting a site where one of the artists painted one of his works.

Lake trout sculpture 

The following photos show the beach at Neyes Provincial Park

"Clean Up Station": Canadians are very tidy.  They provide a broom to clean your campsite

Mouth of the Pic River

On Friday the 13th we moved 30 miles to Pukaskwa National Park. It was a rare sunny day and we survived Friday the 13th without any more bad luck.

At Pukaskwa NP we scored the only pull-through site in the campground. Ironically, it was the same site we stayed on in September 2015.   This time the electrical power was so bad it was practically unusable.  Anytime we cut on an appliance the voltage would drop to 102V. We were finally able to run the coffee maker by cutting off every other 120V device in the coach.  We learned the next day that in the north loop all the electrical pedestals are brand new and the power there is great.

We arrived at camp early and it was a rare dry day so Dorcas and I took a hike on the Southern Headland Trail, which took us to a point between Hattie Cove and Horseshoe Bay.

Following are photos from that hike.

A pair of iconic red Adirondack chairs are placed at a number of scenic and out of the way spots all through Ontario.  We frequently stumble onto some of them.

Another of many monuments to the Group of Seven

Horseshoe Bay

On Saturday we left Pukaskwa NP headed south and east towards Sault Ste. Marie.  It was again raining, and we had a terrible cross wind.

We stopped for lunch at White River ON, which as it turns out was the origin of Winnie the Pooh.  A Canadian soldier was waiting for a train at the White River station and bought a black bear cub from a trapper.  He named the cub Winnipeg or Winnie, after his home town.  The soldier carried the bear to Quebec and then to London.  Eventually he gave the bear to the London Zoo, where it became a favorite attraction.  It was at the zoo where A.A. Milne and his son Christopher Robin Milne met the bear, and it became the inspiration for the Winnie the Pooh stories.  You can read the whole story HERE.

Winnie the Pooh in White River ON

We stopped for a while in Wawa.  Wawa means “Wild Goose” in Ojibway, and the big goose was built to lure tourists up the hill and into town, about a mile off the highway.  You can read more about the big goose HERE.  Somehow I can't think of "Wawa" without thinking of Gilda Radner.  I loved Gilda Radner.

Wawa is also the site of the final link completing the Trans-Canada Highway.

I didn't stop much this day, but took some windshield photos on the fly.  Dorcas did a lot of sucking and hissing with every one.  The drive across the Superior north shore and the Canadian Shield is spectacular.

We are starting to see a little fall color on  the Superior shore

Finally, after 258 soggy and windy miles we arrived at Sault Ste. Marie. 

We parked at The Gateway Casinos, a place where we have camped twice before.  In this case another coach, an MCI bus with Ontario plates, was parked in our spot. Of all the nerve!  With 20 acres of parking they were parked in the exact space where we usually park. We like that spot because it is the farthest corner of the parking lot and is the closest space to the Ontario Travel visitor center, which has free wifi.

Camp Gateway Casinos Sault Ste. Marie 

We are not alone

While traveling in Canada internet access is always a challenge.  Several months ago I switched my cell plan the Spectrum Mobile, which is significantly cheaper than it was on our Verizon plan.  Unfortunately Spectrum does not support free use in Canada.  Dorcas' phone is still on Verizon, which allows free calling, text and data in Canada, but is limited to 0.5 GB/day of data before her bandwidth is throttled.  When throttled, the internet is basically useless.  That's why it is nice to be able to park with free wifi access.  Actually, even though we are parked about 60 feet farther from the wifi at Ontario Travel than before, their wifi signal is still quite strong.  Also, we are parked just across the river from Michigan and the USA.  We are picking up US TV stations, and our cellular data service is good ol' Verizon (which also provides the signal to my Spectrum phone), and which is less restrictive for us than the Canadian carriers.  Surf's up!  Blog on!

On Saturday we ate breakfast at the Westside Cafe, just one block from our camp.  I know it is cliche to take pictures of our meals, but I have never had a patty of homemade Italian sausage like this for breakfast. The leftovers fed me for two more breakfasts. 

It rained early, on Saturday but the rain ended, and then it was merely overcast, windy and cold for the remainder of the day, so we took a walk.  Our camp is within walking distance of the St Marys river and the historic Sault Ste. Marie Canal and locks.

The Canadian locks are used primarily for pleasure craft, tour boats and other smaller vessels.  The large lake freighters use the "Soo Locks" operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers on the American side of the river.

The Saulte Ste. Marie Canal with the international bridge to Michigan in the background

More iconic red Adirondack chairs

A gate valve like this one is used to drain and fill the locks

A tour boat locks down-bound

Who pulled the plug?

The original electric gear and cable mechanisms driving the lock gates

We seem to have survived Friday the 13th and all our recent bad luck.  Just to be safe Dorcas and Matilda visited the "Lucky Moose" at the Gateways Casinos.

On Sunday it was raining early, but cleared by daybreak. At 9:00 we broke camp and continued our trek east and south across Ontario.