2016 Road Trip: Lake Superior Circle Tour - Days 10 & 11 - Heading to the Sault

Days 10 & 11

Heading to the Sault

Goodbye Wawa!

Memories:

Gordon: Bathtub Island; watching the 3D Fire movie. Twice. (Possibly sleeping during the second showing.)

Therese: The cool, refreshing pool at the KOA. Hiking through the “Amazon” canyon; Drinking coffee out of my Wawa mug and eating pancakes with Wawa blueberries.

Danny: Doing memories. (So meta!) Doing the backstroke in the KOA pool. Saw a duck swimming in the locks. Dinner at the Poutine place.

Grace: Seeing a seagull up close. Reciting “O for a Muse of Fire” in the acoustic amiptheater at the Sault Marina.

“The Sault”

Everyone referred to Sault Ste Marie as “The Sault” or as it’s pronounced: “The Soo.” Inquiring minds wondered about this. “Sault” is an old, obsolete French/Canadian/First Nation word meaning “Big Jump.” Back in the early days, the First Nation people would jump the smaller, but rapid river running between lake Michigan and Huron. So the reference to this place where the two great lakes converge is: The Jump.

We left Wawa wondering if we would see anything as beautiful on our drive to the Sault. We planned on making one quick stop at a beach and then pushing south. As always, and as always with great results, a lengthy conversation with a local resulted in very worthwhile delays.

The first half of the drive took us through a big provincial park with many designations. A day pass allowed us to stop anywhere we wished.

Our first stop was Katharine Bay. We had heard this was a nice warm beach with shallow, clear water. As a bonus, there was a small, sand trench just before the beach where water from a tidal pool must flow when the waves are high. We could see sedimentary deposits along the sand walls of this little chasm: a mini representation of the geological formation of sandstone.

The kids played and played and played. I took numerous pictures and oohed and aahhed over numerous sand structures. The sand at this beach was by far the finest and the warmest.

This seagull walked right up to Grace

As we were leaving, we passed a family cooking out on the beach. I was riveted by the griddle attachment to their Coleman Stove. I was also impressed at the delicious fare of chicken and grilled vegetables. We got to talking and the dad told us about a secret beach on the other side of the bay just about a quarter mile from where we were. The beach is not on any map but has been declared one of the hidden jewels of the shoreline. We were also invited to share in the delicious lunch. But since we didn’t have time to explore and eat, we opted for adventure. These kind strangers will never know that we followed their directions and got to visit this special place.

After walking to the secret beach, we rolled up our shorts and walked out to Bathtub Island. No pictures can describe how beautiful it was, but I took a bunch anyway. The water was warm and everything felt so safe and shallow. The other side of the island was deep enough to dive off, but we avoided that area. The center of the island was fed by a small inlet from the lake and was very warm. There were many scuba divers in the area as the water was extremely clear.

The shallows on the way to Bathtub Island

On the island: in the bathtub

Heading back up the secret path from the secret beach

We had one more stop to make before heading to our destination. We wanted to stop at Agawa Canyon and see the Pictographs. We had heard mixed reports on how accessible these were. Some guide books warned about the dangers of being swept into the lake off the slippery rocks. However, we were assured that there were chains in the rock walls that we could hang onto and if the waters were calm, there was nothing to worry about. So off we went. The climb down wasn’t necessarily dangerous, but it was rocky and steep. At the bottom of our hike, we reached an incredible chasm that was humid, very cool and very narrow. It reminded us of something that could be found in the Amazon or perhaps a Mayan Village.

Once we made it through the chasm, we headed to another steep climb out to the rocky cliffside with the Pictographs. The climb up was a bit treacherous. There was a guide just before the walk out to the Pictographs. The first two were visible by hanging onto the chain and walking out on the rocks. The remaining specimens required a walk without railings along the rocks. I wouldn’t let Danny go any further and he was pretty angry with me. I don’t doubt his surefootedness, but as I explained to him later, my job is to keep him safe from unexpected problems. I was not a popular mother in that moment.

The view from the Pictograph site

After this harrowing adventure, it was time to head to the Sault. We arrived at our first KOA of the trip and the kids were thrilled to discover that our site was nestled between the playground and the pool. Both were just steps away. Gordon and I were pleased to discover that the showers were cleaner than most hotels we’ve stayed at. The shower heads were about 12 inches in diameter and mounted from the ceiling so showering was like standing in a blissful, warm rain shower.

Speaking of which, rain was forecast for most of our stay. Because we had been burned in Thunder Bay, we purchased an ample tarp and put it up just in case. Naturally, that was all it took to guarantee that little more than showers arrived at our campsite.

The following day was a day for exploring the area. Because we thought it was going to rain, we planned a mostly indoor day.

We stopped at the Marina for lunch. We ate under the canopy of an amphitheater with excellent echoes. We also discovered that while loud noises had echos, spoken words were audible all the way in the back of the theater. Grace tested this out by reciting from Shakespeare.

We headed to the Bushplane museum which was quite informative. We learned about the Bush Planes piloted by pilots in remote areas of Canada. We also learned how these planes are used to scoop water from the lake and dump it on forest fires. Many of the restored planes were accessible and open for exploration. Unfortunately the flight simulator was not working, but several airplane video games were open for business in the children’s section of the museum. As you can imagine, we had a bit of trouble dragging our screen-deprived children from this exhibit.

We enjoyed a couple moves about Bush Planes and Fire Planes. Both had some cool interactive features.

After exploring the museum, we headed to the Canadian Locks. Unfortunately they were not working, but we still got to see how they would work. We also got a great recommendation for Poutine, an Ontario speciality of fries (chips), gravy and other enhancements.

The Poutine restaurant which was pretty much a hole in the wall, provided us with an excellent dinner and extremely decadent Bacon Cheeseburger Poutine. The waitress was perfect. She pretty much ordered us to order things a certain way and her advice paid off with deliciousness.

We rolled back to our spic and span campsite for a quiet night’s sleep before the big surprise the next day.

I should add that ironically, in this most civilized of campsites, we were required to be “bear aware.” All food needed to be stored in the car or thrown away. This was the first campsite on our trip where we couldn’t keep anything edible, even toothpaste, in the tent.