Due to the plethora of biting beasties we leave our lake stop early and head to Pancake Bay. We make a pit stop to “de-bug” Wendy - she’s covered in insect guts and needs a clean!
It’s been a theme so far on our trip that we get chatting to people and they tell us great places to visit we would never have known about - pancake bay was recommended by a lady in a quilting shop where I bought a little embroidery to make. It’s 3km of glorious white sand on Lake Superior (the biggest lake in the world by surface area and coast line, third in the world by volume and holds 10% of the world’s freshwater). When we arrive our pitch is right across from dunes to the beach and we head straight down there to eat our dinner tacos and share a beer in the afternoon sun and maybe 2 other people on the whole beach.
We can see evidence of the forest fires in the haze in the sky but it seems to be clearing and Alex is happy digging holes and burying my feet. It’s always a treat when we stop at “proper” campsites as we can do our laundry (relief as it was starting to get voluminous and whiffy!) and have as many hot showers as we like.
Zara wakes early and enjoys some morning sun on the beach with her book - it’s so beautiful and peaceful here and nice to slow down for a little while as we’ve packed a lot in since she arrived.
After waffles, blueberries and maple syrup on the beach, we follow our bug protection regime and head out to walk the trail to Edmund Fitzgerald lookout point. As well as the white sand, pancake bay is famous as the site where the Edmund Fitzgerald iron ore ship sank that has been made famous in Canada by their local folk hero Gordon Lightfoot. It’s a lovely walk through the woods (inevitably lots of bugs) to the lookout across Lake Superior which is stunning and we listen to the folk tune up there memorialising the ship and the crew.
We’ve promised Alex some more fishing and the park rangers guided us to try a little bridge across a river a few km from the park. Alex Zara and I hop on the bikes to find the spot and have a mess about by the river (no fishies) and pick up some beers and burgers for dinner which is fabulous at our little beach camp setup. The only sad thing is there is a fire ban across ontario so no camp fires! I’d thought about having a paddle as the lake is mill pond still and resolve to do it first thing in the morning as the lake is only about 5 degrees (super cold even for me!) so need full wetsuit in case I fall in which adds to the faff factor and it’s so peaceful sitting with my feet in the sand. What a mistaka to maka as the weather changes overnight and we have rain and wind foiling my plan!
We’ve loved the relaxation at pancake bay but need to start the trek across Canada so drive towards Pukaskwa and we hope to stop for kayaking on the way at Lake Superior park. Sadly the weather stays poor so we skip kayaking and arrive late into Pukaskwa and hope to kayak there in the morning.
From the photos you may have noticed Mr.c has been getting a little hairy and has started to look a lint unkempt so we decided to trim him!! The blade sizes are a bit different to back home so he ended up with a slighter shorter hair cut but is now looking much more civilised! Well done Zara.
After some bacon butties we head to the kayak launch but annoyingly this park only opens the kayak hire on the 15th June so we’re a little early. One frustration we’ve had at the parks is the information online is often wrong and it’s difficult to tell what will and will not be open in the parks. Instead of the paddle we take a glorious walk around hatties cove headland enjoying the walk across some the Canadian Shield rock and a stunning deserted beach.
We even find some Labrador tea (a plant used to make honey flavoured tea we learned on our foraging course back in Nova Scotia) and pick some to have back at the van. I daftly decided to take a dip in the lake and get in up to my thighs and it’s painfully cold! And I mean it actually physically hurt to be in the water for a few minutes so I dashed back out into the sun - Alex and Zara decided not to join me!
It’s time to head off now to our next stop at Thunder Bay - we are taking a few days to cross the centre of Canada towards the Rockies but there’s still a lotta miles to go!
The driving around Lake Superior has been mostly forested and with glimpses of the beautiful lakes as we go - we’re soaking this up and enjoying it as we know we’ll soon get to the plains which are much flatter and featureless.
We try and fail to visit an amethyst mine on the way as they’re closed so we’ll have to come back in the morning - Alex is very excited at the thought of picking his own amethyst.
Arriving into thunder bay we park up at the marina and have dinner at a local smoke house before enjoying the evening sun on the marina playing “coloretto” (thanks auntie Rachel we all love it!)
Emma
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