6 August 2016, Saturday

This morning we bake our chocolate chip scones in the frittata pan and have them fresh and hot with strawberry jam, yogurt and coffee. We are on the road by 9 am heading towards Sault Ste Marie. We pass a hitchhiker along the way with a sign simply reading “Sue.” Alas, we have no room in our car.

We stop in Sault Ste Marie to see the “jumps” in the St. Mary River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. O stops to watch as a large freighter passes through one of the locks. We have lunch on the deck at Fluids Restaurant and stop to replenish our supply of cherries (this time from Washington State) and tomatoes before moving on.

From Sault Ste. Marie we turn north now along Rt 17. This stretch of highway, through Superior Provincial Park was the last stretch of the Trans-Canadian Highway to be completed. Its construction was particularly difficult because of all the road cuts through solid rock and the need for bridges over river gorges and through marshes. The scenery is breathtaking with whitecaps out on the lake, foam flying as waves crash on rocks near the shore and every shade of green and blue imaginable as the sun plays on the forests clinging to granite ridges and the waters of lake, bays and rivers along our way.

We arrive at the visitor center and browse the exhibits there before driving another 60 km to our home for the next three nights at Rabbit Blanket Lake, site 39. Our campsite is tucked back from the road and a short path leads to an imposing boulder on the edge of the lake. We eat another brownie each along with chocolate mousse (the closest we can get to brownies and ice cream.)

After dessert we study our map of the park to choose hikes for tomorrow. We are  both in serious need of exercise after all this driving.