Lake Superior Scenic Drive & Agawa Indian Crafts Outstanding Service

The drive on hwy 17 is spectacular.  I even stopped working to take photos.  We where on rolling hills next to Lake Superior.

Kakabeka Falls! 

 Saw this amazing vehicle at one of our gas stops, i went over to speak with the women, she was from Switzerland, they had just finished 16 months of travel in this outstanding vehicle.  Started in Halifax went coast to coast in both Canada and the US and Mexico and Belize and Guatemala and back! WOW! Now, that's an adventure worth having!!

For our last night of camping we’re heading toward Saute Saint Marie! We stayed at a Provincial Park called Pancake Provincial Park for our last night.  It was right on Lake Superior.  We got there, Jerry drove almost 11 hours yesterday, without any Timmy’s or Internet.. And very few gas stations along the way.  So, he needed some alone time when we got to our site.  Duke and I took off to see what was around, we loved, how could you not, the Lake.  We found a couple of trails, they were hiking trails, lots to choose from.  We came back for a shrimp and slider dinner.  Slept early, conditioning ourselves for 6:30am wake ups again.  

So we took off in the morning for a short run and instead got drawn to the Lake.  She’s intoxicating.  We went back and got Jerry to share it with us, he too loved it and said he could see coming back here(ish) to camp for a few days.  

 I'm a romantic, with just an hour to play, dumped the trails for the beach! :)

 This place is sane, they have a lovely Dog Beach! Not that  anyone was on the beach this early to care.

I agreed, but, I’d like to go to the Superior Lake Provincial Park instead, it had even more Trials to choose from! J

We left the Park at 8:30am, and stopped for the only gas place in the area.  It had the BEST service we’ve ever had anywhere ever in our whole lives… You drove up, the guy comes to your window and says “How can I help you? (We said.) Then he says.. "Do you have any garbage you’d like me to dispose for you? We have free coffee inside for you, coffee’s on, go enjoy.  We have clean bathrooms around the corner.“ He then comes back with a dog  cookie for Duke. He then comes back with a LADDER to clean our front windows! And his prices were “only” $1.30/liter, the best prices we’d seen in a while.  The place is called Agawa Indian Crafts, I’d suggest it worth a stop! They have a bunch of cool souvenirs in side too, and the prices weren’t bad and the quality was good!

 Nice way to end the trip (ok, so we have 8 hours left to drive, but, that's a piece of cake now).

Until Next Time! :)
Sofie, Jerry & Duke

2nd Last Night of Camping Adventures in Aug 2012's Roadtrip

So, the second camping adventure on the way home from Alberta happened in Ontario, north east of Dryden.  Nicest people in the world in Dryden, a little town of 8,700(ish) people, but, the people have the BIGGEST hearts anywhere.  We did a Social Media Seminar there a year and a half ago, we do a lot of seminars now, but, I still remember the quality of people we met there, they had us to their homes,. They all have an exceptional pride of place.    

 We found another Provincial Park, this one calls Sandbar Provincial Park.  The sites are very nice, the electrical sites which back on to the water are my favorite, they each of had their own path going to the water.  If you can, get 7e when you are there, however, any of them are wonderful.  The campsite is small, so, nothing is far from anything.  They had nature trails, I don’t do well running on nature trails, as there are routes and such, as I have depth perception issues to start with, I trip a lot.  So, we explored.  Duke and I found the water right away, ok maybe he found it first. We went back to get Jerry, it was too beautiful not to share.  Each camp site on the water side have these little trails to their own beach or water with rocks.

 

 This is for ANGIE!

 It’s strange, I’ve never noticed Mushrooms before, they are beautiful and there are SO many different shapes and sizes. She is a lovely mushroom! Lady with a hat!

 Duke and I dropped Jerry back off at the Site and went to explore another trail we noticed. It was inland, again a nature trail, we we walked it a little.

 After a meal of porkchops, we watch another movie and slept.  I’m trying to get back into waking up EST, so, I went to sleep at 10:30pm EST time, that got Duke & I intime to watch the sunrise.  

So we took off and went to the water.  We wondered a little, and we left the campsite by 8am as we didn’t have anyplace to run.  Gas prices up here in Upsula, Ontario are insane,  when they don’t post them out side, you know they’re high!  Upsula, Ontario gas price was $1.49/liter as there isn’t competition here.  They said it was at $1.59 in May here, and they’ve been steady at 1.49 since, ouch! It was only $1.08/liter in Alberta. In Kenora and Dryden was $1.26, we should have filled up then! This is definitely the highest we’ve paid.  3 liter difference from our last fill yet, $48 difference in price! OUCH!  We take 155liters to fill up, thank goodness we weren’t empty. 

High gas prices, no Timmy's and no internet equals BEAUTY, as the next part of the drive is the MOST beautiful on this Roadtrip! 

OH MY! My Favourite Trail & Camping PARK YET!

We headed home after after Saskatoon, only 32 hours of the trip left.. we will stop every 8ish hours or until we’re exhausted, whichever comes last.  We stopped in what has become one of my favorite running trail camping parks ever.  It’s in Manitoba, called Spruce Woods Provincial Park in Manitoba LOVED IT.  As we drove off of the highway and toward the Park, you kept seeing Trail signs.  Some were the Transcanada trails.  We got to the gates to check in, being the last Friday before Labor Day, all the electrical sites where already taken, however, they gave us a full Group electrical site for the same price as an individual site.  We had the whole thing to ourselves, it was wonderful.  Duke and I took off right away, as always, and found the closets entrance to a trail.  I was in-love immediately! OH MY!

 300ish km of trails.. HEAVEN!

 The trails were wide enough to run, but not so wide as to kill the feel of being in the forest or meadows.  They had tiny white limestone rocks on the whole trail, which was really nice to run on.  There are more then 300 of kms of trails, JOY! We explored alittle so we could figure out where we’d go for a run in the morning, we found a crazy site, a icerink in the woods, looks almost haunted in the summer.  

We went back for a wonderful pasta and sausage dinner, thank you honey! Then,  as we didn’t have internet, but we had electricity, I worked for a few hours on client materials and then we watched a movie.  The morning Duke and I took off, we had a WONDERFUL morning, we had to be back and ready to go by 9am, so we only had limited time and so many trails to choose from! AHAHAH! I'll be back!!!

We ran 4km to a lookout point, missed the lookout point as I wanted to go to the road and see what the signs said, so, instead we ended up at another little trail, a really really steep trail that went down to the water and back up.  I am very glad we did it was the views were beautiful.

 Cool guest book in the middle of the trail! :) Great idea.  I wonder what they do with it?

  But, now we were really LATE and I was still determined to fine the lookout point we set out to find.  We found it, it was right were we left the trail! (of course) So, we climbed up and took some photos.  

 The look out point, our destination (in a round about way).

Then we had the 4km run back! We knew Jerry would be alittle miffed as we promised to be ready to leave by 9am.  I always have to shower and have a portent shake after I run.  We got back at 9:15am, he laughed at us and said, so, you got lost again, didn’t you?  It’s all on how you define lost I suppose.   We were on the road by 9:45am, not so bad I thought.  We found a camel on the road, found that odd, ends up there are also Sand Dunes in that park! I so need to go back! I’d love to stay a few days at that park and explore!   

Thank you Manitoba! So many trails.. we'll be back! XOXO!