Frank Wulfers

Find Part 1 here: link

And the road trip continues.. We're still on the King's Highway 17 which is the longest highway in Ontario. It stretches from the Manitoba border to the east near Quebec and is 1,964 km / 1,220 miles long. That's a pretty good size road.





It's an impressive road and you can only imagine what it took to build this. From Wikipedia:

The portion of Highway 17 over the top of Lake Superior was constructed in the late 1950s as a result of the Trans-Canada Highway Act. Amongst some of the most difficult terrain encountered in Canada, engineers blasted 2,730,000 cubic yards of rock, removed 7,825,000 cubic yards of earth, and cleared 6.97 square kilometres (1,720 acres) of forest in order to bridge the 266 kilometres (165 mi) of wilderness known as "the Gap". The Gap was completed and opened to traffic on September 17, 1960, uniting the two segments and completing the route of Highway 17 from the Manitoba border to the Quebec border. The last gravel stretch of Hwy 17 was located west of Ignace and was paved in 1967.

I can't really visualize how much a million cubic yards of anything is but it sounds like quite a lot.





Many of the communities like Nipigon are old logging towns and most are just hanging on. Downtown Nipigon was pretty much deserted and some older buildings hinted of a richer past. Not so much anymore.



There are not many Saabs in this part of the world. I think I only saw a couple on my entire trip and I encountered this still life in Thunder Bay. I don't think they'll be going anywhere soon but it was still nice to see the familiar shapes of these cars.





Thunder Bay is the largest city on the north shore of Lake Superior. I always had great expectations of the city with a name like Thunder Bay but reality was a bit different. It's a gritty and rough town without much wealth. A real working town.

The port is quite large and I always like to explore these industrial areas. I guess I have a thing with airports and seaports, air planes and big ships.







I only spent one night in Thunder Bay. I still had enough time to tour through most areas. The Canadian / US border is not that far from here. Again, traffic was very quiet and going through customs didn't take much time at all. I have crossed the border in Port Huron, Detroit and Niagara and there it can take an hour or more.






Grand Portage in Minnesota is a National Monument is not far from the border. It's nice to stop, walk the grounds and stretch the legs a little bit.

The Great Hall and surrounding buildings and area hosted informative re-enactments with the guides dressed appropriate for the time it once was. I always like these kind of old forts and it is deifnitely worth a visit if you're in the area.

Grand Portage National Monument is a United States National Monument located on the north shore ofLake Superior in northeastern Minnesota that preserves a vital center of fur trade activity and AnishinaabegOjibwe heritage.

The Grand Portage is an 8.5-mile (13.7 km) (2720 rod) footpath which bypasses a set of waterfalls and rapids on the last 20 miles (32 km) of the Pigeon River before it flows into Lake Superior. This path is part of the historic trade route of the French-Canadian Voyageurs and Coureur des bois between their wintering grounds and their depots to the east.

I bet you have images of Native Americans roaming the land on horseback. These days, transportation is a Pontiac Grand Prix or other fine American automobile.



The road continued and it slowly gets flatter, less rocky and less exciting on the northern Minnesota shore.



Sometimes you just have to slow down, stop and... smell the flowers! Unfortunately, I was too busy dodging traffic and taking pictures that I actually forgot to smell them. Ah well, the pictures last a lot longer.



This lake just never ends. Actually, we not that far from the west end of Lake Superior and I imagine this freighter is headed to Duluth.



I was planning to spend the night in Duluth but weather was still very nice and I wasn't looking forward to spend the night in another city. When I came to Two Harbors, I decided to turn the Saab north and head into the Minnesota unknown.



I found a nice National (or State) Forest campground about 20 miles south of Ely, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty quiet with many spots to choose from. Nicely maintained as well.



Time to sit and relax, enjoy the sounds of nature, have a cold one and try not to get annoyed by the bugs.



After dark, a very large thunder storm passed through the area. It's definitely a bit of a tense experience seeing bolts of lightning and hearing very loud thunder when the center of the storm is right above you. And you're separated from the driving rain by the very thin tent fabric. Fortunately, Coleman makes good tents and it never leaked one bit. I may not have the fancy North Face expedition tents that can withstand gail force wind and blizzards on Mount Everest but this $50 tent works just fine for me.

There weren't any facilities other than outhouses and drinking water so the following day started with a jump in the river. That's something I would never do at home first thing in the morning but here it was quite relaxing and very refreshing. A bit too refreshing but it least it woke me up.

The town of Ely, MN is not that big but has quite a bit of character. After that, it was north towards International Falls and the Canadian border.



The border crossing was pretty quick again and I was back in Canada. I heard many good stories about the Lake of the Woods area and always was curious to check it out. As the name suggests, it's an area with many lakes, woods and islands. Originally, it was actually called Lake of the Islands by the natives in the area but the Europeans messed up the translation and called it Lake of the Woods.





The campground in Sioux Narrows was exactly what I was hoping for in this area. There was hardly anyone there and it actually made it more difficult to choose one of the many nice spots with a vview of the lake.





A tasty yet easy to prepare meal courtesy of Chef Boyardee. Well, not very tasty but it was all I had.



I got a warm welcome from the locals and a few old friends stopped by for some blood. I think this one got away but I killed a few that evening. Insect repellent is definitely a must this time of year in early July.



The sun was slowly setting over the lake and a few bugs can't take away the pleasure off simply enjoying the silence, the occasional sound of a loon in the distance and the smoky campfire.



This will give an idea what a loon sounds like. An amazing haunting sound from the north woods.



The lake turned to glass and the reflection of the island was almost surreal. Or perhaps that was the Teacher's Scotch whisky I bought earlier at the duty-free at the border crossing. Either way, what a beautiful evening.



Continue to part 3: http://saabworld.net/blogs/frank-wul...ba-part-3-427/