Tag: Ontario

French Portage and Falls, Furnace, Ojibwa Campground, Quetico Provincial Park, Quetico Provincial Park

Hike French Portage and Falls

by  •  • 0 Comments

Sunday, September 7, 2025 

39 deg at 6 am

Still having trouble with the furnace, I went out and surveyed the problem again. Of course there could be one or several problems, so I have watched some videos, which were helpful. All the wires were connected, but the cover for the flywheel was loose and there were a couple of screws lying on the bottom. I remembered that I have had this problem before, and I drilled a hole and placed a new screw. The problem is this whole bracket is plastic and it breaks around the screws. I can find every other part online, but not a new bracket. Since the cover is loose, airflow is not being directed properly.

At 10:00 we hiked the French Portage and French Falls Trail. The portage was one used by Native Americans and Colonials to get around the cascading waterfall. It was a one-hour hike to the falls, then one hour back. The Indians likely used birch-bark canoes, so maybe this wasn’t so bad, but the Colonials were carrying goods to trade. I can’t imagine carrying all that for this distance.

  • MBW
  • MBW

Quetico Provincial Park is known for its paddling. It is a vast area with over 2,000 lakes. We drove into a parking lot beside French Lake. It is a boat launch and the parking lot was full. There are hiking trails in Quetico, but the water trails are the ones most used. 

During lunch I searched fishing in Quetico. The best article was one asking which lake is your favorite to fish in Quetico. Mostly, people don’t come to fish. They come to paddle, camp out under the stars with no one else around. Build a fire and let all the worldly stresses disappear. 

One commenter said the fish in Quetico die of old age because there is so little fishing pressure. The paddlers might catch two for dinner, but mostly they are paddling. The fish here are smallmouth, walleye, pike and lake trout. These waters are so clean, any of those fish would be great to eat. Motors are not allowed in the park, so that limits fishermen. 

People replying to the article like different lakes. The smallmouth are plentiful and can grow to large sizes. I could find nothing about fishing the two creeks running through the park. After reading the article, I looked for some of the lakes they liked. These are not day trips! How do you find your way! 

It was time to work on the furnace that sometimes lights and sometimes doesn’t. I have had the problem before, and I remembered there is a plastic two-part cover over the flywheel. Four screws held the two parts together, but the plastic holding them over thousands of bumps are now broken. Only one screw held it loosely together. One video showed taping it back together. I opted for velcro that I might be able to remove. After a lot of searching, I could not find a replacement cover anywhere.

It’s a tight area to work in, and truly it is amazing it has done so well for 10 years. Is it the igniter, the sail switch or the loose cover not controlling air flow? I took it all apart, taking pictures so I would know where all these wires go. 

Three hours later i proudly had it all back together. I think I reconnected all the wires correctly. The fan came on, but it still didn’t light. There were no error lights on the circuit board. A man walking behind me asked if I had fixed it. “Well I did what I set out to do, but it didn’t solve my problem. Have you ever done that?” “Many times,” he said, continuing his walk. 

Ojibwa Campground, Quetico Provincial Park, Quetico Provincial Park, Thunder Bay to Quetico Provincial Park

Drive to Quetico Provincial Park

by  •  • 2 Comments

September 5, 2025 at 5:46 AM

41 deg at 6:00

Martha had learned about a special sweet roll while she was waiting on a bench at the shower house back in Rabbit Blanket campground, Lake Superior Provincial Park.  “If you go to Thunder Bay you must try a Persian!” said the young lady who was also waiting for a shower.

So we went to the Bennett Brothers’ Persian Man for a “Persian”, which is sweet bun with a unique pink icing that uses fruit for coloring and flavor. It is a happening place, selling Persians and coffee, but they have other interesting things, like egg salad sandwiches, soups, chili and more. We shared one and Martha got one to go for tomorrow morning.

OK, we are cold, having brought lots of short sleeved shirts and shorts for our August trip. I bought a nice hooded sweat shirt in Wawa, but we need another layer. We could have walked to the sporting goods store, but we drove one block. Our lucky day, there was a going out of business sale. Spending more than an hour in there, we came out with long johns, socks and a nice shirt. I bought a new pair of Keens.

Around the corner, we went to Laura’s recommended coffee roaster, Rose N Crantz Roasting Company and bought two pounds of coffee and two good-looking oatmeal raisin cookies. We asked the nice girl, who gave us a cup of the coffee we bought, where we would find good granola. She referred us to The Bulk Zone, another two blocks away. She said she loves going there. It was truly a cool, unique place. They had everything! No frills, but isle after isle of useful things. From 10 granola bins, I chose 4 and will mix them.

From their website

We made a quick stop at Safeway to buy milk and shaving cream. We were happy to have supported the economy in Thunder Bay, but I was ready to hit the road. We hooked up and pulled out at 11:30. It was very windy, and cold enough that it cut right through you.

On our way west, we stopped at Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park, the highest falls in Ontario. It is an impressive site, like a smaller Niagara with a solid granite island in the middle. It is also a beautiful river above and below the falls. We thought we would have lunch at a picnic table, but it was too windy and cold, so we ate in the trailer.

The Trans Canada Highway splits in two for a while, 17 going north then west to Winnipeg. 11 goes west, bumping into the border before turning north through Sioux Narrows and rejoining 17 at Kenora. 

Not that 17 is terribly busy, but 11 is much less busy. It winds through hills and forest. There is serious construction of a big power line following the same route. Otherwise I felt I was taking Martha into the middle of nowhere. We passed huge lakes, a few rivers and streams. The conversation was quiet. It was cold, windy, and I wondered if I had made the wrong choice of choosing Quetico. I couldn’t even remember why I chose it, other than the fact that I love Canadian Provincial Parks.

Finally, we made the turn into the park and went into the Visitor’s Center. It was raining and raw. Opening the door, we saw in front of us a big fireplace in the center of the large room. It was warm and a young lady stoking the fire greeted us with a smile. We already felt better.

Registering, Martha felt we needed an electric site, because we were going to have to run the heat pump maybe night and day. I had booked site 21 that backs up to the lake, but we traded that for a pull through with electric. 

It was a tight turn pulling into the site, and I had to pull as close as I could to the left side to get close to the electric post. In a drizzling, cold rain it was still a stretch to connect to power. Martha went inside to get the heat going. 

We enjoyed the warm trailer, observing little movement outside. French Lake was in front of us, about 200 yards away. Martha fixed a nice salad with smoked trout in it for dinner.

The thing about a heat pump is it works very hard to convert 40 degrees to 65 degrees. Every not and then we turned on the heat pump, which runs on propane, to get the floor warm. Again I wondered about this choice. The good news was we had four bars of cell service. No radio or TV stations, but four bars! At least we could get weather reports, and there was a warming trend over the next five days.

Salad with smoked trout
Cuisine, Fort William, Thunder Bay, Ontario, The Fish House, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Thunder Bay

Moving to Thunder Bay

by  •  • 1 Comment

September 4, 2025 

41 degrees at 6:00, high of 54.

We booked a campsite at Fort William in Thunder Bay on advice from Airstreamers at Terrace Bay and from Sandy at the Silver Islet store. There was no need to hurry, so I went down to the South Kaybeyun parking lot to see if I could get some posts done. Nope. Surely it is a good idea to just allow enough to get messages and email. It forces you to concentrate on the outdoors. 

It was a raw, cold morning as we started to get ready to travel. Our poor tenter neighbors were sitting outside all bundled up. I took our firewood out and offered to build a fire for them. They were thrilled. They were from Quebec on a trip across the country to Vancouver. Their names were Gatinau (?) and Leis. They met 32 years ago, each camping, so they are used to this.

They related their issues with their new GMC electric car that gets 375 miles/charge. They started to buy a Prius that gets 500 miles/charge, but they wanted more room. They searched for charge stations and travelled accordingly, but there were issues. They would arrive and the station wasn’t working, out of order or all being used. They had to be towed at one point, and had to backtrack a few times. I told them they need to write this up. I would love to know if they make it to Vancouver.

We hooked up and just barely made the turn out of the campsite. Our nice neighbor across the street offered to move his truck, but we were OK. Traveling with three young girls, I offered him the prize for neatest campsite in the park. They were there for 10 days and had a big time. Canadians are different. On a chilly morning with it spitting rain, one of the little girls, maybe 4 years old, was dancing around in her rubber boots, raincoat and little umbrella. 

It was only an hour to Thunder Bay. Sandy, at the Silver Islet Store, had told us to go to The Fish Store, following a big sign on the side of the road. We did that and it proved to be a great place. Liisa owns it and showed us frozen, wild blueberries. She said it was a tough year for them due to several major weather changes. Bears were having a hard time finding enough to eat, so they have been coming to town.

We bought a bag of candied smoked salmon chunks. Sandy said it sounds weird, but they are great. We bought a smoked Rainbow Trout, Pickerel cheeks, blueberries, a loaf of bread and some local Gouda cheese. She was interesting to talk to as she meets all kinds of people, many coming from Europe to do the big loop – across Canada, down the west coast of US, across the south and up the east coast. Some do an even bigger one, using the Pan American Highway that goes all the way to the tip of South America. This one takes two years. We thought we were doing well to go around the big lake. Martha asked what to do with the smoked trout. Another customer named Laura was contributing to the conversation.

It was a bit of a trick getting out of the parking lot, but we made it. Across town, we found our site at Fort William. After getting settled on a damp and chilling day, we went to the Visitor’s Center to register and look around. It’s a very interesting place that was in competition with the Hudson Bay Company for this part of Canada. We watched a good video on how they carried furs and other goods in big canoes with 8 or more men on board. They paddled incredible distances this way. We never did see the fort, as we had a lot to do.

First, we were off to a laundry. It seemed like everything useful was dirty. It was a busy little place with the owner, Cosmo, coming in to help people. Someone came in with a great-looking sandwich from next door. After loading the wash, we went next door to Cosmo’s other business, an italian bakery, deli and grocery store – Agostino’s Deli.

We were like kids in a candy store looking at all the good things when we saw Laura from the Fish Store. That started a whole conversation about the great food in the deli. Martha asked about where to get a “Persian,” and she told us. She told us about a local coffee roaster. She told us about the best hot sauce, so we bought some. And then she told us about a good fresh seafood market. She had come in to look for some little round red peppers in a jar that a friend had put on a salad. She found it and showed us. Then she gave us her phone number in case we had any other questions. 

The help in the Deli were great – friendly, helpful, patient. We kept adding things and putting them on the counter. The girl said that was fine, as she called out to Cosmo for a price for a box of plum tomatoes a regular customer was buying. A man in line said we were going to love that hot sauce. Martha asked what he put it on. “Pork chops…everything,” he said. 

It was like a friendly whirlwind of regulars who all knew Cosmo. Back to the laundry, then back to the deli. Even the people in the little laundry started friendly conversations. Martha spun the washing machine drum because she heard change in there, but couldn’t find it. An older guy sitting behind her said, “Oh that doesn’t come out. Only Cosmo can get that money.” A lady found a sock on the floor and asked Martha if it was hers. There was some debate about no, it wasn’t hers because it has an L on it, and she wore a medium. “Maybe it’s your husband’s.” I said, “Maybe it’s for Left foot.”

We loaded up our laundry, deli meat, pasta, bread, chicken pot pies, frozen meatballs and sauce, and biscotti and headed out. We went to the LCBO for wine and our favorite bourbon, Makers Mark. “We don’t buy anything from the states,” the nice salesperson said, but she recommended some good wines.

Next was the fish market for some fresh steelhead trout for tonight’s dinner.

Then off to the grocery store for a few things. I mean we are only going to Quetico Provincial Park for 5 days! I was ready for a drink when we got back, but Martha said, “Don’t you love that kind of day? It all fell into place and we got so much done!”

error: Content is protected !!