August 30 Thunder Bay, Ontario to Rossport, Ontario

We hang around Thunder Bay this morning. Breakfast is at Hoito, a non-profit restaurant located in the basement of the Finnish Labour Temple.  Hoito means “care” in Finnish. The restaurant was started as a co-operative to provide reasonably priced home-cooked meals to Finnish workers. It’s well known for the thin, crispy Finnish pancakes they serve. We wait in line for a table, and end up at the coffee counter with several grizzled regulars who stop for coffee, leaving tips of a quarter. I have porridge and Brez has the pancakes and eggs. The service is unhurried and a bit disorganized which does not win favor with Jim. The waitress wins him over though and they discuss the restaurant’s decision to remove the coffee counter for more table seating, (bad idea).

We stop to view Kakabeka Falls known as the “Niagara of the North”. It’s just off the road and an easy walk to the viewing platform. In Ojibwe, Kakabeka means waterfall over a cliff. Perfect description. Refreshing stop.

Fort Williams Historical Park is a recreation of the fur trading post, as it existed in 1815. Interesting to note that Grand Portage, (where we stopped yesterday) was relocated to Fort Williams when the Grand Portage area was ceded to the United States and the international border was settled. The park is not on the original site of the fort, (supposedly a mosquito infested swamp), but consists of 42 buildings constructed in the original style and using the techniques of the 1800’s. Canoes drift on the Kaministiquia River; the stockade raises its pointy moss-covered spikes enclosing the simple community, the Native encampment huddles in the nearby forest. Individuals in period dress go about their day-to-day activities but are eager to stop and engage we people from the future who have invaded their space.

Furs in the Trading Shed

Trade Goods

Weighing Furs

Bark Stockpiled for Canoe Building

Voyageurs Bunkhouse

Indian Encampment

Our drive today takes us past Ouimet (We-met) Canyon Provincial Park. It’s off the road a bit on a winding road away from the lake. It’s a bit of a walk to two viewing platforms suspended out over the canyon, but the views are outstanding. The sheer cliffs drop down 330 feet on either side of an almost 500 foot wide gorge that runs for about a mile.

Nearby is a privately owned suspension bridge and zip line across the canyon. If the road into the complex had been paved, we’d have done the walk, (not the zip line). However, the gravel road surface was deemed to be not Porsche worthy.

In Rossport we stay at the Serendipity Guest House. When we check in they hand us a hatbox filled with breakfast items to put in the room frig. We have dinner in their café. Although Rossport is a tiny town, (less than 100 people), every table in the café is taken. The food is delicious, (red fin trout from the lake and fresh blueberry shortcake).

We stroll home in the silent dusk.