Day 42: …the big lake they call Gitche Gumee…

According to Wikipedia, Lake Superior is actually called Giche-gami in Ojibwe but I’ve used the Gordon Lightfoot spelling for the title of this post.

Ahhh, after our night in Winnipeg, last night was soooo quiet. We slept until 7:00am and could have probably slept longer if we didn’t need to keep moving it along. We showered last night (showers get 8/10) and so this morning was a simple breakfast and packing up of the van. Tanks dumped and water filled, we were on the road by 9:00am.

First priority of the day was fuel for the van and some 5G internet so that I could finish and upload yesterdays post. Barb located an Esso/Tim Horton’s in Thunder Bay which also had a really good 5G signal. Check.

Back onto Hwy-17 East towards Nipigon, ON. Construction of new 4-lane sections slowed us a few times, but as the road was fairly quiet, we had no long waits thankfully. Passing the Nipigon River bridge and the Hwy-11 turnoff that we took two years ago, we continued on Hwy-17 towards White River and Wawa, ON.

The road is in really good condition and the weather was beautiful making the driving easy. We stopped at the Aguasabon Canyon viewpoint to look at the waterfall. We had the place to ourselves.

At White River we stopped at the visitor center and Barb got to visit Winnie-the-Pooh as we had done with our children 21 years ago. We also enjoyed a picnic lunch in the van before returning to the road.

The visitor center in Wawa is still closed for the Winter and so we don’t stop but Barb managed to get a picture of the Wawa goose.

Some of the views out across the lake are stunning and you come upon them suddenly as the road twists and turns along the shoreline. We’ve included a few below.

We end our day in Pancake Bay Provincial Park just a few kilometers North of Sault-Ste-Marie, ON. The beach here is gorgeous and Barb even wades into the (very cold) lake.

We settle in for the evening and prepare for our last long road day tomorrow which will include a special treat.