Day 10: Thunder Bay, again

(Thursday, July 31st)

View from our hotel room in Thunder Bay

We were intending to be in Kapuskasing or Geraldton this evening, but it wasn't possible. Needing to fly IFR because of the weather ahead, Chris was legally obliged to file a flight plan including an alternate airport at the destination, and there were none accessible. We looked at places ahead of Geraldton and north of Geraldton; they were all too far to reach with the remaining fuel on board. The obvious alternate was Marathon, south of Geraldton, but that was socked in with fog, below minima, in fact reporting 0ft vertical visibility and 0ft horizontal. Even if we had been able to approach Marathon and land there, we wouldn't have been able to watch the sun set over the islands in  tonight's rain. So it's just as well we have returned to Thunder Bay where the weather has been fine all day.

On our way to Kenora airport after breakfast we saw three deer. The taxi driver told us they have moved closer to the edges of town because of their predators in the forest, the timber wolves. The driver asked where we came from and told us proudly of his granddaughter who has just graduated from Cambridge university-- he'd been to England to see her.

We took off from runway 08, i.e. in the right direction, cleared to the VOR at Sioux Narrows on the eastern side of  Lake of the Woods, and thence direct along V300 to Thunder Bay. At first, especially, in thick haze at 7000ft, our GPS navigational aids were most necessary. The only landmark apart from the occasional view of the trans-Canada highway or railway was the town of Atikokan, at about half way, which had an airport and a non-directional beacon (NDB). The approach controller at Thunder Bay gave us vectors for a visual approach to runway 25 at the destination, where it was fine and clear, as reported ... and windy. When he handed us over to Tower, we were told to expect a landing on runway 30 instead (with 20 knot gusts) because the wind direction had changed.

The Thunder Bay marina, our hotel in the bottom right corner

Maintair, the Shell FBO, gave us good service on arrival, even booking our hotel for us at a considerable reduction on the price we paid last time. It's a better room too, with two double beds, an armchair, desk, plenty of space and the glorious view out of both windows. Downstairs there's a swimming pool at our disposal. Hotel slogan: "The only thing we overlook is the waterfront." All this for $89! This afternoon, Chris and I sat by it again, walked around the Spirit Park, etc., found a good supper at a Thai restaurant, and did another circuit of the higher part of town. All the time, our eyes are drawn to the lake and the sky.

Day 9: in Rat Portage Bay

Kenora, with waterfront pavilion

The native people call this neck of the woods "the place where there are rats" (i.e. muskrats) and the early explorers and settlers from Britain therefore called it Rat Portage which didn't look too good on the bags of flour milled in the settlement; they changed the name to Kenora. Chris and I are spending two nights and a day here before flying on again tomorrow (we haven't quite determined in which direction).

The Wednesday market inside the pavilion

Gold mining diorama

Anyhow, we found a good restaurant for our evening meals, Dino's, serving Greek dishes, and lived on snacks for the rest of the day. We kept walking up and downhill into town and back, which took about 15 minutes each way, and I swam for a while in the outdoor pool at the hotel, so we must have had plenty of exercise, though most of the day we seem to have spent just sitting, watching the world go by. Most of the Kenora world was at the Farmers Market within the lakeside pavilion this morning, because it's a Wednesday. Shoppers were buying soaps, potted jams, elk jerky, fruit and veg and gluten free scones. Hand crafted gifts and paintings by local artists were on sale too. On other occasions I presume they have concerts in the pavilion which boasts a stage at one end. We looked round the Lake Of The Woods museum too, where there was a birchbark canoe on display, as well as old wedding dresses and skates and household equipment, photos of the boating parties a hundred years ago and a diorama of a scene from a gold mine.

Later, taking an afternoon cruise on the MS Kenora, we learned from the commentator that there were 20 gold mines near here at one time, all their waste dumped in this bay. He pointed out Huskie the Muskie, the giant fish sculpture in the lakeside car park, and the hospital on Coney Island to which everyone had to be rowed, originally. This institution was founded by the Grey Nuns of Manitoba. He mentioned a tug boat that hauled logs into Safety Bay near the mouth of the Winnipeg river and the 4 billion year old granite rocks on the shore.

As we sailed along in the sunshine we saw eagles soaring overhead, that had nests in the pine trees. Since the 1900s this lake has been a "playground for cottagers" --- in 1903 Princess Patricia had a yacht club built on one of the islands, with four tennis courts. On other islands lived the people of the first nations; a totem pole used to stand on the Isle of Pine, but it has gone. Another island or two used to belong to the churches who would organise youth camps on them, the materials for the buildings being hauled across by truck during the winter when the lake turned to ice. We turned back towards town and sailed through Devil's Gap narrows with the wind in our faces and sun on our backs, the ship's snack bar offering the passengers walleye burgers, the day's special, or poutine.

At the end of today, which happens to be our wedding anniversary, we set up a successful Skype link on Chris' iPad, and managed to talk to our Australian-Chinese grandson having his breakfast in Sydney and naming things--and us!--in Chinese.

Day 8: via a Little Town On The Prairie to the Lake Of The Woods

River valley in Saskatchewan

We witnessed an incident during our breakfast on 11th Street in Regina when a young aboriginal man walked in and started to help himself to the buffet. The house manager intervened, saying he was calling the police, but the miscreant was so hungry he wouldn't budge, telling everyone it was his country too, and that he'd had a terrible day yesterday as well as a terrible night, which I'm sure was true. Chris and I felt sorry for him and offered to pay for his meal; when the youth shuffled off with a pile of toast and coffee in a polystyrene mug, the hotel manager didn't charge it to our room, just shrugged his shoulders and told us this happens all the time. It's sad that the city centres in the midwest of Canada seem to belong to these dropout natives who give their compatriots such a bad reputation. Probably this is why regeneration of the downtown is not easy. I don't think that turning the elegant old CN train station into a Casino can help much, either.

It was perfect flying weather today, cooler at altitude than on the ground, with small cumulus, though this did begin to grow into towering cumuli over some river valleys with steep sides and flooded oxbow lakes. Then the clouds thinned out again.

Erickson: the road to the airport (PTN on the left)

The Viking ship at Erickson

We've had enough of flying west so have turned eastward and this morning's two hours in the air took us back into Manitoba, to an utterly peaceful little town or village called Erickson (settled by Vikings, to judge by the road signs) situated half way between Brandon and Dauphin, in the rolling fields. The runway cut through the middle of a hayfield. The airport building was a hut with lilies in bloom by the doorsteps, that was originally used as a one room schoolhouse, one of the last such schoolhouses to be built in all of Canada. Erickson's other claim to fame is that it's the highest town in Manitoba, at over 2000ft asl. We were greeted by a gentlemanly, softly spoken, distinctly Scandinavian looking person, and when we walked into town for lunch came across some others of his kind. The blonde waitress at the Nordic Inn greeted an elderly customer as Miss Something, asking her politely how she was. I'd lay a bet that she was once the schoolmistress in the one room hut. In the park by Otter Lake was a carved Viking ship with flowers round its prow and a sign by a disused railway track with the rails gone to say this is now part of the Trans-Canada Trail.

Leaving Erickson

Edge of Lake Manitoba

Red River, north of Winnipeg

I can imagine living here. I wouldn't mind it. We took off rather regretfully, having paid for our fuel by cheque, since there were no card readers, opening our flight plan to Kenora, just over the next provincial border in Ontario. This was another pleasing flight in fine weather all the way for two more hours, although we did see rain showers near our destination. One section was out across Lake Manitoba, crossing about 26NM of open water, a further distance than across the English Channel, we realised. But we were never more than 10 miles from the southernmost shore where the marshland is. We had a fine view of the (brown) Red River winding north of Winnipeg, too. Soon after that we were saying farewell to the prairies on the western edge of the forests. Kenora is surrounded by multitudinous lakes.

The last of the Prairie fields, near the Ontario border

Another crosswind landing!

Lake of the Woods on our approach to Kenora

Kenora airport is a long way outside town; the Shell office ordered a taxi for us to the Travelodge (motel) and the driver was a long haired native man with a large feather on the dashboard who was older and wiser than the young man stealing toast. This one spoke of the mistakes people had made when they tried to tame the flooded rivers with canals and dykes. When he was a child, he said, they'd let nature run her course and the flooded grasslands had quickly absorbed all the excess water with no harm done. If you leave nature alone, she balances things out in time. I told him I absolutely agree with that.

We walked to the main part of Kenora for an excellent Greek supper and sat on a bench by the lakeside boardwalk. Tomorrow we're staying on the ground for a rest.

Chris went to a lot of trouble to get the Internet connection working so that I could publish this post from the Travelodge. Thanks, Chris!