I’m in downtown Sault Ste. Marie where I’ve managed to steal wifi again. I just ate at a greasy little place called Neil’s Diner where Neil mans the grill behind the counter and cooks up some mean burgers and fresh cut french fries. Everything seems to be made from scratch and the locals kept coming in to hang out and eat, which is always the hallmark of a fine dining establishment. It’s greasy, but so very tasty.
This morning, after waking up in White River, I went into the town to check out their Winnie the Pooh themed park. Apparently White River is where a Canadian army veterinarian purchased a bear cub which he named “Winnie.” The cub was left in the care of the London Zoo while the veterinarian served in France and it was there that A.A. Milne saw the bear and spun the story based on him.
Once I’d seen enough of Winnie I headed down towards Lake Superior Provincial Park to check out some of the beaches on the way to Sault Ste. Marie. The best discovery was a set of pictographs done by the Ojibwa people at Agawa Bay. While I was down looking at them I started talking with a gentleman who happened to be a professor of anthropology in Michigan! He gave me a full rundown on the paintings and what they represented. My favorite was the picture of Mishipeshu, a cat-like creature with horns who was said to inhabit the waters and use his long tail to cause stormy weather on the ocean. The professor told me that the natives would bind the feet of a puppy and throw it into the ocean as an offering to Mishipeshu when they wanted safe passage!
Before running across the pictographs I had a swim at one of the best beaches I’ve ever seen, Katherine Cove. The whole beach is smooth sand like you’d find in the tropics and the water is shallow for a quite a ways from shore. One could spend a lot of time on a beach like that. The water isn’t terribly warm though. Warmer than the ocean, but still the kind of water you only want to spend a few minutes in.
I’m going to send a few photos to my flickr account now and then I’m going to hit the road again.
awesome.. I used to go to katherine cove when I was a kid, I remember it being quite awesome compared to the other lakes in ontario. I have relatives in Kenora and used to go visit there all the time, always seemed like a really nice town. Did a lot of boating on lake of the woods.
Are you going to hit up toronto on this leg of the trip, or straight to ottawa?
You really should have this all routed up in google maps for all to see :)