Last stops in Superior - Red Rock and Sand River

Our last days north of Lake Superior were spent near the small (they all are) town of Red Rock, Ontario.  On the clearest of the days, we hiked along the Nipigon River, below, along the railroad, across the power line cut, and up a pretty steep hill - a scramble aided by well placed ropes to assist the climb and a pretty long stair case.  

The view from another overlook toward the Red Rock "harbor". In the prosperous years of the past it was a paper mill town. Now it is a town of ''well, we might try tourism" and salvaging scrap from the paper mill.

That is me making Patt nervous. I like to look over cliffs. Patt does not choose to get close to cliffs.  The guy sorta close to me pretends to like to look over cliffs. Oddly enough and surprisingly he and his wife are from North Carolina. Their car at the trailhead with its NC license plate marked the first NC plate we had seen since probably Virginia. And later that day pulling into a provincial park in front of us was another NC plate on a RV.  We Carolinians were a real crowd in Ontario this week.

Patt coming down a stretch of the hill, rope and climbing stick assisted. Good thing we heard there had been no bear sightings on the trail this year or Patt would have jumped faster.

We have seen some green tunnels — and some nice lake views too, but lots and lots of tunnels and not much traffic.

Neys Provincial Park has a small stream that enters Lake Superior at a sandy beach. And cold water.  There was a woman and her son knee deep in the water when we first got down to the shore and then just Patt and me. Again, Patt decided against wading. I did find a rock for Eric.

From 1941 to '46, this park was a POW camp for Germans captured by the British during WWII. The POWs sent here were all from the German Luftwaffe or submarine forces, most were officers. There was a small museum about the camp here. Of the 33,000 German POWs interned throughout Canada during the war, 25% eventually emigrated to Canada after the war. (We keep telling you all Canadians are friendly.)

On one of our many pretty waterfall hikes, this one on the Sand River, there is the Trans-Canadian Highway behind Patt and of course the Lake, Superior that is.

Some of the many waterfalls we walked around and past on this hike.

A feature of this hike was being able to actually walk up the river bed a pretty good distance.

Then of course the stream gets narrow or the last glacier here left some big rocks in the way as opposed to just scaring the bed rock.

Now on to a bit of Lake Huron then to Niagara Falls.

North Shore of Lake Superior

That is one reason we came, heard this place was pretty, and indeed it is. North Shore of Superior in Minnesota and Ontario is just as pretty as promised. The lake is huge - the largest fresh water lake in the world - containing 10% of the entire world's fresh water resources. Our first two nights we stayed in the US and hiked in Minnesota state parks, then on to Thunder Bay and Red Rock Ontario.

Split Rock Lighthouse, according to state historical sites people, is one of the most photographed sites in Minnesota. Don't know about that but Matt and Laura have a similar photo. So that's makes two.

The Gooseberry Falls State Park hike probably will be one of our all time favorites. The series of water falls on this river running into the lake were both dramatic and beautiful. A couple of them, in narrow gorges, had a tremendous roar.

Also hiked the Cascade River State Park trail which has a series of water falls leading to the lake (under the bridge).

We went down to the rivers edges several places and to enjoy some cool shade, as for a change we were having a hot day. Talking low 80's so you know we were uncomfortable.    

In Thunder Bay at Fort William, a reconstructed historical trading post for the Northwest Company and later the Hudson Bay Company, there were historical actors and reconstructed buildings of the old trading post.

One of the most interesting buildings housed the birch bark canoe building operation. They were actually building real birch bark canoes. In the early days of the fur trade, large canoes would go between Montreal and Thunder Bay in six weeks with 8,000 pounds of trade goods. Paddled and portaged by 10 to 12 men, strong men.

The highway did not always follow the lake shore, it occasionally turned inland into thick forests,

or wheat fields. According to local newspapers, Canada is having a good year of grain production.  The North Dakota farmers will have some competition in the world market for wheat.

Had lunch here, walleye sandwich. Locally caught from Lake Superior. I am getting to really like walleye or pickerel as it is also referred to. It is the prevalent offering on the menu when "seafood" is available.

And this is where we are staying in Red Rock, east of Thunder Bay. We had a glass of wine and read yesterday evening in those white chairs, feet on the orange bucket. Tough duty.

Winnipeg (near the Longitudinal Center of Canada)

After leaving North Dakota, we drove north a couple of hours to Winnipeg, capital of Manitoba. We enjoyed our stay in a classic old time big hotel, the Fort Garry Hotel (four weddings were held while we were there).  We walked up to the legislative building, a huge nearly 100 year old building.

Inside the capital lobby huge bison guarded the main staircase up to the legislative chamber.  The capital building is also the main government building for the province.

Where the 57 legislators sit, each representing 22,000 people.

Manitoba does not have a lot of people.

Along the Red River that runs through town there is a park. Bears, painted in a variety of schemes, are a theme in a part of the park. Indian totem poles also mix in.

And a replica of old Fort Garry, a French trading post and settlement from fur trading days.

 We most enjoyed the Human Rights museum in town, an amazing museum that traced the meaning and evolution of the understanding of human rights through time and various violations of rights that have involved citizen groups in Manitoba. It is an amazing museum, extremely well done.

As we left town driving east on Canada Highway 1, the TransCanadian Highway, we passed a sign announcing the "Longitudinal Center of Canada".  This is what it  looked like a couple of miles down the road. We were doing about 70 mph and did not go back to get a photo of the sign or the exact spot. The sign was about 20-30 miles east of Winnipeg if you just have to know.

Driving across the west to North Dakota

Leaving Fort Collins, Colorado we drove north into Wyoming. Stopped near Guernsey where the Oregon Trail cut deep ruts into the sandstone and left less distinguishable trail through the prairie.

Fort Laramie, an old US calvary post, has been maintained and reconstructed in the prairie. It would have been a desolate post.

Crossed into South Dakota on a back road. Saw this sign. Decided to buy gas in Newell. Luckily they had some - most towns we saw were just a crossroads, about every 35 miles would be a slightly larger town with some services.

Stopped at an Indian Reservation for lunch in South Dakota and the drive, the geography and agriculture were more interesting than the above photo seems to indicate. The towns, however, did not get much closer together despite our not going all the way to Watertown.

 Driving into North Dakota and Napoleon from the south, we drove by Erick Oman's homestead site.  This was the view across the street.  A wheat field, a large one— as they tend to be.

And the former site of the Oman homestead, now a hay field for the cattle in the next quarter section.  That is the street - dirt road to the right in the photo.

Downtown Napoleon has not changed much since the '20s and '30s. This brick building has a new facade but is basically the same one you see in that old photo we have of Erick and others working on the original wooden structure.

One of the delights of our visit to Napoleon was visiting Carolyn Sperle, a 100+ year old who remembered 'Mr Oman' as a Raleigh Products salesman. We met her on a visit to Napoleon in 2006 through a connection from a friend of Matt's father Luther.

Mrs. Sperle is one of the more interesting people you can meet. The daughter of Russian German immigrants from Odessa she told us stories of old Napoleon and of being a volunteer in the local senior citizens home. Yes, she is a volunteer at the old folks home. And she will make you laugh too.

We also went by the town cemetery and visited the grave of Lawrence Pershing Oman who died July 31, 1920, a month short of two years old.

Leaving Napoleon behind, we kept our tradition of driving on back roads (like we had a choice) and got stuck behind a cattle drive. They finally left the road and I got this photo. One pick up truck, one young woman on horseback, two four wheelers and two dogs, about 60-70 cattle.

The roads are straight.

The sunflower crops are bright and fill a field.

In Grand Forks, we had a great visit with Matt's parents, Luther and Jan. Originally we had planned on going fishing at Devils Lake, but high winds changed those plans. So we went into northern Minnesota to Lake Itasca to see the headwaters of the Mississippi River.

Crossing those rocks, the water exiting the lake, the Mississippi starts its way to the Gulf.  It takes 90 days for this water to get to New Orleans.

The four of us. Patt and Jan with wet feet too.

and now off to Winnipeg the to the North Shore of Lake Superior.

Deer Mountain Hike, a 10,000 foot mtn, no small thing either

Early in our time in Fort Collins we hiked Deer Mountain. These photos have languished on my desktop ready to be posted for several weeks so finally after we left town and the kids are safely back in Asia, here it is. This was one of the first of many big hikes with elevation.

The two littles are ready to start up hill. A party of about 12 or 14 of us went on this hike. Two families in addition to us.  

Early on I was getting favor of a hiking partner- I liked it.

and as we got higher and a bit spread out, on the switch backs, the views got broader and better too.

and hiking partners changed around which was nice

or none at all, also nice, especially when I was huffing and puffing.

At one point it rained, hard! very hard! We just put on our rain coats and stood under the trees to get what shelter we could. Finally it did clear and the humidity being nonexistent we dried out rapidly as did the trail.

Though a bit cloudy, no more rain the rest of the day, a bit cool at the top though where we picnicked.

and we got a photo with all the Asian grandchildren.

a strong hiking crew and a great hiking place 

check out the back drop of this photograph

We like the views from mountain tops.

Some trails get a bit steep with lots of switchbacks. This one was.

Hard to beat Rocky Mountain National Park for a vista or a backdrop for a photograph.

It is also hard to beat Fort Collins as a place to spend the summer. Patt and I truly enjoyed our time here with the grandchildren and Matt and Laura. It was just absolutely great. Hiking, playing cards, biking, meal times, reading, story telling, cooking, playing outside, just talking and visiting, having early morning wake up visitors, sleepover guests, going places and all the fun of being together. A great summer for memories that we will surely treasure.

now we are off to another journey--