Thunder Bay to Kenora

I will show you a picture of the most prevalent part of the day.

Yes, this is a rock face.  This is a rock face that has been drilled and blasted to allow for a road.

This is a highlight.

Shall we say that today was a bit boring?  We did 500 km, from Thunder Bay to Kenora, and 400 km of that was through Boreal Forest.  The roads were flat, the trees were short, and the wildflowers were the same.  I did note two differences:  some larch trees appeared, and there was more lichen than grass on the bare patches.  Whoopdedoo…….

Warning signs for large mammals on the road went from deer to moose to deer to moose, etc, etc.  Moose dangers were more prevalent.

In looking for unique road names, I have come to the conclusion that explorers were bored out of their minds when they got west to this point.  Lone Pine Road.  Spruce Road.  Poplar Beach Drive.  Red River, Black River.  Sandy Beach Cove.  Beaver Creek.  Current River.  (Did that mean there was a Past River?) 

There was less road construction today, but what little there was made up for it.  We passed one light-regulated single lane road and one short flagged stretch, and did extremely well until late in the afternoon.  Then we came to a 5 km stretch of total road replacement, with a single lane of traffic.  When the flag person parked the stop sign in an orange and black striped traffic cone, I knew we were in trouble.  Then they started moving traffic cones.  Minutes later, a stream of over 80 vehicles passed through, followed by a water truck and a follow-me vehicle.  This allowed ample time to take pictures of rocks, paving vehicles, and generally nothing in particular.

After all these negative thoughts, as usual we had a highlight to make the day memorable.

Brian’s kayak is named the Noble George II, based on an old scout camp boat used to row to an overnight camp near Lake of the Woods (the area we were in tonight).  This adventure was a highlight for him because he was in his early teens living in Gimli, and the old boat was named the Noble George.  When Brian got his prized kayak, it was natural for him to name it the Noble George II.

We had stopped for the day at a little motel, and went out for a modest dinner at another motel’s restaurant.  As we left after our meal, a fellow who went outside to smoke a cigarette admired Brian’s kayak, and started making comments about boats, etc.  He was a local, and told Brian about the story of another local fellow called George Noble, who loved kids and boats and spent innumerable hours supporting kids at camps.  Brian almost got shivers at this, because it was obvious how the Noble George got its name.  The two men had a lovely conversation and Brian said it felt almost preordained that he would find a story like this about something that was so special to him.