epic great lakes tour

dropframe

New member
So after talking about it for a few months, we decided to take off, cash in some vacation days and go for our big mega road trip. We are 6 days into an 18 day trek and since it's raining like crazy here we finally caved and found a motel with wifi.

My wife has been doing little journals so I thought I would post them up here. We won't post up again until we hit Toronto - that is when we are scheduled for another hotel ;) We haven't hit up one campground we have planned on using yet, but it's been fun. Enjoy!
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Day 1

Our first night on our Epic Great Lakes Tour was my parent's trailer in Baileys Harbor, WI. It's about 3 hours from our home, and free, so a good place to stay.

We decided to take the "scenic route" which follows Hwy 42 up Lake Michigan instead of I-43 through Green Bay. It followed the lake and went through some little communities. It was a really relaxing start to our journey, to see the country and the lighthouses and the peaceful water. It was also a nice speed for the windows being down sine we don't have air conditioning.

We made our first pit stop in Manitowoc to get coffee and drop off some Craigslist stuff, and passed by a car show which also featured hamburgers and a full contact octagon fight. The 10yo was interested especially because it was a guy fighting a girl (no winner). It was a bit disturbing.

Second stop was at a hometown Czech festival which was kind of dumb but we saw a cool old schoolhouse and the 10yo learned not to touch the tailpipe of the truck.

After stopping for some groceries, we got to the camper about 6pm. Not fully unloading the truck was nice, as was cooking dinner and breakfast in a real kitchen for the last time for a few weeks.

Brent built a fire but I locked myself in the bedroom and passed out early, since I had done most of the packing and had worked far harder than him that day. :Wow1:
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Day 2

We were all up and had a leisurely breakfast and pack-up. On the road by 10:30 and we stopped at the beach to get the daily Great Lake photo. After getting gas, we headed down to Green Bay. Brent and I both expressed our excitement that we were going to see something completely new today. The drive up to the trailer is old hat to us so today was the real start in a way.
Thankfully the 10yo fell asleep and gave us a small break from endless football card facts and questions.

We met a friend for lunch in Green Bay before refueling and heading north. We took 141 up to 8W, then caught 2W and almost followed the Michigan/Wisconsin border NW up to Lake Superior. The other route suggested we go through Wausau, WI and then straight north, but we wanted to travel through Nicolet and Ottawa State Parks. The drive was beautiful - lots of trees, obviously, but great weather and a peaceful trip, with small towns dotting the way.

Unfortunately, it took much longer than we expected, and 7PM was closing in on us with no dinner and still an hour to drive. We discussed our options and decided to stop and get food at the next town and ask about closer camping accommodations.

As we pulled into Wakefield, MI, a light shined from heaven and angels started singing and pointed to the Lake Sunday campground sign. We drove into town to find dinner and stopped at Ma's Cafe (?) for burgers. They confirmed that the campground was nice so we pulled in and got the tent set up shortly after 8.

As I was putting the 10yo to bed, we could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. I came out and sat by the fire for about 5 minutes before deciding the storm was inevitable and it was time to shut down for the night.

The storm started off with some shock and awe and wind that made the tent bow in so much it was hitting our heads. (Brent decided it wasn't necessary to tie the rainfly all the way down - I don't think that will happen again) The rain continued to wake us through the night, but at least we stayed dry.
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Day 3

Tuesday morning I awoke bright and early, as one should on vacation :). The 10yo and I went for a walk to let Brent sleep a bit, and then finally got him up at the lazy hour of 8.

I had a big breakfast planned in my head, and hauled out the camp stove and foods. I had forgotten, however, that the only thing we had ever cooked on it was water. With the cast iron pan and the propane burners, things cooked much faster than I was used to, so I ended up running around, trying to cut, find, plate, mix and not burn everything at once. We ended up with slightly burnt sausages, raw and soupy oatmeal, and brown, rubbery eggs. Chased by a pot of strong French press, it was a satisfying first meal.

We started to feel a few raindrops, so we packed up quickly, but still had a few minutes to toss the football together before hitting the road around 10:30.

We continued west on Hwy 2, and stopped in Ashland, WI for a grocery stop and lunch. We chose a boat launch area with some picnic tables which was very windy and had a dozen panhandling seagulls squawking next to us. But the fresh lake air smelled so wonderful, it really was the perfect picnic spot. We drove for a few more minutes and had to stop again at a beach so I could get a picture of myself standing in the second Great Lake.

We then headed straight for Superior/Duluth. If you've never been to a port city before (which we hadn't), it was really awesome to drive into. The giant docks, grain silos, oversized industry everywhere - I even took away the 10yo's trading cards for a few minutes to force him to look out the window.

I was meeting some mom friends in Duluth, and Brent had to finish one more work project , so we split up for a while. He dropped me off at the William A Irvin ship tour. It was a fairly nice tour - super interesting if you love ships, a little stressful if you have 7 kids under the age of 11 between the three of you.

After the tour, it was already 4PM and we had a ways to go. We were originally going to camp that night in Amnicon Falls State Park, WI, but we decided to press on and camp on MN's north shore.

We drove north on Hwy 61, and opted for the scenic road that ran parallel along the water. It was gorgeous, of course.
It was getting late again, so we did McDs for dinner, and drove a bit longer to the campground we had picked out for the night. Unfortunately it was full. Fortunately, there was another campground about 10 miles back, so we booked a night there and set up camp.

That night was very, very cold, and I regretted packing for our trip when it was 90F at home. Brent even woke me up once when he got up to pee and came back with his teeth chattering. But again, we were dry and warm and slept well enough.

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*pics coming once I get back into the USA and find real internet.
 

dropframe

New member
continued...

Day 4

I woke with the sun again and this time let the boys sleep a bit. I went for an early morning walk around the campground and down a nature trail that followed a river. I don't think I was really supposed to be there, and I ended up at a dead end and having to pull myself up a steep hill with washed out tree roots.

When I got back, I started breakfast and eventually the boys got up. I was starting to get the hang of camp cooking, and things went much smoother and less stressful.

We were on the road again by 10ish - heading toward the Canadian border.

I mentioned before that we had no air conditioning so we had to keep the windows open the entire trip. Brent figured out that opening the sliding rear windows really cut down on the noise and wind level and made it a much more pleasant drive.
In Canada, the speed limit never tops 55mph so things take longer than we planned. Brent thinks it's helping with gas milage too, but our odometer was broken before we bought it, so who knows.
Enough about the truck.

We continued north on Hwy 61 for about 100 miles. The drives became more and more beautiful, the more north we went, with cliffs, tunnels, forests, and rivers. But I had my eyes tied to my phone, trying to download anything I could as the wireless flowed in and out with the rolling hills.

We filled the tank at Grand Portage before cheering as we reached the Canadian border. The border guard did not share our enthusiasm for our trip, or his job apparently, but he pushed us through with minimal hassle.

We decided to lunch in Thunder Bay, and spent the road there getting acquainted with the speed and signage changes. There were
many signs warning us of the fines for speeding, which is now causing us to get passed at every turn.

In Thunder Bay, we decided to find a park and try our hand at tailgate cooking. Brent found a nice place to stop, but suddenly I was embarrassed to be cooking dinner at the side of the road, so I made Brent pull around to the back of the park where there was a nice shady spot and less people.

I sent the boys off to toss the football while I boiled some water for ramen with cut up sausages and no-longer-frozen green beans. The bowls we had didn't really fit all of that though, so they kept overflowing and needing a little help getting all the noodles cooked.
After lunch was coffee time, naturally. By this time we had spectators. Well, a couple had decided to sit on their porch in the cool afternoon, and I'm sure we were entertaining enough.

After this we got on the TransCanadian Highway (17east), and headed to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park. It was the first place we actually had reservations to.
We also had picked up an Ontatio map in Thunder Bay, and it looked like just a short drive. An hour later we were just entering the peninsula containing the park.
The drive down to the park entrance was about 40 minutes, but we barely noticed because it was simply breathtaking. We came over a large hill and could see the entire forest laid out. Every turn produced more gasps and wows. It was amazing.

I hopped out of the truck to get our site number and found that I had booked us way out in the boonies. Now, I've wanted to see wildlife since the first moose crossing sign. But seeing the Bear Safety signage and the lack of flushing toilets made me hesitate a bit. She offered me a site change and I accepted. So our site was in the main camping area instead.

The boys got the tent set up and I started some laundry at the Comfort Station. Apparently while I was gone, a near identical Land Cruiser came to a screeching halt in front of our site, astonished to see its twin. He had to go set up site though, so He and Brent could only chat for a minute or two.

After camp was set, we took the 10yo to check out the beach/playground. The only other kids were playing in the water, so the 10yo asked if he could too. Too lazy to walk back to camp, we just told him to go in his clothes.
About a half hour later the dryer was done, so we got the 10yo out and into the shower and dry clothes.
Steak and potatoes for dinner, and then a game of cards before tucking the 10yo in. While I was reading him a different story about a hobbit on adventure, the Land Cruiser guy came around again and he and Brent compared issues for a bit.

Brent and I didn't last much longer without yawning, and we were in bed before 11.

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Day 5

Due to the time zone change, I managed to sleep until 7:30. I got my wish of seeing wildlife when a red fox ran into the bushes as I walked to the shower. Then on the way back a mama deer and her two fawns were hanging out by the side of the road, so I hurried back to get the 10yo. When we got back, the deer were gone, but we followed a little path and saw the red fox again and also a grey fox carrying a rabbit breakfast.

I didn't feel like cooking, so we had a light snack, broke down camp, and were on our way.

We passed dozens of rock formations and little bays and inlets as well as increasingly higher hills that our cruise control was unable to handle.

We stopped for lunch at a cute little restaurant called The Hungry Moose - picked out solely because they advertised Internet.
Brent had his first taste of the Canadian national food - poutine. He said it's like asking a health expert list all the things that will kill you, and putting it on top of fries. It looked like fry nachos. I decided to look for some vegan gravy (yes, there is such a thing) so I can make it for our friends when we return.

So then we drove some more. We drove so much that we completely missed the entrance to our campground. We overshot it by too much to turn around, so we just kept going and ended up at White Lake Provincial Park. We were sort of glad about the campground change, however, when we saw a sign posted that the Park Service had recently killed an aggressive bear that was hanging around the campground we were supposed to have stayed at.

We booked a nice beach site which was beautiful. The swimming area was right across from us, so Brent took the 10yo swimming after setting up.

After a relaxing evening of dinner, cards, and fire, the 10yo was in bed and Brent and I decided to take a midnight trip across the road to see the moon on the water and the beach at night. There was another couple there enjoying the evening, so we chatted and found that they were going the same route we were, except the other way. We compared trips for a bit before heading back to camp and to bed.

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ok - I'll post more up and some pictures once we get to Toronto in a few days. Let me know if anyone has any questions. We have met a fair number of people doing this route or portions of it, so ask if you have any questions.

I will say the Canada has been an amazing visual feast, and I don't know why living so close to it, I have never really been there before....
 

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timaus13

Observer
Enjoying your trip Report

Thank you for sharing I am looking forward to more of your trip.

cheers:coffeedrink:
 

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