Along the Trans Canada Highway, you can spot Terry Fox’s monument on the hill. Near and dear to our hearts is the Terry Fox Foundation and his bravery and strength fighting to improve the battles against Childhood Cancer. He ran for the kids he met while fighting cancer alongside him. Kai is proud to be one of the kids that Terry was running for, (wears it a bit like a badge of honour). The delay in posting this “traveling segment” of our trip was not on purpose, but is timely. September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and we owe the motivation for this trip to the successful treatment and amazing care our family received through Kai’s medical fiasco. He is approaching the 5 years off treatment mark, no evidence of disease, and no medical implants. We have the freedom to be who we are, where we want to be. Here is a shout-out to the families who are fighting the big fight right now.
In Thunder Bay: I am lucky enough to have some besties who live in TBay. Sarah and her family shared their special places with us as we hiked everyday and our kids found friendships ready-made. I told my kiddos that Sarah’s kids are automatically their friends because that is how best friends work when you are adults; and it was true. They slipped into friendly play, games of tag, Lego building, and swimming. We spent time out at Silver Islet, hiking the trails of the Sleeping Giant Provincial Park trails, imagining life as a silver miner, fishing for nickels at the bridge (an art installation names Sudbury in Sibley), tea with my bestie in her porch, throwing rocks in Superior, and the daily swims in the interior lakes.
Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park was our home for the following weekend for more hiking, more history lessons. The kids ran the trails pretending to carry two 90 lbs packs with tump lines, “just like the voyageurs.” The waterfalls and the canyon they cut were majestic, and inspired curiosities about the people here before us, their relationships to the land, the portage, and to each other. We discovered a Geocache, 1st of many, around the Visitor’s Center. Car camping comes with the luxury of heading into town for dinner and we had some delicious food at The Eddy Restaurant.
Back in Thunder Bay, my friend Airin toured us around her workplace called Roots to Harvest (http://www.rootstoharvest.org/). They have a huge range of projects on the go supporting food education and youth. They also pivoted in response to the pandemic by connecting food security and support programs with the people who need them. Things that pop into my head when I think of this half day intro to Roots: Blender bikes (yes, bikes that power blenders), in-house granola and industrial kitchen space, city farms, shared collaborative spaces, offices, conference rooms, and so much more that I don’t even know...
Airin and Charles’s kids confirmed my earlier statement that best friends’ kids are automatically friends. We hiked up to the top of Mount McKay, thanks to the Fort William First Nations for access to this experience. Tzippy, the eldest, babysat while the adults went out for dinner on the town. Tomlin Restaurant served incredible food that we all shared and left with satisfied stomachs and palettes. More Geocaching hiking in Centennial Park, we found 6 of the 8 caches along the trail.
As we packed up the car to drive south down the shore of Lake Superior, we have settled on the fact that we have packed way too many clothes, and our car is too small for everything we need to carry. A pack is tied on the roof under the canoe, the gear is packed to the ceiling in the car, around the kids, and buckled into the extension trailer off the back. Go Matrix Go! We headed south in the rain storm.
The Tofino of Ontario, The Caribbean of Canada, in rain or shine, Neys Provincial Park has a beautifully long, driftwood covered beach along Lake Superior. The campsites are big, flat, and private. The hikes are beautiful; the Little Pic River is fun to paddle; and the water is warmer than you would expect. Kai said he is not afraid of waves anymore because they are just so fun to jump over, and Con never wanted to get out. The sunset on the beach was pretty epic, with wispy pink clouds stretching across the sky and glowing on the hills.
More rain storms, as we continued down the shores. Our motto became: “It can’t rain forever!”
When we started out living from our car, we wanted to avoid the ease of stopping at Tim Horton’s in every town or fast food places that are the same everywhere. Just past Sault Ste Marie, we were getting hungry for lunch and found a little lunch place just off the highway. It turned out to be part of a Saturday Desbarats Country Market, lucky us! We had Hot Turkey sandwiches and bought carrots and cabbage for our next canoe trip. You know cabbage can last forever!
A night in a hotel felt luxurious with cable, showers, cozy beds, and a hot breakfast included. A stop at the laundromat and grocery store. Off to Temagami, for another canoeing adventure!
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