Traveling back through Northern Ontario but trying to keep to the southerly route along Lake Superior this time. Taking Highway 11 east then picking up Hwy 101 to avoid driving through Thunder Bay on the return trip, then south along the northern shore of Lake Superior via Hwy 17. At some point before Thunder Bay, we returned to the Eastern Time Zone, losing an hour.
Lovely day today but periods of dense fog at the higher elevations. Geographically it is Laurentian Shield country, massive rock formations, trees and water.
We stopped in Nipigon again for a picnic lunch. This time we climbed to the top of the viewing platform to get a better view of the suspension bridge and the river. I wrote about all of this on the trip out.
The north shore of Lake Superior is absolutely beautiful and today with a little bit of fog, very mysterious. This section of Ontario was the most difficult stretch of country to build both Railroads and highways in the late part of the 19th and early part of the 20th century. Massive amounts of rock had to be blasted out and in areas, the Railroad literally clings to the Rocky shoreline. Photos tomorrow I hope.
Tonight we are camped on Whitesand Lake in Rainbow Falls Provincial Park east of Nipigon.
The bug tent is up which means we have mosquitoes. What would the July 1st weekend be without our national bird?
We walked along the falls late this afternoon. We declined the rest of the trail over the height of land for the view of Lake Superior from the top.
Today is the start of the July 1st holiday weekend in Canada. July 1st is Canada’s birthday… more tomorrow on the actual day. It’s usually marked by lots of fireworks but with the drought here, there is some speculation that fireworks might be forbidden, at least where we are. We already can’t have campfires.
Not much else to report. It’s almost sundowner time. I am having a hard time believing we only have a few nights left.
I thought I was finished for today but apparently not. Of course it started to rain just as we sat down to dinner in the bug tent (which isn’t a rain shelter by any description). It didn’t rain long but just enough to force us to put everything inside the minute we finished eating, except for the bug tent.
Dishes done, it cleared up so went for a walk down to the East Beach on Whitesand Lake. Absolutely worth the effort. We put the chairs back in the tent so we can sit outside until bedtime.
Rossport is named after John Ross (c1820-1898), construction manager for the north shore of Lake Superior route of the Canadian Pacific Railway from August 1882 to June 1885. His construction headquarters during that time period were in Port Arthur, Ontario and at Rossport.
Reading my book ‘The Last Spike’ by Pierre Burton about the building of the CPR across Canada. I’m on the chapter where they are trying to find a pass through the Rockies and the Selkirks. It’s truly amazing what hardships people put themselves through for development.
This park has 2 campgrounds: Rossport on Lake Superior and White Sands Lake. We are camped on White Sands Lake where the Rainbow Falls can be found. Tomorrow we will backtrack a bit and visit Rossport itself.
Rossport,ON
Rossport is named after John Ross (c1820-1898), construction manager for the north shore of Lake Superior route of the Canadian Pacific Railway from August 1882 to June 1885. His construction headquarters during that time period were in Port Arthur, Ontario and at Rossport.
After the end of CPR construction in 1885, Rossport became an important commercial fishing centre. Tiny Rossport garnered a wide reputation for being a source of prime fish. An article in the Dominion Illustrated from October 1888, speaks of how dealers from Eastern Canada had travelled to Rossport and other North Shore communities in order to contract for Lake Superior’s fine freshwater fish. Another article from November 1888 talks of a trial shipment of ten barrels of fish from Rossport being sent to Belfast Ireland, where it was quickly sold.
In 1901, Rossport joined other North Shore port communities in becoming a regular stop for steamships belonging to Francis Clergue. The vessels operated between Sault Ste Marie and Port Arthur.
Most interesting is how a small local competition in 1937 morphed into an international event. There was a time when the Rossport Fish Derby was a staple on every sports fisherman’s calendar. An August 1952 article in the Toronto Star describes over 4000 people attending that year’s self-proclaimed “greatest amateur fishing event in North America”. Cars, tents and people would be visible along the highway for a distance as participants arrived and staked out a piece of land to camp on for the one-day event. The arrival to the Lake of a non-native species, the Lamprey eel, caused devastation to the Lake trout population and, over time, brought about the downfall to the days of the derby.
Louise and Brian McLeod Travel Blog 
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