Picture Captions
Loon at Killarney Provincial Park
Lake and hills at Killarney Provincial Park
Fall colors at Killarney Provincial Park
Moose at Killarney Provincial Park
Birch forest
Trip Report Sept 2008
In our travels we have crossed paths with the great explorer, Capt. James Cook. From Whitby, England; to Cooktown, AU; to the Big Island and many points in between we have visited many of the places he first explored. This month we started to follow the path of Lewis and Clark in MT and ND. This led to trouble when we drove up a dirt road to get to the same lookout that Clark used to survey the Missouri River. Our RV got bogged down in the mud (called gumbo in MT). But we were so inspired by their ingenuity that we dug/jacked/and planked our sinking RV for almost two hours until we had it free. Lewis and Clark were lucky they didn’t have an RV!
Feeling more like explorers now, we tackled the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. This area is a wilderness so there are no signs to tell you where you are located. The outfitter warned us ‘ keep track of your position, or you will get lost’. This proved to be challenging as we crossed large lakes with lots of islands and inlets. On the last day the wind, rain and waves pounded us head-on and compounded the difficulty of finding our way. We never got lost, but it was nerve-racking at times. We found our pickup point and got out on time.
After visiting the North American Bear Center, we left Ely, MN and headed to Duluth, MN. From here we would continue our circumnavigation of Lake Superior (1300 mi). We completed the US portion several years ago, so now we wanted to do the Canadian portion - Thunder Bay to Sault San Marie, ON. Ontario has several Provincial Parks and there was one National Park along the shore route. To be honest, the best portion of this trip around Superior is the section known as the “North Shore” (from Duluth to Thunder Bay).
Heading east after leaving Lake Superior, we spent some time at Killarney Provincial Park. This is a little gem that Ontarians would rather keep to themselves. A mountainous wilderness of sapphire lakes and pink granite outcrops draws paddlers to its remote campsites. We settled for a day trip into the lake system and were rewarded with our first moose sighting of the year. The fall colors added to the natural beauty of the park.
