Circle Tour Part 5
Crossing over into Canada at Grand Portage was an experience. I was so excited to get my passport stamped but this did not happen. We went and got our dog his rabies shot right before this trip because we heard we could not cross without it, untrue. The border patrol quickly looked at our passports and then we went through, that was it. NO other documentations necessary and no stamp. It was our goal to get a stamp on the way back, and we did, with much effort. I will write about that in a future blog. For now, we made it to Canada and it was beautiful!
Our first stop was to an entry point to pay for camping in Ontario. Every trip I go on becomes a search for a shirt or sweatshirt to remember the place by. I found an awesome hooded sweatshirt in the gift shop yet decided to wait in case we found a cool local shop on our travels. While in the port of entry store, we bought Crown Land passes for Conservation Reserves and Non-Operating Provincial Parks in order to camp throughout the trip. This was sort of a bust and we had to pay for camping in some places. We decided to get to places late, pop the tent, and pack up before dawn. The whole experience was interesting and well worth the journey.
Every morning Chris and I took turns going on separate morning runs since the dog could not take the intensity anymore. We spent time with him packing up the campsite each morning while the other person ran. Our first stop was at Sleeping Giant along the coastline of Lake Superior. This is a very beautiful spot to see. We thought there would be plenty of food and gift shops along the roadside in Canada, but there was not, it was in fact, very remote. Luckily, we found Tim Hortons for coffee and a morning treat. Chris’s uncle loves this coffee and said it was the best he ever had so we really wanted to try it. We apparently loved the Maple Strudel also according to my notes. The next waterfall we trekked out to find was Rainbow Falls. The beach was beautiful and the falls were five minutes up from the road. The waterfall was gorgeous!! I found the same Canada Hooded sweatshirt in the gift shop but still decided to wait in case I found another one. Stay tuned for the journey…
As always, thank you for reading and happy Wednesday!
-Karen Hilliard