Day 14 - A Day to Thunder Bay

Time to travel up the North Shore of Lake Superior towards Canada.

We slept in a bit but really didn't have far to go, barely 350km.   Leaving Cloquet we took the freeway to Duluth, for about the 6th time.  It's about a 20 minute run and the traffic on this Sunday morning was light.   The freeway took us right through Duluth and out the north side.  Then the road changes to a more normal highway and runs beside the Big Lake.  We took the more scenic lakeside road for the first 50 miles or so and occasionally watched as the far shore got further away and eventually out of sight.

We stopped for a couple of minutes at a very picturesque creek crossing.  Turns out it is an important trout breeding area and there is no fishing or smelting allowed.  Not that we intended doing either.
Lake Superior, we were informed, has an average water temperature of 4°C.  Poor fish!!  It has only fully frozen over twice in recorded history, but if it does, every person in the world could happily spread out a 12'x12' picnic rug on the ice with room to spare (but who would want to?).  It is 563km long and 257 wide at its extremities.

The roads encircling the lake total 2,092km.  I tells ya, its Huge!!

Our diner breakfast was at the Vanilla Bean Cafe at Two Harbors.  We had baked omelettes and lots of coffee, which means we had to stop again soon after.

We gave way to this one, carrying iron ore

Occasionally the road goes through rather than over

 In the bushes, the colours of the leaves are starting to turn, the further we head north.

Canadian Border post

After passing through a few small lakeside towns we finally came to the Canadian Border.  No problems getting through, the Canadians are pretty casual.  The guard did inquire if we were lost.  Apparently he doesn't see many of us.

We arrived at Thunder Bay and as it is a big holiday weekend we made a bee-line for the Super8 to ensure we had digs for the night.  Not to worry, this doesn't seem to be too much of a holiday town.  There are gigantic ship-loading facilities and railway lines on the foreshore and don't forget the temperature of that water.

The weather info happily informed us that today's max is 19°C with an overnight min of 3°C.   It was quite hot in Minneapolis just a couple of days ago.  Now we are back in jeans and jumper.

We went to a Starbucks then dived headlong in to a Walmart Supercenter.  These are huge shops, but everything is cheap.  We need another suitcase to carry our purchases home.  With lots of T-shirts and motorcycle gear being purchased, we are expanding our luggage.

Then we had a nice drive around the town and a pizza dinner at a restaurant just down the road.  I think I have tasted the weakest flavoured beer ever, simply called Canadian.  No more taste than coloured water.  The pizza was good though.

Returning to the Super8 we were confronted by a brace of fire engines and everybody standing around outside.  Turned out to be nothing serious - someone had probably smoked in their room or something, but definitely no fire.  Thank goodness as all our stuff was in there.  As a precaution, we carry our passports everywhere with us, never leaving them anywhere.

Tomorrow, we head around the top of the Lake.