June 11, ThunderBay,Ouimet Canyon, Amethyst

 Wednesday, June 11, 2014

50 degrees at 7:00 this morning. And sunshine!  We went to a nearby McDonalds to catch up a bit with emails and wi-fi.  One more day posted to the blog. Thunder Bay is fairly large and seems to have most of the expected chain stores and restaurants.  Downtown is old and there are large industrial areas.  

We set out first to Mission Island which is a little south of town.  We were told there was a herd of deer there that were pretty tame and could be fed carrots.  We twisted through a somewhat industrial area and reached a Marsh Conservation Area.  Saw one deer on the way and he was obviously used to people.

  We tossed him a few baby carrots, which he scarfed.  Moved on and walked some trails but didn’t see any more deer.  Just a few birds and a hungry hedgehog.

Went back into Thunder Bay, looking for the marina area, which we finally found and snapped this shot of the busy port with The Sleeping Giant – islands which supposedly look like a sleeping giant.  Of course there is folk lore and indian tales which explain how he got there.  Nice small park along the marina.

We stop at a bank and get some Canadian money – the ladies are very friendly and mention a few places to see.  The Canadian bills are now made with plastic, which they didn’t seem too fond of.

Next we stopped at the Terry Fox Memorial.  We both remember his running across Canada with one leg.  The other was lost to cancer and he ran to raise money for cancer research.(24 million!)   Ran  over 3,000 miles before he had to stop because of re-occurrence – almost a marathon a day for 143 straight days.  He died in 1981 at age 23.

We have seen many signs about Amethyst mines, so decided to stop at a small one called Blue Point.  Long dirt road to get there.  The mine is a long open pit, following a vein.  The owner was there and spoke to us briefly – he has owned it since 2002.  Did some blasting recently and there was heavy equipment moving the rubble.  He told us where we could look and we wandered around and found some interesting pieces.  The best, of course, are taken out right away.

Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park was our next destination.   The Canyon is almost 2 miles long and 361 feet deep and has interesting fauna – the same plant will bloom in May at the top of the Canyon and in August at the bottom.  There are some artic plants on the canyon floor , too, which are normally found much further north.

We run into several sections of highway construction where there is only one lane, either with flagmen or with temporary red lights.  At least half the traffic is trucks, as this is about the only east-west road around.  Traffic isn’t heavy, but fairly steady.  The only wildlife we see is a beautiful red fox getting ready to cross the road. Gorgeous scenery still.

After a quick look at Aguasabon Falls and Gorge

in Terrace Bay, we look around for a boondock spot and settle on  Terrace Bay Beach and Boat Launch. Can you tell that even Beth, the waterfalls enthusiast of all time, is getting tired of waterfalls??!

There is a workman there setting up volleyball equipment and Greg chats with him and gets the OK to boondock.  Lovely spot, with a loud waterfalls nearby – the perfect white noise!  We see a bald eagle and watch it go to a treed area on a nearby island.  Later we see a pair soaring and wonder  whether the second one is a young bird fledging as seems to be practicing moves.