Yukon Ho!

May 28, 2006: Manitoba to Foam Lake, SK

Woke up early with the goal of conquering Manitoba and half of Saskatchewan.
We drove into Winnipeg under black, black clouds and as we cruised apartment building parking lots looking for free wireless internet, the rain started, wind rocked the van like crazy and we took on water through the duct-taped back windows.
Summer storms are awesome.
After some Tim Horton’s we made for Neepawa -birthplace and hometown of Margaret Laurence; first lady of Manawaka!
Her house was on 1st Ave and the full-on tour cost $3. I was the only one of the crew who had any interest in her so the boys cruised the streets looking for coffee while I was led through the house by a shy 16-year-old who pointed at various artifacts as the mini-tape-recorder in her hand read aloud from the placards scattered around the rooms. It was a very cool place to go and I’m glad I went. I saw some neat stuff including Laurence’s childhood bedroom/study, and I bought a sweet-ass souvenier mug which I tested out in the van (mmmmmmm so tastes so literary!). My only complaints are that first -the tour guide didn’t really need to walk around with me and that recorder since I read all the placards in a third the time it took the tape narrator to do it out loud, and second -I should probably have her job. Very nice girl working there but she’s never read Margaret Laurence. Is there NO pre-requesite for that job?
Next we went on a search for the actual stone angel of “The Stone Angel” fame. An older couple walking around the Neepawa Golf Course gave us directions to Riverside Cemetary, as well as a brief history of all the notable dead buried within. Forget all you thought you knew about the westernmost graveyard to have Titanic victims buried in it -Neepawa is here to tell you it’s in Neepawa!
We found it fine, I looked at the angel and we headed for Saskatchewan (unsettling sidenote: all the hundreds of graves in Riverside Cemetary appear to be fresh -each one is topped with a perfect little mound of dark, wet dirt. Neepawa -home of Margaret Laurence…or the living dead?).
Ate some food 16km from the border then continued on through another storm all the way into Yorkton to buy some tarps at the local Wal-Mart where all the employees were mad at the world.
After that there was a bit of panic as we seemed to be stuck in nowheresville, with very little gas and no campsites in sight. Sean was on the verge of a breakdown when we found both gas and a campground in Foam Lake. The grounds consisted of 20 or so sites hidden behind a driving range right off the highway.
Favorite part -the sign we passed heading through the range and into the camping section (see below)
Second favorite part -only $10
Amy

Yesterday I made a discovery about all of the GPS problems we were having. THE VAN HAS A GPS PROOF WINDSHIELD! This probably also explains the problems we were having finding internet access. On the plus side, the government (and alien) surveillence systems are probably thwarted by the windshield as well, so at least our privacy and identities will be safe (Pat, you can borrow the van while we are biking if you like). After waiting out the tail of the storm at Tim Hortons, then driving randomly through the city for a while, we finally picked up a sweet little piece of wireless and had a very quick email check and internet surf.
Sean

(View all of our pictures here: http://www.burak.ca/gallery/v/YukonHo/)

May 27, 2006: Thunder Bay to Manitoba

Woke up around 930 and found that Kakabeka Falls is not just a catchy campground name. Our site was right next to a river that turned into rapids that turned into a MONSTER waterfall. Good thing we decided against the midnight swim the night before.
There was an awesome boardwalk on either side of the gorge around the falls so after showering (which took about an hour since the showers were in the RV park which was on the opposite edge of the campground from the tent area -sensible and convenient!) we walked around and took some pictures. You may enjoy them below.
Also just before we left, this ballsy little chipmunk jumped in the van and feasted on some of our van-crumbs. He was pretty intent on hanging out till he was full but, cute as he was, we decided he would probably turn not-so-cute pretty quickly if he found himself hurtling down the highway in the van. We scared him out and hand-fed him on the grass for awhile before we left.
Back on the road there was a gas station about 20 minutes away where we scored some coffee. Shortly after that we crossed time zones so I’m writing this to all you Ontarians FROM THE PAST!
After another hour of driving we decided we were starving and stopped at this huge log cain that served as a convenience store/LCBO/gas station/diner/ATV raffle headquarters/proprieters of the “World’s Best Beef Jerky”/washroom stop.
The following are the reasons it was a sweet dining experience…
- The over-hard eggs maintained the shape of the yolk without being runny
- The two-egg breakfast included FOUR whole sausages where most diners will try to get away with giving you just two. Also, they cut each sausage in half, length-wise, so it was really like getting EIGHT sausages
- The omelettes were massive
- The coffee was hot and never-ending and the waitress was on the ball with the refills (plus the first drops of coffee were hitting the cup before our asses hit the chairs)
- The old guy wearing measuring tape suspenders…was wearing measuring tape suspenders
Near Ignace we saw another black bear snuffling on the side of the road. This bear was also not a moose or elk or any other form of new and as-yet-unphotographed wildlife so we only slowed down instead of stopping.
*Note to parents -some of you may be worried by the number of bears we’ve already seen just four days into the trip, but don’t worry -they’ve all been eating delicious, delicious grass and as we all know, grass does not taste like human flesh. From this we can deduce with a high degree of scientific accuracy that black bears do not want to eat us.*
Our last stop of the day was Kenora -a very cool little city with water all around it and a ton of neat sidestreets, old brick buildings and cottages. We got dinner at Tim Horton’s where Sean and I were psyched out by the Kenora Double Chocolate Timbit which looks exactly like the Chocolate Sour Cream of Hamilton. Sniff sniff.
We didn’t drive much more after that as Sean was challenged to find a Manitoba campground before dark so we could set up during daylight hours. Thanks to the guy with the day-glo orange hair at the Manitoba tourist centre who directed us to Whiteshell Provincial Park. It had the cheapest camping yet -tent sites were $12 compared to Ontario’s $25 ones.
Oh yes, I’m supposed to mention that Sean knows all the words. To all the songs we listen to. (That’s not what I said! –Sean)
Amy

(View all of our pictures here: http://www.burak.ca/gallery/v/YukonHo/)

May 26, 2006: Sault Ste Marie to Thunder Bay

We woke up about 8am thanks to the bird-mating that was going on all over the park.
Sean and I rode our bikes through the campground, investigation-style, and totally made friends with this awesome flower-eating rabbit. After biking around the sites a bit we found a path that led us to the beach where Lake Superior was completely still and huge and clear. Southern Ontario needs to clean up its act cause we should have lakes like this one too.
Anywhoooo we packed the site up around 10am and scored a free clothesline some other camper had left behind, got the GPS working and headed for Wawa. It took a couple hours to get there and we were pretty psyched to finally arrive because en route we’d seen some signs advertising a Canadian Tire in “Downtown Wawa” and even better than Canadian Tire is the fact that downtown = coffee.
Or so we thought. There was one lousy coffee shop in the town and it was closed. Fortunately Young’s General Store offers free fresh-brewed coffee to all browsers and since we spent a whack of cash on gas, sunglasses, an address book and pepperettes, we felt entitled to an entire pot of our own. Take that Wawa! That’s what you get for not delivering! No free coffee for your own kin!
On our way out we got a picture of that giant goose on the hill and made for White River -home of Winnie the Pooh. Sean was fully expecting a giant bear monument of some sort but all we saw was a lame little fibreglass tree with a tiny Winnie waving from the branches.
On the upside, White River did have a Robin’s Donuts and lots of coffee. On the downside I got yelled at by their teenage staff. “Small or large? SMALL OR LARGE!?”
We also saw a cop cruiser labelled “Chris Sheriff” so there was a whole day’s worth of speculation as to whether or not he was the White River sheriff and his name was Chris, or his full-on name was Chris Sherriff.
About an hour later, in Marathon, our wildlife-watch vigilance paid off when we saw a black bear chilling out and eating grass by the side of the road. We took some pictures from the safety of the van and rolled our eyes at the one other chick who pulled over and climbed out to snap shots.
In Terrace Bay we stopped at my Uncle Mike and Aunt Elise’s place where they had huge hugs, beer, wine, popcorn, more pepperettes and a case of water for us. All of us. Even Dave and Campbell. Hugs all around!
En route to Thunder Bay we saw another bear (yawn -got any other wildlife in the woods nature?) and checked out the 1KM deep Ouimet Canyon. For fun, and to freak ourselves out about the depth, we threw some rocks and dead tree branches over the edge of the observation deck. Then in a fabulous display of herculean strength, Sean ripped an entire tree out of the ground and hurled it into the canyon. RRRAAAWWWWRRRRR! After that we drove back out to the main highway where we saw a lonely, fuzzy cub because bears loved us up North and wanted to put on a bit of a show.
In T-Bay (that’s what you call it when you’re local) we bought the essentials -some dinner, some beer, and a cheap Canadian Tire sleeping pad for Dave, who was nearly crippled after spending the previous night on the ground. It was still light out when we hit the LCBO and we were psyched that we’d be able to enjoy some sunset beers at the campground, but the Great T-Bay power outage of 2006 kept us in Canadian Tire for 45 minutes while the teenage staff hummed, hawed, sighed and swore their way through checking us out manually, so it was 10pm before we found food.
However, since Kakabeka Falls Campground was only half an hour from the downtown, we only almost hit one foolish deer, and were set up before midnight for the first time in three days.
So.
We got drunk.
Amy

(View all of our pictures here: http://www.burak.ca/gallery/v/YukonHo/)

May 25, 2006: Madawaska to Sault Ste Marie

Today began the long exodus from Ontario. It was also “introducee-the-foreigners-to-the-awesomeness-that-is-Joel-Plaskett” day. We listened to his entire catalogue, complete with running in-van commentary to give them a little history of the man and his bands. We took our time leaving Madawaska, and stopped for a quick dip at Ragged Falls Provincial Park (just West of the Algonquin gates). Our next stop was North Bay for such exciting activities as ‘going to the mall’, ‘finding a bank machine’ and ‘eating at Subway’. Then it was off to Sudbury for gas and an obligatory stop at the big not-so-nickel. There wasn’t a lot of time for sightseeing today since we wanted to get some miles under our belts. We ended up making it through Sault Ste Marie and set up camp at Pancake Bay. I was worried there would be no sites left, but it turns out the place has about 400 of them and there were only a couple dozen other campers. Driving at night sucks. Thanks, Pancake Bay! (View all of our pictures here: http://www.burak.ca/gallery/v/YukonHo/)

May 24, 2006: Hamilton to Madawaska

Most of day one was spent packing bins and getting angry at clutter. Amy was packed the night before, but as always I tried to jam a week’s worth of work into an hour. We didn’t get out of Hamilton until after 5 (only 5 hours later than planned). By the time we had dropped off Melnick, picked up Dave, and hit the 400 North it was already after 8. We then proceeded to take the long route to Madawaska (through Algoinquin Park where, in an attempt to top the Hyundai incident, we came within 20 feet of smoking a moose). We arrived around midnight to a mostly drunk Hostel, and a slightly worried Cambell. Apparently he was concerned we had changed our minds about the trip or completely forgotten to pick him up. The hostel manager (Fraser) let us stay in an unused staff cabin for sweet sweet sleep. Thanks, Madawaska… (View all of our pictures here: http://www.burak.ca/gallery/v/YukonHo/)

Home on the Range

We just reserved four days at the Dawson City River Hostel which looks awesome -so awesome that all I can think about is checking in there…which won’t happen for a few months so I guess I should start settling down about it. Even though it is effin’ sweet and I already want to live and work there forever (minus the ridiculous winter -the owner just e-mailed us today and said he’s not even at the hostel for the season yet because he’s still waiting for the river to thaw).
Ah well.
We also have one confirmed passenger (an Australian backpacker named Campbell) and another mostly-confirmed passenger (a British backpacker named Dave). 
Since we figure we may as well go all or nothing in terms of passengers, we’ve posted on Craig’s List and the McMaster University online rideshare boards in order to reel in a couple more people and cut down the gas and campsite costs for everyone.

Amy