Trans-Canada - Day 6

Start Location: Kenora, ON
Ending Location: Thunder Bay, ON
Miles Today: 313
Trip Miles: 2028
States Visited: 1
Provinces Visited: 5
Low Temp: 59° F
High Temp: 65° F
Min Elevation: 574'
Max Elevation: 1637'

Route Map:

Today was different than yesterday. The temperature started out at 65 and ended up at 59 so it only changed 6 degrees all day. We started out without rain gear but within the first hour we stopped and put the gear on and wore it the rest of the day. It was almost a copy of yesterday, it didn't rain steady all day but did rain on and off and was overcast otherwise. No need for sunglasses here

The roads were two lane all day through mainly pine forests. The speed limit was 90 km/hr all day and the traffic was very light. We did go through one large construction zone and there was section of about a half mile that was not paved - just gravel. It was little difficult but we have done sections like this in Montana that went on for miles.

Again we didn't get too many pictures because of the rain. We did stop at the sign where we entered the Eastern time zone - so we lost yet another hour - and took a couple of pictures. We also met up with some folks who were traveling cross Canada by car who volunteered to take our picture. All of the people we met up here have been extremely friendly.

We saw something today that we had seen on a previous trip to Canada but had forgotten about. All along the road, mostly sitting on rock formations along the side of the road, were small piles of rocks. These were obviously placed here and there were many forms. There were some very intricate piles, some very simple piles with two or three rocks, some balancing rocks, some that looke like bridges or arches, and even some that resembled human figures. I believe these are actually Inukshuks which are a stone landmarks used as a milestone or directional marker by the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic. If you check out the link you will find a lot of detail about them. They are truly amazing. We're not talking about a few dozen but literally hundreds. If you Google Inukshuk or even indian rock piles, you can get hundreds of links. Although we didn't get any pictures today because of the weather, I'm sure we will get a lot more chances in the next couple of days.

We didn't make the same mistake as yesterday. Since we lost another hour and since this is also day 6, we decided to make reservations ahead of time. The significance of day 6 is that we bring 6 changes of clothes so we have to stop every 6 days and find a place to wash clothes. So we were able to enter Thunder Bay and drive directly to our motel knowing we had reservations, they had a guest laundry, and they had high speed wireless. What more could you ask for.

There were 3 more Goldwings checking in just ahead of us, one checked in just behind us and we have seen 3 or 4 more since we got here. There are lots of motorcycles on the roads up here.