We woke sort of late today. Enjoyed some blueberry muffins and coffee and then decided to go north to Wawa. This is interesting in that many years ago when I would go fishing in northern Canada, we would fly out of Wawa on float planes called Otters. They would take us an hour or so north of Wawa into remote areas, usually with no electricity, running water or other conveniences. We would have to bring in all our own water, food, etc. The only compensation for all the craziness it took to get there was that we almost always did very well with the fish.
Just one short fish story; I was with my father-in-law one late evening when he hooked into a large Northern Pike. The rules of a small boat are simple. If one of the fishermen gets a fish on, the other pulls in their pole down and gets the net to help bring in the devil fish. I call them that because they have massive teeth, huge mouths and they fight like crazy once they 'see' you. My father-in-law was pulling this beast toward the boat when I caught sight of it. It was a decent fish; I would say about three feet long. The water in the area we fished was crystal clear. As the fish got about five feet below the boat, I saw an iridescent flash below the fish. The next thing I know, I was face to face with the mouth of another fish, probably a gargantuan Muskie. This beast had seen the Pike struggling and had lashed out at it. It bit it square in the back and the moment he did that, my father-in-law's pole nearly snapped with the added weight of this beast. Within moments, the second, much larger fish, saw me and released his grip on the first fish. The pole unbent slightly and he pulled in the, now dead, fish with a bit in it easily the width of both of my hands. That puts the Muskie at easily a foot in width at it's jaws. Needless to say, we both were stunned. We had an incredible 'fish story' to share with the guys when we came back that night. We still laugh about that episode. Coming back to Wawa brought the story to the top of my mind all over again!
Wawa is Ojibway for Northern Goose. This town is the only town of any significance at all along route 17. It was three hours to Wawa from the bridge. That's a long distance between establishments. The town has a giant Canadian Goose as its 'mascot.' This statue has been in this location since 1963 and is in need of some real repairs. We stopped into the welcome center and learned a bit more about the area. Best discovery; they had old books for sale. This was awesome as I had just finished Transatlantic by Column McCann. I was in need of something good to measure of to that fantastic piece of literature. I found a couple of books and so did Erica.
Me being silly.
The only actual moose we saw. Lots and lots of road signs for them, but we didn't see a living one.
We were laughing at the great sense of humor the Canadian's have. One of the displays in the nature center talked about ways to prevent being bitten by mosquitoes or black flies. They listed lots of items to use, such as mosquito nets, head nets, etc. Then, on the last display it said that carbon dioxide is the main attractant . Humans, it said, expel this when they exhale. So, "...the best way to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes is to not exhale." Funny. Here's another great example of their humor. There were three lakes in a row. The first was Dad Lake; then Mom Lake and you can guess what the third was...Baby Lake.
We decided on our way back from Wawa that we would visit the petroglyphs that the region is famous for. We had seen the above symbol, which kind of looks like a dragon, on all sorts of signs, but we didn't know what it actually was. We were in for a treat.
This is looking out past the petroglyphs. The rocks in the image are the size of houses. Literally twenty foot tall rocks submerged in the lake. Getting to the glyphs was not an easy endeavor. In fact there were all sorts of signs that warned that death and injury have happened.
This is the path along the lake shore. There were chains for you to hold on to as you crossed the sheer rock face. We ended up taking off our shoes to help us 'stick' to the rocks a little bit better.
This is the symbol that we had seen all over the place. It's actually a symbol for the Lynx. The Ojibway believed that the Lynx was a magical creature that was representative of Lake Superior. These images were painted by Ojibway medicine men somewhere between 500 and 3000 years ago. They were made with red ochre and animal fat. It was very intriguing to be so close to something that has lasted so long.
Here is a short video about the petroglyphs.
One of the many gorgeous outlooks we stopped at. Those rocks don't seem as massive in this image, but for reference, you can see that Erica is sitting on the rock on the far right. We really enjoyed the warm, shallow coves along the way. Next time we come north, we will surely plan on visiting one of these coves again. The waters of Lake Superior are frigid in most places. In these sun-kissed bays, the sandy shores warm the waters to tolerable temperatures in the the early summer. More on that, tomorrow.
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