Leaving Pancake Bay on our camping trip north, we continued on Canada Highway 17 toward Wawa. The Trans Canada 17 goes inland at this point at Gargantua Point.
As Claudia and I headed back to Lake Superior, however, further north, we took the opportunity to make a another stop at Old Woman Bay. This is another spectacular beach on the Lake Superior shoreline, and well worth the stop. It is a day-use park, which is very popular with travellers along this route. You could easily spend a day lounging on the sand and walking in the water here. The view is mesmerizing.
Continuing north, we stopped at Wawa briefly, for gas and some wine for our gathering with relatives at Schreiber. I did, however, take a picture of the famous Wawa Goose as we passed by. Similarly at White River, where we had stopped on previous trips, a popular sight is the Winnie the Pooh stature and plaque. This is where the story of that famous teddy bear began.
It wasn’t too much further along the highway when we arrived at our next campground, White Lake Provincial Park. We enjoyed the view of Deer Lake within the park and had another relaxing evening sitting on the shore of White Lake. This lake is one of the largest that flows into Lake Superior, and with warm water is known for its exceptional fishing for walleye and pickerel. We noticed that many of the campers at this park were, indeed, anglers.
The next day had us heading toward Schreiber with stops at the Aguasabon River Gorge and Terrace Bay. We had decided to camp at Rainbow Falls Provincial Park while visiting relatives in Schreiber. It was just west of the town. Claudia’s paternal grandfather had settled here when he immigrated to Canada in the early 1900s and worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Her father, Ronald Birch, grew up here along with the rest of the family and worked for the CPR too. Other brothers also worked for the CPR at Schreiber. So it was really great to meet with her cousins and their families while travelling through the area.
Another highlight of our visit to Schreiber was a stop at the new Rail Museum that details the town’s railroad history. It is a really well-done museum with very interesting displays. We spent one morning going through it and really appreciated the displays related to the rail history and life in this northern Ontario community.
Rainbow Falls was a great park and we enjoyed our stay there. It’s actually separated into two sections, one in a birch grove on the shore of Lake Superior, the Rossport Campground, and the main area where we stayed at the Whitesand Lake location.
Within the park, the Rainbow Falls Trail is part of the 52-kilometre Casque Isles Trail between the communities of Terrace Bay, Schreiber and Rossport.
After breakfast we were getting ready to visit the falls, when we thought we heard a train in the distance. We soon realized, however, it was the sound of a number of motorcyclists arriving to see Rainbow Falls too. We admired the motorcycles they had arrived on and we visited with them on one of the platforms located near the falls. They were a really great group, many from the U.S.
The falls itself is quite spectacular with the water flowing down in several sections. A series of wooden steps allows you to walk down to the bottom, and its quite a hike back up. I really enjoyed seeing the forest floor plant life seen on both sides of the stairs and trail.
All in all this segment of our trip was really good, both from the wonderful sights we saw, and being able to get together with family at the same time.
