Author Archives: Jill and Bud

Last Wednesday we were headed south for an overnight stay outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin. We saw that on the way we would be passing close to the Michigan State University Forestry Innovation Center in Escanaba. Last June we had stopped to see my major professor from college, Eric Randall. We found out that his son, Jesse, (now Dr. Jesse Randall) was the head of that center.

I emailed Jesse and he was happy to have us visit. That’s Jesse with Bud in front of their new building.

Inside, besides a classroom that will be totally wired for remote learning, is a very modern maple syrup evaporator along with a reverse osmosis machine that concentrates the sap before it’s boiled down further in the evaporator and some other equipment to make maple candy and cream. They are even experimenting with distilling syrup to produce an as yet unnamed “hootch” as Jesse calls it. The sap can produce an off flavor in the syrup if the tree warms too much in the tapping season. With climate change producers are getting a lot more of this off flavored syrup. Distilling it can remove the bad flavors. They are perfecting the process, but Jesse says the best runs produce a liquor that tastes like butterscotch candy, is smooth to drink and is 130 proof! So be looking for a new drink.

Jesse took us all around the acres of land. There were stands of poplar and willow being tested and developed for biomass production. There were Christmas trees for genetic studies and even a prairie maintained by controlled burning he is using to train students in the art of the controlled burn. But my favorite place was his sugar bush. This is a pure stand of maples, and to me there is no prettier tree. Maple sap is collected using plastic tubes now. You may be able to see some of the tubing running through these trees. I did my master’s research on this system way back in the mid 1980’s. Being in Jesse’s sugar bush was like coming home.

Jesse gave us the perfect send off by giving us a pint of Michigan State Maple Syrup. Thank you Jesse for a great time.

We came to Munising/Pictured Rocks KOA on Saturday. They have some nicely spaced, shaded and somewhat private sites.

But we opted for a space right up front, no shade, full hookups and no problem with the TV.

Sunday was going to be the nicest day so we drove to Miners Beach to see some of this lakeshore. Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is along Lake Superior. It’s been windy and there were some impressive waves. And it was as cold as it looks; the warmest temperature we’ve seen since we got here is about 50.

I zoomed in to catch the waves against the shore. No boat tours that day, and in fact the wind and waves have remained high.

We didn’t spend long on the beach, it was too cold!

We took a trail that said it went to Miners Castle. You could hear the wind in the treetops but it was calmer and warmer walking through the woods.

The trail led along Miners River. The land was sand through here.

The river was carving through the sand, but it must be a slow process. See the horizontal tree? Its roots are still holding to the bank on the right, but two of its branches have grown up into trees themselves!

We did some scrambling up banks with lots of tree roots and came out in an upland woods with a solid understory of maple seedlings.

Eventually we could look through the trees back down to the beach where we started.

This formation is Miners Castle. I tried to position myself so the top of the “castle” was not right against the horizon, but no matter how I twisted I could not get a better image.

There was a nice platform here and I did get some more pictures of the cliffs.

If you can’t get out in a boat I understand this is about the best place to see the cliffs, so I’m glad we came here.

Monday it rained all day. We were very glad we had no shade and good TV as we stayed in the trailer for hours while the cold rain came. Finally in the afternoon we drove just a few miles to Munising Falls. It was only raining lightly and there was a short paved trail.

The falls were pretty and it gave all of us a chance to stretch our legs.

Today was more dry than wet, so even though it was in the low forties we decided to play a round of disc golf.

The course was laid out in a park and along some cross country ski trials.

There were some interesting baskets but there was a lot of walking between the basket and the next tee. We ended up walking just over three miles. I think that’s a record for any course we’ve done.

There were even a few peeks of blue sky and we had a good time. But now it’s raining again and only 44 degrees so I’m ready to head south!

Yesterday we crossed over the international bridge in Sault Saint Marie. This is probably our last minute in Canada. You can just see the Canadian flag on the left and the US flag on the right as we approach the border. Again the border crossing was a non-event. It probably added 15 minutes to our trip, almost all of that waiting for others. Our inspection was about 90 seconds.

We came to Brimley State Park, Michigan’s oldest state park, right on the shore of Lake Superior and just minutes from Sault Saint Marie, MI. I think you can see the cities in this photo, they are in the break in the shoreline just a bit right of center. It is probably the Ontario side you’re seeing from here.

I’m happy to be back on one of the Great Lakes and last night’s sunset was gorgeous.

This is a pretty park. It has 287 camp sites, but fortunately this time of year most of them are empty.

We had a nice site, site 185, that backed up on the day use area. Not many folks there these days so it was pretty private and that big open area gave us a view of the lake.

I said we had that site because although there was open sky behind us for Bud to get TV it wasn’t working.

So today we moved to site 94. A little less private and no view of the lake, but still pretty and the TV worked first try.

We weren’t planning to do much today, anyway. A good thing about being back in the US is that our medical insurance works, so we scheduled appointments and got three shots. The latest COVID shot went in my right arm and high dose flu and RSV in the left.

I did have the energy to add Michigan to our travel map, so it has all the patches it’s going to get for a while. That’s a lot of miles to pull a trailer and I count that we’ve set up in a campground 137 times since we sold our house – not counting the times we’ve switched sites to get TV!

Today is our last day at Chutes Provincial Park in Massey, Ontario and our last day in Canada. We have seen so much beauty and met many wonderful people. I hate to leave Canada, but I know winter is coming so it’s time to go. Chutes is named for the waterfalls and rapids of the River aux Sables which runs through here just before it joins the Spanish River and heads to Lake Huron.

There’s a very nice trail here that takes you through the woods along the river.

The Seven Sisters Rapids show off the glacial scraped preCambrian rock of the Canadian Shield.

Views of the river were framed with fall colors.

Below the main falls was a section of river with gentle rapids.

Here the river was thick with spawning salmon. I didn’t think these could be salmon, but found there’s a subspecies of Atlantic salmon that are “lake-locked”. They never get to the ocean and they only reach an average size of 12 to 20 inches. Each of those dark shadows is a fish. It looked like a real banquet for a bear, but we saw no evidence of bears.

This would have been a restful stop if the satellite TV antenna hadn’t driven us nearly batty. This was the site I had booked. It had some afternoon sun, but the openings to the southwest, where the DirecTV satellites are, were fairly small. We moved the antenna around to about five places but could never get a signal.

Since Bud had been without TV for our stay at Mikisew Provincial Park I thought he’d be willing to move if we could get a site that would give us TV. I found this site, which might look the same but on the other side of those trees is an open field, and it’s on the southwest side of the site. The only problem was it was booked for the weekend. We decided it was worth it to move after two nights, so yesterday afternoon we came here.

One drawback was that the power post was on the wrong side of the site, but since we have a 30 foot 50 amp extension cord we could manage. The cord from the trailer is running under it from the other side. I put the junction up on the picnic table bench to help protect it from moisture.

We had to use our 75 foot RG11 coaxial antenna cable, but we made it out through the trees. But no TV! Huh? We checked the cable ends, we even swapped ends. We tried three 25 foot cables joined with splicers in case there was a problem with the big one. We didn’t expect that to work and it didn’t. In all the fussing I noticed a nut on the antenna housing had turned as we tightened the cable. Convinced that the cable must be loose inside we removed the plastic dome. Everything looked fine. We put it out without the dome and watched the gears move the dish to line it up with the satellites. We didn’t think it was pointing towards where our phone app said the satellites should be. We moved it so it would have a clearer shot where it seemed to point; that was worse. We gave up and put the dome back on.

This morning we moved it back to the original position. This is the view it has towards the southwest. There are no obstructions; it should work. Bud started fussing again. He took the dome off. He tried aiming it by hand. He let it reset again and it started to pick up a signal but it still wouldn’t come on. He let it sit for about a half hour and then reset it again. It worked. So what changed? Meanwhile it was supposed to rain in the next hour and the dome was still off so he went out and very carefully put the dome back on. It’s still working. Today is Bud’s birthday, so happy birthday Bud, you have TV. And tomorrow we leave.

We’ve now moved to The Pines campground at Mikisew Provincial Park in Ontario. I guess it’s pretty obvious how this campground got its name. It’s a nice site but unfortunately the tall pines leave no opening for the TV satellite antenna. We do have phone and internet. So far the phone service in Canada has been impressive. We have Verizon and our plan includes service in Canada and Mexico. The phone seems to connect to whichever service is strongest, usually Bell, sometimes Rogers. We get our internet through our mobile devices (phones and IPad) and there have been very few places where we don’t have decent service.

The park is on Eagle Lake, a pretty lake with some nice islands.

They even have a dog beach, but Matey is not interested in swimming. He usually walks around puddles.

There have been few disc golf courses where we’ve visited in Canada. We were happy to find they have three here. Yesterday we played an 18 hole course right in the park. It was through the woods and had pretty tight lines. I forgot to take pictures until the end when I took this of Bud walking off the course. This was one of the more open holes.

Today we went to a very nice 18 hole course about 8 miles away in South River.

It was in and around a pretty little park on Forest Lake.

As is often the case with disc golf courses, there were only two other people there, so Matey got to be off leash most of the time.

We had a good round.

We love that these are in such nice places, and as you can see, we’re having a great start to our fall.

It’s been chilly in the mornings but it warms up during the day.

And we have hit this park at peak leaf color. What more can you ask?

Moose.

MOOSE.

MOOSE!

After 74 days in Canada we finally saw a moose. We were driving the back roads into town. Bud stopped the truck and this fine gentleman crossed in front of us.

We are now at Riverside Park in Pembroke, Ontario.

It’s a big park in a small city that has about 50 campsites.

It sits along the Ottawa River…

and has a nice walking/bike path. Walkers to the left, bikes to the right, but no one seemed to pay that any mind.

The path goes to the marina, which I think is near this marker. We haven’t walked that far yet. We have time. We are staying here four nights. This is the eleventh campground we’ve been at since the first of September, so we could use a little break.

This morning we took a walk at a small Provincial Park about 7 miles down the road. We wandered out to some wetlands…

and then back through some woods. Nothing spectacular, but very pleasant. It’s nice to just take it easy for a bit.

Yesterday we arrived at Quebec’s Mont Tremblant National Park and it felt a bit like Camp Granada. It was cold and damp, if no longer raining. Our site had some open areas so we should have had TV, but there was no phone service so no internet to check the satellite positions. Bud couldn’t get the antenna to pick up any satellites. Oh, and a bolt had sheared on our hitch and the bathroom faucet wouldn’t run more than a trickle and a pin had fallen out of our bathroom cabinet closer and even though I took apart and checked the sink trap we couldn’t find it.

I drove a couple of miles to the Discovery Center where there was supposed to be wifi. I got service on my phone so I could call my mom, but no internet. I had intended to use the internet to bring up the satellite finder and write down the direction and height angles of the satellites so we could use our compass to reposition the antenna. No go, and Bud couldn’t seem to get any lined up. So no TV, no internet and the radio station he found was in French (of course).

This morning we decided to come back to the Discovery Center to try again for internet and take a hike. We did the hike first. It was one of only three in the area that allowed dogs. Called Le Roche it was supposed to go up to an overlook.

It was a very pretty trail.

It was wide, well made and had benches periodically.

After a long uphill we came to a sign that indicated the dog friendly trail went to the right. So we went that way. It was pretty…

but this was as close as we came to an overlook, you can almost see out through the trees. And we were well past the distance we expected and didn’t want to walk any further. When we got back to the intersection another group was checking directions. There’s no overlook that way we told them. He had an app he let me see (it looked like All Trails). I could tell we were supposed to go straight. These were French speakers, but we all understood each other enough to set out on the wider trail.

In short order we found this. Oh yes, there was an overlook!

The views were spectacular, and it was sunny!

I found the Discovery Center.

I think that is Lac Chat and our campground is just beyond that beach.

And besides the beautiful views we had phone service up there! It was good enough to use our satellite locator app, so I took a screen shot of the positions.

We walked back down to the Discovery Center. Of course I looked for the overlook, and I found it.

It’s right there. And I found the wifi. We went back to the trailer. I had found a bit of glop in the aerator for the bathroom faucet and fixed that. Bud found the pin for the roller on our cabinet closer so I fixed that. He had a bolt for the hitch so he fixed that, and we used the information I had saved to reposition our antenna and we now have TV. And I am back at the Discovery Center to write and post this blog.

So I guess this is more like Camp Granada when the rain stopped. “Gee that’s bettah.”

We left Forillon Saturday morning as the edge of tropical storm Lee was coming in. We had decent weather for most of our drive along the Gulf of St. Lawrence with a helpful tailwind. I took this photo as we were leaving the area. Gradually the land got less hilly and the weather got worse. We stopped overnight at Matane. I took no photos. It was in the upper fifties with rain spitting in a 24 mph wind. We set up without unhooking and just hunkered down for the night.

Sunday it gradually cleared and warmed and we drove on. We arrived at our campground just on the northern edge of Quebec City in 70 degree sunshine. This is an odd little private place. There are lots of trees and a lot of the places are seasonal sites.

It’s surrounded by woods and there are paths through them.

But it really is right on the edge of the city.

Today we drove down to Old Quebec. We parked near the Plains of Abraham. This park was the battlefield where the British under Major-General James Wolfe defeated the French under Montcalm. The French were in the Citadel of Quebec which sits atop steep cliffs and was almost impregnable. Wolfe took flat bottom boats and landed troops west of the city. While the British warships kept up a distracting bombardment Wolfe’s troops climbed the steep hill to the rear of the Citadel and overpowered the small garrison on guard there. The two armies then met here. Both generals died in this battle; the British victory led to the eventual defeat of France and her relinquishing of almost all of the land in North America to the British.

There are two things I found particularly interesting. First, the taking of Fort Louisburg (which we visited in Nova Scotia) enabled the British to launch the attack on Quebec. Secondly, the inclusion of the land between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers under the jurisdiction of the new British province of Quebec was a major factor in the rebellion of the American colonies. Plus France’s defeat in the Seven Years War led them to come to the aid of the rebels insuring the success of their fight for independence. So maybe the USA wouldn’t be the USA if it weren’t for the fishermen wanting to dry their cod on the beaches of Louisburg.

Today the city of Quebec surrounds the old battlefield.

We walked around the outside of the Citadel…

and continued around on the Governor’s Promenade, which takes you in front of the Citadel along the cliffs.

It affords a great view of the St. Lawrence River and Quebec City’s waterfront…

and leads to the historic promenade by the Chateau Frontenac. I remembered this from visiting about twenty years ago on a bus tour with my mom, my aunt and my cousin.

We stayed at this beautiful old hotel.

Today Bud, Matey and I walked past the hotel and into the streets of Old Quebec City.

We walked along streets lined with little shops…

and old, old houses.

There were a lot of churches. All these streets are inside the old walls. You can see a bit of the wall with a gate up the narrow street.

We walked up this street towards that gate, but we turned just before the gate to go back towards the Citadel.

This time we took a tunnel under the wall and back to the truck. I enjoyed the walk more than either Matey or Bud. Matey didn’t like being on a short leash and Bud didn’t like driving in and out on the rather congested and convoluted streets. I’m glad they were both willing to indulge me. Tomorrow we go back to the country!

The weather wasn’t too auspicious for our arrival in Quebec on Wednesday. Matey and I discovered the beach just off the campground but this is about all we could see of it.

This morning the beach was a lot more picturesque.

Yesterday we weren’t totally socked in with fog, but it was still cloudy so we decided to take in a few historic sites within this huge park. First we visited Fort Penninsule which was built during WWII to protect allied ships sheltering in Gaspe’ Bay from German U-boats.

Beneath the gloom you can see Gaspe’ to the right and Douglastown towards the left. The guns commanded the entire bay from where they were dug in.

Next we visited a couple of places that have been preserved from when this land became a park. This is the homestead of the Blanchette family.

Besides the house there was the barn and several outbuildings. Unfortunately nothing was open this late in the season.

We had higher hopes for Hyman and Sons General Store, but it was only open from noon until four. We were there in the morning as it was supposed to rain in the afternoon, so we only got to peek in the windows. It did rain in the afternoon and I spent the time in the little laundromat doing our wash.

Today was supposed to be cloudy but dry so we planned a hike. Most of the day ended up being sunny. This is Cap-Bon-Ami where we hiked.

We were headed up to the tower on that cliff. Don’t see it?

There it is, I zoomed in. It was only 1.4 miles to it, but 935 feet up!

There were several places to stop and enjoy the view. Our truck is parked in that lot.

After the first big uphill, that ran along the old ox cart trail the folks who lived here used, there was a set of the Canadian National Parks red Adirondack chairs. You might think this was the summit, but it was far from it.

We got higher…

and higher,

until we arrived at the base of the tower. Matey rested there while Bud and I took turns taking in the view from the top.

You could look right down on where we came from.

To the southeast was Cap-Gaspe’, where the Appalachian mountains plunge beneath the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. (They come up again as the Long Range Mountains in western Newfoundland.)

I took this panoramic shot facing west and you can see the whole peninsula, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the right to Gaspe’ Bay on the left.

The way back down was easier on the lungs and harder on the joints. This is some of the steepest part of the old ox-cart trail. The rope helped.

We were rewarded when we got down by rocks full of seals.

They were calling so I tried to catch it on video. You can’t really hear them, though, so I’m including this clip that has more movement but only one little bit of a call right at the end. There was also a small whale, but he didn’t stay on the surface long enough for me to get a picture.

In the afternoon we drove to the town of Gaspe’ to a seafood store. We decided to cross the peninsula there to come back along the northern side. We came out at Rivière-au-Renard where they have a decent little harbor. We happened to drive out on the wharf just as this Canadian Coast Guard boat was coming in.

There were some big fishing boats there…

as well as an operating seafood plant.

There were probably as many boats on the hard as there were in the water; a reminder that we’re moving closer to winter. Tomorrow we move on, hopefully staying ahead of any really cold weather.