Pointe au Baril, Pukaskwa, the 'Peg, and the Prairies

After a teary goodbye with the family at our cottage, we started our journey on August 31, heading north on the 400. Our first stop was at the Affleck cottage in Pointe au Baril to see my old pal Will. My first foray into travelling was with Will when we were 18 years old - we went back packing in Portugal in Spain for 3 months. I thought it only appropriate to start this new journey with a long overdue (several years) visit.

Will, Kelley, Atticus (3), and Jeanette (Will's mom) were excellent hosts. Their cottage turned 100 years old this year and it is an absolute beauty - a classic Georgian Bay cabin that reminded me of some of the buildings at Camp Hurontario.

Some highlights:

• Swimming over to Grandview Island, roasting hotdogs and making 'smores

• Touring the Ojibway club

• Cliff jumping at Hole in the Wall

• Enjoying a big spaghetti dinner with lots of wine!

• Evening fishing

• Morning tea and coffee on the porch in the morning

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Next stop - Pukaskwa National Park!

We booked 2 nights in an oTENTik to start our camping out in style! I would highly recommend trying this "glamping" option. My only complaint is that I got the worst sleeps, but this is just because I failed to look at a weather forecast. The first night we froze (~3 C) to death, but I put on a fire at 5 am and managed to get a few more hours of sleep in. Next night, we got a tonne of firewood and made a rip-roaring fire and spent the night boiling (it was 15 C that evening) - mental note - check the forecast.

We spent the first afternoon/evening hanging out on a giant driftwood beach (Horseshoe Beach) and 3 out of 4 of us (no shaming here) went swimming. The water was about 60 F, but was so refreshing on a hot day.

The next day, we set out on a big hike. We did the Coastal Hiking Trail that goes from Hattie's Cove to Hook Falls with a stop at the White River Suspension Bridge. This was a huge achievement for us and was very rewarding. The longest hike/walk we have ever done with the boys was probably 1-2 hours and this was 8 hours over some challenging terrain. It was a really nice mix of boardwalks, dry pine forest, wet rain forest, marsh, and steep rocky terrain. Obviously the highlight was popping out of the woods to see the awesome suspension bridge over a gorge in the White River. We grabbed lunch at Hook Falls (pro tip: don't put tomatoes in wraps - they were super soggy and gross) and the boys played in an eddy at the side of the rapids (Mac made a little wood boat with rock "people" on it while Liam tried to sink it by throwing rocks at it :) )

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Next stop - Winnipeg!

Winnipeg has been on my bucket list for some time now - and the fact that it was exactly a 10 hour drive from Pukaskwa was perfect (two birds with one stone). All kidding aside, the drive to the 'Peg was absolutely stunning. We drove along the Coastal Highway - in some parts it looked like BC - rugged, hilly, and breathtaking views. We stopped in Thunder Bay at the Terry Fox Memorial. I showed the kids the map of the route that Terry took, starting in Newfoundland and working his way across Ontario before being forced to stop just outside of Thunder Bay. As we drove miles and miles ("Are we there yet?"), I still cannot comprehend how a person with one leg could run a marathon a day for 5,373 km. Absolutely incredible. It was very important for me to have my boys truly understand the importance of what he achieved.

As we crossed the border into Manitoba, the landscape become much less interesting, but we were glad to have a straight divided highway after many hours on the road. As we approached Winnipeg, Meli input the wrong hotel address, so we got to spend an additional 1/2 hour touring downtown Winnipeg, which was truly a blessing in disguise.

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On to Medicine Hat!

As we drove through Brandon Manitoba, I quickly loaded Tragically Hip's Fully Completely album onto Spotify. This is my personal fav hip album (comment below if you think there is a better one). It features "At the Hundredth Meridian", which is right around Brandon, where the great plains begin. Listening to this album as we drove through the prairies was awesome - such a legendary Canadian band.

The prairies were as I had imagined them - expansive and beautiful in a "this is cool to experience once" type of way.

We arrived tonight to Medicine Hat, Alberta (again on the bucket list and another 10 hour drive). We were a bit confused about our hotel room - it was apparently converted from an retirement home to a hotel. This fact was confirmed when Liam opened the door to the room and said, "what is that smell?" (it was of course the unmistakable "old person" smell). For $85 a night - we can't complain!

Tomorrow we will head to Banff, Jasper, and Revelstoke!