Agawa Bay to North Bay

Agawa Bay to North Bay

August 30, 2006

Our literature tells us that many famous artists have lived for a time on the eastern shore of Lake Superior. It is easy to see why, and the trees are only beginning to show color. I think we will lump the north shore and the east shore together and add it as one drive for our top 10 drives list. The drive would be along Highway 17 from Sleeping Giant Provincial Park to Batchawana Bay just outside Sault (Sue) Ste. Marie. I have only one complaint about this stretch of highway; it is a narrow two lane highway without safe places to stop and take pictures, and many pictures need to be taken.

The forest changes from the northwest end of the lake to the southeast end. On the northwest end the forest is spruce, birch, aspen; much like we had been driving through since Alaska. As we drove down the shore, eastern white pines became more prevalent, usually alone and towering over the surrounding forest. The eastern white pine may become one of my favorite trees. It is majestic. Along the lake the wind has combed its branches and needles toward the mountains, like a 100 foot tall bonsai. My tree book says that before extensive logging, they grew to 250 feet. Great old trees fill my soul with joy. Some old growth should remain for the uplifting of the soul.

Along the eastern shore the hard woods appear, mostly maples. By Batchawana Bay it is a hardwood forest. The other trees are there but the hardwoods dominate. A hint of color brushes the hill sides. Occasionally, like the girl who wears Capri pants before anyone else in school, a bold branch or tree blazes red, orange or yellow, confident that soon all the others will follow.

Sault Ste Marie is where Lake Superior and Lake Huron meet, and something happened to the land here. The granite is on the surface with shallow pockets of soil covered in brush and white stalks of dead birch trees like sun bleached thigh bones protruding from an ancient field of battle. I wonder what happened; not enough soil to grow a forest or did we did we strip the land of trees and they have not returned. Sault Ste Marie is surrounded by smoke stacks so tall that small planes and migrating geese must dodge. Not far past Sault Ste Marie we were in forest again.

Our motel night was in North Bay and unremarkable.