Thunder Bay

This was our first stop on the Canadian portion of our month long trip. I was a bit disappointed. The town looked as if it had suffered through a long siege. I guess that is what winter must be like up there.

Once we got out of the city, the scenery was spectacular. Kapaka Falls, even with the reduced flow, is very beautiful. The fact that men portaged around these obstacles during the fur trade is an incredible testament to the endurance of the human spirit. I tried to picture making my way through this rugged landscape with a hundred pounds of gear and was humbled.

To be blunt, this city is dying.

Sure, it’s got a beautiful waterfront, and really isn’t all that horrid, but the people running this city have the intelligence of a half-eaten-fish-out-of-water.

The sleeping giant’s really nice, and we have some really nice recreational places like the Cascades, Centinial (sp?) Park, The Bluffs, ect, but it all gets rather…dull, after a while. No real GOOD bands come here, though we have a community auditorium, and everyone under 20 (and a good chunk of people that are ABOVE 20 as well) are all leaving because there’s a severe lack of jobs here.

Plus, our crime rate is insane and there’s a lot of drunken brutes wandering the Fort William district aimlessly, asking people to be in porno’s. Who wants their kids growing up in that?

Thunder Bay has its pluses, but its negative factors FAR outweigh them.

I have lived here twice as well, soon to be a third time. Home is where mah mom is. Thunder Bay is WAY behind the rest of the world. If you want a flashback I highly recommend visiting. If you totally hated the 80’s – don’t. Lots of snow and freezing cold in the winter and the rest of the months are millions and millions of bugs and of course – pot holes and road work. I’m not kidding about the bugs – it’s like a veil of bugs everywhere you go. BUT there is beautiful Lake Superior and the Sleeping Giant, amehtyst mines, bush, camping, and more bugs. Not recommended in summer if you are allergic to bug spray – and if you go in the winter you are a total sucker for punishment.

It was a lot of fun going there, but if you’re driving there from the U.S., fill up on gas before you cross the border!

I’ve been there several times. It was always to go to the Great Rendezvous at Old Fort William. It’s a wonderful place, and the people that run it there are wonderful too. There is Suzie Stupendek, who is the major Domo there. Gilles Belot, who voluteers with the others in the canoe shed and so many others I couldn’t think of naming them all here.

There is a Smithy, a tin shop, wood shop, barns, a big period correct kitchen, gun makers shop, canoe shop, and the works. I got a personal tour by Jim of the merc unit stationed there known as the Des Murons. I was able to see the powder magazine building, and some of the real artifacts that are hidden away from the general public.

I always went up early so I could climb Mt. McKay, and go to the amythest mines. I found out that if I want to be fancy, I can start a fire with the amythest and my striker steel instead of using mere flint.

The Rendezvous there is in the first week of July every year. We always stayed up late and burnt an old worn out canoe by the warf.

The first time I went there I got caught off guard by how late it stays light, and how early the sun rises again. I stayed up with the canoe shed bunch for what were a couple of hours past dark, which is normal for me, and I will still have a decent sleep. It was nice out so a bunch of us slept under the stars down by the warf. How was I to know that it was already past 1:30 am? And how was I to know that it would start getting light again at about 3? That next day I was a complete zombie. What makes this amazing is that I’m only about four hours south of there. The day length thing must get exponential as you get farther north.

It nearly flooded on us one other time we went there.