As we passed the border from Northern Minnesota in to Canada, our first day was spent exploring the unknown and having it all to ourselves. Let me tell you, the other 8 billion inhabitants of this earth have no idea what they're missing when it comes to the north shore of Lake Superior in the midst of autumn!
There's a smattering of small towns along the way (one boasting to being the home of a 1998 female curling champion!), but as far as I'm concerned, the only served as a place to take a break, refuel and continue on to the wilderness. Our first major attraction was the Ouiment Canyon, and like any canyon, no photos could possibly do it justice!
There is an expanse of really awesome trails along Lake Superior, and as alluring as they all were, we stuck to the smaller, easier ones, unsure how long our new road trip route would take to lead us back to Chicago before Torsten's departure flight.
The rest of the day we mostly just made stops are really stunning rest stops on the side of the highway. Every five minutes there was a new, amazing few that made us want to stop the car and just soak it all in. It's probably the only reason it took us so long to cover this chunk of the coast! At least we were able to see a bobcat lurking on the side of the road, no photos as it didn't dawn on me until after we'd passed it that it had to be a bobcat! There is still something so exhilarating about even getting a glimpse of an animal in the wild that you'd never expect to see!
There was no way we were going to find anything open 24 hours by the end of the day, so we decided to stray off the highway and find somewhere low-profile that we could get away with parking the van for the night. I couldn't tell you where we parked, because I have no idea the road that led us off the highway to this secluded bay. We crawled around rocks as one of the most magnificent and surreal sunsets painted the sky. It was changing every 30 seconds into something more and more beautiful.
Eventually it got really chilly, where Torsten and I ended up having a couple beers as darkness overcame our beautiful bay. After a day of fresh air, we had one of our best, most relaxing sleeps of the trip, alone together in our makeshift, Canadian wilderness, camping spot. Pure bliss.
Eventually it got really chilly, where Torsten and I ended up having a couple beers as darkness overcame our beautiful bay. After a day of fresh air, we had one of our best, most relaxing sleeps of the trip, alone together in our makeshift, Canadian wilderness, camping spot. Pure bliss.