Day 14, Monday July 19, 2010

From a truck stop west of Sudbury, Ontario Canada to St. Joseph Island, ON.  

Indirect Miles: 144

Total Miles to Date: 2018

Road Trip Around The               

            UPPER GREAT LAKES....

Come back to this site often and ride along with me around the Upper Great Lakes.

New photos will be posted every day or two..

All Photography by Ken Stewart © copyright 2010

Having left the Georgian Bay shoreline behind the previous day and spending the night at a truck-stop, I continued northwest on Highway 17, (the Trans Canada Highway), that wound its way through the wilderness, and a few very small towns, for about 100 miles before bringing me back to the Lake Huron shoreline at the town of Thessalon. About 35 miles to the west would be the bridge to St. Joseph Island,, where I would be visiting family for the next 3 days.

St. Joseph island is the second largest fresh water island in the world.

At about 30 x 20 miles in size, the year round population is in the range of less than 3000 persons.  As you can imagine, there are no traffic jams, no crowds, and in general is quite ‘laid-back’... And, up until 1970 there was no bridge to the Island. Anyone wanting to go to the mainland had to take a ferry, or use their own boat. Or, in the winter, they could drive across the channel on ice that freezes to more than two feet thick.

In addition to farming wheat, corn and other vegetables, the primary industry is the making of Maple Syrup. This Island is the largest producer in Canada of the sweet golden liquid. And that is a lot of syrup... Rendered from the sap of maple trees in the many island  forests the locals call ‘Sugar Bushes’.

I’m told it takes 32 gallons of tree sap to make 1 gallon of syrup, that is boiled then bottled hot, and then graded as light, medium or dark. The dark syrup being the longest boiled and last to be bottled from the bottom of the rendering vats.

I would have liked to make some photos of the syrup making operations, but the season has passed for this year. But the best I could do is to photograph a bottle of St. Joseph’s Island light.

A tour of the north end of the island included a drive down three block main street of Richard's Landing, (the largest town), to were it ends at the new Marina and Lighthouse Restaurant.

The restaurant’s name was influenced by the nearby lighthouse that was completed with private funds, primarily from one man, a retired Ontario Superior Court Judge, who, after moving to the island for his retirement,  decided they needed a lighthouse.

Since the government was unwilling to build one, the judge organized a group of locals to get the lighthouse built.. Completed within the past few years, it is first light house to be built on the Great Lakes in the past 100 years.

A logging truck roll through a small town on the Trans Canada Highway.

The Bridge to

St. Joseph Island.. Before 1970

the only way to get to the island was by boat, or over the ice in the winter.

Recently completed this St. Joseph Island light house is the first to be built on the Great Lakes in the past 100 years....

The light house restaurant at Richard’s Landing Harbor.

Tugboats stand ready to assist ships at the North Channel of Lake Huron and St. Joseph Island

This view of Lake Huron from the  area known as  Sailors Encampment on St. Joseph Island, shows the narrowest  area on the Great Lakes

and is used by  ships going to and from Lake Superior .

Built 1876, The Church of St Mary was the first on the Island.

Located on the shore of Lake Huron it was rebuilt in 1980 as a Non Denominational Church and shares space with a huge navigational marker for ships passing Sailors Encampment .