Enjoying the serenity of Lake Superior

Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world. As soon as we start driving along it from Sault Ste Marie we loose cellular network and enter the wilderness. Pine trees all around, rivers and small lakes surround Lake Superior, offering habitat for deers, moose, bears, wolves, foxes… and we see our first bear by the road! Once in the Provincial Park we do a few hikes. The day is overcast making it even better to walk in the forest. We’re by ourselves most of the time, the area is so quiet it’s amazing, no buses full of Chinese.

After a night at the campground around red squirrels and chipmunks we do one more trail before taking the road towards Pukaskwa National Park. On our way the town of White River shows a sign with Winnie-the-Pooh, “where it all began”. Here is the story: In 1914 Lieutenant Harry Colebourn from Winnipeg purchased a black bear cub in White River and named it Winnie in honour of his hometown. Colebourn was en route for WWI with his regiment, the bear became a mascot. But when called to the battlefields of France the Lieutenant gave the bear to the London zoo and the young bear became one of the zoo’s most famous animals. In 1926, 5 yo Christopher Milne, a frequent visitor to the zoo, named his own stuffed bear Winnie the Pooh. His father A.A. Milne then wrote the stories of Pooh and his friends.