Yearn to Wander

Across Lake Huron's North Channel to Blind River

The drive along Lake Huron's North Channel was almost as pretty as from Parry Sound to Sudbury, but healthy, managed forests filled the landscape. The transition forest took on a higher percentage of conifers than farther south. More lumbering was evident from the log trucks, and a very few lumber yards, but we never saw any cutting operations.

Shortly out of Sudbury, we dipped down for a drive around Mantoulin Island, which borders Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. It was home to several First Nation groups, some lumbering and milling operations, many B&B's.

We stopped for the night, three nights in fact, at Blind River, so named for its harbor mouth being blind to the passing ships. There we enjoyed the history--a major lumbering port in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, the natural beauty, and a room overlooking the small commercial fishing harbor off the North Channel and Lake Huron. Today it's a small village with remnants of lumbering, a uranium refinery, and tourism. We even met two Naperville lawyers on our hike on the Voyageur Trail, a trail being built across Ontario, and part of the Trans Canada Trail, not unlike our Appalachian and Pacific Crest trails.