Quebec... Parlez-vous Anglais?

Lac Poigan, Réserve faunique La Vérendrye

Clues we weren't in Ontario anymore

After spending a couple of hours digging ourselves out of the sand pile (see previous post), we were ready to leave the backroads and go in search of coffee and breakfast. Heading to the next town meant crossing the border between Ontario and Quebec. We didn't fully appreciate what this would mean until we suddenly found ourselves transported to the  French countryside.  While bigger cities like Montreal and Quebec City are much more bilingual, the little provincial towns of Quebec are exclusively French speaking, even 10 km from the Ontario border.

My introduction to poutine

The first town we came upon, Duparquet, was hardly more then an intersection with a gas station, thrift store, and a tiny restaurant with a takeout window. We made the mistake of wandering into the thrift store first, after picking out the word "cafe" from a  sign on the window written in French (Ben last took French in elementary school and his French is better then mine). Fortunately there was  a coin operated coffee machine in the quarter so we at least got our coffee before attempting to order food from the restaurant takeout counter. Again we were faced with a menu completely in French and a counter worker who spoke no English. We were saved by a super friendly women from Ontario who approached and helped us order two plates of poutine. I had never heard of this magical dish before... it was delicious!
   

Well fed and caffeinated, we continued driving until we got to the town of Rouyn-Noranda. We decided to celebrate getting unstuck with a hotel room and a few beers. This down time also allowed us to clean out the 3 inches of sand that had accumulated in the van. Rouyn-Noranda was a random town but we really enjoyed our recovery time here. The town was even raffling off a Westfalia as some sort of promotion! We never did figure out the whole story, but we figured one Muskey was enough for now.

Beers celebrating the van being unstuck

Rouyn-Noranda

 After a good night's sleep we were ready to continue on. We decided to spend a couple of nights camping within the Réserve Faunique La Vérendrye, a nature preserve south of Rouyn-Noranda. Within the preserve you could camp at rustic campsites, accessible by gravel roads. This seemed like a good compromise to camping: a way to get away from the big RV's but still camp at designated campsites (i.e. less likely you will get stuck in a sand dune). Ben wasn't  tired of the back roads yet so he picked one of the most remote sites the park had to offer, Lac Poigan, 41 kilometers off the paved road. .

Our effort paid off. Our campsite was on the edge of a lake which we essentially had to ourselves. 

The lake was connected to a larger reservoir by a chain of lakes and waterways. This allowed for a lot of exploring with our inflatable kayak. Ben also tried his luck at fishing but unfortunately the walleye weren't biting.

36 hours in Montreal

Olympic Park, Montreal

After spending a few days in the wilderness we decided we were ready for some city time.  Montreal is the second largest city in Canada and the second largest French speaking city (after Paris) in the world, which is probably why it reminded us of a cross between Paris and San Francisco. One thing that was immediately obvious about Montreal was how bike friendly it was. Split bike lanes allowed you to safely navigate the whole city. Once we found a predictably overpriced parking spot for the van, we spent the rest of our 36 hours in Montreal exploring the city on bikes.

We went to Plateau Mont Royal neighborhood for a late lunch at Hachoir. This neighborhood was a trendy hipster neighborhood with lots of funky shops and restaurants, reminding us of the Mission in SF. Quite a contrast from our typical camping dinner of beans and quinoa!

Later that evening, we continued to explore Montreal on bikes. We biked by Notre Dame and the Old Port part of the city before stumbling upon the Juste Pour Rire (Just for Laughs) festival, which was essentially a comedy festival with music, stand up, and food carts! We sampled some of the food options, bought a bottle of wine and wandered around checking out some of the shows. Seth Myers from SNL was hosting a VIP event at the festival which unfortunately required tickets. They were simulcasting the standup outside though, so we enjoyed some top notch comedy (which mainly consisted of Americans making fun of Canadians) while drinking wine.

The only food cart necessary

An acapella group performing at the Just For Laughs Festival

 The next day we spend another full day  exploring Montreal by bike. We checked out the Olympic Park and the Jardin Botanique de Montreal (botanical gardens). The botanical gardens in Montreal are huge! We easily could have spent an entire day there. The landscaping ranged from extremely manicured (some very impressive hedge art) to natural and wild (we even saw a fox sunning himself!).

Chinese Gardens

Just one of the many topiary experiments

A fox enjoying a sunny day in the gardens

After the botanical gardens we biked over to check out the Marche Jean-Talon, a huge outdoor food market. This market was a food lovers paradise and we were immediately overwhelmed. Highlights included the William J Walter "Saucissier", a sausage store that had over 50 different types of sausage (the cheese infused sausage was amazing!). We ended up leaving empty handed but we came back with the van on our way out of town so we could properly load up with supplies.

mmmmm oysters

After a long day biking around in Montreal we drove off towards the border and ended up getting a motel about 15 miles from the Canada-Vermont border. One last night in Canada before returning to the States.

Into Ontario, Canada

We crossed into Canada already late in the day.  No issues at the border, we pushed on through with hopes of finding a nice rustic site in Wawa.  Unfortunately, we immediately got lost in Saute Ste. Marie.  We got back on track and went to Walmart for food and a better map.  After that, we were rolling north along Lake Superior's east shore at sunset, which gave us some pretty scenery.

We didn't get all the way to Wawa, but did find a nice rustic place to camp.  It was beautiful up there.  We stayed up late, in hopes of seeing some Northern Lights, but no luck.

Ontario Province find efficient ways to improve the park. 
This clearing in the woods had lots of signs leading to it

Fireweed!

The next day we pushed on to try to get as far as possible.  Although we should have probably given ourselves a rest day instead.  We pulled into the Wayward Hotel bar in Wawa for some free internet. Big bonus, since we were avoiding data roaming on our iphones.

We pressed on through the countryside.  We came to the town of Timmins, where I was really impressed by Canadian Tire stores.  These places are part auto parts store, part sporting goods store, part outdoor living section from Home Depot... not to forget their tire department. 

We decided we wanted to camp by the Abitibi River.  Backroads seemed to lead to it, and we were feeling encouraged by our recent successes in finding out of the way camping spots.  As we got further north, we realized that the area we were looking for was more of a boat-in camp site, as opposed to drive in.  The roads up there became more and more unkempt.  It was getting late, around 10:30 pm and sunset, and we decided to explore and find a camp spot anyways.

Then a mini-disaster struck.  We found a clearing just off the road, followed the trail in, and made a left turn into a bank of sand.  We spent a few hours trying to get unstuck.  Exhausted and worried, we went to sleep in our stuck van... 28 kilometers from the paved road.  Worth noting: this was the furthest north we made it.

The next morning, we were in better spirits.  We jacked up some of the wheels and filled the wheel pits in with rocks.  Within a couple of hours we were unstuck!

Unstuck!  Off to Quebec!

The Michigan Yuppers

 Across the border into Michigan's Upper Peninsula, things start to change.  A parallel road system appears, exclusively made for ATVs and snowmobiles.  We had a campground reservation in the Porcupine Mountains, or "Porkies" as the locals call it.  Nice hiking, good views, and the south shores of Lake Superior. 

 To Californians, a forecast full of thunderstorms seems daunting.  But in reality, it's quite nice, and only rains for a 20 minute burst once or twice a day.  The interesting thing to notice is the late sunset, and the temperatures that warm up late into the evening.  It's not fully dark until around 11 pm, which sets up full days of adventure.

View from the top of the shoreline ridge.

 I could have stayed on the shore all day!

Nice as it was, we had our fill of the "modern" campground where we had been staying.  Seventy huge RV's packed in as tight as possible using 30 Amps of power each is not what we envisioned as the ideal place to wake up in a park. 
We drove onward from there, again not really sure where we'd sleep.  We left at 10 am, with 12 hours of daylight ahead. 
We stopped for lunch in Marquette, MI which had a pretty downtown and a sporty tourist industry.  Winter sports take things in different directions, as this bicycle with motorcycle-sized tires illustrates.  If you go to Marquette, MI, be careful in crosswalks.  Less than 10% of drivers stopped for us; a few sped up to "beat" us across the crosswalk.

With 4 hours of daylight left, we decided to explore.  Google maps showed a backroad that followed the Fox River out of the town of Seney.
The first few turns we made led to angry deer flies, and despite some doubts we pressed further out on this gravel road.
We were rewarded with the coolest campground we have seen so far!  A rustic riverside site with absolutely no electricity.  Our pictures don't do the site justice; we were thrilled to have escaped the retiree RV fleets. 

Our neighbor, Jerry, rode in the next morning.  He told us all about the area and had some helpful camping advice.  The more we chatted with him, the more we wanted to stick around and explore.  Jerry, if you read this, we've found the mosquito killing incense in Canada!  Works great!

VW Connection in Ironwood, MI

Heading north from Madison, we make campsite reservations, only to realize we botched the date and have two days to spare.  The interstate finally quits, leaving us on country highways through lakes and greenery.  We stop into Ironwood, no expectations, just figured we'd stop in on a random mechanic some other random mechanic suggested.

Come here often?  Muskey and this old shiny transporter hang out in front of Eric's shop.

 What we found was a colorful, former mining town evolving into something new.  It's hard to describe the moment where you find a place you weren't even looking for, and you bliss out. 

 Ironwood used to have a copper and an iron ore mine that built the town.  The mines have petered out, leaving a shrinking population looking for opportunities.  Some see good bets in the growing ski tourism industry, while others push for new mines to be open.  The result is a town with a comfortable amount of space, history, and character.  We had a really fun night out here.  We had amazing pizza at Liberty Bell Chalet, had the entire bowling alley at Lucky Strikes to ourselves, and enjoyed the rustic decor at Indian Head Motel.  The sunset provided some great light on the old buildings, and we tried capture the feel with lots of pictures.

Ironwood, MI and Hurley, WI are practically the same town, with just the skinny Montreal River flowing between.

I also met Eric, who runs European Car Service.  His real passion seems to be a handful of choice old models, with VW Transporters among them.  He sold us some much more comfortable front seats from '86+ model busses, and a new headlight grille.  Our old grille was threatening to dissolve the next large bug we hit.  He's working on a 23 window restore, in addition to eight Syncro projects!  I really appreciated meeting up with him. 

 Panorama of the state line that runs through town.

Add caption

 A large mural dedicated to the memories of and families that built the town.  Each figure was someone who lived and worked in Ironwood.

"The beer that made Milwaukee famous."