July 22: Red Rock, Ontario

O Canada! Today we anchored offshore of Red Rock, Ontario, about 1:30 p.m. and boarded the Zodiaks. We donned sleek yellow life vests and boarded in groups of eight, which all turned out to be very exciting in rather choppy Lake Superior waters! Reaching the dock, we were met by a line of greeters from Red Rock and the nearby town of Nipigon, all with big smiles and hearty handshakes. A friendly “moose” even made an appearance. The weather was in the 60s with fog when we had approached Red Rock, but quickly warmed to 80s and bright sunshine when we got inland. We boarded buses for a brief tour of the little town of Red Rock, including the now-closed paper mill, which previously employed many of the residents. We had a choice of easy, moderate and difficult hiking tours today. The most difficult took us up a small mountain for some dazzling views of Lake Superior below and the Clelia II, which looked quite small from those heights. Our guide was Michael Elliott, owner of a Nipigon-based adventure touring company. Along the way we spotted pink and white wild geraniums and other bright flowers and berries (we decided only the raspberries were safe for eating!), smelled the wonderful scent of white cedar, and even posed for a group photo! We also found out that the correct pronunciation is “Nip-i-gen” rather than “Nip-i-gone,” a common American pronunciation. After the hike, we visited the Québec Lodge, a beautiful log hotel built in the 1930s by the paper mill executives as a retreat. Today it has been reopened as a hotel by a young couple. A tall stone fireplace and large open-air porch with dozens of Adirondack chairs really made the place feel warm and homey. Once we relaxed in those chairs looking out over the lake, we didn’t want to leave! We stopped at the fish and hunting club on our way back to the dock, and met many local townspeople who had come out for a special BBQ potluck to celebrate the cruise ship arrival. The people were warm and friendly; it reminded me of home. My dinner companions tonight included Doug & June Wood and their friend Betty Clark from California; Judith Mabry and her 11-year-old granddaughter Sydney from North Carolina; and Charles & Antoinette Patterson also from North Carolina but originally from further south. All of us, except Sydney, enjoyed freshly caught whitefish from Red Rock. I had lax (salmon) to start and a spicy shrimp soup, with a wonderful lemon sorbet for dessert. As I type this, I’m feeling the gentle swells of Gitchi Gumi (that’s the Native word for Lake Superior). The Clelia II is now heading for Thunder Bay, Ontario.