Westward Ho!...

July 14th & 15th 2013  Sunday and Monday 

Sunday, July 14th

Once we finished up with the Battle Re-Enactment and Cornwall area, we head to the waterfront to dip our toes in the St. Lawrence River, and then turn west and head for home.  It’s funny, even though we have 2 more forts to see that were involved in the war of 1812, once we head west, we start talking about home more and more.

Sunday and late morning, started off in the most Canadiana way possible with pancakes and Maple Syrup.  The Great lakes region of Canada and the US are the only places where the Maple tree grows for the making of Maple Syrup.  

We head to Wheelers Maple Syrup Farm Pancake House and Sugar Farm, in the middle of nowhere somewhere west of Cornwall and south of Ottawa in the Lanark Highlands.

The Wheeler farm has 20,000 taps on 730 acres of Maple Trees or as they say “Sugar Bush”.  The Maple trees need to be at least 10 inches in circumference or 40 years old to be able to be tapped for the delicious sweet sap.This farm is totally run by family members and they have been here since 1978.  We sit down to eat our pancakes covered with Maple syrup and maple sausages and feel it is about as good as it gets.  We are Canadian eating pancakes and genuine 100% Maple syrup - can’t get much more Canadian than that!  

After our delicious “brunch” or as the hobbits refer to as “second breakfast” (we already had continental breakfast at the hotel at 8:00am) we are in for a long drive to North Bay Ontario.  It takes a lot longer to get to our destination today as it is 2 lane highway with a ton of traffic, very few passing lanes to speak of, lots of little towns to pass through and lots of country roads that access the highway.  It was slow going.

We finally make it to North Bay where they have their own plague of Fish flies - more than 2 weeks later than when Amhurstberg had theirs, and the little critters are once again all over and on everything.  This area looks like we are in the very northern regions of BC,  lots of low brush and bush, rocks and wild looking, but it is actually in latitude south of Kelowna area.

Monday July 15th

Today’s drive is a little over 400 kms but it takes us a little more than 5 hours because of the single lane traffic, road construction and little towns that dot the highway.  Our goal today was to dip our feet into Lake Huron and to see Fort St. Joseph which is near Sault Ste. Marie.

Fort St. Joseph is on it’s own island and in a desolate area on a point of land, however in the days where the only link with the colonized areas of Upper and Lower Canada was not by road, but by canoe or sailing vessel, this was an ideal place to have a fort.

The fort played a defensive role - its primary purpose being to protect the fur trade from the Americans.  The British Indian Department was present at the fort to maintain good relations with the Natives.  The blockhouse was constructed in 1797, and thus the fort had it’s beginnings. 

In June of 1812 Fort St. Joseph  became a rallying point as soon as the US declared war on Great Britain.  Captain Charles Roberts knew that the fort was vulnerable and decided that the best defense was a good offense, so on July 17th 1812 Roberts lead a force of about 40 regular soldiers, 150 Canadians and 300 natives and captured the American fort on Michilimackinac Island, thereby serving notice to the Americans that war had been officially declared.  The garrison and traders abandoned Fort St. Joseph and moved to the American fort just seized. 

Later in1814 an American expedition burned the abandoned Fort St. Joseph to the ground.  Under the peace treaty signed in December 1814, the British army returned the Fort Michilimackinac to the Americans and decided not to re-build Fort St. Joseph.

During the summers of 1963 & 64 teams from the University of Toronto conducted systematic preliminary research of the area.  In 1974, Parks Canada  launched a three year archaeological program and discovered the historical treasures waiting to be  found.  The rest of the fort remains as ruins.

We then find a spot to dip our feet into Lake Huron, the 4th of 5 Great lakes to be dipped into, and head for the border of Canada and Northern Michigan.  

Phil had purchased  an Enfield 1850 sword during our historical travels and so we remind ourselves we have to declare it at the border.   The border guard threw us for a loop - asked us what we had been doing in Canada (road trip) and what field of work Phil was in.  

Not the usual questions asked at the border - I am sure being Canadian and consdering we were in Canada he had no business asking us what we were doing there. Asking Phil what he did for employment was totally unexpected.  Anyways, we weren’t asked if we had any weapons or fruits and vegetables or contraband...I guess we didn’t look the type to be trouble - we probably are the epitome of “white bread” (boring and tasteless) to him.  We pull into St. Ignace for the night and are happy to be in the hotel relatively early in the evening and we even catch “The Amazing Race” Canada.