Time to pack up and go. I got up at 4:45 am to a spectacular sunrise. Everybody rolled out shortly thereafter. We had packed up quite a bit of stuff last night, so after a cup of coffee and a granola bar, we packed the canoes and pushed off. The lake was pretty calm and the wind at our backs. It was warm. We had several hours to make our shuttle, so took our time.
We made our way across the lake and into Stanton Bay. With time on our hands, we fished the shoreline. Stanton is an interesting body of water. It is very reedy at times with several rock outcrops on the shore which create intriguing fishing holes.
I had a strike on my first cast and caught a feisty smallmouth on the second. We took a lot of photos of inverted tree roots in the water and the boys kept fishing the reeds with top water lures. Mark and I worked the shore where the water dropped off. He caught a big smallmouth and had it almost in the boat when it flipped the lure and got away. I thought Mark was going in after it.
We were getting baked in the sun so decided to head for the take out point. Shortly thereafter the boys came ashore. We began the final portage back to the parking lot, our pickup point. It took us three trips each and when I was done, it was hot and I was sweaty, dirty and exhausted. By the time we were all done, it was noon. our pickup was at 1:30 so we had some time to kill. It was hot and there was no shade. Luckily our driver, Brad, showed up a half hour early. Turn up the A/C Brad! We rocked and bounced our way back to the main road and cruised back to the outfitter. We dumped our gear, took a shower and it was time to hit the road. With no easy option for hot food, we made a stop at the convenience store and picked up some munchies. I ended up selecting a couple of light colored slabs of “Thunder Bay Bread” that were amazing. If I had known sooner, I would have stocked up.
We had debated whether to try for a hotel on the North Shore, but it was late so we decided to spend the night in Thunder Bay, still two hours away. We didn’t have any reservations, but Nate did a quick internet search and found us rooms at what looked like a cool place, the Courthouse Hotel. It is a hotel that occupies the historic old courthouse in downtown Thunder Bay. Seemed like a good choice.
The Courthouse Hotel in Thunder Bay. Looks pretty great, right?
Out of boredom, I Googled their site and what I found was kind of concerning. Hilarious, but concerning. Some rather shocking reviews. But with no other options, we thought that we’d check it out before trying something else. How bad could it be? It had been an actual working courthouse and based on the decor in the lobby, they hadn’t changed anything.
The “help” desk had a sign that said, “Sorry, we’re currently busy, will be back soon.” A portent of things to come. When the lady finally returned she first dealt with a man whose online reservation had somehow not come through even though he had a printout of the confirmation. To make matters worse, he was on a three-way call that included him, the receptionist and someone at Booking.com. The receptionist was also French-Canadian so there was a bit of a language barrier. When Nate finally got an opportunity to talk to her, we found out that the hotel didn’t have our reservation either! WTF? Finally, after several very confusing and unproductive minutes, we decided to just cancel. Even that was confusing.
It also happened to be Canadian Independence Day. This was a celebration that lasted all weekend which would prove to make our hotel search challenging.
By now it was time for our dinner reservation. We ate at Bight, a pretty nice place right on the water. Great cocktails. I had the “Amethyst Mine”, (actually two), that were very tasty.
For food, three of us ordered the Smashburger which was an enormous two-patty pile with really good fries. Mark had a delicious looking salmon steak.
Sitting, looking out the window across the parking lot, we spied a big, beautiful Radisson Hotel. It looked big and expensive but with it being so late, we weren’t going to be picky. We were able to get rooms But first we took a walk along the harbor to shake down our big meal. At a certain point, I hit the wall. Mark and Nate had a night cap and closed down the hotel bar. I went to bed.
The view from our hotel
