Rock Island is a greenstone peninsula jutting out where the Michipicoten River pours into Lake Superior. David Wells, a keen canoeist, came to paddle here in the 1990s, and it blew him away; he bought a cottage. Now, in a contagiously laidback fashion, he runs Naturally Superior Adventures and Rock Island Lodge, so that others can paddle and overnight here too. It’s a sort of cut-off jean-shorts, endless water-n-trees, super-nice place to be. Over the communal dinner, a fellow guest, from Toronto, sums it up: “You’ve basically come to peak Canada.”
I don’t sleep in the lodge itself, but rather a geodesic dome on the beach – any closer to the lake and I would be on it. Indeed, soon I am: guide Tate takes me kayaking on Superior. The world’s largest freshwater lake, it’s more like a sea, with its own weather and whims. Thankfully it is calm as we paddle north. We indulge in property porn – there are some jaw-dropping houses on the shore. Then we nose into a cave and pull up on a long, sandy beach.
“If there are five people here we think it’s busy,” Tate grins. Today, there is no one at all, just some driftwood and another Group of Seven info easel: AY Jackson painted the view I am now taking in. Jackson had a strong desire to paint the Canadian landscape, and travelled widely, up to the Arctic and from coast to coast. However, it was right here that he chose to buy a summer cabin, which he owned until his death in 1974. Well, if north Ontario was good enough for a founding father of Canada’s artistic identity, it is certainly good enough for me.
Essentials
Air Canada (00800 669 92222; aircanada.com) flies to Sault Ste Marie, via Toronto, from around £550 return. Canadian Sky (01342 395583; canadiansky.co.uk) can organise tailor-made holidays to Northern Ontario.
Walk Among the Trees offers walks from C$40pp (walkamongthetrees.com). Forest the Canoe (forestthecanoe.ca) offers two-night backcountry trips from C$675pp including guides, kit, permits and food. Naturally Superior Adventures (naturallysuperior.com) offers many paddling options, including half-day canoeing (from C$105) and multi-day expeditions; rooms at Rock Island Lodge (rockislandlodge.ca) cost from C$185pn B&B, GlamDome from C$110pn.
Entrance to the Canadian Bushplane Museum costs C$15.50 (bushplane.com). For info on the Group of Seven trail, see momentsofalgoma.ca. For more info, visit destinationnorthernontario.ca
Source link : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/north-america/canada/northern-ontario-canada-canoeing-holiday/
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Publish date : 2024-03-25 03:00:00
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