Sections of the drive were beautiful as we drove along the path cut by the Missassagi River through the increasingly rugged landscape as we moved inland from Lake Huron.  We even saw a moose!  But, this is NOT some of Canada’s best roadway.  We drove 170 miles in 4 ½ hours.  Route 129 is gravel and chip with a long section under construction.  We drove on loose gravel, lots of frost heave / rippley sort of road, and dodged some pretty big potholes.

We got here safely.  The boat is in the water and the motorhome settled into a site with a bit of a view of the lake.

The early morning walleye run was a bit odd since the bass were on the sandbar too and we never knew what was tapping when we got a bite.  I had at least half a dozen fish on and even managed to get one walleye (I have a terrible time catching these guys) and one bass into the boat.  Then we sat along a rock cliff looking for panfish or maybe walleye, the bass hit my nightcrawler there too.  We kept the two biggest smallmouth, one was 3 pounds, a new record for me.

I caught two Northern trolling.  The first hit the lure with a bang so hard that I was sure that I had caught a snag not a fish.

Kent caught a couple fish total during the day.  He is going to start leaving me in camp if I keep out catching him!

Mike and Tracy head off back to the City.  Kent and Lynn, back to RockLake at least one more mess of fish, we hope.

Probably the unanimous highpoint: Delicious Ribs at the Ribfest.  We enjoyed the creations from all four competitors.  There was not complete consensus among our group on the ultimate winner but that didn’t diminish the enjoyment.  All were tasty and suitable messy.  There were Tallships to explore.  We checked out free concerts, mostly local bands with varying styles, types, and talent.  A fried Mars Bar and strawberry funnel cake rounded out the festival food selections.

Oh yeah, it started with a parade.  Bagpiper bands, high school and Legion bands, lots of floats and plenty of fire trucks and police cars.  The “Flintstone” car the Canadian Scouts had was the most novel thing.  Overall much like USA small town parades.

and more rain!

We did it anyway.  Mike caught our first decent sized Pike trolling Tuesday evening.  Naturally we had to keep it.  By the time Kent had it cleaned he was absolutely covered with bug bites even with lots of DEET and everyone frantically swatting and shooing.  It yielded a couple nice fillets but reconfirmed the thought, no more evening catches when there is no screened in fish cleaning station.  Wow