Prehike Day

First hike and nothing went as planned! We went up to Elliot Lake on Saturday to scope out the access points and to join in the Voyageur Trail 40^th anniversary celebrations there. Since we got to Elliot Lake a bit early, we decided to check out the road to Pardee Lake. This road is only paved for the first little bit through the golf course. The road started out okay but after it became a dirt road the pot holes and ruts slowed us down considerably. We were in my VW Golf Wagon which is pretty low so I inched the car along until we got to a spot where the water had overflown a beaver dam and was flowing along the road. After checking it out, I decided to push my luck and ford it. Thankfully, I had no problems, but shortly thereafter we came upon truck and trailer stopped on the other side of a huge water hole in the road. Turns out the truck had stopped to chat with an ATVer who was out roaming the area. I asked him about the road conditions further along and he thought we could probable get through but I decided that I would not push my luck any further since the waterhole looked fairly deep. We turned around and headed into town.

The celebrations were well under way when we got to the park with 4 different planed hikes including a family hike, other different level hikes and even some geocaching. Volunteers were manning BBQs which were serving up hotdogs and hamburgers. I was able to chat with hikers from the Coureur de Bois about the condition of the trail where I had planned to start. It was not good news as the trail was also under a considerable amount of water. Plan B is was, which was to change the starting point to the golf course parking area. Gerry, from Elliot Lake, suggested the we extend the other end to Westview park which I thought was a good idea. We sent some last minute emails to the folks in Sault Ste. Marie, to let them know about the change and then we headed to our accommodations for the evening, Dunlop Lake Lodge.

I should have known that it wouldn't be straightforward. When I looked up the directions, they mentioned that the lodge was on Dunlop Lake Rd. What I had not counted on was that there is a new road on the south side of the lake called Dunlop Shores Rd. We got to see all the new construction to the end of the lake which is a considerable drive. At least it was a good day for a drive. Once convinced we were not on the right road, we headed back to the highway and found the correct road. What should have taken 10 to 15 minutes was an hour long expedition.

Dunlop Lake Lodge has 12 rooms and a cabin. There is a restaurant and a bar area with a pool table. The restaurant opens up to a very nice patio overlooking the lake. There is a new set of stairs down to the lake which was closed off for some reason. The room we were in was okay, a little dated but clean. Since this particular room (#3) does not have a TV, I was happy to find out that there was internet access. We walked down to the shoreline via the boat launch driveway. There is a nice setup for an evening fire as well as a dock and a boat launch. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food at the restaurant. It mainly serves up steak and seafood. The presentation was good and the food tasted great.

An ominous sign outside the front of the restaurant indicated that there was going to be a planned power outage the next day.