Posts From Manitoba

Today we were traveling over the the precambrian shield or Laurentian shield "a large area of exposed igneous and metamorphic rocks that form the ancient core of the North American continent". We probably transitioned onto this geological feature sometime yesterday but it became more evident today with frequent outcropings of rock visible in the wet lands on the side of the road. The shield is rich in minerals and was the impetus for the founding of the twin towns of Creighton and Flin Flon on the Saskatchewan - Manitoba border. These towns originated in 1914 when Tom Creighton discovered a massive copper/zinc ore body on the site of what would be these two towns. Flin Flon incorporated as a town in 1946 and granted city status in 1970.

We were surprised this morning to find two side excursions to water falls (Wekusko Falls, and Pisew Falls), surprised because the land seems so flat that we had trouble imagining that anything could fall. But we should not have been surprised As these falls were not distinguished by the height of the fall but by the volume of water and power of the flow. Pisew Falls in particular was very impressive and unusually even Nina was impressed.

We made a short stop at the local museum on our way out of Thompson this morning and by examining some stuffed animals (a bob cat and a Lynx) confirmed that the animal we saw hunting a couple of days ago was certainly a Lynx. From the museum we retraced our steps south to a nice road side work area where we spent the night. We could not resist another visit to Pisew Falls and this time found the suspension bridge built by the Lions Club and gave access to the falls from the other side.

Not much to say about today. Our nice weather has gone so today is raining and misty. We stopped briefly at the town of The Pas for supplies then farther south we found another nice large gravel area just off the road for the night.

The weather improved today with sun and a mostly clear sky, which was good because our route is now taking us beside Lake Winnipeg and Lake Winnipegosis. We found a nice roadside camping for the night beside one of the rivers feeding the lakes. Unfortunately no photos as we had a bit of a hick-up today and accidentally deleted most of the days imagesspan>. Nina miraculously resurrected the days photos.

Still heading towards Winnipeg through the "lakes district". The weather was generally dreary today with lots of rain and often very heavy.