A little bit of paradise

In 2000, Dave and I bought a treed lot with 100 foot frontage on the North Channel of Lake Heron. It was on Canoe Point Road on St. Joseph Island, near the tiny community of Hilton Beach, Ontario. How did we come to be there? you ask. Dave had spent summers in the area because his maternal grandparents had a home on Kensington Point Road on the mainland, just across a narrow straight from the island. After decades of having not been back, Dave visited the area in the fall of 1999 while at a sales meeting nearby and his interest in the area was rekindled. We all visited again in the summer of 2000 and I fell in love with the area as well. Over the winter of 2000/2001, a summer home was built according to our specifications and in March of 2001 we (and by we, I mean Dave) spent spring break putting together something like 42 boxes of IKEA furniture. We spent summers at 2732 Canoe Point Road until our separation in fall of 2007. While that's a relatively short time in the overall scheme of my life, those summers have had a lasting impression.

St Joseph Island is the most westerly of a chain of islands that runs west from Manitoulin Island. The channel on the west side of the island, is part of the Great Lakes shipping channel and the shore across the channel is the U.S.A. These islands are actually a continuation of the Niagara Escarpment and a ferry even joins Manitoulin Island with the Bruce Peninsula, also part of the escarpment. You may recall I was in Tobermory at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula as part of my tour of Ontario last summer.

The island has an interesting history, having been on the main route of the early fur trade, and being in a strategic location during the War of 1812. Fort St Joseph was the most westerly British fort in 1812, and it's here that the British staged their troops for their attack on American Fort Mackinaw, the first victory in the War of 1812. The fort was burned to the ground and not rebuilt but Parks Canada has an interesting presentation centre, some of the foundations remain and there are still archeological digs of the site when funds allow.

The summer people almost double the population on St Joe and they come from an amazing variety of places. A lot of people from Sault Ste Marie have their places here, but people come from as far as Vancouver (us!), Ottawa, Ohio, Texas, Illinois Georgia, Windsor, and Michigan. There is a significant American population among the summer people who have been coming to their summer homes, mostly on the small islands dotting the North Channel and St Joe for generations. The sailing is magnificent, with all sorts of interesting exploring, and races are regularly organized.

St Joe is covered in maple trees and some of the earliest homesteaders were the Norwegian Gilbertson family. Bernt Gilberston established a maple syrup business on St Joe before becoming a Progressive Conservative Member of the Provincial Parliament (MPP) for the area. Gilbertson Maple Syrup Products is still in business and is the largest producer of Maple Syrup in Ontario. In the fall the island is a riot of colour as the maple trees turn to shades of rust, orange and red.

The island and area is rich with artists and one of the Island's best known characters is Doug Hook, a watercolour artist who often paints island scenes. I love his work, and we often attended his annual art show in Richards Landing. We bought a print of one of his paintings of a lighthouse near our cottage, so we had something in common with His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, since he also owns one of Doug's paintings! Although I guess his is an original.

A unique thing found on the island is "puddingstone". This area is the only location this jasper conglomerate is found. It gets it name because it looks somewhat like pudding with raisins and plums in it because of the colours of the inclusions.

While we had the cottage, I drove out from Vancouver in May each year, with the SUV full of "stuff" we'd accumulated over the year for the summer place, and I stayed until Labour Day when I made the reverse trip with a now empty SUV except for the litres of maple syrup produced on the island. I usually made the trip in 3 and a half days, although now I don't think I'd be able to manage that. Dave and Gill would fly out once school was out, and Dave would travel back and forth as business required. I worked on business and politics (mostly) from there, often taking conference calls while sitting on the deck watching the boats on the lake.

Those summers were some of my happiest. Something about driving over the Bernt Gilberston Bridge on to the island that allowed stress to miraculously disappear. Things don't change much on "St Joe" from year to year and maybe that's part of it's charm. The businesses stay pretty much the same, and many of the annual events and activities have been happening for decades. The people, both locals and "summer people", are just lovely.

This summer I wanted to visit with my friend Marilyn (who you would have met twice already if you read my blog on my North America No Fixed Address Tour), and so I decided to come to the island timed to coincide with the Richards Landing Community Night, which is where I first met Marilyn several years ago. The drive from Deep River yesterday, where I stopped over night, was fabulous. The weather was absolutely ideal to enjoy the amazing scenery and last evening's community night.

There are two community nights held every summer on the Island, one in Richards Landing and one in Hilton Beach. They are only a few kilometers apart but two distinct and some might say, competitive communities. We usually also took in Community Nights or Canada Day activities in a couple of the surrounding communities of Desbarats (pronounced Debra), Bruce Mines and Thessalon. Community night traditions include a parade, with first responder vehicles, vintage cars, kids on decorated bikes and those dressed in costumes, floats from some of the island's businesses and groups and always leading it off, the Sault Ste Marie Pipe Band. There is even a train ride for the kids. There are food booths, run by the various service and interest groups to raise funds for their activities. There is always a quilt raffle. I never win. There are games of chance and of skill, along with a dunk tank. All evening, for the cost of a single ticket or an arm full, there are chances to win huge stuffed animals. I never win that either.

But I think most of all, community night is about islanders and those from around these parts getting together to chat with their neighbours. I saw some people that I've become friends with over the years (including Elizabeth and Andy who live in Ottawa as well) and that was happening all over the grounds. The weather was a prime topic of discussion since farming is one of the mainstays of the local economy. The farmers couldn't get on the fields to get the hay crop cut when it was at its prime and while they're able to get into some fields now, the crop is of far lesser quality.

Oh wait, I forgot to mention PIE. One of the hottest food booths is always the pie booth and once again last night they were sold out before the evening was over. I hardly ever eat pie, but those pies made by the folks on St Joe are to die for. I always go for the wild blueberry ones and last night was no exception and I wasn't disappointed. Marilyn had rhubarb which looked amazing as well.

I had forgotten how quiet it is here on St Joe until I got into bed last night and with the windows open to take advantage of the cool breeze, I heard nothing, absolutely nothing. Quite amazing. This morning was bright and sunny and cool. Just the way I like it. Marilyn picked me up and we were off to get some breakfast and go exploring. Another day in paradise.

Before hitting one of my favourite restaurants, Bobbers, right on Highway 17 in Bruce Mines for breakfast we stopped at the Farmers Market in Desbarats. There is now a purpose built roof under which vendors from the local community were selling everything from locally made soap to hand made items knit from alpaca wool (the animals are bred locally) to the usual and great looking produce. Things were bustling! Then it was over to Bruce Station a small community just minutes away for a live auction. It's been a while since I've been to one and you could see how easily you could get caught up in the excitement. People really were getting extraordinary deals on all sorts of house wares. Then it was back to the island and a tour of the gift shops in Richards Landing, a drive by Sailers Encampment to see how high the water is there, and we lucked in to seeing a freighter going through the channel on it's way to the Sault. We ended up at Hilton Beach where we strolled along the marina, listening to the soft tinkling of the stays on the sail boats and enjoying the warm sun. We stopped to visit with a friend of Marilyn's on his boat to wish him a happy 93rd birthday. He had just come back in from a sail with his family.

We had dinner on an outdoor patio overlooking the marina and then headed back to Richards Landing where Marilyn and I sat quite happily and watched the boats come and go from that harbour. Some were coming in to gas up, others tied up while their passengers headed up the main street to the ice cream shop. We sat for at least an hour, just soaking in the warm evening and the fabulous views. What an incredible day. So much fun and so relaxing. Now I remember why I love this island so much. I'm totally at peace here.

A huge thanks to my friend Marilyn for such a lovely day spent in easy companionship and for letting me sit back and be the passenger.