Exploring the Soo.. to the best of my ability.

I had flown into Sault Ste Marie three days ago and had essentially been confined to working in a dingy second rate mall during the day and drinking copious amounts of beer at the Water Tower Inn at night and with less than 24 hours until I flew again out I was itching to spend the little down time I had exploring a bit. I had visited the Soo a couple of times before but this time I was determined to find what, if any, culture existed there beyond the worn out chain restaurants and seen-better-day malls I had been exposed to so far.

I know there are amazing day trip possibilitites in the area, Northern Ont is always beautiful, and the land around the Sault no different and filled all sorts of outdoor adventure but I had work responsibilities later in the day and was confined to town. I decided to do what I never do- research. I spent a few minutes online and browsed through the phamphlets in the room and noticed the location of a few sites with the potential for interest. There is a 6.7 km Downtown Heritage Walk that I could follow and hit a lot of the 'hotspots' and would take me close to a local diner/restaurant/hole in the wall that an uncle had recommended for lunch.

I hopped in a borrowed car and cruised south through town on Great Northern Rd heading, as is so often the case while exploring, towards the water. St. Mary's River serves as the international boundary and I walked for about a kilometer along the boardwalk reading plaques and historical signs. I've found it's a good idea to stop and read plaques when in smaller towns and cities. If someone has taken the time to erect a historical monument there, it usually means something fairly important or interesting actually happened, not like in Toronto where we slap plaques and designations on every other building (but never the right ones it seems). I learnt a lot about the history of the area and the importance of the city and the river and the locks that were constructed to allow passage to Lake Superior.

Tributes and memorials to heros like Roberta Bondar, who made it all the way to space, explorers like Etienne Brule who made it all the way from France and local 'musher' Billy Orazietti, who did not make it all the way across the lake all added to the experience of the 'heritage' walk.

The boardwalk leads right into Clergue Park and my next destination, The Sault St Marie Art Gallery of Algoma. I wandered through the park stopping to check out the various sculptures that adorn the grounds, mostly welded steel sculpture that I'm sure takes skill and strength to create but doesn't generally do much for me in terms of 'artistic' accomplishment. Hoping that the art on the inside is better than that on the outside I head towards the gallery only to find it closed and undergoing renovations. Renovations I assume only beacause of the number of hardhatted overall wearing type dudes clustered around the front- I'm only assuming they were there for a different reason than I was.

The front doors of the gallery were locked with no posted hours which was a disappointment andeing quite finished with the outdoor 'art' I grabbed a coffee and headed back along the lake, making one last stop at the 'quarter for a minute' binoculars to peer across at the American side of the river. The US city of Sault Ste Marie, Michigan has had a strong military presence since the war of 1812 (when First Nation warriors kept taking British troops across the river to burn anything they could find that belonged to the Yankee's) and in my 60 second spyglass tour I could take in several historical forts and the American Soo river lock system that allows passage between Lake Michigan and the other great lakes.

I walked away feeling I had got my 25 cents worth.

Bypassing the 2km hike to the far end of the boardwalk I head back to the car and drive to the next stop of on the tour. The SSM Museum is supposed have a huge collection of Voyageur/coir-de-bois artifacts that I was looking forward to seeing but again I found the doors closed- strike two. The Bush Plane Museum was next and although I had now plan on going in I decided to walk over and see if it looked interesting. Guess what? Closed. Although it was wicked that they were advertising that they were open for brunch on Mothers Day.

Hey Mom. Its your special day! Lets go look at bushplanes!

Getting disillusioned by the city's attempts to lock me out I made one final attempt to expose myself to the culture and history of the Sault. The Ertimger-Clergue Historical Site is the last stop on the 'Downtown Heritage Walk'. A small grassy area close to the Bushplane Museum contains 2 historical buildings. Although the gate was closed (what the hell??) I climbed over a small fence and wandered around the property. The Ertaminger House and the Block House are pre- War of 1812 constructions, surviving that war to become two of the oldest stone structures north of of Toronto. The site also has an area dedicated to native plants and First Nation farming that showed how the early settlers first learnt to use the land and what crops to plant. It was pretty neat but only took about 4.5 minutes to see.

Now finished my tour of downtown Sault Ste Marie I had planned to the Fort Creek conservation area. For once I had brought appropriate shoes and regardless of the fact I was still nursing a sprained ankle and slightly broken foot I had been dying to get some sort of a hike in. Wandering around the city though had already left my foot throbbing and swollen so I decided to skip the hike and headed to get some lunch instead thinking although it was cool and grey it would be nicer sitting in the park to eat rather than going back to the hotel. The restaurant that I was looking for had, in fact, gone out of business a few months back and much to my chagrin I ended up settling for some fairly suspect sushi.

Slighty bummed out by not getting into either the Art Gallery or the Musuem I headed back to the hotel. Thinking I knew where I was going I didn't bother turning on the gps and ended up taking the wrong road back. I decided to keep going for a bit, not in any rush and before long a passed a little strip mall with a roadside sign advertising used vinyl and books. Being a sucker for both I did a quick u-turn and headed in. 'The Rad Zone' was a pretty cool shop, a huge selection of used vinyl that I flipped through withought finding either of the vinyl gems that I'm currently on the hunt for (BB King 'Live in Cook County Jail' and the self titled first Stone Roses LP). They had a huge selection of top 4o stuff from the 70's and 80's, as well as some early punk rawk/thrash stuff that was in pretty crappy condition so I didn't bite on anything.

A used book store called 'Hole in the Wall' was through an open doorway in the back of the record store and I headed back to browse. The bookstore was a maze of shelves and boxes and stacks of books. History, philosophy and literature sections far outspaced those shelves reserved for pulp fiction and I found an impressive 'collectable' section that had some very old and early edition classics. The disorder made it hard to browse but I was quickly taken by the quality of the selection that I hadn't expected in a used bookstore thorugh a door in the the back of a used record store in a faded strip mall on a backroad in Sault Ste Marie.

I stopped when the guy behind the counter said hello and I remarked on how glad I was that I stopped. He asked if I had found anything and I told his I was disappointed that I hadn't but that I thought it was a really great shop. We talked for a few minutes as he unpacked boxes of used books. Just as I'm about to leave he puts a stack of soft covers on the counter and on the top is the jewel...

A copy of Neal Cassidy's 'The First Third' stares up at me. I've been searching for this book all over Toronto for months and grab it off the counter quickly. Neal Cassidy could safely be called the first member of the beat generation. He's the hero of Kerouac's classic beat novel 'On the Road' (my favourite book) and became the busdriver for early Hippie culture. 'The First Third' is his autobiography essentially and I've been dying to read it. I agree $6 is a fair price and I'm out the door knowing he could've charged five times that much and still be underpricing the book.

The rest of my team were all scattering across the country so the rest of my day would be consumed with work. I ended the trip with a evening in a loud blues bar at the hotel where the band were forced to compete with the Stanley Cup playoffs on the big screen for the attention of the audience. I had a great time sharing road stories at the bar with a guy from Ottawa who travels for an naturla gas company. I mentioned I was off to Fort McMurray in a few weeks and his first comment was that I should get in and out of Fort Mac as quickly as I can. He said it's a hard working, very hard drinking town with Roadhouse style barfights and Fightclub type attitudes.

My northern Ontario trips are coming to end and I'll soon be being getting my first look at the North Alberta. I'm already scared.