Why this ride
From Wawa it runs 479 km to Thunder Bay; allow about 6 h 51 of riding. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ontario Lake Superior Circle North Shore: Wawa to Thunder Bay
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 479 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 51
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Wawa
Wawa is famous for a goose. A huge steel statue of a Canada goose stands at the junction on the highway, put up in the 1960s, and the name itself comes from the Ojibwe word for the wild goose, which migrates over the lake in flocks each spring and autumn. The town, home to around twenty-six hundred people, grew up as a gold rush camp in the nineteenth century and later lived off the iron ore mines to the north, which have since closed.
Read the complete Wawa write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Wawa is where the day begins. Next is Neys Provincial Park.
2. Neys Provincial Park
Ney's Provincial Park holds one of the quieter chapters of Canadian history. During the Second World War, a camp here held German prisoners of war, and visitors can still learn something about it at the site. Today the park is a pleasant place, with a long sand beach on Lake Superior, dunes, a rock headland with a lookout, and a campground in the trees, all within a few kilometres of the town of Marathon.
Read the complete Neys Provincial Park write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Neys Provincial Park comes up about 204 km into the recorded legs. Next is Thunder Bay.
3. Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay is the end of the line for the Ontario shore of Lake Superior, a port city of just under a hundred thousand people tucked against a huge bay with the long, flat shape of Sleeping Giant rising across the water. That peninsula, a cluster of cliffs and ridges, gives the city's skyline a nearly mythic profile, and the Ojibwe story says it is Nanabijou, the spirit of the deep sea, turned to stone. The name of the city comes from the bay, and the weather justifies it: storms off the lake can be sudden and loud.
Read the complete Thunder Bay write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 479 km.
Leg by leg
Wawa to Neys Provincial Park
Wawa → Neys Provincial Park is 204 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Neys Provincial Park to Thunder Bay
Neys Provincial Park → Thunder Bay is 275 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.