Saturday 17 May 2025--I drive over the bridge off St Joseph Island, then turn east for a two-hour drive along route 17. This is the southern fringe of the Canadian Shield, a landscape of 4.28 billion-year-old rock, exposed by the scraping of Ice Age glaciers, that covers half of Canada. At Espanola, I turn south on route 6, and in a half-hour or so, I'm crossing the short one-lane swing bridge onto Manitoulin Island, the largest freshwater island in the world. The town of Little Current, where I'm spending the next two nights, is just across the bridge.

My room is not ready when I arrive, despite the fact that I am, once again, the only guest in, so I pop over to the Manitoulin Brewing Company for a pint. Oddly, there is only outdoor seating, and it's a bit cool today. I am beguiled by the bartender, a young woman who is obviously a member of one of the local First Nations--the name Canadians use for the folk we used to call Indians. These make up a significant segment of the population of this part of Ontario.

Dinner tonight is at the large Manitoulin Hotel & Conference Center at the east edge of town. The atmosphere in the dining room could be better, but the pork chop I order is the best meal I've had on the trip.

The bridge in the background, the only link to the mainland, was built for rail traffic in 1916, and modified to allow cars as well, in 1946. (Not both at the same time, of course.) The rail line was discontinued in the '80s. I passed through here in the early '90s, and was mildly surprised when I arrived today to see that the bridge hasn't been replaced. It's still only one lane, and it's open for water traffic fifteen minutes of every daylight hour during the boating season.