Red Rock, Ontario: Bay window on the wilderness

On the final afternoon of a four-day sailing excursion along the Canadian shore of Lake Superior, three friends and I waited as our ship's crew, John Hegberg and Susan Grams, aimed the bowsprit of the Madeleine Brady toward the township of Red Rock, Ontario.

In the preceding days we sailed from Thunder Bay, Ontario, through the Canadian wilderness, past red-painted lighthouses (as a rule, all Canadian lighthouses are red) dense forests, miles and miles of rocky shoreline and indigo-colored waves. Lots of waves.

As we approached shore, Red Rock came into focus slowly as we stood on the shiny deck of the 45-foot wooden vessel we chartered months earlier. The unexplored potential of Red Rock piqued our curiosity.

From our vantage point aboard ship, three things dominated the town: a paper mill, a slick new harbor with an outstretched lee (break wall) and the Red Rock Inn, another bright red beacon against the pewter-colored rock face that rises behind the town.

From the Madeleine Brady's slip in Thunder Bay, it took three days to sail north to this tiny coastal town at the mouth of the Nipigon River. By land, it's about 60 miles east of Thunder Bay.

For our small group -- all sailing novices -- the goal of the trip wasn't getting to Red Rock. It was the getting-there part that mattered. Unexpectedly, our overnight visit to quirky Red Rock made me feel as if we had actually gone somewhere exotic, if only to a place where "eh?" punctuates nearly every sentence.

(It's important to remember that the Canadian side of Lake Superior is different from the U.S. side of Lake Superior, which is often associated with the more populated lower North Shore. Appetites must be satisfied by rock climbing and island hopping. Best of all, the Canadian wilderness along Superior is accessible to everyone except developers.)

Even nighttime on Lake Superior is brilliant. Anchored in still bays, we slept above deck under the dark, star-studded August sky, which when viewed through squinted eyes looks like the convex side of a back-lit colander. During the day, we did the Robinson Crusoe thing, exploring wild, uninhabited islands.

In many ways the town of Red Rock is itself like an island, situated in the lap of a rocky landscape revered for its ruggedness, but isolated from the more developed cities of Thunder Bay to the south and Nipigon to the northeast.

In Red Rock's early days, transportation routes along the lake were the catalyst for development along Lake Superior's North Shore. And today, Red Rock's birthright as an industrial port city still is apparent. Plumes of barely detectable sulfur-scented smoke puff from the town's paper mill -- a compound of squat buildings -- and a labyrinth of narrow streets is lined with houses dulled by weather and time.

While Red Rock isn't a particularly picturesque town, it is trying to emphasize its strengths, namely myriad year-round recreational opportunities. Part of the strategy is to make the town more accessible by water. To that end, Red Rock has a lighted boardwalk, which skirts a new marina that opened in June 1994 with financing from a $2 million grant from Jobs Ontario Capital.

The project actually began in 1967 with the development of Harbourfront Park as part of the town's centennial celebration. The bay was dredged, break walls were constructed and a kiosk, pump house, launching facilities and sewage pump-out station were built. The wharf, with docks and slips, will eventually accommodate 200 boats.

During the warmer months, recreation in Red Rock is oriented toward the water. But winter doesn't deter everyone. When the snows come, snowmobilers, cross-country skiers and ice climbers come out in search of cold-weather adventure.

The Red Rock area is a prime place to climb rock cliffs coated with frozen runoff and waterfalls while inland trails are open for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.