Goderich, Lake Huron

[Kyle]From our spot anchored just outside of Goderich Harbor (which the locals pronounce "God-ritch," with a barely perceptible pause at the e), it didn't look too appealing. Every single thing you buy in a boat store has a label that says the same thing, "Rinse thoroughly in fresh water after every use". Yeah, right! That's actually one of the nicest things about sailing on the lakes; the whole boat doesn't get covered in salt every time it's not flat calm.

You'd never know it by looking at the freighters tied up in Goderich. The whole place seems to be in a losing battle with rust. That is because Goderich Harbor is at the entrance to the world's largest underground salt mine, the dust of which apparently does a good job of replicating the salty sea. The complex is so enormous that the prim little public beach is almost lost in the background of giant industry.

We landed our dinghy amongst frolicking children and then climbed the stairs to the clifftop lighthouse. From up there, the character of the place completely changed. Beautiful homes, presumably paid for with salt money, made up tidy neighborhoods under the shade of big, mature trees. Goderich is a planned town, built as an octagon, with generous allowances of space for everything. The roads are wide, with more than enough room for parking, lots are large, so every house seems to have a big yard, and there is plenty of public park space.

Blue skies and NO bugs... Heaven!

Our first stop was the museum. We go to a lot of these and I must say this one is one of the best. It is large out of proportion to the town, full of interesting things, and organized so that everything gets explained and nothing gets missed. It was here that we learned the extent of the salt mine, which extends under Lake Huron at about three to four times its depth for miles and is larger in area than the entire town and then some. Two-hundred and fifty freighters a year are loaded full of salt here. We saw others coming in, unloading mountains of rock and gravel. Perhaps that is used to backfill areas once the mining is done to keep the ground stable. I don't know, but it sure seems like more than anybody local could need otherwise.

The county museum was impressive and extensive! It even incorporated the old school house building (not shown here), and a train which the building was built around.

Following the museum, we went to the old gaol. It seemed unpleasant, but not especially so, like Alcatraz. That is until you notice the number of wood-burning stoves. Each staff room had one, sometimes two. Cell blocks had none. Inmates must've shivered their way through their sentences.

The Gaolhouse (American's spell it "jailhouse"), was used through to 1972!

This particular day was nice and warm, so we finished up with a long, sweeping walk out of the town, down the gorge to the Maitland River, through a forest trail and then back along the old Goderich to Guelph railroad grade, now a great place for runs and bike rides.

The highlight of the walk was the old trellis bridge, where we got long, elevated views of the valley. Maryanne even spotted a beaver below, presumably being busy.

And a nice long walk through the local trails ended with an old railway trellis bridge (and another beaver sighting)

We were hungry from our long day, but didn't want to spoil our dinner, so we decided to split an order of poutine from the concession stand at the beach. It didn't work. Poutine is very filling.

As you can imagine, the comings and goings associated with the world's largest underground salt mine dominates the town waterfront