Watching the weather reports we began to realize that our Northern route wasn’t happening. Snow and ice was heading for Michigan’s upper peninsula. We still wanted to maximize our time in Canada and minimize the time in the industrial wastelands of Buffalo, Erie, and Akron, but Canada’s strict COVID rules required a negative COVID test within 36 hours of crossing the border. That meant that we would have to enter Canada by Sunday morning. We crossed Lake Champlain and headed due west, planning to cross at Akwesasne.
Akwesasne is a territory that straddles St. Lawrence River, a home to several thousand members of the Mohawk nation (the name means “land where Partridge Drums”). The river marks the border between the U.S. and Canada, but members of the Mohawk nation don’t recognize this border. Most of the territory is in New York State, with most of the rest in Ontario, and a bit of it in Quebec. There’s been a lot of controversy here, including a series of disputes and protests by Mohawk about their treatment by border officials and their right to cross unimpeded. This right was supposedly guaranteed by the 1794 Treaty of Jay.
Akwesasne presented us with a huge casino and a string of discount cigarette shops. We passed a tiny plywood shack with a sign that read “Cannabis and Smoked Sturgeon.” We weren’t in the market for weed, but we were curious enough that I circled back and parked. Cannabis has been legal in Canada since 2018, but New York state only legalized possession in March of this year, and had still not approved any retail cannabis shops. It appeared that the Mohawks of Akwesasne were taking advantage of their head start.
Entering the shed-like building (the size of a single-car garage) we were hit with an overwhelming, familiar odor, and saw a wall of huge canisters of marijuana. In front of that was a glass counter with a variety of unusual cannabis-infused edibles, including, tiny packages of marijuana-infused Doritos, Oreos, and Cheetos. This seemed to me a perfect example of putting the cart before the horse. It was fun to visit the place, but even if we had been interested, we weren’t foolish (or stoned) enough to buy pot just before a border crossing. We did pick up some smoked sturgeon, making jokes about what “smoke” meant.
We crossed North Channel Bridge to the Cornwall, Ontario side of the border. There at what was recently renamed the “Three Nations Crossing” we encountered a surly Canadian border guard. She carefully scrutinized our COVID information and other paperwork. At the time Canada demanded that we submit a quarantine plan in the event we tested positive for COVID while in Canada. This had to include an address for our quarantine stay. Since were just passing through on our way to Michigan I had entered “Cornwall Ramada Hotel.” on the form (duly noting that no elderly or immune-compromised people living there). The border guard was not satisfied, insisting that I give a street address. Thanks to a Google search we were admitted to Canada.
Then it was across the top of Lake Ontario to our first stop, a chain hotel in Belleville. The narrow Bay of Quinte separates the town from Prince Edward county to the south, a huge island poking down from the Northeast shore of lake Ontario. We guessed it was called called “Prince Edward County” to avoid confusion with the Atlantic Province known as “Prince Edward Island.” Anyway it’s only been an island since 1889, when a canal cut through the narrow strip of land connecting it to to the mainland.
We detoured onto the island to take a walk and explore Sandbanks Provincial Park, a place of sand beaches and dunes. Huge parking lots and tourist infrastructure made it clear that the beaches were crowded in summertime, but in winter we had the place almost to ourselves. A sandy trail led through oak and poplar to a headland. Nothing sheltered this point from the wind howling across Lake Ontario. The waves smashed, noisy, careless, and exuberant into the rock-shelf shore. Somewhere to the south was Rochester, New York, but all we could see was endless whitecaps and those spray from those crashing waves. It was gorgeous.
