09-JUN-2007
Before we left Ottawa - Bolton & Dalhousie
09-JUN-2007
We are both alumni of Massey College in Toronto. We had to stop for a photo here.
09-JUN-2007
The first campsite. Spragge KOA, just East of Sault Ste-Marie
10-JUN-2007
Locks at the Sault Ste-Marie canal.
10-JUN-2007
Board explaining how the emergency dam works. Fantastic.
10-JUN-2007
Batchawana Bay Provincial Park - Lunch.
10-JUN-2007
Water wending it's way to Lake Superior
10-JUN-2007
Eastern shore of Lake Superior
10-JUN-2007
If you go to Wawa, you have to take a photo with (one of the many) geese.
10-JUN-2007
Northern shore of Lake Superior
10-JUN-2007
The top of Rainbow Falls - this is a Provincial Park, with a swimming beach a little out of frame to the right, which is why there is a floatline above the top of the falls.
10-JUN-2007
Rainbow Falls, further down. There's a very nice pathway down beside the falls.
10-JUN-2007
Richard experimented with camera settings on the waterfalls.
10-JUN-2007
Janet was not happy with the bugs.
10-JUN-2007
Frankly, Richard wasn't either.
10-JUN-2007
The foot of Rainbow Falls - Rainbow Falls is a series of short waterfalls.
10-JUN-2007
More experimentation with long exposure times and rushing water.
11-JUN-2007
North shore of Lake Superior; this is a rest-stop just West of Rainbow Falls Provincial Park.
11-JUN-2007
Janet and I in silhouette.
11-JUN-2007
Ridiculously, we saw the turn-off for this rest-stop/scenic outlook, and decided to give it a miss. We then went down a very long hill to the roadway you see in the distance, and decided it might be worth looking at. We didn't do many U-turns on this trip, but this was one of them (very carefully executed -- in fact we stopped in a rest area and turned back up the hill) and the view was worth it. Thunder Bay was just - just - visible in the distance from the top of this hill. But there were many bugs.
11-JUN-2007
Janet is smiling in this photo because the bugs hadn't found us yet.
11-JUN-2007
Repairs outside of Nipigon. One headlight was gone, so we took the canoe off the top, opened the bonnet, replaced the bulb (a spare was provided) and put the canoe back on top. We also had breakfast here - this is the parking lot of a Husky, where we ate in the restaurant. We did drive through Nipigon itself, but there wasn't much open at this time in the morning.
11-JUN-2007
Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park. Very much worth a 14km detour off the Trans-Canada to visit.
11-JUN-2007
It doesn't appear in any of these photos, but the amazing thing about Ouimet (and a few other canyons near it) is that the altitude differential moves you from one climactic/vegetation zone to another: the top of the canyon is boreal forest, the bottom is sub-arctic tundra, with isolated species growing there which won't be seen anywhere closer than 1000km North, on the shores of Hudson Bay. You're not allowed to go down to the bottom of the canyon since such vegetation is rather fragile, but it's fascinating to consider, and the canyon itself is very impressive.
11-JUN-2007
The first of several flower photos. Occasionally, you have to stop, smell the flowers, and experiment with the macro setting on your digital camera.
11-JUN-2007
Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park, just West of Thunder Bay. There is a portage around these.
11-JUN-2007
Another shot of Kakabeka Falls. Note that the flow is being moderated by dams upstream, to a small fraction of what you would normally get during spring run-off. (We weren't there during spring run-off, but photos indicated just how impressive it has been when the dams have let more water over the falls.) Wolseley used Voyageur guides to help get troops past these to fight in the North-West Rebellion. (The more southerly, and rather easier route, was neglectfully negotiated away to the USA in the late 18th century.) Having seen what they did with this (miserable, painful, long) portage, he would then call for them when trying to get the British expeditionary force to Khartoum to save Gordon.
11-JUN-2007
Looking downstream from the beside the falls. Most descriptions of the portage would likely involve expletives.
12-JUN-2007
This jumps ahead a bit. We're now in Manitoba, and already west of Winnipeg. We took what was indicated as the "MOM route", and it took a long time to determine that this is because it goes from Manitoba through Ontario to Minnesota. It's scenic, and offers the opportunity to drive through Lake of the Woods. West of Winnipeg, the weather deteriorated.
12-JUN-2007
Very impressive, but also somewhat ominous.
12-JUN-2007
CBC had just announced that one of the wonders of Canada was "Prairie Skies". We spent quite a bit of time discussing this idea. And appreciating the skies.
12-JUN-2007
When we could see them. We'd stopped at this point. Hail is different from rain. It bounces. But you can't see much through either.
13-JUN-2007
A beaver lodge along the way.
13-JUN-2007
Wetlands in Riding Mountain National Park. Visit RMNP. It's lovely.
13-JUN-2007
Prairie skies, and fescue grasslands. Fescue grasslands are maintained by sandy soils, regular forest fires (which prevent forestation displacing the grass) and ...
13-JUN-2007
If you drive through the bison enclosure (which is much bigger than you might expect it to be) there is a trailhead for a few of the longer hiking trails in the park. We had been warned off the shorter hiking trails because of an aggressive bear. We then found this on the path we were walking along.
13-JUN-2007
And then we met the mother bear (just to the left of the large dead tree in the centre) and two cubs (wandering along the pathway in the right of the image). We saw the cubs first; it was in fact a comfort to know where the mother was, and that we weren't between her and her cubs.
13-JUN-2007
Driving out from the trailhead, we saw more bison. We also, roughly around this point, found that we were covered in ticks from our walk, and still well within the bison enclosure (where you're not supposed to leave your car). It was an unpleasant time. Luckily, no Lyme disease in RMNP.
13-JUN-2007
The first night in RMNP we had stayed in a lodge because it was tipping down with rain. The second night we camped. Here's Janet putting up our tent. Luckily, the campground was a very short walk from the townsite, where we had already found a nice pizza place with Fort Garry ale on tap.
13-JUN-2007
Riding Mountain National Park curls around Wasagaming, a resort village on the shores of Clear Lake. There are lots of very pretty resort-like buildings, and (strangely enough) two old gas stations which appear to have been preserved in amber. Here's the first.
13-JUN-2007
Here's the second. (This one is actually still operational.)
14-JUN-2007
From Wasagaming we drove North out of the park then West to Inglis, where a row of several Standard Plan grain elevators remain at the end of an abandoned CP spur.
14-JUN-2007
The elevators are a National Historic Site.
14-JUN-2007
It was rainy and drizzly and grey, and since the visitor centre wasn't going to be open until July, all we could really do was wander around and read the plaques.
14-JUN-2007
And take photos. They're massively impressive devices, and interesting to really wander around them a bit, since they're scattered across the prairies in ones and twos.
14-JUN-2007
There are also some quite faded warning signs. This one is about not smoking near the grain elevator.
14-JUN-2007
A bit further along, we saw more modern elevators, which make an interesting contrast.
14-JUN-2007
From Inglis we continued west to the Quill Lakes region in Saskatchewan, where there was fantastic birding. And some fairly gloomy skies.
14-JUN-2007
It drizzled. We birdwatched from the car, which kept us dry and the bugs out. (There were many bugs.)
14-JUN-2007
This photo was taken shortly before the main part of the storm arrived where we were. The abandoned house is to the west of the Quill Lakes, North of Wynard, SK.
14-JUN-2007
The birding at the Quill Lakes was fantastic - at least a dozen birds we'd never seen before, many we'd never identified, several we still aren't quite sure about. Lacking a painfully large telephoto lens, however, we don't have many good photos of the birds.
14-JUN-2007
But the skies could be quite fantastic.
15-JUN-2007
This is the Foam Lake elevator. We camped in Foam Lake (at the East end of the Quill Lakes region) and did a little birdwatching before continuing on to Alberta.
15-JUN-2007
West of Saskatoon, the highway follows the river. We stopped here, near where the first Doukhobour settlements in Canada were founded.
16-JUN-2007
A day later, after doing laundry in Edmonton, we were in Slave Lake, at the East end of Lesser Slave Lake. The lake is beautiful, with massive sandy beaches.
16-JUN-2007
We prepared dinner in a Provincial Park north of Slave Lake.
17-JUN-2007
The next day we stopped to visit the Kimiwan wetlands boardwalk, just west of Lesser Slave Lake.
17-JUN-2007
It was a sunny day - in this photo Janet managed to keep her eyes open.
17-JUN-2007
Peace River uses a disused railway station as a tourist information centre. Since it was still June, it wasn't open.
17-JUN-2007
But the rail line is still in use. This train took a very long time to make it up the grade out of Peace River.
17-JUN-2007
Hay River is an odd place. We don't have any photos of the strips of motels along the highway. Some distance out of town, however, is a big beehive stack, which is emitting the plume of smoke you see on the horizon. We had a very good meal in Hay River at Executive House Restaurant.
18-JUN-2007
The highway North to the border had been shut the previous week due to smoke from forest fires obscuring the road. Driving North we saw ongoing efforts to douse smaller fires.
18-JUN-2007
Finally we reached the 60th parallel, nine days after leaving Ottawa.
18-JUN-2007
This truck was carrying prefab cabins on the highway. We later passed it on the road. Later still, we saw these same cabins on sale at the Wal-Mart in Yellowknife.
18-JUN-2007
Alexandra Falls on the Hay River.
18-JUN-2007
A couple of kilometres downstream of Alexandra Falls are the Louise Falls. A beautiful combination of wooden steps and a spiral staircase let you get closer to the water.
18-JUN-2007
The spiral staircase at Louise Falls is really quite impressive.
18-JUN-2007
Every so often, you want to take photos of trees, even after driving past so many of them.
18-JUN-2007
Hay River - the town - is at the mouth of the Hay River where it flows into Great Slave Lake. It's the end of the rail line, where everything that's shipped by barge to the Mackenzie (Dehcho) river system is transferred. There are long sandy beaches (with cold, cold water). This photo looks down the beach, past the NTCL docks, across the East Arm of the Hay River to the old settlement, which remains a Dene community and became NWT's first (and only) reserve in the 1970s.
18-JUN-2007
Hay River has a very naval feel to it, with a massive syncrolift facility permitting "drydock" work and the removal of vessels from the lake before freeze-up.
18-JUN-2007
A few abandoned shells of boats rested some distance from the water.
19-JUN-2007
Fort Resolution; we drove out to visit. We bought a coffee, but turned down the offer of shepherd's pie. Driving back to Hay River we stopped to cook ourselves lunch, and I broke our stove. We are now resolved to buy and enjoy shepherd's pie when it is offered.
19-JUN-2007
The old Hay River churches. This was the Catholic church.
19-JUN-2007
Some of NTCL's vessels in front of their main dock facility in Hay River.
19-JUN-2007
A shelter in old Hay River.
19-JUN-2007
The small Anglican mission church.
19-JUN-2007
More shots of St Peter's.
19-JUN-2007
McNally Creek. Named for the foreman leading the road crew who built the highway nearby. He almost went over these falls; his canoe did, and thus his name was attached to the creek in perpetuity.
19-JUN-2007
A self-avoiding walk on a two-dimensional surface - something is eating its way through these leaves. The patterns are fascinating.
19-JUN-2007
Lady Evelyn Falls, just North of Kakisa. We camped at the Territorial Park here.
20-JUN-2007
The travellers - note that we've gone North and started wearing toques again.
20-JUN-2007
This is the Mackenzie near Fort Providence.
20-JUN-2007
And the little ferry which goes back and forth every 20minutes from 6am until midnight. On our crossing there were three cars, a motorbike, and a transport truck.
20-JUN-2007
The Roman Catholic church in Fort Providence.
20-JUN-2007
Our new stove (see the notes on Fort Resolution, earlier). This is the smile of a man who is making a four-cheese risotto on a camp stove which can simmer. It was quite good.
20-JUN-2007
Just off the ferry, we saw a small herd of bison. We didn't stop, we didn't take photos. We then drove for another 100km through a bison sanctuary wondering if we would see any more of if we'd missed our one chance. We saw more bison. These were enjoying the nice day by the side of the road.
20-JUN-2007
This male has made himself a nice little patch of dirt to rest in. (See comments about fescue grass from the visit to Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba.)
20-JUN-2007
The ground is sandy here. Every so often, one would start to give itself a dirt/dust bath. Bison behavior is very similar to ... cats. From certain points of view.
20-JUN-2007
These two were tussling gently.
20-JUN-2007
Occasionally, you wish you could catch the noise which is made as a photo is being taken.
20-JUN-2007
The North shore of Great Slave Lake, before Edzo/Rae.
21-JUN-2007
Eventually, after 5000km of travel, you find yourself in something which bears a striking resemblance to Sudbury. Rocks and trees. With lakes.
21-JUN-2007
Of course, trees don't just happen. First you need smaller things to break things up a bit. They're pretty, too.
21-JUN-2007
And then you can progress to flowering plants.
21-JUN-2007
And then a vaguely boggy muskeg landscape, into which tourists will venture on a not-entirely-well-marked hiking trail of geological interest, with a tripod and a camera with a timer. This photo was taken before we failed to divine the sharp left turn after post 21 and did an extra 1.5km over "land".
22-JUN-2007
Painting in the Caucus Room of the North West Territories Legislative Assembly ("the Ledge" in local parlance).
22-JUN-2007
Speaker's chair in the Chamber of the NWT Legislature.