Northwestern Ontario
2011/08/20
Drove from Dryden to thunder Bay today. If you look up the distance it doesn’t seem like much, but the speed limit in northern Ontario is 90 km/h and this stretch is rather monotonous, so it felt longer than the roughly 4.5 hours of driving it actually was. I was a bit tired by the time I arrived, and glad I was able to get a room at the first place I checked.
My cell phone hasn’t been working since I entered Ontario, and I finally figured out why – I’m outside Virgin’s coverage area, and probably won’t be back inside until Sault Ste Marie or Sudbury.
I do rather like the landscape in this region – especially around Kenora. It has lots of trees, both evergreen and coniferous, rocky outcroppings and small lakes with rocky islands in them. Somewhat stark areas too, with scrawny and half-drowned trees.
Also lots of areas that look like meadows but are actually bogs – lakes being filled in by decaying biomass.
I realized today why I like this area – it’s a lot like B.C., except without the mountains. None of the scenery here would look out of place in the rockies.
Just before getting to Thunder Bay, I stopped to rephotograph Kakabeka Falls. Don’t worry, my father already took care of the obvious jokes about the name.
From a late 1980s trip, late in a winter afternoon:
Today:
I was also going to rephotograph the crappy motel we ended up staying in 1992 when we were moving from Toronto back to the farm:
But there was some kind of festival going on today and the area was crammed with people.
I have to admit that since Brandon I’ve been feeling a bit road-weary. I love driving but not this much. But, starting tomorrow I’ll be seeing the Great Lakes again, and that’s exciting, and in about three days I’ll be in Toronto and hopefully able to take public transit for most things for a few days, and have a bit of a rest.
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