The True North (of Ontario)

As some of you know, I lived and taught school for over 30 years in Elliot Lake, Ontario, a small former mining city set amidst the forests, lakes, and rocks of the Canadian Shield.  You can't stay in one place that long without making a lot of friends, and you can't move away after that long without wanting to go back and visit them again!  So that's what I was doing this week.


It's a long road from Woodstock to Elliot Lake, and even longer as I get older and can no longer keep going for four or five or six hours without getting out for a stretch and a break.  But in the entire trip, there is one moment that matters more than any other.


About 45 minutes north of Barrie, the highway to Sudbury (and Elliot Lake) crosses the mouths of the Severn River on a chain of several bridges.  Right in that same spot, there appear beside the road the first unmistakable outcroppings of the Canadian Shield's ancient granite, older than the hills, almost as old as the earth itself, still rugged, still sharp-edged and stained orange with the minerals that leach out in the rain. 


I can never cross those bridges without having the same sensation, a huge lift in my heart and spirits.  The very sight of those rocks seems to say to me, "You're home, Ken!  Welcome back to the north!"


I know, it sounds kind of silly.  But to me it's very, very real all the same.  I don't think anyone ever leaves Northern Ontario to live in the south without leaving a sizable piece of their heart behind them.  Yes, it's true, the landscape of the north really is that beautiful, and wild, and untamed.  And it's never more so than during the season of the fall colours.


Trust me, there are no fall colours anywhere like those in the district of Algoma.  Why exactly this is so, I can't say.  But the region from Elliot Lake to Sault Ste. Marie and then north along the shore of Lake Superior has a rainbow of blazing colours such as you will never see anywhere else (certainly, nowhere else that I have ever been!).  The peak colours through the area are usually seen in the first week of October.

One of the biggest tourist attractions in Algoma is the Agawa Canyon Tour Train which runs daily out of Sault Ste. Marie throughout the summer and fall seasons.  It's an 8.5-hour trip north through the wilderness to the Canyon.  Most of the way, the rails run very far from the major highway which sticks closer to the shore of Lake Superior.  The train includes dining car(s) which serve breakfast and lunch, as well as selling pre-packed box lunches.  At the bottom of the Canyon the train stops for 2 hours in a parkland setting alongside the rushing Agawa River.  You can eat there, walk up the stairs to the lookout point on the Canyon wall, hike along the trail beside the river down to the falls which cascade down the sides of the Canyon.  I always prefer to eat on the train after starting back to the Soo. 

There's no more striking way to see the colours than from the Tour Train, but you have to book very early indeed to get seats during the colour season.  Otherwise, you can usually get tickets for most trips on just a few days notice.  Plan on two overnight stays in the Soo to keep it simple -- there are several excellent hotels within walking distance of the station (the Quality Hotel and Holiday Inn Express are my favourites).

But don't take my word for it.  Go, and see for yourself why I love this country so much!