Canada Road Trip: Ross Lake ON to Hearst ON

Day 3, 254 miles

Dear Friend,

Sleeping in the Bronco was just so great! I was warm and comfy and my camp spot couldn’t have been better. I fell asleep to the sound of peepers and awoke to a pair of ducks. The male was white with a black head/yellow beak and the female was also white with brownish head and wing spots. I haven’t been able to identify them yet. It’s early in the migration season and snow just melted here not too long ago. Anyway, it was lovely.

The inside of the Bronco before I opened the doors. It looks tight but i’m able to sit all the way up and access the shelves on the left.

Pocket stove coffee set up, works like a dream.

I made coffee in the back of the Bronco, it was 49ºF and drizzling ever so slightly. So I didn’t delay my departure. I pulled and onto the trans canada at about 7:30am. Bye cute ducks.

I had a rough idea that I wanted to make to Hearst today, without any real reason why, other than it was about 4.5 hours away. I’m determined to not rush myself, it’s hard though. This landscape is pretty unforgiving, it’s frontier-like, not much to see off the main road. It’s been interesting looking up the history of this area though.

The northerly trans canada hwy is on the Canadian shield the whole way, so lots of wide open flat spaces, boggy areas with stunted conifers and tamarack stands. The railway intersects the highway at regular intervals, I have yet to see an actual train but I know it’s used, likely to carry the massive logging and mining output. My father worked for the Trans Canada railroad when he landed in Canada (from Germany) in 1952, he told stories from the train construction days, hard hard work on a crew that stayed with the tracks as they were built.

One of many train crossings along the trans canada high way near Kirkland Lake, ON

This is what holds the tracks to the ground, every single brace had a spike missing, they were laying on the ground all over the place. I almost took one, I had to wonder, did my father help lay these?

First town I came to was Larder Lake, a town, like many others on this stretch, languishing in the aftermath of the goldrush in the early 1900’s. In 1911 the first wave of prospectors arrived by the thousands and were disappointed to discover only $314 worth of gold, which I learned was used to mind Canada’s first $5 gold coins. In 1936 a large deposit was discovered that lead to several mines being built, 13 million ounces of gold was pulled out of the ground in this area. 745 people now live in Larder Lake, occupying roughly two thirds of the dwellings. Every house seemed to have an ice fishing house parked in the yard.

Larder Lake, Ontario

This ice fishing house might be nicer than my cottage

My entire route today was along this network of mining towns. The majority of the vehicles on the road were 18 wheelers, it’s a heavily used shipping route. The gas is the cheapest that I’ve seen yet. $1.32/liter. I’ve been trying hard to find interesting things to stop and see, the scale of the mining and logging operations up here are just mind boggling but today all the towns appear to have a declining population, the gold boom in Kirkland Lake brought 26,000 people, today there’s only 7,000. I went for a lovely walk around a pond behind Tim Hortons though and met a boisterous red-winged black bird and a pair of pigeons having a great day.

Behold the glorious Tim Horton’s honey dip.

Pecking around, finding good stuff apparently. Coo.

Then on to quick stop in Smooth Rock Falls, I almost didn’t turn off the road here because it was so small and forlorn looking, but I’m really glad I did. Right there at the corner of Hollywood Ave and 4th was a steam engine from 1915. It’s impressive as you’d imagine. The photo of some men from 1958 allowed me to see into a possible past when my dad was working his way across Canada at the age of 25.

A steam locomotive built by the Montreal Locomotive works in 1915.

Pretty and impressive

A photo from 1958 at the commemorative site, the putt putt was still covered in a tarp to protect it from the winter elements I assume.

I made it to Hearst around 5:30, where I grabbed a hotel because worrying about where to park the Bronco that was both private and quiet was seeming like a challenge. I also received some worrying test results from the vet about my beloved Reuben so worrying in a hotel room where I could make some calls and research Glomerulonephritis was the right thing to do.

As I’m sitting here in bed, at a Super 8, I can hear the giant log trolley running at the Trebec lumber mill. A giant yellow crane/trolley with a grappling hook the size of my cottage is moving back and forth among the 1/4 mile stacks of logs. The little glass box hanging on the underside holds the operators, I can see three people in there, it’s at least 6 stories high. The scale, I can’t get over it.

That little glass box on the underside of the upper track has at least two operators in it. It rolls back and forth among those MASSIVE stacks of logs. There’s a train in the foreground, it’s still really far away from those logs. That yellow trolley is at least 6 stories high. The amount of logs that grappling hook is holding is probably enough lumber to build three houses? The size of the operators box will give you an idea how long those logs are.

Canadian Tire Garden Centre for scale on those log rows. The red in front of the logs is a train pretty far in the foreground. Hearst, ON

Nearly everyone in Hearst speaks French and the population is very diverse. An interesting place for sure. It was windy so the dust was kicking up all over the place on the main drag.

It’s been a day, I do love taking photos of decay, so the abandoned spaces around here draw me right in with my camera. Still haven’t done any water color painting, maybe tomorrow as I make my way down near Thunder Bay.

See you tomorrow!

Deb

Lots of abandoned restaurants. This one is in Smooth Rock Falls, ON

Abandoned church, I’ve become very good at rolling my window down and snapping photos with my Fuji XE—3.

It was difficult to not step over that sign and go explore that place.

Still snow in places here. I’m sure it’s more beautiful when the trees have leaves.