June 18th, 2008 Pembroke to Wawa, Ontario – 541 miles

1. First View of Lake Superior................................2. Rock Outcroppings in Northern Ontario



3. Turn off to Camp Petawawa................................4. Rolling Forest in Northern Ontario


5. Gene at Sudbury Smokestack and Mine Tailings

We were on the road by 7:00 AM under sunny skies with chilly conditions. As we passed by Camp Petawawa, a major Canadian army base, one could not help but reflect on the announcements of troops killed almost weekly in Afghanistan who were based here. Then we passed through Chalk River, the development center for Canada’s Candu nuclear reactor. One has to assume the major base and a nuclear development program being almost adjacent is no accident. We are no longer in farm country but rather rolling forest. It appears the whole economic focus of the area is the wilderness recreational experience. We are traveling parallel to the upper reaches of the Ottawa River where steam boats were used for transportation.

Just before we reached North Bay, on the north shore of Lake Nipissing, it started raining. When we reached Sudbury, the land had rock outcrops everywhere with minimal overburden and small scrub growth. The extensive tailings reveal the huge amount of ore removed here over the years while the stack for the smelter is incredibly high (in part to disburse pollutants over a greater area in lower concentrations!

I had driven down this route when I was young and for a family vacation we drove from the East Coast to Winnipeg where my grandparents lived. I remember so many of the place names; Sturgeon Falls, Mattawa, Deep River etc. That family auto vacation while camping has largely disappeared with the convenience/ cost of air travel and the rising prices of gas. It is interest to reflect back that Alexander Graham Bell, who was the founder of National Geographic, had the first well publicized automobile/ camping trip to Yellowstone Park with a group of friends including Henry Ford (they also brought along maids and butlers!)

North of Sault Saint Marie we glimpsed our first view of Lake Superior and it extends off to the horizon, as if it is an ocean, but it is the largest lake in the world! As we drove up to Wawa, the temperature dipped to 9C, and with the biting wind and overcast skies it was reminiscent of an Eastern Canada day in early November.