My Canada - US Travels |
||
|
Cross Canada
BC - Winnipeg
North West Drive
Washington
BC Interior
Langley Detour
|
Road Trip - Sunshine Coast, British Columbia to Sainte Adele, QuebecReturn JourneySainte Adele to Toronto (655 km)Saturday, January 1After a week or so in Quebec, driving up to the “Toy Town” of Mont Tremblant, down to the vibrant city of Montreal and up to lovely Quebec City, oh yes and seeing parents, it’s time to head back to our Sunshine Coast Retreat. At this point it doesn’t dawn on us, that for a mere 1200 km or so we could be down in Halifax, dipping our toes in The Atlantic – Next time! So we set off New Year’s Day for an uneventful (and boring) highway drive to Toronto, or more accurately, to Markham, just North of Toronto. We spend the night here “fulfilling family obligations”. Toronto to Sault Saint Marie (1350 km)Sunday, January 2Due to a change of plans we decide to go back west through Canada, rather than down to Chicago and across to Minneapolis. Always intended to come back into Alberta, cheap wine of course! We set off north to Sudbury. Once we get to “Cottage Country” – Muskoka / Lake of Bays – the highway is replaced with a single lane of black ice. We see our highest concentration of “Car Road Kill” on this part of our trip. No type of vehicle is immune, including a rolled ford explorer and a couple of big trucks. Since towns are few and far between, we see several signs such as “Come stay at XXX Inn, only 250 km ahead” (some were much more than 250km). Snow plough stations of 3 or 4 ploughs are every 50-100 km or so, as opposed to Vancouver’s one for the city. Must cost a bomb to maintain! I remember reading that every time there’s a big snow dump in Quebec City, it costs the city $1 million to clear up – which in January and February I imagine is probably weekly. Once at Sudbury, we rejoin the road we took earlier (last year!) for Sault Sainte Marie. We try to find some life in Sault again, unfortunately to no avail.
So we just find a Super 8 and pitch camp.
Sault Saint Marie to Thunder BayMonday, January 3North again, now going back around Lake Superior. At least this time the visibility is much better than the drive out east. The “Lake Effect” is taking a break, maybe -20C is too cold for it to work! Even so large parts of the lake at the lands edge still haven’t frozen. What looks like steam rises from the water - eerie. At Wawa we gas up, at least after the TEN snow mobiles in front of us are done. Not many trains today, just lots of trucks. Every 4th one is carrying logs. When we arrive in Thunder Bay we go to the Tourist info centre on the way into town. From here you get a great view of the Bay. With no white out this time, we have a chance to look around town. Thunder Bay is actually an amalgamation of 2 cities, Port Arthur and Fort William. We want to try a B&B, but it’s SO much more expensive than just staying at a perfectly adequate hotel. We have the best steak dinner at
Prospectors Restaurant, and their homemade bread is
great, just what you need to protect you from the weather outside.
Thunder Bay to Winnipeg (Clock starts at 2130km)Tuesday, January 4As usual waking up to the weather network we are overjoyed to see that we intend to go to Winnipeg at only -35 instead of Regina at -40C, and that’s before windchill. It’s all just relative, I suppose. Thunder Bay has the largest concentration of Finns outside Finland, so we go to the finnish area, signs are finnish, people speak finnish in the stores. We go to a recommended finnish breakfast spot. We are disappointed as just thin pancakes, the “Clabbered Milk” was not available. When I ask the finnish waitress what “clabbered” means, she has no idea, other than to say it is similar to yoghurt. We take Highway 17 as before through Ignace, Dryden and Kenora. About 10 minutes out of Thunder bay you pass through the town of Kakabeka falls. We take the “30 second” detour to the Kakabeka Falls provincial park to look at the falls. Quite cool and so easy to get to. Soon after we pass a sign saying “.. Don’t pollute the waterways, streams feed the arctic”. This time around we have stunning weather. The road to Kenora is long, straight-ish, barren, snow covered and -35, with few other cars – basically, don’t break down here! As usual the railway line accompanies us for much of the way. At Ignace with no traffic around (surprise), and no warning, a crack appears right across the windshield. A small chip has been made earlier in the windscreen and with the temperature (and windchill), the windshield obviously decides enough is enough. Between Dryden and Kenora we stop at Egli’s Sheep Farm. They have the most amazing fur clothing / rugs etc and in this climate synthetic fur just ain’t going to cut it. Kenora is the northern point of Lake of the Woods, I’m sure it would be interesting to spend time here in Summer, but not now, keep driving. Once at Winnipeg, we check in again at the
Fort Garry Hotel.
They’re in the process of renovating rooms, ask for one of the renovated ones, there’s a substantial difference.
Day in WinnipegWednesday, January 5First thing we go to a windshield place to check if we could survive to Vancouver without changing it again. The guy said sure, but inquired if our 10 day old windshield was second hand because of all the scratches and dents – no, just the road! So we relax and look around Winnipeg. Unfortunately it’s now - 30C something degrees with a “Breeze”. So most of the day is spent viewing the city from inside the car. The French Quarter has some great architecture (reminded me a bit of Ottawa) so we get out for a brief (under the 10 minute frost bite time limit) walk. It would be interesting to see in Summer, particularly without snow and my eyelids covered with icicles. In BC you don’t realize how spoilt you are, being able to go outside without risk of frostbite, or seeing the tarmac on the road in front of you and not having to permanently test your car suspension on the snow encrusted roads. However there are still some diehards out biking and jogging. It must be hard to breathe even for the locals. We make the obligatory walk to Portage and Main, for the
ten coldest minutes of my life. The corner lives up to its name, now where’s the car? We go into random stores to warm up. The store owners are not surprised, nor do they mind.
“Stay warm out there” seemed to be the Winnipeg mantra spoken by every shopkeeper. In fact everyone is so friendly, they deserve their licence plate - “Friendly Manitoba”.
We go into a store in Osbourne Village – Desart. I ask a simple touristy question and am freely offered great advice for our “day in Winnipeg” with no hidden agenda (also a great store btw).
The hotel staff are incredible. We will be back.
Winnipeg to Quebec Winnipeg to BC
|
|