Loving Life Outside in Northern Ontario

I’ve always been partial to life lived outdoors. This is likely due to two things: 1) fond childhood memories of summers camping with family,  and 2) a claustrophobic’s love of unrestricted space and egress. Three- and- one-half weeks in the outback of Ontario suited me well, therefore. With one exception.  I think you know what that might be.

Cycling Northern Ontario

Within hours of leaving Winnipeg we were back to forests and lakelands that reminded us of B.C., minus the mountain vistas. Northwestern Ontario is all about wilderness and family run lodges and urban resistance. We love it, and discover that stereotypes you have long subscribed to about long-hauling through Ontario are completely shattered when you bike the province. I never grew tired of:

1) roads that had to bend round shelves of rock and placid pools of water, rather than those on the prairies that never hid the vanishing point on the horizon.

2) the perfectly positioned picnic and overnight stops – always on the shoreline of one of those placid pools of water.

3) the ever-present possibility that companions at your roadside lake stops may be a pair of loons or a moose, or a black fox.

4) the gentler wind, one that would invariably be at my back.

5) the sociability and kindness of the people. From Nipigon to Wawa to Vankleek Hill, from libraries to campgrounds, visitor centres to newspaper offices, cafes to farmers markets, people reached out to us. My sister`s story elicited their own and the hardship and heartbreak they have endured never diminished their capacity to help others. Perhaps not surprisingly it was Thunder Bay, the town that knows the cruelty of cancer the best (where Terry Fox lost his battle with it on his Marathon of Hope), where we felt embraced the most.

Scourge of Northern Ontario

Being June, we had chosen a good time the travel the country. Temperatures are still cool and roads and campgrounds are still largely free of summer traffic and vacationers. Indeed, with the late arrival of spring in the East, we get to experience one growing season colliding with another. Lilacs in bloom while the first crop of hay is being cut. More precipitation than normal has led to flooding in regions and perfect breeding conditions for…..bugs. They didn’t find us until 70 kms north of Thunder Bay, but remained our constant companions until Ottawa. At their worst, when not donning personal mosquito ‘shrouds’, we simply barricaded ourselves in the van. Give me wind, rain, 18-wheelers hugging my side on near shoulderless road – there is nothing that has me fleeing faster from life outside than an invasion of winged insects.

Cities of Norhern Ontario

Luckily, some sightseeing opportunities give us refuge from the scourge . Like a visit to the reconstructed Fort William, of Northwest Fur Trading Company fame. Here, life as a voyageur and coureur de bois is on display and we learn about the status of each trap animal (sliver-tipped fox the most valued) and the enormous quantity of fur that was packaged, freighted and traded by each voyageur. While fort life was clearly austere, dark and cold, fine china and silver cutlery adorned the tables in the great halls of the gentry and company owners.

The Canadian Bush Plane Museum in Sault St. Marie brought us into the next century of life in the north, with excellent exhibits of the small prop planes (many of which you could board) and their intrepid flyers. Their use for fire suppression was highlighted by film presentations – Ontario having the largest fire-fighting fleet in the world.

Major cities such as Thunder Bay, Sault St. Marie, and Sudbury (which I couldn’t cycle through fast enough!) all have their

attractions, but merely cycling into a small city was always a welcome change of scene after days

cycling through Ontario’s vast forest lands. In contrast to most cities in the West, where old buildings have succombed to the mania to modernize (think Trail in B.C.), cities in Ontario have held on to their heritage. Main streets usher you through a corridor of 3-story red brick buildings, with signs and awnings and iron doors unapologetically antique. Not surprising, either, for a town to sport a couple of sewing/fabric shops, music stores, or mens-wear shops – again somehow nostalgic of another era to a westerner.

The Grandest City of Them All

History and heritage (not to mention national pride!) reaches its apex, of course, in Ottawa. Every capital city in the world jostles to win the title of ‘best capital city ever’, and Ottawa unequivocally won our vote. Views

brim with turretted, copper-roofed buildings, parks, boulevards, sculptures and memorials. The pedestrian-friendly streets teem with markets, cafe patios and buskers – summer is a banner event in Canada. Taking all in on a national birthday, where the grandness scored with the humanity that is uniquely Canadian made your heart stop. RCMP officers posing for photographs with tourists, motorcycle police positioning children on their bikes for photos, non-violent protests of the Algonquin people in front of Parliament Hill (on whose territory the capital stands) volunteers manning water stations where glasses and bottles are filled for free, museums waiving admission prices for the day, and a thousand different ethnicities waving the Canadian flag.

Being Canadian, and riding for Ovarian Cancer Canada has been at the heart of this trip. How thrilling it has been for us to do that in true voyageur fashion – outside, in all kinds of inclement weather and conditions, and in great anticipation of the party down river a ways. One so grand that bug spray is not required.