Cross Canada Adventure, Day 1 (Bolton to Sault Ste. Marie)
Brad's 4500km trek begins!
It was a bit hard leaving this morning. Not only
had I been up until 0500 getting ready (and installing a new WiFi access point
and print server for my parents before I left), but everybody came down to say
their last good-byes. Other than a 4-month stint living in Quebec when I was in
the Canadian Forces, I have always lived in southern Ontario. My leaving was
particularly hard on my Mom.
By noon everyone was gone, and I made my leave.
It was a warm and sunny day as I left, and cruising up Highway 50 in Bolton it felt like the buildings had come out to send me off via a victory parade. Of course, those buildings have been there longer than I have lived in Bolton (just over a year), but it felt like the community centre, aggregate and trucking company, and the gas station all came out to say good-bye and wish me well. It was just that sort of weather.
Most of the trip out of southern Ontario is actually somewhat boring. A good deal of it is spent on highway 400 -- a big multi-lane freeway in the south, narrowing down in the north toward Sudbury. I only made two stops along the way: one for gas (I wanted the tank filled so I could start collecting some fuel usage statistics), and once at the French River, which was an important route west (and eventually back east) in the fur trade back in the 1700s.
There isn't a whole lot of interest to say about this area beyond its history and a photo. I took a bit of a walk, did away with some digestive by-products, and got back on the road.
I made it into Sudbury in around dinner hour, so I stopped at the Swiss Chalet for a bite to eat. Sudbury is famed for it's nickel mining industry, and back in the 50's the Canadian Mint celebrated Sudbury's nickel history with a special nickel (5 cent) coin. Sudbury, in turn, built a giant 30m copy of this nickel, and put it up on a big hill for everyone to see.
So beyond nickel (the metal), Sudbury is also known for "The Big Nickel". I'd been through Sudbury once before on a trek up to Thunder Bay, but never saw the big nickel, so decided to take a detour to see it. I'll save you the trouble; you can see it here:
Now the big nickel is part of a complex known as "The Dynamic Earth", which allows you to travel down a mine shaft, and which provides an educational tour of the earths crust and its minerals. This would have been really interesting to see, but it was closed by the time I got there. Besides which, I didn't really have the time to stop, other than to see the "Big Nickel".
(As you'll learn through this travel blog, many more northern Canadian towns try to attract tourist dollars by being known for having the "biggest" something. This was parodied several years ago in a short film called "The Big Pickle", where a fictional town erects a giant pickle, only to attract gambling, prostitution, and many of the other ills some people associate with becoming a "tourist attraction").
Back on the road and several hours later I made it into the city of Sault Ste. Marie. As it was now past 2100, I decided to get a room at a hotel near the border crossing with the US and crash. And blog. I've got to blog.
Tomorrow's trek: Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay.
By noon everyone was gone, and I made my leave.
It was a warm and sunny day as I left, and cruising up Highway 50 in Bolton it felt like the buildings had come out to send me off via a victory parade. Of course, those buildings have been there longer than I have lived in Bolton (just over a year), but it felt like the community centre, aggregate and trucking company, and the gas station all came out to say good-bye and wish me well. It was just that sort of weather.
Most of the trip out of southern Ontario is actually somewhat boring. A good deal of it is spent on highway 400 -- a big multi-lane freeway in the south, narrowing down in the north toward Sudbury. I only made two stops along the way: one for gas (I wanted the tank filled so I could start collecting some fuel usage statistics), and once at the French River, which was an important route west (and eventually back east) in the fur trade back in the 1700s.
There isn't a whole lot of interest to say about this area beyond its history and a photo. I took a bit of a walk, did away with some digestive by-products, and got back on the road.
I made it into Sudbury in around dinner hour, so I stopped at the Swiss Chalet for a bite to eat. Sudbury is famed for it's nickel mining industry, and back in the 50's the Canadian Mint celebrated Sudbury's nickel history with a special nickel (5 cent) coin. Sudbury, in turn, built a giant 30m copy of this nickel, and put it up on a big hill for everyone to see.
So beyond nickel (the metal), Sudbury is also known for "The Big Nickel". I'd been through Sudbury once before on a trek up to Thunder Bay, but never saw the big nickel, so decided to take a detour to see it. I'll save you the trouble; you can see it here:
Now the big nickel is part of a complex known as "The Dynamic Earth", which allows you to travel down a mine shaft, and which provides an educational tour of the earths crust and its minerals. This would have been really interesting to see, but it was closed by the time I got there. Besides which, I didn't really have the time to stop, other than to see the "Big Nickel".
(As you'll learn through this travel blog, many more northern Canadian towns try to attract tourist dollars by being known for having the "biggest" something. This was parodied several years ago in a short film called "The Big Pickle", where a fictional town erects a giant pickle, only to attract gambling, prostitution, and many of the other ills some people associate with becoming a "tourist attraction").
Back on the road and several hours later I made it into the city of Sault Ste. Marie. As it was now past 2100, I decided to get a room at a hotel near the border crossing with the US and crash. And blog. I've got to blog.
Tomorrow's trek: Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay.
Posted: Thursday - August 25, 2005 at 02:16 PM
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Published On: Aug 30, 2007 08:14 PM
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Published On: Aug 30, 2007 08:14 PM