The Agawa Canyon Train Ride.

Its now Wednesday afternoon, we took our train ride on Monday, sorry for the delay in posting.  We left Sault Ste. Marie on Tuesday morning and traveled to Serpent River Campground 180 kilometres east, we stayed here last year on our way west, it has a really good book swop, managed to swop 6 books which should keep us going for a few days. The wifi in contrast was rubbish, took me over two hours to upload the photos, then switched me off, then sent me a message asking for an extra $50. I just managed to stop myself from throwing the computer out the window, the rest of the evening was spent cursing Bell.                                                                                  

The locomotive used to pull the train to Agawa Canyon, from all accounts its +50 years old

Laving the Soo, the Trans Canada below us and Lake Superior on the horizon.

                                                                               

One of the many lakes we went round.

These happy trail riders waiting at a crossing for the train to pass.

The train cars  are fitted out with flat screen tv's showing the drivers view of the track.

This is The Montreal River Hydro Electricity plant, and below looking through the opposite side window, the dam and the curved railway trestle we have just crossed over. 

                                                                                     

Entering the Agawa Canyon.  Montreal River is at mile 92 on the line, 10 miles further on we start the decent into the canyon, from mile 102 to mile 114 the line drops 500ft. 152.4 metres a gradient of 1.1% which is quite steep in railway terms.

At rest in the canyon.  We had 1.5 hours to wander around taking photos here.

The Agawa River.

Beaver Tail Falls South and below Beaver Tail North.

Another view of the Agawa River.

On our way back to the Soo, sorry don't know the name of this lake, or the name of the one below, there are so many lakes in Ontario.  The land of rock, trees and water.

                                                                                     

Avery good day out,  7:30am at the railway station back at the Soo just after 5:30pm made for a long day but worth it. Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, looking through glass and a rock & rolling train.

                                                                               

St. Mary's River Boardwalk, Sault Ste. Marie.

A trip downtown today to the railway station to get a couple of tickets for the train ride tomorrow to Agawa Canyon, whilst there we went for a stroll along the riverside boardwalk lots to see, with information signs explaining all the sights. A big ship going through the locks and under The International Bridge, the part of the bridge you see below is the bit spanning the locks on the American side.

 

This is a Polish ocean going ship on its way into Lake Superior, I wonder what it will be taking back across the Atlantic- grain or iron ore?

This photo shows the Canadian Lock, this is only used for pleasure craft now, all the commercial traffic goes through the American Locks. The span on the bridge is going over the Canadian Lock.

The Edison Turbo Electric Power Building.

This old Laker boat on the American side, I wonder if its being renovated.

Bear family having a day out, look at the size of the fish Daddy Bear has caught.

One of the boats that take you for a sail through the locks and down the river.

The Algoma Discovery, I think this goes up and down the Great Lakes, don't think its ocean going.

Tomorrow we go on The Algoma Central Railway to Agawa Canyon, that should be a really fun day out.

Driving along the North Shore of Lake Superior

 Driving the north shore of Lake Superior is classed as one of the great drives in the world, we have done a few of these drives on our travels some are a bit of a let down, and not as good as they make them out to be.  This drive is not a let down, its a superb drive, the only problem is The Lake Superior weather which can be a bit changeable. This is our second time, the first we drove through fog, winds and driving rain and didn't see a thing.  Hopefully this time we will hit it lucky.  The photo above was taken from The Terry Fox Memorial looking out over Thunder Bay with all the ships waiting to be loaded.

Nipigon Bay about 110 kilometres from Thunder Bay, the Trans-Canada has just turned in an eastwards direction.

 Red Rock in this part of the world.

Looking south, I think the thin sliver of land is Wilson Island.

Lovely wild flowers.  We are now in Marathon which is about 250 kilometres from Thunder Bay.   Stopped here for the night. 

Lots of wild flowers in a meadow by the ski lift at Marathon. 

The beach at Lake Wawa,  spent the second night here.   A drilling rig below used to find iron ore here in the thirties

Todays trip about About 210 kilometres

What a difference a day makes, the notorious Lake Superior weather strikes again.

After about 30 minuets we had to pull of the road and sit this out.

 Back on the road, rain eased off for a while, now driving through pinky/white rocks.

We had to pull off one more time, drove 220 kilometres today, took us just over 4 hours, which considering the conditions wasn't so bad.

A great drive pity the weather let us down for the last section.

The Terry Fox Memorial

I first wrote about this remarkable young man last year, 4th. November when we were in Victoria. There is a small statue of him at mile zero of the Trans Canada Highway. That was where he planned to finish his epic Marathon For Hope.

This memorial is just off the Trans Canada Highway east of Thunder Bay,  close by the spot where he had to give up his run, due to the cancer returning.   He started the run in St. Johns Newfoundland,  143days and 5,373 kilometres later it ended here.  To date the organization he left behind has raised over $600 million world wide.

Fort William Historic Park.

                                                Fort William a North West Trading Company Fort.
                                                                                            

Our visit today is Fort William Historic Site on the Kaministiquia River a few miles from Lake Superior.  The Fort is a re-creation of the original which is now buried beneath the railway a little further down river.

The trail leading to the fort.

Coming out of the forest upon the fort, below the wharf in front of the fort.

Standing on the wharf looking across to the main gate into the fort and below looking through the gate into the main square.

This place is massif there are 42 buildings on 25 acres.

One of the problems the voyageurs had was their feet, because they were always wet they had what we now call Athlete's Foot, they would soak their feet in this bath of copper sulphate solution.   In France they spray the vines with the same stuff, they call it Bordeaux mix.

The main kitchen, that metal thingy is a meat cooker, you hang the meat inside the canopy and place it in front of the fire, there was even another thingy that turned the meat, very high tech for 1815.

These are the artisans quarters.

All the buildings painted white are living quarters.

They fire this canon every day around 2:30 pm I think.

On the way out we pass the Native Encampment.

Plaque describing the amalgamation of The North West and Hudson's Bay Companies.

I was a little disappointed with todays visit, not sure why, maybe because it was a re-creation after seeing lots of the real thing over our long journey through Canada.