The Spectacular North Country

Over the past few days Don and I went up to Sault Ste. Marie. We had a great time and many interesting adventures...

We left Brampton at 5:00 am so we could catch the boat, the Chewcheman, from Tobermory at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula to Manitoulin Island. We arrived in good time and ate a wonderful breakfast of bacon and eggs as the waves were getting higher and higher and the water was very rough. We loved watching the boat rise and fall and rise and fall, crashing into the waves. All we kept saying was, "wow" and "cool". We were doing well until about 45 minutes before docking when were both said that breakfast was repeating just too much and, as you guessed it, I walked to the washroom with the barf bag in my hand and used it as I walked into the washroom! My mistake was getting up and walking around the ship. I found out later that staying sitting down is the best thing for the stomach. Oh, well, a lesson learned. Don did better than I - he stayed sitting down and we docked just in time!

Driving the Trans Canada was an experience. It was as if lines were drawn because one minute it was fine and the next it was snowing, then raining, then sleet, then nothing, then snow, and on and on it went. We stopped at a picnic spot for a break and noticed that the whole front of the car and the antenna were covered in about 3-4 cm of snow ice. I just had to take a picture since where we stopped had no snow but we had a very thick coating of snow on the front of the car.

We got up early the following morning to make sure we boarded the train in plenty of time. It was a dull rainy day and I was feeling a little ripped off; however, once the train started rolling out of the station I was looking forward to seeing what little bit of autumn was left in the canyon. We paid extra to sit in the dome car and going north we were up top. We were on the last car on the train. The further north we went the more snow we started to see. We no longer saw autumn, bit winter! It was an amazing sight, especially when Don opened the back door and I could take all kinds of great pictures out the back of the train. A couple of my pictures show the motion of the train.

When we arrived in the canyon there must have been up to 30 cm of snow (1 foot). It was a a wet, heavy snow. It was a cross between rain and snow falling and I got very wet. We did a short hike to two of the falls and Don spent time watching the trains and the switching of the engines. We ended the day thrilled with the landscapes we saw and excited that we saw a snippet of winter. I will need to go back sometime sooner on the season to see fall another time...

On our way back the boat did a lot of rocking again, but I am pleased to announce that my stomach held strong - probably because I refused to eat anything all day until after we got off the boat. We ate lunch in Wiarton and took our time going home by driving along Lake Huron through all the small towns. It so puts me in the mood for a cottage! Yes, Cathy, dream away...