The Great Trans Canada Road Trip – Home

After 6 months on the road, I arrived home nearly two weeks ago [my stationary home here in the Kootenays as opposed to my movable home 🙂 ]. For the most part it was an incredible and wonderful journey of exploration, with over 21000 kilometers driven, and quite a few kilometers hiked. Vehicle problems made the last couple of weeks of travel rather stressful, so that I breathed a sigh of relief upon pulling into my driveway, but even those last two weeks still had their special moments.

My initial intention was to update this blog every week or two, but I found that spending time on the computer, trying to find adequate wifi connections and taking the time to edit, upload and caption pictures was interfering with my enjoyment of the journey (especially after spending a frustrating several hours early on uploading and then losing all my work to some technical glitch). I did however keep a daily written journal, as well as taking a lot of photos (way too many), and will make an attempt to post more about the trip over the course of this winter.

Since this post is about being home, I thought I would leave you with pics of a few of the amazing places that I called ‘home’ on this trip (most of them free camps).

May 25/26: near Narrows Lock, Rideau Canal system, Ontario (this is also where the above picture of me relaxing by the van was taken)
May 29/30: Matapedia River, Quebec
May 31: Hay Island, New Brunswick
June 3: Seacow Head Lighthouse, PEI (with the 13km Confederation Bridge I crossed earlier that evening in the background)
June 6-9 – Cable Head, PEI (sadly I expect that this entire northern shoreline looks quite different now after the damage inflicted by Hurricane Fiona in September)
June 11 – Cheticamp Beach, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
June 12-14: Corney Brook CG, Cape Breton NP, Nova Scotia (I set up the tent to indicate that the campsite was taken while I went off exploring)
June 16: a lovely oceanside spot off the Cabot Trail south east of Cape Breton NP, Nova Scotia
June 18: Grand Bay West beach (I was camped in the parking lot), just a bit north of the ferry landing at Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland (another place hit hard by the hurricane)
June 20 (and again on June 30): Arches Provincial Park, Nfld (theoretically a day use park but used by many travellers as an informal campsite. The pic is from June 20th; I had the same spot on the 30th with many more vehicles parked next to me)
The view of the Arches from my camping spot at Arches PP
June 25: Parc Goodchild, Blanc-Sablon, Quebec, 5km west of the Labrador border (the ferry from Newfoundland to northern Quebec/Labrador arrives near this lovely free campground with a tragic history; it used to be a subdivision where two people lost their lives when 15 homes were wiped out by an avalanche in 1995)
June 27: 1st Pond Municipal Park, Forteau, Labrador
July 5/6: Dildo Run Provincial Park, Nfld (provincial park campgrounds in Newfoundland where a nice surprise and I stayed in several as at $20/night they were relatively cheap and all had showers available)
July 7-10: Crow Head, north of Twillingate, Nfld
June 11/12: Brimstone Head RV Park, Fogo Island, Nfld
July 13: pond up a random gravel road, Fogo Island, Nfld
July 21-23: gravel flat by lake northeast of Argentia, Avalon Peninsula, Nfld
July 28-Aug 4: La Manche Provincial Park, about 50km south of St. John’s, Nfld (I explored several sections of the East Coast Trail from this base camp)
Aug 8/9: powerline right of way by small lake near Lead Cove, Nfld
Aug 11/12: Little Harbour, Nfld
Aug 17/18: Boutte Du Cap Park, Cape St. George, Nfld
Aug 21: Ben Eoin Provincial Park, Nova Scotia
Aug 24-26: Five Islands Provincial Park, on the Nova Scotia side of the Bay of Fundy
Aug 28: by small dam and lighthouse near Riverside-Albert, New Brunswick
Sept 1: Grassy Lake, off Shepody road, north boundary of Fundy Nat’l Park, New Brunswick
Grassy Lake
Sept 5: Camping Cote Surprise, Perce, Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec (this was an expensive campground, but I decided to splurge for the view of Perce Rock; also no real options for free camping nearby)
Sept 12/13: Madawaska River near Griffith, Ontario
Oct 3: old gravel pit north of Sault Ste Marie, Ontario
Oct 4: crown land on Lake Superior, south of Agawa, Ontario
Oct 4: crown land on Lake Superior, south of Agawa, Ontario (another view)
Oct 5: Little Pic River Scenic viewpoint overlooking Lake Superior about 30 km west of Marathon, Ontario
Oct 7/8: Adam Lake CG, Turtle Mountain Provincial Park, Manitoba (I cooked dinner in this day use area by the lake the first night, but ended up moving to an actual campsite since, even though the campground and shower house was officially closed, it was possible to drive in. Did some lovely hiking here.)
Oct 9: rest area, Parry, Sask
Oct 13/14: almost home, Tie Lake Recreation Site, near Jaffray, BC

The Great Trans Canada Road Trip – weeks three and four

At Wawa, I decided to leave behind Lake Superior and explore inland. I didn’t get too far before I stopped to check out Potholes Provincial Park. The access road was partly flooded, but manageable. It’s just a small day-use area and trailhead, but it was a nice forested spot and out of sight of the highway. Seemed like a good spot for a long break and a leg stretch. The trail to the potholes was still partly snow covered but worth the short walk to see the water carved rocks and pools. I ended up spending the day just hanging out in the parking area, mostly reading and enjoying the trees. At one point a couple came in to walk the trail, but otherwise no one, so I decided I might as well spend the night.

The next day’s drive started out quite lovely, but at some point after the junction to Chapleau, it became kind of tedious – with a rather monotonous boreal forest landscape and many signs of resource extraction and too many large trucks, with everyone except me driving well over the speed limit. Passing on a double line appeared de rigueur, at least among the smaller vehicles, though thankfully no semis pulled that stunt. Timmins was a large dusty town with really bad potholed roads and had nothing to lure me beyond taking care of a couple of errands.

By the time I arrived in the Tamiskaming Shores area, south and east of Timmins, I was feeling beat and decided to try camping in a Walmart parking lot. Definitely the least pleasant camping experience of this trip, especially because when I asked where I was allowed to spend the night, I was directed to the part of the lot directly adjacent to the highway. I didn’t get a great sleep, but it was okay.

By shortly after noon the next day I was at the west gate of Algonquin Provincial Park. The highway winds through the park for about 55 km, and I spent most of the rest of the day exploring, doing a few shorter hikes and chilling at a couple of picnic sites. And sweating up a storm as it was the hottest day so far by a long shot – 30 degrees celsius. Which also meant dealing with nasty biting flies in a significant way for the first time this trip. Especially that evening and night. I had hoped that by camping on a bit of a hill by a cell tower I might get enough of a breeze to mitigate the flies but no such luck.

The next day I had a shortish drive to my brother’s house, where I have now been for nearly 2 weeks. It’s been a good visit (our first in 2 1/2 years) and an opportunity to finally meet his current partner. And to fall in love with their absolutely adorable 6 month old puppy, Flow. Also a couple of days ago my long time friend, Jessie, who lives in Toronto and who I haven’t seen in nearly a decade, and I met up at Presqu’ile Provincial Park. We had a lovely time catching up and walking and sitting by Lake Ontario.

Tomorrow I continue my travels east.

Monday, May 9: ▲Potholes Trailhead, Potholes PP (145km)

Tuesday, May 10: ▲Walmart Parking Lot, New Liskeard, ON (492km)

Wednesday, May 11: ▲Cell tower clearing off Hwy 127, south of Whitney, ON (422km)

Thursday, May 12 – Monday, May 23: ▲My bother’s house, Consecon, ON (189km)

The Great Trans Canada Road Trip – week two

Leaving the Cypress Hills area, I ventured further into Saskatchewan, stopping to wander through the original prairie and badlands of Grasslands National Park. From there I continued east into the Big Muddy badlands, then northward past the mostly still frozen lakes and snowy environs of Moose Mountain. Crossing into Manitoba, I ventured still further north east into the winter landscape of Riding Mountain National Park and the flooded fields (and sometimes roads) beyond the Lake Manitoba Narrows. At the Narcisse Snake Dens, I had hoped to catch the garter snakes emerging from hibernation in their dens and forming the massive mating balls for which they are famous, but the late winter snow storms that hit this part of Manitoba in April, followed by fast melting and flooding, have delayed this annual event. In any case the dens and even trails to them were inaccessible for anyone not wearing hip waders.

In general, between the lingering snow and flooding it wasn’t always easy to find places to hike. I did go for a relatively short hike through a still bare of leaves aspen forest just south of the snake pits. But the best hikes by far were once I reached the granite outcrops of the Canadian Shield at Whiteshell Provincial Park (in the far east of Manitoba), and a couple of days later in Pukaskwa National Park on the shores of Lake Superior.

I’ve had some amazing camping spots on this trip so far (many of them entirely to myself), but nothing to match the five star view I had at Hurkett Cove on Lake Superior, where I settled in for the night at a Fisheries and Ocean dock (complete with the hulks of several old boats). On the dirt access road I had the privilege of seeing a mama moose and calf. Then once at the cove I was surrounded by what felt essentially like a water bird sanctuary. The cove was home to white pelicans, herons, huge numbers of ducks and seagulls – some drifting by on ice flows – and at least one beaver (likely more).

Other memorable wildlife sightings were a bear crossing over the snow and road in front of me at Riding Mtn NP, and multiple moose browsing in the ditches along the Trans Canada Hwy between Pukaskwa NP and the town of White River. That many moose sightings so close to the highway in such a relatively short stretch of road was definitely unnerving, especially because their fur is kind of mangy and mottled at this time of year, making them hard to spot against the background.

Monday, May 2: ▲Gravel Dump along Hwy 18 northwest of the East Block of Grasslands NP (298km)