North Bay

Northern Ontario is so far my favorite place of the term. I’ve always loved trips and canoe expeditions to that area, and traveling by train I got to see some pretty spectacular scenery. And now I had a long weekend where I could take time to see what I wanted to see, instead of travelling on as I would on the train. The supervisors were switching this weekend, so it was just Anthony and I for the weekend. We cleaned up on Friday, got the rental car, and checked into our hotel. I also rented a bike for the weekend.  I like touring by bike a lot more than car – it’s faster than walking, but not too fast that I miss stuff or have to pay attention to the road, I don’t have to worry about parking, I like keeping fit, I like being outdoors instead of in a cab, and I can go more places and along more trails.

I biked around the downtown area Friday afternoon, which surprisingly had cobblestone streets. Found the beach along lake Nipissing, and took off my shoes and ran in the water along the beach as far as I could. It was very nice to feel the sand between by toes, as I have to wear steel toed boots all the time on the train.

Found a used bookstore that finally had a copy of the hobbit, and so I started it that night. Saturday I biked north to Nipissing university, as I had heard there was a waterfall behind it. Walked through a forest full of reds and yellows and oranges,

and found the waterfall. It was more a sequence of smaller ones, full of rocks to climb and jump around. It’s one of my favorite things in life to do, running along streams with lots of rocks spaced at good jumping distance, crossing as often as possible, getting to hard to get places.

Walked back to the university, getting slightly lost and finding a lookout point with a nice view. Watched half of a varsity soccer game that was going on, then biked along the rest of the bike path until it started to rain. Went to a pool hall with Anthony that evening, and bowling after. Attended a United church Sunday morning, did groceries, returned the bike, played some more pool, went looking for a restaurant that was closed, and finished the hobbit. What a great book, can’t wait for the movie. Monday we checked out, chilled at the train for a bit, picked up the new supervisor at the airport, and went to see taken 2.

This was probably my favorite weekend so far, especially exploring the waterfall area. After passing by so many places like this that I really wanted to take a closer look on the train, I finally had the chance to explore one fully to my heart’s content :)

Next week we’re doing contract testing travelling even further north up to moosenee, near james bay, which according to don (the new supervisor) is pretty much the end of the earth. I’m actually looking forward to it, just us and the train and wilderness.