The end of the World

The end of the world... That`s what Don calls moosenee, located on the tip of James Bay. He said that if we get off the train we have to tie a rope around our waist in case we fall off, and that if we look down we can see Australia and China.

Seriously though, it is pretty remote. the only way to get there is by train or airplane, so any cars they want to drive around have to be brought up by rail. 

We started in North Bay, went up through Englehart and Cochrane with a small trip into Quebec, over to Hearst, back and then up to Moosenee. It`s different scenery up there, the Canadian shield ended, and trees became shorter and stunted, but they still looked old. I`d never been to the tundra before, so this was all new for me. On the track up to Moosenee there were some power lines for a bit, but for the most part we would go 30 or 40 miles without seeing any signs of civilization at all. 

We went by spots where all the trees were very short, and you could see overtop of them for a fair ways. We stopped for the night at 9 or 10 at night, and started again at 6 or 7 in the morning, so I never really had a chance to get out and walk around any of the towns we were in. There was also snow on the trees on the way back, which made for some nice scenery. We also passed a fair number of abandoned buildings, which I really wanted to get out and explore them. But the train always travels on…

Due to some confusion and switching between rail companies, it didn’t look like we were going to get to Sudbury for the weekend, which was the plan. But somehow it came together, and we pulled into Sudbury on Saturday at 6:00am. After doing chores I got a chance to walk around a bit, although it was raining and cold. Found a really nice walkway with large rock outcroppings along a lake, which also conveniently lead to Science North.

I got to hold a tarantula and have him walk over my hands (they’re surprisingly light), pet a skunk and a beaver. The beaver had really soft fur, despite looking really bristly. 

Wandered around a bit more, climbed some of the larger rocky outcrops in the town that had some pretty nice views from the town. Was graciously hosted by my aunt and uncle who live just outside of Sudbury, attended their church on Sunday, went grocery shopping, and that was pretty much it for the weekend. We're heading west next week, and scheduled to spend the weekend in Winnipeg. Hopefully I'll have more time to visit next weekend, this one felt like there wasn't much time available.