The pass between Pays Plat and Cavers at the top of Lake Superior is nearly 11 km long divided almost evenly between uphill and downhill escarpments with grades approaching 8% on many sections so those who are weak stomached or decide to skimp on new brakes for the car need to turn around and go back to Toronto.
Archive for Trans-Canada Highway
GRAN’S CANADA HIGHWAY – EPISODE 6: THUNDER BAY TO KENORA by Jaimie Vernon
Posted in Family, life, Opinion, Serialized Book with tags Bob Segarini, Canada, Canadian National Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway, Cavers, DBAWIS, Don't Believe a Word I Say, Dryden, Eagle Lake, Elsie MacGill, English River, Fort William, Grand Trunk Railway, Highway 61, Hudson's Bay Company, Hurricane Bomber, Jacques de Noyon, Jaimie Vernon, John Dryden, Kakabeka Falls, Kama, Kaministiquia, Kenora, Lake Superior, Lakehead Region, National Transcontinental Railway, Ojibwe, Pierre de La Vérendrye, Port Arthur, Portage-aux-Rats, road trip, Sir Wilfred Laurier, Sleeping Giant, Thor, Thunder Bay, Trans-Canada Highway, Wannange Lake on August 3, 2020 by segariniGRAN’S CANADA HIGHWAY – EPISODE 5: THE SOO by Jaimie Vernon
Posted in Family, life, Opinion, Serialized Book with tags Algoma Railway, American, Angelina Napolitano, Canadian Motor Hotel, Etienne Brule, Highway 17, Knight's Inn, Lake Superior, Marathon, Montreal River, Ojibwa, RCAF, road trip, Sault Ste. Marie, Soo locks, Terry Fox, Thunder Bay, Trans-Canada Highway, Wawa, Wawa Goose, World War 2 on July 27, 2020 by segarini
The Ojibwa called the area Baawitigong, which roughly translates as place of the rapids, and was used as a central gathering spot during the region’s whitefish season on the St. Mary’s River which has rolling rapids and feeds the city that now stands there.
GRAN’S CANADA HIGHWAY – EPISODE 4: ONTARI-ARI-ARI-O by Jaimie Vernon
Posted in Family, life, Opinion, Review, Serialized Book with tags Big Nickel, Bob Segarini, Canadian Shield, DBAWIS, Don't Believe a Word I Say, Gasoline Alley, Gordon Lightfoot, Hwy 17, Hwy 400, Jaimie Vernon, James Worthington, Kenora, NASA, Newmarket, Orillia, pre-Cambrian, Saulta Ste. Marie, Skylark, Sudbury, Temagami, the moon, Thunder Bay, Trans-Canada Highway on July 20, 2020 by segarini
The Province of Ontario has a total area of 9,984,670 km2 of which 9,000,000 km2 is either farmland, forest or impenetrable igneous rock which geologists have affectionately named The Canadian (Precambrian) Shield; Not to be confused with the post-Cambrian, menopausal-Cambrian or bi-Cambrian Shields. In the 1960s, NASA sent astronauts to Sudbury’s nickel mine slag heaps to do practice runs on its hostile terrain because it made for a close approximation of the surface of the Moon. When they actually got to the Moon, much to NASA’s surprise, there were no nickel miners to be found.
GRAN’S CANADA HIGHWAY – EPISODE 3: LOADED TO BEAR by Jaimie Vernon
Posted in Family, life, Opinion, Review with tags Alberta, British Columbia, Buick Invicta, chuck wagon, DBAWIS, Don Valley Parkway, Don't Believe a Word I Say, driving, GPS, Highway 12, Highway 400, Highway 401, Highway 48, Hogtown, Lake Superior, Luggage, Mapquest, Markham, Montreal, Ontario, Ottawa, Port Arthur, road map, Rocky Mountains, Segarini Jaimie Vernon, Toronto, Trans-Canada Highway, Vernons on July 13, 2020 by segarini
In 1965, Canada was well on its way to making inter-continental travel from sea-to-sea-to-sea a lot more enticing and convenient. The Trans-Canada Highway had linked the otherwise awkward and barely passable sections of Lake Superior in Ontario and the Rocky Mountains between Alberta and British Columbia. And so, my grandparents decided to take a little trek out of province to see that the world didn’t end in Port Arthur, Ontario (merely life as we know it).
GRAN’S CANADA HIGHWAY – EPISODE 2: THE FIR TREES AND BEYOND by Jaimie Vernon
Posted in Family, life, Opinion, Review with tags Bob Segarini, Buffalo, Canada, DBAWIS, Don't Believe a Word I Say, Farley Mowat, Jaimie Vernon, Lillian Gish, Louis B. Mayer, Mary Pickford, Mounties, Never Cry Wolf, New Brunswick, New York, Niagara Falls, Nipigon Trail, Quebec, Samuel de Champlain, Sgt. Preston of the Yukon, Trans-Canada Highway, traveling, Vancouver, Victoria, Warren G. Harding on July 6, 2020 by segarini
Historic, and hysterically stereotypical, visions of Canada usually consist of Eskimos, dog sleds, igloos, Mounties, and clear tracts of land filled with snow-capped mountains and evergreen forests. Oh, and people going over Niagara Falls in barrels. Monty Python also made a huge deal out of our lumberjacks as well.
GRAN’S CANADA HIGHWAY – EPISODE 1 by Jaimie Vernon
Posted in Family, life, Opinion, Review, Serialized Book with tags 1975, A Motor Tour of Canada, All-Red Route., Banff, Canada, Diefenbaker, Ektakrome, Fernweh, Halifax, Henry Ford, Highway 17, Hudson's Bay Company, Jack Haney, Jasper, Kenora, Kodachrome, Kodak, Lake Superior, Newfoundland, Olds REO, Rogers Pass, Scenic Lookout, Thomas Wilby, Thunder Bay, Trans-Canada Highway, Victoria on June 22, 2020 by segarini
Travelogues can be a matter of personal taste, and I expect that this one is no exception. However, I’d like to think that setting my family’s road trips against the backdrop of Canada’s geographically challenging countryside, and history, will not only entertain but maybe, hopefully, inspire others to do the same. [once we’re free to travel again, of course].
JAIMIE VERNON – MY SUMMER HOLIDAY 1975, Part 4 – The FINAL CHAPTER
Posted in Opinion with tags archaeology, Athabasca Glacier, Athabasca River, Badlands, Banff National Park, Banff Springs Hotel, Bob Segarini, bobcats, Bridal Veil Falls, Calgary, Canadian music Alberta, DBAWIS, Don't Believe a Word I Say, Drumheller, Fraser River, Glacier National Park, Gondola Lift, Granny, Icefield Highway, Jaimie Vernon, Jasper National Park, mountain goats, Mt. Robson, Niagara Falls, oyster beds, paleontology, Prehistoric Park, pterodactyl, Red Deer River, snowcats, snowtrucks, Sulphur Mountain, Sunwapta Falls, T-Rex, The Flintstones, Trans-Canada Highway, triceratops on June 27, 2015 by segarini
In the middle of June 1975 my grandmother yanked me out of school so that she could give me the eye-opening experience of a lifetime – a road trip across Canada. Six days and 2,438 miles later we were putting around on the Alberta side of the Rocky Mountains.
JAIMIE VERNON – MY SUMMER HOLIDAY 1975: PART 2
Posted in Opinion with tags Atikokan, Bob Segarini, Cree, DBAWIS. Canadian Music Thunder Bay, Don't Believe a Word I Say, Dryden, Fort William, goose, Holiday Inn, Husky the Muskie, Hwy 17, Ignace, Jaimie Vernon, Kakabeka Falls, Kenora, Marathon, Moose, Ojibwe, Ontario, Port Arthur, railroad, Sioux, Terry Fox, Trans-Canada Highway, Wawa on June 13, 2015 by segarini
We continue this week with the second part to my vacation with my Grandma Vernon to celebrate the 40th anniversary of my awakening as a world traveler. We begin with a western push out of Sault Ste. Marie toward Thunder Bay, Ontario and BEYOND!
JAIMIE VERNON – MY GLACIER WAS GONE
Posted in Opinion with tags age 11, Athabasca Glacier, Banff National Park, bears, Bill Murray, Bob Segarini, Canadian Music, Columbia Ice Fields, coming of age, Cross Canada, DBAWIS, Don't Believe a Word I Say, elk, Global Warming., Grade 6, Grandma, Ice Age, ice sheet, Jaimie Vernon, Jasper National Park, Lake Superior, Miette Hot Springs, Moose, mountain goats, moving, new home, pre-teen, Saskatchewan, Scarborough, Skylark, Snow, snowmobile, Summer of 1975, Trans-Canada Highway, Whistler Mountain on May 31, 2014 by segarini
There is an old adage that says that you can’t go home again. It has a double meaning – not only can’t you relive the past but in many cases the places where the events in your past actually happened are no longer there.
