One city in Canada, really: Sault Ste. Marie, the closest Canadian city if you live in the U.P.
We made our trip in the first weeks after new passport laws went into effect--since we had applied for and received the new passport cards, we were all set. We showed them to the Canadian customs officer, answered the standard questions and were off--off to the Ontario tourism office, where we changed our money into the more colorful Canadian currency. You don't think it's colorful? Take a look ...
There are no $1 bills because Canada hasn't used them for years. Instead, they use a $1 coin (the loonie) and a $2 coin (the twonie). Canada wanted people to use the loonie, so they did a very clever thing U.S. officials haven't figured out yet--they stopped printing dollar bills. People were soon using loonies.
We also bulked up on tourism brochures and then did a little shopping, got our motel and settled down early: We had a very early wake-up the next day. The Agawa Canyon Tour Train pulls out of the station at 7 a.m. (Central Time; 8 a.m. local time), and we had better be at the station in time ...
The Algoma Central Railroad was owned by Wisconsin Central for a time and now is owned by Canadian National. Why they were using a Denver and Rio Grande train, I have no idea.
The Agawa Canyon trip is a favorite adventure that we hadn't done since about 2002. The train takes us 116 miles north of Sault Ste. Marie through the Canadian wilderness--known locally as Algoma Country--to the Agawa Canyon. Long-time readers know that I love trains and train rides. I was born too late for that to be a part of my life.
It's not totally unpopulated. We passed many beautiful lakes with a few little fishing cottages, and the train is the only way people get there. Deep, dense woods lined the tracks, which also frequently passed through rocky walls--must have taken a lot of manpower and dynamite to blast a train for the trains that.
Unfortunately, our seats were on the right side of the train--most of the lakes and other neat views were on the left. So we had to make sure to switch to the other side for the trip home.
Here are some of the sights we saw ...
At a number of places, the train passed wilderness scenes located on the other side of large mirrors ...
Of course, this long-time train lover savored the rocking of the cars and the clickety-clack of the rails. There were many camera-worthy sights along the way, and the shutters were clicking when we crossed the curved trestle over the Montreal River ...
We finally got to the canyon, passing several waterfalls that flowed down tall granite walls. This one is Bridal Veil Falls. Because it looks like bridal veil. Don't know why they named another Big Beaver Falls. I was afraid to ask ...
I had set myself a goal for this trip. There is an observation/lookout tower near the tracks that is open to the public ... if you don't mind climbing a few steps. This time, I decided, I would make the climb. So up the steps I started climbing. A few flights of steps, then a short path to more steps. I stopped and looked up ...
Gulp!
That's a lot of steps. A lot of stair-climbing was required if I wanted to reach the top. I sighed ... and started on my way. Up, up, up.
Lots of steps. Luckily, I didn't need to count them because somebody did that for me already; there are little signs next to every 50th step. So up I kept climbing. 50. 100. 150. It was steep. Occasionally I stopped for breath at a landing before pushing on. It wasn't easy, but I was persistent. Bull-headed, in other words ...
I had never climbed up to the observation tower before. Even when we were kids and my brother made the climb. I kept going. Past 200. Past 250. Up more. We're getting close. Here is the 300 sign. Just a little more. And then there were no more steps to climb.
They didn't have a sign, but it was 320 steps top to bottom. Twenty steps past the 300 sign, anyway. Yes, I took my camera along, and yes, I took pictures of the view ...
See down there, that pink dot under the closest building? That was my wife, looking up at me. If I zoom in ...
She had her camera along, too, and zoomed in to get a photo of me as I was climbing the final steps, holding the railing with both hands ...
Fortunately, the trip back down the steps was a lot easier than the way up.
After that, we walked and looked around--they had some nice daffodils in the park. The stop at the canyon would have been much more pleasant if we had remembered to take along bug spray--I did bring it, but it was back at the motel. They had some no-see-ums, which didn't seem to be biting but were everywhere. Meanwhile, the dinner bell had rung for the mosquitoes. It was a 1 1/2 hour layover at the canyon, and nearly everyone was back on the train in plenty of time.
We got back to the Soo at about 6 and had supper at an Italian restaurant--meat raviolis with two enormous meatballs. After that, we went around looking for a garden we had heard about--drove around and around, finally found it and discovered it was a arboreal garden. My wife wasn't interested in looking at trees.
The next day, we tried to find some garden north of the city, but it was just a nature reserve--no flowers there, either. We did find a place with some beautiful scenery--I got some pictures but the no-see-ums (or were they blackflies?) were there, and they were biting, and we had to beat a retreat. My wife did get a picture of me looking at the landscape. The bugs wanted to get in the picture, and so ...
From there, we went to a bookstore, then saw some old, old buildings by the Canadian locks. Then it was time to cash in our Canadian money and head for the bridge. We were both ready to go home.
But we sure had a great time and wished we could have stayed longer. It is, as I said before, a favorite trip.
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The story of my latest adventure comes soon.
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