SAULT STE. MARIE & THE AGAWA CANYON

3rd - 5th October SAULT STE. MARIE & THE AGAWA CANYON

A couple of weeks before arriving in the city of Sault Ste. Marie we had booked our seats on the Agawa Canyon Tour Train, “a one day rail excursion into the Canadian Wilderness”. This was something Eric had had in his bonnet for us to do, something he’d wanted to do for a while, having been to this part of the Ontario several times before.
Sault Ste. Marie lies more or less on the south east point of Lake Superior, and across the St. Mary’s River from Michigan’s own Sault Ste. Marie. The word sault, I’ve discovered means waterfalls or rapids.
The tour train, which leaves from this city, chugs its way along at 35 mph, 114 miles northwards, back in the direction we had just come, towards and east of the Provincial Park, to the Agawa Canyon. Here in this broad canyon the Agawa River flows by on its way down to Agawa Bay, where we had been camping, and where it enters the lake.
Our timing couldn’t have been better, the colours promised to be spectacular. When we arrived at the station at 7am on Saturday morning, there were about 13 coaches, all full to overflowing, with people ready to ooh and aah at the famous fall colours deep in the Northern Ontario wilderness.

It was indeed a wondrous sight. The day alternated between sunny and cloudy and the countryside was ablaze with at times shimmering at times brilliant shades of reds, orange, yellows and greens. The trip one way takes 4 hours and we sat and simply soaked in the glorious scenery. The train crossed over deep river valleys on “towering trestles, alongside pristine northern lakes and rivers, and through the awesome granite rock formations and mixed forests of the Canadian Shield.”
No wonder the much-loved Canadian landscape artists, members of The Group Of Seven, were drawn to this area.

My siblings were on my mind that day and I thought, “Wow, they would just love this, I would love to show them this, I wish they were here enjoying this with us”.

As we neared our destination, the long train made its gradual winding descent, down 500 feet to the Canyon floor. Here we disembarked and had 2 hours to explore and have a picnic lunch. Glad to be able to move our legs after 4 hours of sitting, we walked the several trails to waterfalls and viewpoints. The climb to one lookout platform is a mighty strenuous cardiovascular workout, 250 feet above the tracks. Realizing that there were several hundred other people that we would need to negotiate space with, Eric and I rallied our best hiking style and gunned it to the top, (with no pushing or shoving), so that we could get a good view before the hoards arrived. I thought my lungs were going to explode but it was well worth it, with pictures to prove it.
The return trip was a reverse view of the marmalade spectacle though I have to confess to the occasional resting of eyelids.
We were back at the station again at 6pm.

After spending the weekend in Sault Ste. Marie, we left for North Bay on Monday 6th October. Our journey was achingly close to its end but there was one more adventure we were looking forward to. We had a couple of days to spend in North Bay before we were to keep a rendezvous at the local grocery store on Wednesday the 8th.