Old Crow
Searching....
My wife and I won't be able to go out West this year. It's nothing serious, just a timing thing. Family obligations, need to do some work on the house, committed to a small construction project with my brothers, blah, blah, blah.
But we did manage to get up into western Quebec and northeastern Ontario for a week over the Fourth of July. Perhaps this will be of some interest to other Easterners unable to go West for now.
We were casting about for someplace close-but-not-too-close and weren't looking forward to the holiday crowd over the Fourth. I had also been looking at the map of northeastern Ontario recently after reading a post about Temagami here on WTW. Suddenly it all came together. Head up I-81 to the border at Alexandria Bay, NY, continue up past Ottawa and then make a counter-clockwise loop out of the dotted-roads on either side of the Ontario - Quebec border.
I don’t have much in the way of photos but will instead provide links from my Spot satellite tracker. If you’re curious about the area, you can use Google Maps for map and satellite views and also see photos (click on ‘Show Imagery’ in the lower right corner).
First stop was Charleston Lake Provincial Park, only 20 minutes above the border. First surprise-- a campsite was over $50 a night. That turned out to be for a site with electricity and of course it was in Canadian dollars. We ended up with a table-and-fire-ring site for $42 CAD or about $33 USD now.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/44%C2%B030'12.6%22N+76%C2%B002'20.8%22W/@44.5035,-76.03912,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0?hl=en
From there we used paper maps to strike northeast toward Ottawa rather than let the GPS route us to the major roads. We love this area’s farms and small towns and rural character. Multiple John Deere, Case, New Holland, and White dealers. Tractor Supply is ‘TSC’ here. And I loved seeing the Esso gas signs again.
Once closing in on Ottawa, I had the GPS route us the quickest way through to Parc de la Gatineau, the lower end of our route north in Quebec.
That night we camped in Reserve Faunique de la Verendrye (i.e., Verendrye Wildlife Reserve) at Embarras. Our campsite was a primitive one about 3 km back a good gravel road. The Reserve has developed campgrounds with prices similar to Ontario’s Provincial Parks but also has these more primitive spots for about $18 USD a night. There’s a fire-ring and a nearby porta-jon and many sites are on a lake with a basic launch ramp. We didn’t know it at the time but subsequently learned that the reserve was named for Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, a French-Canadian fur trader and explorer with a very interesting history (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Gaultier_de_V )arennes,_sieur_de_La_V%C3%A9rendrye
).
We wanted to get further afield the next night and chose Baie Barker, this one about 30 kilometers from the hard road. The first kilometers of the road were quite nice and led to (then through) the Algonquin First Nations village of Kitcisakik (
) before winding on to the bay. (Lakes, lakes, everywhere!)
Here’s a short clip I shot there at Baie Barker: (listen for the loon! (and please excuse the camera noise)
The next day we moved on from the wildlife reserve to the small town of Val D’Or (“Valley of Gold”) and took a tour of the gold mine, visited the First Nations Friendship Center, an art exhibition, and sampled Quebecois cuisine at several restaurants.
Then it was on to Rouyn-Noranda where we visited an historic Russian-Orthodox church before moving on to Ville-Marie. There we visited Fort Temiscamingue. ( Fort Témiscamingue - Wikipedia ), a fur-trading post built on the main canoe route between Hudson’s Bay and the St. Lawrence River (established in 1679!).
After the fort visit we had more local cuisine (an excellent poutine) at a country-cross-roads snack-shack called ‘Roi de la Patate’ (King of the Potato!) then camped along the Ottawa River at a local beach. We had stopped at the local municipal office in tiny little Notre Dame du Nord (home of ”Le Rodeo du Camion”! ( Videos - Le Rodéo du Camion | Truck Rodeo )) earlier in the day and asked about overnighting and were directed to this spot back a rural road (just one of the reasons we love small-town Canada!). ( 47°17'20.4"N 79°27'43.6"W )
Then across the border back into Ontario and Temagami. We had an all-day rain and spent a few hours in the visitor’s center, taking advantage of the wi-fi. I spent most of the time reading everything in the display about Grey Owl and his time in Temagami and nearby Bear Island, a First Nations reserve. ( Grey Owl, White Indian « Canadian Icon ).
We spent that night along Red Squirrel Lake, some 30 km back very good gravel road. ( https://www.google.com/maps/place/47%C2%B010'41.7%22N+80%C2%B001'58.3%22W/@47.17825,-80.03287,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0?hl=en ) (Don’t forget to Show Imagery for photos of the area)
The next day we hiked the White Bear Trail in the White Bear Old Growth Forest just east of Temagami. ( http://www.ancientforest.org/whitebear/ ).
We had to start working toward home so then drove south to North Bay and then turned east along our dotted-road route along the Ottawa River. We were north of the massive Algonquin Provincial Park ( AlgonquinAdventures.com ) and to this point thought there was only one road into it and that’s in the southern portion. But one map showed a few gravel roads in from the north and a canoe outfitter gave us directions to a park office. That led to a night in the park on Cedar Lake. ( https://www.google.com/maps/place/46%C2%B001'55.1%22N+78%C2%B028'30.8%22W/@46.03197,-78.47521,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0?hl=en ).
We spent the next day on the road all day. We cut the loop off a bit early to come down route 41 rather than retrace our steps down 15. After a bit through farmland, it wound through pretty hills before connecting with the highway for short drive to the border. Our Spot had shown 12 hours home from our camping spot along Cedar Lake but with our route choices, stops, and getting stuck behind a tractor-trailer on fire along I-81, it took us about 14.
Other info: Gas varied from $1.14 to $1.26 a liter (CAD), so in the high-three-dollars range USD. Border crossing was about 20 minutes in both cases. And, yes, the dotted roads we first saw on our Road Atlas maps were indeed scenic!
I'm hoping to go back up there this Fall.
But we did manage to get up into western Quebec and northeastern Ontario for a week over the Fourth of July. Perhaps this will be of some interest to other Easterners unable to go West for now.
We were casting about for someplace close-but-not-too-close and weren't looking forward to the holiday crowd over the Fourth. I had also been looking at the map of northeastern Ontario recently after reading a post about Temagami here on WTW. Suddenly it all came together. Head up I-81 to the border at Alexandria Bay, NY, continue up past Ottawa and then make a counter-clockwise loop out of the dotted-roads on either side of the Ontario - Quebec border.
I don’t have much in the way of photos but will instead provide links from my Spot satellite tracker. If you’re curious about the area, you can use Google Maps for map and satellite views and also see photos (click on ‘Show Imagery’ in the lower right corner).
First stop was Charleston Lake Provincial Park, only 20 minutes above the border. First surprise-- a campsite was over $50 a night. That turned out to be for a site with electricity and of course it was in Canadian dollars. We ended up with a table-and-fire-ring site for $42 CAD or about $33 USD now.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/44%C2%B030'12.6%22N+76%C2%B002'20.8%22W/@44.5035,-76.03912,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0?hl=en
From there we used paper maps to strike northeast toward Ottawa rather than let the GPS route us to the major roads. We love this area’s farms and small towns and rural character. Multiple John Deere, Case, New Holland, and White dealers. Tractor Supply is ‘TSC’ here. And I loved seeing the Esso gas signs again.
Once closing in on Ottawa, I had the GPS route us the quickest way through to Parc de la Gatineau, the lower end of our route north in Quebec.
That night we camped in Reserve Faunique de la Verendrye (i.e., Verendrye Wildlife Reserve) at Embarras. Our campsite was a primitive one about 3 km back a good gravel road. The Reserve has developed campgrounds with prices similar to Ontario’s Provincial Parks but also has these more primitive spots for about $18 USD a night. There’s a fire-ring and a nearby porta-jon and many sites are on a lake with a basic launch ramp. We didn’t know it at the time but subsequently learned that the reserve was named for Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, a French-Canadian fur trader and explorer with a very interesting history (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Gaultier_de_V )arennes,_sieur_de_La_V%C3%A9rendrye
).
We wanted to get further afield the next night and chose Baie Barker, this one about 30 kilometers from the hard road. The first kilometers of the road were quite nice and led to (then through) the Algonquin First Nations village of Kitcisakik (
Here’s a short clip I shot there at Baie Barker: (listen for the loon! (and please excuse the camera noise)
The next day we moved on from the wildlife reserve to the small town of Val D’Or (“Valley of Gold”) and took a tour of the gold mine, visited the First Nations Friendship Center, an art exhibition, and sampled Quebecois cuisine at several restaurants.
Then it was on to Rouyn-Noranda where we visited an historic Russian-Orthodox church before moving on to Ville-Marie. There we visited Fort Temiscamingue. ( Fort Témiscamingue - Wikipedia ), a fur-trading post built on the main canoe route between Hudson’s Bay and the St. Lawrence River (established in 1679!).
After the fort visit we had more local cuisine (an excellent poutine) at a country-cross-roads snack-shack called ‘Roi de la Patate’ (King of the Potato!) then camped along the Ottawa River at a local beach. We had stopped at the local municipal office in tiny little Notre Dame du Nord (home of ”Le Rodeo du Camion”! ( Videos - Le Rodéo du Camion | Truck Rodeo )) earlier in the day and asked about overnighting and were directed to this spot back a rural road (just one of the reasons we love small-town Canada!). ( 47°17'20.4"N 79°27'43.6"W )
Then across the border back into Ontario and Temagami. We had an all-day rain and spent a few hours in the visitor’s center, taking advantage of the wi-fi. I spent most of the time reading everything in the display about Grey Owl and his time in Temagami and nearby Bear Island, a First Nations reserve. ( Grey Owl, White Indian « Canadian Icon ).
We spent that night along Red Squirrel Lake, some 30 km back very good gravel road. ( https://www.google.com/maps/place/47%C2%B010'41.7%22N+80%C2%B001'58.3%22W/@47.17825,-80.03287,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0?hl=en ) (Don’t forget to Show Imagery for photos of the area)
The next day we hiked the White Bear Trail in the White Bear Old Growth Forest just east of Temagami. ( http://www.ancientforest.org/whitebear/ ).
We had to start working toward home so then drove south to North Bay and then turned east along our dotted-road route along the Ottawa River. We were north of the massive Algonquin Provincial Park ( AlgonquinAdventures.com ) and to this point thought there was only one road into it and that’s in the southern portion. But one map showed a few gravel roads in from the north and a canoe outfitter gave us directions to a park office. That led to a night in the park on Cedar Lake. ( https://www.google.com/maps/place/46%C2%B001'55.1%22N+78%C2%B028'30.8%22W/@46.03197,-78.47521,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0?hl=en ).
We spent the next day on the road all day. We cut the loop off a bit early to come down route 41 rather than retrace our steps down 15. After a bit through farmland, it wound through pretty hills before connecting with the highway for short drive to the border. Our Spot had shown 12 hours home from our camping spot along Cedar Lake but with our route choices, stops, and getting stuck behind a tractor-trailer on fire along I-81, it took us about 14.
Other info: Gas varied from $1.14 to $1.26 a liter (CAD), so in the high-three-dollars range USD. Border crossing was about 20 minutes in both cases. And, yes, the dotted roads we first saw on our Road Atlas maps were indeed scenic!
I'm hoping to go back up there this Fall.
