Cedar Meadows, Timmins, Ontario

There's not much point in writing about Timmins. It's shitty. Blunt, but true. There's nothing interesting there, I tried but failed, completely, to find anything to do there.. for six days. Justin Beiber was in town, even that didn't help. I saw a lot of french fry/poutine/hamburger stands, a bar advertising 'amateur stripper' night and a street festival comprising a few plastic patio tables and a 'Heart and Stroke Foundation' booth. I ate at generic chain restaurants and drank at generic sports bars.

That's it.

I did stay at an interesting, although second rate, spa/resort called Cedar Meadows. The hotel sits on a bunch of acres (really.. what the hell is an acre?) of wildlife preserve. The property houses a herd of deer, a trio of clydesdale work horses, a dozen moose and four buffalo along with ducks swans and all the usual bird suspects. Deer and horses 'pen up' in yards within sight of the hotel and I spent several evenings sitting on a plastic chair on the small patio outside my room watching them. Mosquitoes the size of flying rats feasted on me as I tried to enjoy the animals, the big sky, and the beautiful setting.

The horses especially were friendly and would run right to the fence between us as soon as I approached. The deer were less sociable and retreated with their young fawns to the farthest corners of their field.

Luckily I was kept busy at work and had my full team to keep me company during downtimes as well as a surprise encounter with a former colleague who joined me for a horrible dinner at a local all you can eat steakhouse run by a friendly, but completely daft, Sri Lankin fellow who said he specialized in Jamaican food, of which their was none on the 26 page menu. Usually you can rely on the locals to recommend some interesting and decent quality places to eat.. this time they wrong.

With the team scattering across country on the fourth day, I was left alone for 80 hours in Timmins with little to occupy my time outside of my four hour work days. The spa at the motel which offered massages, steamrooms, hottubs and sauna's was open funny hours and needed appointments in advance so that didn't work out and all though there was a beautiful open air courtyard with a hammock that I longed for, but I couldn't quite rationalize the $35 fee if I couldn't take advantage of any of the other facilities.

At least Timmins has some very nice walking paths, one that followed a 3km loop around the Mattigami River. It was a pleasant path that would've most likely encouraged me to actually start the daily jogging regimen that I have being trying to psych myself into for the last month or so. Unfortunately (depending on the perspective) I had no shoes for jogging. In fact I had neglected to bring any shoes other than my flip flops and Chuck Taylor classic hi-tops. This oversight resulted in a franctic drive around town before the first day of work to try to find something appropriate for work. (I ended up buying the only pair of black mens shoes in town, an ugly pair of mesh covered slip ons that I'm sure I will never wear again!) The only problem with the paths was the existence of bear warnings every 100 meters or so, leaving one to be on constant alert for hungry bears.

The only activity I had an interest in was a 90 minute wagon ride, courtesy of the Clydesdales, into and through the reserve to watch the animals in their more natural environment. With camera in hand I was excited for the experience until I saw the wagon and about a dozen kids and a few odd parental figures waiting on the crowded wagon. N'uh uh.. I said discouragedly. The quiet horse drawn drive through the thick woods to see bison and moose would not pan out the way I envisioned and I decided not to go. As I sat with a can of beer outside my room a half hour later, the bird-sized mosquitoes attacked me in swarms and I imagined the young delicate skin of the dozen children on the wagon being eaten alive as the moose hid behind trees and laughed.

Driving down the highway on my way to and from work I had caught glimpses of the moose and buffalo in the dense forests and on the last evening in town I went for a drive around the perimeter of the resort to see if there was a way to sneak in to take some pictures. I pulled off the side of the highway but was disappointed by a high bard wired fence that rang in both directions as far I could see. I guess I shouldn't have been suprised as any opening would've exposed the animals to the traffic. The moose that I had seen grazing in the fields earlier in the week were nowhere to be seen but a pair of buffalo ambled around the property tearing chunks of grass from the ground as the shuffled slowly. I had never seen buffalo before and I crouched in the mud for a long time watching the huge cratures eat.

Checking out of the hotel at the end of the long week in Timmins I realized that this would be my last trip to Northern Ontario and I had mixed feelings about it. I consider myself remarkably lucky to have had the opportunities to work in all the Northern communities that I have visited over the last four years. I have stories to tell about Rainy River, Dryden, Kenora, Thunder Bay, North Bay Sudbury, Kapaskasing Sault Ste Marie, Timmins.. the list seems endless. I have seen crazy things in these towns, things weird and wonderful, amusing and confusing. and experienced incredible highs and lows as I worked in and explored the towns and cities of Northern Ontario.

One final trip in Southern-West Ontario to  Niagara Falls represents the final stop in Ontario before I start spending extended periods in Western Canada. I'll be travelling to places like Humbolt, Alberta and Grand River, SASK in the coming weeks. But first I will spend a week at the Crowne Plaza  in Niagara Falls on the company dime.

...I can't think of a much better send-off.

The Timmins Airport, Moonbeam and Kapuskasing

I slept the whole way to Timmins, closing my eyes before the plane took off and not opening them until the plane bumped down at about 10am. The perfect flight. Looking out the window I saw nothing but snow and pine trees covered with snow. With a yawn and a sigh, I zipped up my coat and headed into the wind and snow and across the tarmac and into the terminal. At the Bearskin Airlines counter (no.. I didn't make that up) the attendant informed me the flight was delayed, probably about an hour, and she would come and let me know when she had more details. I sat down in the coffee shop and ordered some breakfast at Boogy's Diner, regrettably the only food option available.

90 minutes later the agent strolled over to find me in the restaurant and explained the situation. Although the weather was clear in Timmins, all the regional airline's planes had been grounded or rerouted away from Sudbury, where my plane was needed to land before it could pick me up. The agent suggested I rent a car and make the 250 km drive to Kapuskasing, my final destination. With winter storm warnings all around the area I was almost relived when there were no cars available so I settled into the small, 50 year lounge, tried to get comfortable and waited and see what would happen..

What happened was I slowly went crazy over the next nine hours as I gracefully and with a smile was re-scheduled four time and had each flight cancelled, ate three coffee meals at Boogy's, wore out the batteries on all my electrical devices, listened to the life stories of three Bearskin attendants and learned the history of the local Placer Dome mine as depicted by muralist Ed Spehar on the wall of the airport lounge.

All this while weather deteriorated outside.

When the last possible flight out of Sudbury was cancelled at about 7:00pm the Bearskin attendant and I looked at each other and we both realized I was screwed. 'How about you call me a cab?' I suggested and was suprised when she said that was a possibility. Several phone calls later I was belingerantly demanding 'alternative or emergency ground transportation' under Section 12 of the airline charter, which the attendant had kindly supplied and highlited for me.

A half hour later, I'm throwing my bags in the trunk of a taxi, the driver not offering to help, perhaps in retribution for being forced to drive 250 kms north to Kapuskasing and back again at 8 in the evening. As we pulled out onto the deserted and snow covered highway the driver turned on the radio to a french talk program, this was my first hint that I was on my way to an almost entirely French speaking town. Over the next two and a half hours I heard the word 'Dieu' combined with waht I can only imagine was every conceivable swear word in the French language.

Hours of unlit highway cutting through the dark pine forests of northern Ontario followed. The cab's headlights illuminated massive snowflakes rushing towards us out the dark, creating a tunnel vision effect that I hoped wasn't affecting the driver's vision as much as mine. The road was getting more and more treacherous and I could feel the car sliding from side to side. The only other traffic we saw was massive trucks carrying heavy equipment and the occasional 18 wheeler. When they passed us the windows were instantly covered with thick heavy slush that shook the car on impact as the wipers struggled to keep even a small portion of the windows clean. The driver turned to me at one point and in broken english and hand gestures admitted he wasn't sure which side of the road he was on.

After many kilometers I could see a dim light way off in the vast darkness, blinkingly reminiscent of a lighthouse spotted from the sea. We were headed directly for it and for the next 20 minutes I watched the light grow stronger and as we got nearer I realized there were many lights and multi coloured. We got closer and closer and finally as we sped by I swear (in french by this point!) there was a spaceship sitting next to a sign that read MOONBEAM. Odd. Now I had had a long day and was tired and a bit loony from the day in the 'airport' but as I craned my head around and watched the lights recede behind us I was, indeed, sure I was looking at a spaceship. We pulled into Kapuskasing a half hour later and I contemplated asking the hotel receptionist about MOONBEAM but I didn't know the french translation forpaceship or stupid english city boy so I decided against it and went directly to my room and to bed.

I had doubted my sanity for a moment but was glad to find this proof the next day.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonbeam,_Ontario

Three days later, with work responsibilities taken care of and a few hours to kill before we flew out of town, my colleague T. and I went for breakfast at a quirky little bistro called 'Back to the Grind' and then got in the car for a 'blind' tour. After being in the small town for a couple of days we didn't expect to see much of interest but what we found was quite memorable. The town seemed to have something to look at on every corner (there aren't very many corners). Sculptures and public art and an insane Cristmas display keep us wandering around for almost an hour. There is a large park in town with walking paths and public areas, I'm sure its a beautiful park in the summer bounded by a lake and river on two sides but currently it was quite covered with Christmas displays of every imaginable type. Nativity scenes next to plastic snowmen, kitschy angels and multi coloured strands of lights. We wandered about for a bit giggling at the the displays and then headed for the airport.

The Bearskin plane was sitting outside the airport when we pulled in and as T. and I were two of only three passengers we took off as soon as the pilots got back from lunch. A short, bumpy 30 minute flight back to Timmins gave a great view of Kap and the surrounding area and made me realize exactly how isolated it is. I shuddered a bit walking back into Timmins Airport but was soon on a real airplane heading home.

I get to sleep in my own bed for a few weeks as I work close to home in downtown Toronto and will enjoy that immensely but as I write this thinking how glad I am to be home I from Kapuskasing I see the name Fort McMurray looming ominously on the calendar in a few short weeks.