Reflections: Ottawa-Winnipeg Summer Road Trip 2010

It's been merely a day since I arrived back in Ottawa late last night (Saturday, Aug. 28). I was too exhausted, and got up late from bed, around lunch time today (Sunday, Aug. 29). I had been busy unloading and unpacking. The front-end of my truck, including the front part of my Thule roof box, was completely smeared with specks of dead bugs, so well-covered that I had never seen before. I had to drive to a nearby car-wash to clean them up. Overall, the road trip was a wonderful experience and quite refreshing, albeit a tiring one, nevertheless. I had visited one of Canada's largely undiscovered vacation paradise.

While in Winnipeg for four days, I mostly visited old friends that I still have contact with. I also took my truck for an oil change at a Midas garage. Additionally, I paid a visit to my former Alma Mater, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Manitoba, which had changed somewhat over the last ten years, due to old buildings being torn down and replaced with new ones. I managed to meet with a few people there whom I knew from the past, including my former thesis advisor. A new CFL-class football stadium was also being built for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on a former campus football/soccer field. This was a very large open field formerly occupied by snow bunnies in the winter, when I used to walk through it daily from my home to my office on campus. I also visited the Assiniboine Park in the Tuxedo area (especially, the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden, the English Garden, and the Formal Gardens, which I had not visited in the past) and The Forks.

At the moment, however, I'm still awaiting help from my friends here to uninstall my large Thule roof box (7 ft long, and weighing 47 lbs) off the roof of my truck, but no one seems to be available today... :(
Therefore, I am unable to park my truck in the garage for yet another day (had to just leave it outside). Actually, I was unable to talk to anyone of my friends on the phone today... only to leave voice messages. Anyway, I will be sorting out pictures from my camera that I took on this trip, and posting them here soon. Stay tuned.

Returning to Ottawa - Day 4

Day 4 was also interesting, because I visited a friend in Sudbury for a couple of hours (chatted, snacked, and played ping-pong), after checking out of my hotel at 11:00. Compliments of my friend, I was presented a home-made jar of plum jam, and a green Thai hot pepper freshly off his backyard garden. Also, visited the well-known (at least in Sudbury) "Dynamic Earth" museum in the afternoon at 13:45 for a couple of hours, for a tour of an underground copper-nickel mine (about 65 meters below ground level, I believe). It was a $20 admission fee plus tax. The underground mine was cold and damp, with occasional dripping water here and there. Then, it was a straight drive home to Ottawa at 16:40, arriving in Ottawa at 23:35, with a 40-minute stop over for dinner in a tiny town on just west of Mattawa on Highway 17. Soon after driving off from Sudbury, saw a couple of white-tailed deer dashing across the highway about two cars ahead of me. More to be added... stay tuned.

Returning to Ottawa - Day 3

Day 3, decided to head back into the mountain highway north of Sault Ste Marie to take some pictures during the day, including an educational and relaxing stop at Batchawana Bay (has a very small collection of Native archeological artifacts dating back to 3500 years ago, spoke with the collector in-person about the collection, and a beautiful soft sandy beach), then headed back to Sault Ste Marie for dinner. Afterwards, started driving off at 20:00 towards Sudbury to stay for the night. Unfortunately, had a detour off Highway 17 because of a highway accident which blocked off the highway, just east of Webbwood. The detour was through a dirt road (bumpy) into the next town of McKerrow where the I was able to get back onto the highway. Arrived at Sudbury at 23:30. More to be added... stay tuned.

Returning to Ottawa - Day 2

Day 2 started at 11:00 with a good drive from Thunder Bay through the mountain highway around Lake Superior to Sault Ste Marie, arriving there at 22:45. Along the way, visited the Ouimet Canyon off Highway 17, an hour's drive outside of Thunder Bay, near Dorion. The canyon was 100 meters deep, 150 meters wide, and 2 km in length. Just prior to that, visited Canada's longest (single span) suspension foot-bridge at Eagle Canyon (182 meters), which was next to the Ouimet Canyon. The bridge was suspended 45 meters above the canyon floor. Also, stopped at numerous picnic and lookout points along Highway 17, on route to Sault Ste Marie. They were mostly very spectacular views of mountains and lakes. Drove into the mountainous Lake Superior Provincial Park south of Wawa in the evening around sunset, and stopped at a couple of picnic areas to take some sunset pictures. More to be added... stay tuned.

A stop at a scenic lookout point on Highway 17 just west of Schreiber (between Waypoints 15 and 16 on my GPS map).

A scenic southwest view overlooking a bay in Lake Superior.

A scenic south view of a bay in Lake Superior, with unique cliff mountains in the background.

A view of Highway 17 heading towards Schreiber.

Returning to Ottawa - Day 1

Left Winnipeg on a late Wed morning, through warm/hot sunny conditions. In the late afternoon, saw the aftermath of a collision between two semi-trailers, with one ended up in the ditch off the highway, badly damaged, while the other was on tow and completely burnt. This was on Highway 17A just after the split between Highway 17 and Highway 17A near Kenora. Stopped at a scenic lookout point on Highway 17 to take some pictures, at around 14:30. Stopped in Dryden at 16:40 to gas up the truck, and as a pit stop. Stopped at the visitor center at Ignace as a pit stop at around 17:30, but it was closed. Took some pictures instead. Drove a little bit past Ignace and pit-stopped at a picnic area, and snacked and took pictures. Saw a baby moose (without its familiar antlers) charging back and forth among some bushes in ditch beside the highway, apparently playing by itself there. Arrived in Thunder Bay after dinner time in the evening. More to be added... stay tuned.

Road to Winnipeg - Day 3

Day 3 of the road trip from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg was another interesting drive. The driving took me through a heavy rain storm starting from Thunder Bay. Fortunately enough, unlike Day 2 going around Lake Superior, there were no steep mountain roads to ascend or descend. Nevertheless, the elevation of the terrain in which the highway passes through was up to 525m above sea level. The terrain around Lake Superior on Day 2 was much below 400m albeit quite steep.

The Day 3 drive started off late in the morning at 10:45am. Driving through the heavy rain around lunch time, at about 1pm, I came upon a tiny highway town called Uppsala. I had slowed down, hoping to find a decent restaurant to stop for lunch. But I passed through it in just an instant. I made a quick U-turn back into the small town and stopped at a gas-bar with a souvenir store and a small restaurant (the all-in-one type of store). I ordered a lunch platter of cabbage rolls and perogies. Yummie, it was the best cabbage rolls and perogies I ever had in a long time. In about 40min, the heavy rain had sizzled to just a drizzle, and it was time to continue on my way to Winnipeg. Nearing Dryden, the sky cleared and it became sunny and hot (high 20s, as opposed to high teens just before). Apparently, I had just driven past the edge of a cold front into a warm front of nice weather!

Road trip to Winnipeg - Day 2

Day 2 started with a drive from Sault Ste Marie at 10:35am on August 19, arriving in Thunder Bay at 7:20pm. The drive was through some very scenic mountain highway on a bright warm sunny day. The highway went through some very sparsely populated region along the coastline of Lake Superior. The trip was occasionally interrupted by numerous highway stops due to road constructions.

Road trip to Winnipeg - Day 1

After weeks of planning, my trip to Winnipeg began today at 10:30am from my home in Ottawa. It was an exhilarating but tiring drive, arriving in Sault Ste Marie at 8:40pm this evening, i.e.which is a little more than 11 hours later. The actual driving is about 10 hours. Although it started with a warm sunny morning and afternoon, my trip encountered a heavy rain towards the end of the drive in the evening. Just before the start of the severe rain storm, just after passing through Sudbury, I witnessed an aftermath of a car that went off the highway into a ditch, creating a plume of dirt scattered by the strong wind. It was a very windy day then, anyway. A minivan had stopped to assist the teen girl who was the driving the car, and she was dazed but apparently unhurt. I drove on as it was difficult for me to suddenly stop at highway speed, as my truck was carrying a heavy load. So, this was Day 1.

A condor perched beneath the Navajo Bridge?

Can you imagine sighting a condor perched beneath the Navajo Bridge? But just what is a condor, and where is Navajo Bridge? Google these and you'll find out!

Well, about a month ago (April 16, 2010), my friends and I were on vacation driving around the Grand Canyon area in Arizona, USA. We drove over the Navajo Bridge and decided to stop at the visitor's center by the bridge to enjoy the picturesque scenery and to snap some pictures. The weather was really very sunny with a light cool breeze and a comfortable temperature of around 21 deg C (70 deg F). It was almost 4 pm in the afternoon when a visitor on the bridge came over to me to asked if I had a telephoto lens on my camera, which I didn't have, unfortunately. He said he would like to use it to check out a large black bird perched on a steel beam beneath the bridge, which could very well be a condor. It was quite a distance from us. We all watched it for awhile, and I decided to take some snapshots at it with my low-end automatic camera.

Here are some of my camera shots:

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A northwest end view of Navajo Bridge. The circle in red indicates where the bird was perched.

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A zoom-in view of the red circle in the above picture.

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The condor (in the red circle) as viewed from the northeast side of Navajo Bridge.

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A zoom-in view of the red circle in the above picture. Note that the condor had a "C1" tag on its left wing.

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Note that the pictures here are web-optimized, but the original ones are available upon request. FYI, here is a Condor Conservation weblink.

Enjoy!

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Dec. 27, 2014 - Lastest update to my favorite Condor C1:
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I just discovered that Condor C1 died of suspected lead poisoning in June 19, 2012, according to the condor website http://www.nps.gov/grca/naturescience/condor_updates.htm, which said:

7-year-old female 381/tag C1: Chris Parish of The Peregrine Fund reports "June 19, 2012 - Grand Canyon dispatch relayed information that Condor #381F was reported to have been observed on the previous evening on a beach in South Canyon in rather poor condition. The next morning she was found dead. After a first failed attempt at recovery in the 100 plus degree heat, two TPF biologists were successful in recovering the carcass on Friday 22 June 2012. The carcass was intact and radiographs revealed what appears to be an intact pistol bullet in the area of the ventriculus suggesting ingestion, but we'll let the pathologists determine what they can." Condor Cliffs displays the x-ray image showing the pistol bullet. As posted by The Peregrine Fund biologists, this is likely "not a hunting issue or season- animals are dispatched or put-down all of the time, and this is probably one of those cases."

My once a year entry

Here is my once a year blog entry, though a short one this time.

So, here is a scenery of an icy Highway 60 near Madawaska, on my way to the Algonquin Provincial Park this past Monday.


Google these places and you will see where they are.

Happy Easter! Enjoy!