Grounded By Winter

So … it has now been a month since my last post.  We’ve been stalled by winter weather, and now Helen is in Portugal for the month.  In other words, we haven’t made any forward progress in our journey.

The problem is that with this extra time on my hands, I’ve been reading articles written by others also on a journey to cover the Trans-Canada.  The result has been that my old concerns have resurrected about the amount of road that makes up the *trail*.

A lot has been written criticizing the marking, maintenance, and safety of the trail.  Stories include scary encounters with heavy and fast moving traffic.  In one article, a former professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta wrote about his wife being killed when struck by a vehicle while they were cycling the trail in Eastern Canada. You can read his article here.

These stories have made me both sad and angry.

I’ve found myself again questioning our decision to undertake this journey.  However, I am then reminded that this is all about seeing Canada close-up-and-personal, and there was nothing that says we had to walk or cycle the road sections.

Giant astrolabe

So to shake myself out of this dark mood, I thought I would use this time to reflect on some of my favourite sights so far.  Without a doubt, that brought me back to Penetanguishene, which I have talked about in previous posts.  This town of just 9,000 is one of the best examples of why we want to explore the TransCanada.

The name Penetanguishene is an Algonquin name meaning “place of the white rolling sands”, and it is one of the oldest settlements in Canada west of Quebec City.

Penetanguishene (at the red dot) is located about 160 km north of Toronto, and 925 km west of Quebec City – considerably further if you’re travelling by canoe following the Great Lakes shoreline.

Every Canadian student learns about Samuel de Champlain – a French explorer and cartographer, commonly referred to as the Father of New France.  He is credited for much of the exploration and mapping of the Atlantic coastline, St Lawrence River, and the Great Lakes in the early 1600s.

Champlain arrived in this area in 1615, and 400 years later in 2015, a park and Heritage Trail were built along the Penetanguishene shoreline to commemorate that event.  The TransCanada follows this trail which is lined with statues, historical plaques, and other monuments.

Statue commemorating the first meeting of Champlain (on the right) with Wendat Chief Aenons.  (… and if you can, ignore the photobombing seagull).

If you’re looking for a town that resembles Old Quebec, you won’t find it here, but you will find a community rich in history.  This is a sampling of the sights in the Rotary Champlain Wendat Park.

Click on any photo  to view the gallery.

Lord Simcoe

Thank you for following our journey.

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As an aside to this story, my research uncovered an interesting piece of information related to Samuel de Champlain.  The image that’s always been associated with him is actually a depiction based on a portrait of another man – Michel Particelli d’Emery.

Image from TheCanadianEncyclopedia.com

No authentic portrait of Champlain is known to exist.