Wanderung 7

Ogling Ottawa and Ontario's Outstanding Outdoors

September 2004

September 13 - Drive to Sturgeon Falls, Ontario

We were sad to leave Sudbury, but Ottawa was calling us so we needed to continue to head east. As we only had to drive about 100 kilometers, I figured I had time to regrease the hitch and check other things on the trailer. I was surprised to find the wheel I had replaced in Montana had vibrated loose enough that I could shake the wheel. Inspecting more closely, I noticed the same pattern of accelerated wear and feathering on the inside edge that I had found on the tire that had failed at Sault St. Marie. The conclusion seemed inescapable that the basic process that had caused both tire failures was a loosening of the lug nuts followed by scuffing of the inside tread and ultimately failure of the tire. I tightened up the lug nuts as well as I could and checked the ones on the other wheel on the same side, making a mental note to keep checking them in the future. I had not thought it was necessary to do that because I haven't had to do retighten lug nuts on automobiles for at least the last 10-20 years. Monika asked the very good question of why it would be necessary to constantly recheck the lug nuts on the trailer but not on our cars, and I didn't have any good answer. If anyone else out there knows, please drop us an email! Replacing those two tires had cost me almost $200, so it was an expensive lesson and one that I hoped other people could avoid by taking note of my example.

The trailer maintenance together with a stop at Canadian Tire delayed our departure until 10:30, but we still arrived in Sturgeon Falls by noon. The Canadian Tire stores had, as I remembered from our last visit in Canada, a much better selection of camping, biking, and recreational goods than any comparable U.S. store. In particular, I found an ultra-compact coffee maker, lightweight stainless steel camping silverware, a wrist compass, pens for marking our CD ROMS, and some Schwinn bicycle oil. The coffee maker was essentially a small stick or dowel with special filter pouches that would hang from the stick into the cup of coffee or tee. So simple and lightweight and yet Monika found that it worked perfectly well when she tried it the next morning. The compact metal camping silverware was something I had been looking for over several months at various stores in the U.S., and here I finally found it in Canada! The bicycle section where I found the Schwinn chain oil was better than I had found in specialized bike shops back in the U.S., except that they didn't carry any tires for some reason. As you can see from the list of things we acquired in a mere half an hour, we were lucky to get out of there with only spending $34 Canadian!

During the drive over to Sturgeon Falls we saw the land flattening out and the nature of the agriculture changing. In particular, we started to see dairy farms and some crops like wheat rather than the pasture and hayfields farms we had seen up to that point. Since we had been moving east rather than south, I didn't think the change in climate was the basic reason, but rather a change in the nature of the soil. The land seemed flatter and appeared to simply have a greater accretion of soil than the land to the west and north along our route. Whatever the reason, the appearance of cows and farms with silos was a nice addition to the agricultural mix.

The campground we chose was at Lake Nippissing, right on the shoreline. We unhitched, had lunch, did the laundry, took a Supernap, and finally drove back into Sturgeon Falls to get the route for the Volksmarch there.

We settled on a 10 kilometer walk that was divided between 5 kilometers in the city and 5 kilometers along the nature trails in a park a couple of miles out of town. Since we weren't up to the entire distance--my feet still hurt--we decided to try the nature trail section in the hope that it would be a nice, soft forest trail, and that expectation was confirmed. The trail started from a museum complex with what looked like a reconstructed trading post or habitation of some kind, but by the time we arrived it was well after 5 p.m. and it was all closed. We just parked over near the trail head and began exploring all branches of the nature trail complex there. Many sections of the trail were on a really extensive system of boardwalks and although they were occasionally a bit cockeyed they were always softer on our feet than a paved trail surface would have been.


 

First we toured a cranberry bog, which looked a lot like wetlands everywhere to me, that is, rather like a swamp (bog, fen, muskeg, call it what you will), and then we walked out to an overlook for waterfowl. A huge sign at that overlook had really good color pictures of the many kinds of waterfowl that spend the summer there, and I was intrigued by the difference they discussed between "dabblers" who stay on the surface and just duck there heads to feed, and "divers" who go under water for a period of time to feed on the good gunk on the bottom. Who knew? This particular wetland boasted at least 8 species of dabblers and 8 species of divers, which amazed me. However, some of these species seemed to vary only in having a crest versus being a baldy, or subtly different patterns of colors, which is to say, they all looked like ducks to me! Unfortunately, we did not see any waterfowl, possibly because they had all left for the south rather than enjoying the fall colors, I don't know. It's hard for me to imagine birds that would spend the winter there what with 15 feet of snow, but I'm willing to be enlightened on that point.

We explored the final branch of the trail out to another section of the wetlands, and made it back to our campsite in time to take some nice sunset pictures. Our campground boasted a dock with slips for small boats and even some paddleboats. The golden rays of the sun were reflecting on the lake, and we just thought it was very beautiful. Monika even went out again after dinner to try to get some better shots, and then we settled in for another evening of working on the computers. Monika picked pictures for the trip up to that point while I continued to bring the journal up to date. While doing this we were both listening to the radio, which was fascinating for the insights it gave us on Canadian culture.

On the radio talk shows we heard discussions of college tuition where all callers but one thought tuition of a few thousand dollars a year was too high! Everyone was also worried that poor but meritorious students would have equal access to advanced education, which is a worry that I haven't heard voiced by any U.S. politician since Ronald Reagan made wealth and elitism respectable. The discussion centered on possible increases in government funding for education rather than the cuts that have been the rule in most states in the U.S., so the contrast in perceived problems, basic values, and proposed solutions could not have been starker.

Similarly, the discussions of support for extending the medical system centered on issues like reducing the waiting lists and supporting prescription drug purchases, but there was no questioning of the basic single-player government-directed medical system. The basic right of every Canadian to be able to see a doctor when they feel ill without having to pay hefty fees was simply not questioned. Again, I had never heard a U.S. politician since Hillary Clinton's abortive movement on health care voice any distinct statement about any right of U.S. citizens to have access to medical care. Similarly, the quiescence of the U.S. government in the face of price gouging by pharmaceutical companies was 180 degrees opposite from the Canadian system of controlled drug prices, having the predictable result of U.S. citizens crossing the border to purchase necessary drugs in Canada.

Overall, my perception was that the Canadian and U.S. cultures have been diverging on some of the core cultural values that define each one. Certainly public support of higher education and the government regulated health care system were two of these cultural shibboleths. Another curious difference was the role of labor unions and the prevalence of strikes in Canada compared to the U.S. While we were there the Canadian border guards and National Park workers went on separate strikes, and when was the last time you heard of a nationwide strike of some group of government workers in the U.S.? So one way and another we kept ourselves entertained and our feet up until it was time for bed.

Copyright 2005 by Robert W. Holt and Elsbeth Monika Holt
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