I’d heard that Northern Ontario would be the longest leg of the trip, and they were right. Between highways 17 and 417, it was 2,151 KM/1337 miles. But it certainly wasn’t boring!
We had gotten into Kenora fairly late in the evening. We stopped at a Super 8 – the first hotel we came across, and had a meal at the restaurant and settled in for the night. Thankfully, it was much quieter than the Motel 6 we had stayed at. We fired up the car this morning, and were sure to give it a few moments to get over its “morning sickness”, waiting for the idle to rev down and smooth out. After that, we were back out onto Highway 17 eastbound.
The first of many rock cuts through the Canadian Shield
Once underway, we were greeted with the first of many rock cuts. We didn’t even bother counting them. Where the cuts were so even, I wonder if they used a machine, or is the blasting that precise. Anyhow, it would have been a massive undertaking. And they would have needed the rock to fill in the muskeg, I’m sure.
Turnoff to Atikokan
Just on the other side of the turnoff to Atikokan going up a hill, I noticed a big tire assembly heading towards me. I swerved to the left around it, and it continued on its merry way. It looked like it was off of an 18 wheeler, and became liberated somehow from its proper spot. I can’t even recall meeting a truck before that happened. We made our way toward Thunder Bay, where we had planned to spend the night. We still had some daylight, so we decided to keep heading east. Nipigon wasn’t far, so we travelled there, and settled in at the Beaver Motel for the night. It was recently renovated, using a rustic style. It was pretty nice.
View of Lake Superior
We filled the car with gas, had breakfast, and set out on our way. We were soon treated to some beautiful views of Lake Superior. It had snowed the night before, and had to scrape the car off with some cardboard we had, and hotel keycards I’d forgotten to give back. The roads were clear, and we had good driving ahead. One thing we’d noticed about the highway construction in Ontario was the seemingly weak-looking guard wires and little wooden posts keeping them up. I don’t know if they’d actually do much in case someone went off the road…and I would hate to hit one on a motorcycle. Speaking of hitting things…
Poor partridge…
We were driving along, when a large-ish bird flew out in front of us and came in contact with the front of the car, making a loud thud. My father-in-law was dozing, and just about came out of his skin with the noise. I don’t know if there are partridges/spruce grouse there, but that’s what it looked like to me. It didn’t hurt the car any, thankfully. It might have made a mess of the radiator if it had hit that.
Sigh of the times…
There were a lot of old, closed up motels and gas stations along the 17. Kind of sad, really. I don’t know if it is changing tastes, cars being better on fuel then they were years ago, or what. I should have kept count of all of them…it was a bit sad. The new chain hotels don’t really have much of the charm of the older motels.
Hooray, a reasonable speed limit!
As the day grew close to night, we were near Sudbury. With that came the second stretch of divided highway (the first was a short stretch east of Thunder Bay), and what is pictured above, the first 100 KM/H speed limit sign we spotted in Ontario. Unfortunately, my father was disappointed again – both divided highway and speed limit were temporary till we got into Sudbury.
Inco Superstack, Canada’s Tallest Chimney
One feature of Sudbury we couldn’t miss was the Inco Superstack. At 380m/1250 ft, it is the second tallest chimney in the world. It was constructed to allow the smelting gases to disperse over a wider area than the old chimneys did previously. We made our way to the Comfort Inn, which was fine – and had a good sleep.
Darn Check Engine light!
Now that we were in Sudbury, we could go to Princess Auto and pick up a reasonably-priced OBD scantool, and see why the Check Engine light was on. Princess Auto is a lot like Harbour Freight, they have a lot of cheap tools and supplies. Some stuff you wouldn’t want to make a living with, but for occasional use, it’s OK. We hooked up the scanner, and it came back with P0171 and P0174, lean codes for Bank 1 and 2 – a quick Google search said one of the most common issues is a dirty mass airflow sensor. Removed the sensor, and sure enough, there was a bit of gunk on one of the little sensor things. Picked up some MAF cleaner, gave it a good cleaning, and reset the CEL. The car started working better – no more off-idle flat spots, no high revving when restarted. And the light stayed off afterwards. We left Sudbury, to follow the Ottawa River Valley. Upon hitting the 417, it opened up to divided highway again, and we cruised effortlessly through to Quebec.
Passing into Quebec
The highways continued to be well-constructed into Quebec, and at a 110 KM/H limit. Thankfully, the long stretches of 90 – limited highway were over and done with. All of the road signage in Quebec is in French – and it allowed for some guessing by us three Anglophones. I’d worked for a company that operated out of Montreal for 11 years (and 5 days…) and was able to recognize some phrases, but that was about it.
Map of the A30 Bypass (Via a30express.com)
A special mention must be made of the A30 Montreal Bypass. As long as I can remember, it was always mentioned that the craziest section of the Trans-Canada was the part on Montreal Island. I don’t know if it is only us from the Maritimes that feel that way, but when I was up there in 2011 for training, it sure seemed to hold true. As a passenger in a taxi, it was a bit scary – bumper to bumper traffic at 120 KM/H, it was intimidating. So it was a relief when we found out we could bypass it. It made for an easy detour.
Low Ceiling in the Best Western
We made it as far as Drummondville. We spotted the Best Western Universel, and decided to stay there. Walking in, and spotting a grand staircase and fireplace, we figured it would be the most expensive hotel stay of the trip. Pleasantly, it was the cheapest place we had stayed at and was quite nice. Strangely, the hallway ceiling was very low – I don’t know if it was 7 feet. It reminded my father-in-law of his days mining coal in the pit!
For this stretch, we:
Travelled 2260 KM and burned around 198 litres of fuel, giving 8.7L/100KM, or about 27 MPG. Very good economy, I would say – probably due to the 2000 KM of 90 KM/H limits!
Rocks and trees and rocks and trees. And occasional lakes. Then more rocks and trees.
Last year we went through Montreal on our way to New Hampshire. Mrs DougD uses her phone to navigate but I’m old school so I don’t have data on my phone and use a map.
When we got to the sign for the A30 bypass her phone said to take it, but my 10 year old Rand McNally book said it didn’t exist. After some classic married person dialogue we chose the bypass, but had to regularly consult our french immersion schooled daughter about what the signs said.
Nice job on the sensor fix. At this point in the journey I still would have been on the prairies somewhere standing next to a broken down Rambler…
As the song goes about Texas.. “I saw miles and miles of Texas, as far as I can see” and Mom’s “Miles and miles of miles and miles..”
I really didn’t mind it at all. There was enough variation in the road – turns, hills, different rocks – to keep me interested. It must be hellish in the summer when it’s busy, and you get stuck behind something.
I’d still be lost without Google on the sensor issue!
Thats why I always did highway 59 south from Winnipeg, then US 2 all the way to the Michigan UP, over the Macinac and south to Flint, east to Ontario and left to Tranna(!). Pretty, but far less remote, with more regular fuel choices, and a chance to visit my favourite part of the States, as in virtually any rural area. As much as as the Superior to Sault St.Marie is pretty, give me the Big Mac any day!
I figure everyone’s gotta do the Canadian route once. Maybe only once…
Nice post, and a long drive. Lake Superior is beautiful especially in Fall.
If you came through Canada via HWY 1, you would’ve passed through Mossomin, SK, traffic ticket capital of the planet. RCMP can’t get you for speeding so set up well coordinated traps. I’ve counted over 8 cruisers doing this 2x on this stretch of highway.
The local police pull over some poor unsuspecting trucker, and wait till you go by, picking you off for failing to slow down while passing an emergency vehicle.
Its 60 km/hr when passing emergency vehicles. While other constituencies have a move over law, its the only jurisdiction I’ve found in all my North American motoring that enforces it like the tax starved low life they are.
Avoid
I would say with all the hardwood, the leaves would be pretty.
We didn’t see a cop till we hit the Ontario Border, then nonstop till we got out of Quebec! I did my best to keep the limit – with me using the plate in an uncertain situation I didn’t want to attract any extra attention.
At least you didn’t travel on the US side of the border in the Akwahsasne reservation. That too is ticket capital of NY State. .5 MPH over the limit and they’ve got you.
That would have sucked. the FIL didn’t have a passport, so the US was a no-go for us…
Glad to hear that the trip continued to go smoothly! Driving cross-country is something I’ve always meant to do, but I don’t know that it will happen any time soon, as my wife doesn’t like long car rides and I’d be loth to embark upon it solo.
I wouldn’t have let driving alone stop me, but my wife didn’t like that idea at all…and with her back she couldn’t have done the trip.
But really, I would have been OK on my own. Lots of time for reflection.
We were lucky to have such good luck, both with the car, and the weather…! Newfoundland just got hammered with 40 plus centimetres of snow, but we didn’t hit anything like that on our trip.
“…Strangely, the hallway ceiling was very low – I don’t know if it was 7 feet. It reminded my father-in-law of his days mining coal in the pit!…”
I’ve seen that in cool-weather areas. It turned out that in the ones I saw, the building had been constructed without central air conditioning, and when that was added later, the ductwork was installed in the hallways, lowering the ceilings.
I suspect you’re mostly correct…I figure it’s a ventilation system, I don’t think I have stayed in a larger motel without those horrid noisy big AC/Heat units.
I love old motels. U.S. Route 40 in Ohio runs parallel to Interstate 70 and has (had) lots of those classic motels and restaurants – now closed. Agree…sad.
Most people today get online hotel reservations and go for the big chains. Others prefer to stay in a larger city or town on a road trip. Still, too bad.
Me too – there’s a lot of character in the old ones. Here in Nova Scotia, anyway, a fair number of them survived.
It seems to be down to how they’ve been cared for. Some of the best motels here in NS are renovated older motels. Otherwise, like the Palliser in Truro, were left to wither and die after the highway got upgraded and passed it.
I agree on the motels. I did so many road trips in the 80’s and 90’s. We never planned any reservations. We just drove, with the confidence that any city, town or village would have at least a couple of funky independent motels.
Every town seemed to have a ‘motel row’ where they, restaurants, auto service places etc would sit, lurking on the outskirts of town.
My wife found this kind of travel alarming. She had a propensity to overplan and make reservations everywhere. I showed her how to be flexible with one’s time and just look. We have found plenty of gems over the years. It keeps the travel interesting. Too bad they are disappearing.
How come the dash shows English units when the signage & your figures are metric? But it does help us Yanks.☺
What these web sites need is an E/M button (wired to any measurement text) like Ford & other makes have on the dash.
Some vehicles with a digital dash allow you to switch between English and metric at the touch of a button. My Deville has this.
Yeah, the Vic does too. I was probably trying to get proof of MPG’s. 🙂
I suppose to help, roughly:
30 MPH is around 50 KM/H
40 MPH is around 65 KM/H
50 MPH is around 80 KM/H
55 MPH is around 90 KM/H
60 MPH is around 100 KM/H
70 MPH is around 110 KM/H
Hope it helps!
That instrument cluster reminded me of the one on my ’88 5.0L T-Bird. It’s been many years now since I traded that car in (I should write a COAL on it). It may’ve even been the exact same cluster. Yes, you could switch back and forth between metric and english, but for some reason the translation wasn’t perfect. According to the device, 1 mile = 1.6 km. In reality, it’s 1.609 and change. I noticed this difference in subsequent cars I’ve owned where the translation is exact. Back in 1988, we were on the tail end of all cars coming with a speedometer that would not read over 85 (or 88 mph in this one’s case if memory serves). But if you switched this one over to metric, it would keep going indicating much higher speeds. In my younger wilder days, I got it above 160 km/hour (100 mph) on a few occasions. I think the statute of limitations has run out now for me to admit that. ?
Good job on the roadside fix. The electronics revolution in engine management has its good points.
I am continuing to enjoy the adventure. I am remembering along about now how sore my back was after a 10 or 12 hour drive in my 66 Fury III. Lower priced cars back then did not provide the kind of back support that we have become used to. Another way that the more modern stuff can be better.
It’s a help – but when things go really wrong, there’s only so much that can go wrong with an old non-electronic car. The scanner and Google were the real stars there.
I’m glad you and everyone are enjoying it – it makes writing it worthwhile. I’m thinking of other trips/etc in the past I could write about. 5 years ago my parents, my wife and I did a little tour of Maine/New Hampshire with a ’98 Yukon towing a camper and a ’38 Ford – might make for an interesting yarn…
The power seat was a huge help in getting comfortable…getting the back angle, the front/rear angle just perfect – made all the difference in the world. there is a huge drawback though – when someone borrows your car gets in monkeying with it, it’s annoying!!
Some cars have the ability to remember one or more seat settings. I assume that if your CV had it, you would have found out.
“The highways continued to be well-constructed into Quebec”
They must have improved since I lived in Montreal in the 1970s – the standard joke when driving from Ontario into Quebec was that as you crossed the border, your car would trip and fall on its front bumper.
I never said it was a good joke…
All divided highway now with an exception of the little bit near New Brunswick. It was really nice.
I’m very familiar with those codes from my son’s Mazda6. Unfortunately cleaning the MAF didn’t help. But at least was the MAF, which is cheaper than an other common cause of that # on Mazdas, the (in tank) fuel pump.
“Out on the trans-Canada highway
There was a girl
hitchhiking with her dog
Fireflies buzzin’ round her head
Like candles in the fog.”
I haven’t heard or even thought about this song for many years. Your, very well written, article made it pop into my head. At least the song is not “It’s A Small World” 🙂
Enjoying the story so far. Interesting that you spent some time in Sudbury, I have family within walking distance of the Princess Auto you stopped at. I have visited it several times looking for good deals when I am in Sudbury. My dad’s family immigrated to Sudbury after WWII and working for Inco in the smelter was the job that bought my Grandfather his first house. My father put himself through university working there in the 1960’s.
That’s excellent mileage out of that Crown Vic. How fast were you travelling on Hwy 17? It may only have a 90km/h speed limit, but most people drive faster (10-20 km’s over typically). Ontario has low speed limits, but few actually follow them closely. Good luck on the rest of your trip east.
the bypass around montreal is a good idea. I remember coming back from the east in 1996 the drive through there was a nightmare. I swore the only rule of the road was that if there was daylight between you and the car in front someone else had to squeeze in. I was driving a big,rwd Fleetwood with the 4.1l motor and towing a trailer.
it was not ideal for closing the gaps in traffic……….:(
Nice writup and photos ! .
I’m sure there Are many more reading than commenting .
-Nate
Big shout-out to Princess Auto. Great place!. Where else can you get welding rods, a 3500lb trailer axle, a tube bender, ATV tires, ammo box, yoga mat, new fan for the PC, a sump pump and a can of peanuts under one roof?
I think their stuff is several cuts above Harbor Freight quality, but its more farm-industrial use, and less for the auto mechanic……. yeah I know, there’s “auto” in the name, but its so much more.
The hard cold start is a dead give away for a very dirty MAF on Fords. You usually see a little boost in mpg after the cleaning.
Interesting read again Marc, the scenery is quite different from out here! Also hard to believe those many miles of highway are just 90 km/h.
Also it seems the 8 motel was actually 2 better than the 6!
Ah, northern Ontario, at times beautiful and other times boring as can be, the stretch between Sault St Marie and Thunder Bay offers plenty of both.
Used to shuttle busses from Eastern Ontario to western Canada and brought my then girlfriend to bring one back with me. Till then she rarely ventured far from home and this was her first big driving trip.
Two days Later near Kenora she asked where we were, oh we’re still in Ontario I naively said unaware of the impending danger; with a withering glare she hissed. WE’RE STILL IN ONTARIO?! adding she thought we’d be well into Manitoba, that we’ll never get out of this f@€%*%g province etc. The trip was…..a little tense after that and she resolutely refused to go again.
Good times.
Marc I shouldn’t read your posts. They just stir me up with an urge to pack the suitcase, gas up the rusty Protege and head east out of Edmonton. It’s been decades since I’ve driven in northern Ontario, there are places I’d like to see again. And I have yet to visit Newfoundland. Twice, I’ve had the chance to go there but waffled over one thing or another.
Your trek has me thinking about driving the Mazda from here down to Redmond, Washington where my youngest daughter and her husband live. Kind of risky considering the Mazda is currently at 263,000 kms. No way the wife would come along. She can fly down anyway. The drive would be scenic either through BC or if I head down into Montana then west. And if the car broke down? Meh, then the real adventure begins.
I did the Edmonton – Toronto drive twice. First in a Nissan Multi (Stanza Wagon) pulling a U-Haul trailer, rarely faster than 80km/hr. Took the Ontario route via North Bay. It took a week. Second time in a Mazda 323 hatchback, during winter. I took the Minnesota route this time and it took 3 full days. I still remember being happy after I made it to the Ontario border so quickly. The joy dissipated after I realized I am only 1/2 way to my destination.
I think that A30 bypass around Montreal opened in 2012 or 2013. Heading east we didn’t know about it, and our ca 2010 GPS didn’t either, so we found ourselves finding our way through the city on a Friday afternoon, just as rush hour started. Pulling a trailer. SO glad we found the bypass for the return trip!