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Crossing Canada Day #14: Detour into Madness and Sudbury
Updated: Apr 8, 2022
We continue our Chronicles of Crossing Canada. Welcome back!
We left our camp on the banks of the Great Lake Superior as it poured down rain for our day of driving. Today’s destination: Sudbury Ontario.
Jaime Lee here...
We were looking forward to driving through Lake Superior Provincial Park today. We stopped in Schreiber for gas and coffee. The next town, Terrace Bay has an interesting history: In the mid-twentieth century, this town was developed to support the pulp and paper industry in the area. To attract and retain workers from all over Canada and the Globe, the industry invested in this town and made it a community for its employees and their families. Without this huge plant operation, Terrace Bay wouldn’t be the place it is today.
Marathon, White River, then Wawa – where our fateful detour began. According to Apple Maps, this detour from Wawa on Hwy 101 east was supposed to be 30 minutes shorter than any other route. The only problem – the navigator (yes moi), didn’t notice how far this route would take us off our intended path.
After taking the 101 East for a few km, it was not long before we noticed that there was nothing else on this road, not a camper, passenger vehicle or transport truck. That should have been our first red flag. At the junction of highway 101 and 129, we had to turn and go off course for 30-40 minutes because we needed to find gas. We were in an area with no internet signal and so no way of knowing when the next fuel up point was going to be beyond this point.
After fuelling up Chapleau (Northern Ontario rate of $1.659/L), I got in the driver’s seat. We doubled back to the original ‘detour’ route until it took us to an unmanaged dirt road and train whistle stop in Sultan Ontario. No man’s land! I slammed my fists on the steering wheel. We turned around and found a way back to paved Hwy 129 east. The first and only sign we saw was: Thessalon 198 km. Thessalon is back on Hwy 17 and 200 Km west of Sudbury. Do we take this route, or do we turn back? We decided to keep going to Thessalon.
Hwy 129 had all the features of an isolated northern road: winding, bumpy and hilly. There were no signs to be seen and no vehicles passed us or followed us. We were alone with sky, trees, and the never-ending road. It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. What if we got a flat? After about an hour and a half we saw our first transport, so we followed close behind him. I saw this a good sign that we were likely not going to run in to any other dirt roads.
We started seeing lakes and the subtle changes in colour of the carnivorous trees along this northern route. It was beautiful but my mind was on our destination – Sudbury. Again, I cursed Apple Maps as I screamed in the cab of the truck: “Why did it take us here!?” I was so mad with frustration and regret that I had to stop the truck and let Jim drive from here on out. The stress of this detour had me clenching my teeth for hours and eventually the pressure of my emotions erupted into a fierce headache. It was another 40 minutes on Hwy 129 before we surmised that the purpose of this isolated route was for access to the Algoma Headwaters and more northern routes to High Falls and the Little Long and Lower Sturgeon Hydroelectric dams.
