Rain and More Rain!!!

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Rain and More Rain!!!

Saturday, 25 August 2007

This morning my hand felt much better, so I had tentatively planned to bike from Onaping, where there are some impressive waterfalls with a lookout over them, back to the Sudbury area, using one of two possible routes. However, by the time I finished breakfast it was POURING outside, as if all the rain I’d not experienced on this trip was all coming at once. So it was on to plan B.

We first drove in a round-about way to the Dynamic Earth Museum, part of the Science North Museum, where I’d been requested to pick up some things to bring back home. This museum apparently consists of a real nickel mine, which is pretty much the basis for the economy of Sudbury. As hard as the rain was coming down, I just about got soaked simply going from the van to the building - good thing I don’t melt on contact with water! Somehow I’d gotten confused from the map on the routing and we had a nice “little” drive before we got there. (Sound familiar??)

Then we drove nearly all the way to Onaping; however the A.Y. Jackson lookout is a bit before the town. It’s part of a small park commemorating the types of rock which are found in the area, complete with large samples (about a metre cubed in size) of the various rocks. The falls were quite attractive, not quite as “exciting” as Kakabeka Falls, but maybe prettier in some ways. I should have brought my camera, now I don’t have any pictures of them for you. This time I DID get soaked, as did Bob and Panna, who was none too thrilled to be out in the rain - she loves to swim, but get her precious fur wet in a rainstorm?!?

We returned to the motel via a different, faster route, and there I changed into my waterproof pants, boots and jacket, with hood, and departed on my 10 kilometre walk. Much as I’d have just as soon stayed in, maybe worked some more on the blog entries, which are about 2 weeks behind, we really were not planning on taking another day off, so it was something I just “had” to do.

There are apparently portions of the Trans Canada Trail in Sudbury, and there is a nice brochure describing it plus the various other trails in and around the city. So I set off looking for one portion that was not too far from the motel, or so I thought. But, as so often has happened, I must have missed something, because, although I had a very nice, long walk through some residential area, I never saw any signs of the trail. It was only on my way back, when I decided not to follow exactly the same route I’d taken to get there, that I stumbled upon it, essentially by chance. So I guess we can say I’ve “done” the TCT (or part of it) in Sudbury too. On a sad note, I’d heard all sorts of sirens during the early part of the walk, and I saw lots of police cars and later heard & saw a police helicopter. At first I thought there had been a major accident, as they seemed to be coming from one of the more significant streets, but it turns out a boy had fallen into the creek, the very creek I was walking along on the trail. The water in it was flowing, surging like crazy, from all the rain run-off - maybe the storm sewers run into it as well. By the time he was found, the boy had drowned. What an end to the summer for his family.

DAY 57: On foot 10.6 km

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