After writing a weekly story and reviewing too many times I press send in the bottom left of the dialog box to Carol (Editor) Martin at the Village Media offices in the Soo.
Upon publication every Saturday at about 10:30 a.m. I like looking at the submitted photos Carol has chosen but don’t usually read the submission, the next story is somewhere being composed in my cranium.
Then there are the subsequent emails from readers about the week’s effort, often people tell me things that I wished I would have known for the story. That’s how it goes week in and week out. It is my avocation.
Traditionally, year after year, there is a two-week review of the submissions, it is a bit of a break transitioning into 2025.
But not really because it becomes a challenge I have to go back, read them again, and choose the stories for some good reasons. Fun enough and I wonder.
If you read my stuff, there are many talking heads (interviews) something artificial intelligence cannot replicate within our northern Ontario context – well not yet anyway. It makes the stories more credible, expert oral context is meaningful.
My feelings and thoughts are mostly hidden between the lines. Sometimes the reasons are not so apparent, so here goes, there’s some revelations to share behind the scenes.
Winter labyrinth
The previous winter of 2023 was a write-off – I had been convalescing from a nasty bug that almost ended my life and almost took a limb. I did compose a couple of stories about this journey though.
So this past winter of 2024, albeit there was not much snow, I was healthy again and itching to go snowshoeing.
So the first jaunts were at the Canadian Ecology Centre-Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park labyrinth which I started to create during COVID.
This story was published on February 3.
There were interviews. “One of the foremost authorities on labyrinths resides in northern Ontario. Gailand MacQueen. His two books are The Spirituality of Mazes & Labyrinths and Celebrating The Labyrinth - A Journey of the Spirit.
Then a therapist. “There are benefits to entering and exiting the labyrinth."
Nazneen Mehdi is a psychotherapist nurse in Toronto. She says you may feel a sense of solace from being alone.
“There’s one way in and one way out, but along the way, there are twists and turns. There are no dead ends, no wrong choices like in a maze. Instead, you can be confident that if you keep going, eventually you will reach the centre of the labyrinth.”
She also helped me with mind and spirit exercises to get beyond the “why me” of my physical predicament focusing on the now, “not what I could do but what I can and will do.”
Reasons that are important to all of us were identified.
“You can snowshoe or walk the labyrinth any time, any season. A great opportunity to combat the winter blues or SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) with a dose of Vitamin N. It awaits your presence.”
“Trust your Path,” Gailand McQueen says. Sage advice, for the labyrinth, and on the back roads. This story was an invitation to come to the labyrinth, it is a standing invitation to youse. (Will Carol take that out…[not this time, Bill] I never wonder too much about her! Although I use youse too much.) The winter labyrinth is open for 2024-25.
Remote solitude
Although it was the dead of winter on February 10, my mind then was thinking about open water and the first paddle strokes of the season upcoming.
The story started with talk about last winter’s weather prediction, (this year’s is a little offside).
It started like this: “This week is another mild week. And this recent spate of balminess got me thinking about paddling and back road destinations. Sometimes people ask what is a must-see and do canoe trip. There are natural reasons.”
The remoteness and solitude of the Temagami region was the destination.
Brian Back is the long-term proponent of www.ottertooth.com – the ultimate Temagami go-to resource – “The world's third-busiest wilderness-canoeing area.”
He described the landscape.
“You’ll find some of the province’s highest ridgelines and oldest forests in this swath of quintessential canoe country. Lady Evelyn-Smoothwater Provincial Park is at the heart of the Temagami wilderness. More than 4,700 kilometres of canoe routes have been identified in the region—equal to the distance between New York and Los Angeles. Regional First Nations know the thousand-year-old network of portages, trails and waterways as Nastawgan, and so did Grey Owl.”
Yet in another interview.
“Thor Conway is retired but was a leading government archaeologist in northern Ontario for four decades. He has a book on the go: Secrets of the Temagami Wilderness, and he knows a few, particularly for Florence Lake. I was able to have a sneak peek at a draft chapter entitled: Florence Lake wilderness and someone’s back yard, I reached him in British Columbia.”
Author and conservationist, and founder of Earthroots - Hap Wilson was also contacted. He was one of last week’s contributors in helping to define the lure of back roads.
My musing at the time: “There is probably no snow on your canoe in the backyard. It is not too early to start thinking about back road adventures.
"Where are your favourite wilderness spaces? Being present at Florence Lake means living for a few days surrounded by solitude. It is a different feeling. It is a longing for life that allows one to touch and feel the natural world.”
Listen to more from Hap on the Back Roads Bill (BRB) podcast.
Cobalt art
On February 24 my writing turned to the right side of my brain.
A reader told me about an art exhibit at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection: Home to the Art of Canada.
The story starts with:
“Cobalt: A Mining Town and the Canadian Imagination’ is the title of a new art gallery exhibit and a book. It is an introspective look at an early northern Ontario town in transition through an environmental lens. And you can stand and view where they created their works of art.
“As a back road storyline, it would be most likely themed as the man versus nature conflict. This is when the protagonist, either alone or together with other characters, is in direct opposition to the forces of nature.
"The silver rush started in and around 1904-05 and at its peak provided approximately one-eighth of the world’s silver. It was like the Klondike Gold Rush it attracted miners, scientists, scholars, and artists. The natural landscape was changed immediately and drastically.”
But then I learned a great deal from the curator.
“Catherine is Dr. Catharine Mastin, guest curator for the exhibit and author of the book. Her grandfather was Franklin Carmichael from the Group of Seven painters. The exhibit link is live along with the curatorial talk video with Dr. Catharine M. Mastin,” (the curator cites Back Roads Bill as part of her research).
There were a number of complementary interviews including one northern Ontario M.P. Charlie Angus, a resident of Cobalt and author of a number of mining-heritage books.
Put this on your agenda.
“To get a feel for the exhibit take a trip to Cobalt, it has so many back roads. The Heritage Silver Trail takes you around this national historic site. Cobalt is special it hangs on to its past.”
Listen to my interview with the curator on the BRB podcast.
Blackfly song
We listen to the lyrics of songs and sometimes wonder. This May 27 story was all about interpretation and seasonal timing was right enough.
From the beginning: “Well, the blackflies are always out first and there’s a back roads song which is kind of like the provincial anthem of northern Ontario, especially at this time of the year.
“If you don’t know the lyrics of The Blackfly Song, first have a listen to this National Film Board animated vignette.
This will get you started.
…And the black fly, the little black fly
Always the black fly, no matter where you goI’ll die with the black fly a-pickin’ my bones
In north On-tar-i-o-i-o, in north On-tar-i-o…
The poignant lyrics were explained along the way of how Wade Hemsworth saw the land at the time.
It is a folk song from a not-so-well-known Canadian balladeer of damming rivers and making them flow in another direction contradictory to what those highway height of land signs say. Have a listen to what one folk singer has to say about this on BRB podcast.
Swimming pool mystery
This was one of those “Did you hear about the swimming pool on the island in the middle of nowhere? ” references. I think it was a family relation of Brian Emblin – my go-to ‘City with a Heart of Gold’ buddy, Back Roads Bill accomplice. It is his favourite of this year and this story was published on June 8. He said it had mystery and that back roads challenge aspect.
Natural curiosity was enough and this story did indeed have more mystery, conjecture and feedback than all the rest. I learned about the power of social media and community Facebook books and the need to decipher oral history. It was a jigsaw puzzle alright.
The first three paragraphs of the lead pretty much sum up where the story would go.
“Who constructs a concrete swimming pool, by hand, on a small island in the middle of a remote lake, for his wife to swim in, with the pool water coming from another source, not the lake? And way before recreational pools became popular in backyards, never mind the back roads.
“Next to the Bethnal (Dec. 30, 2020 Village Media story) Springs health spa, back roads’ mystery story, this next puzzle has many question and answer pieces.
“And this story underlines the importance of recalling oral history and some aspects of social media.” Have a listen to this story on the BRB podcast.
Mica Bay Incident
The Mica Bay incident story was aired on June 15 and the setting is important for many reasons.
“On Highway 17 North you drive by the picturesque shoreline of Lake Superior, there are opportunities to pull off and take in the views of the stunning natural environment.
“Along the way though there is no historic ornate blue or red bronze highway plaque identifying one of the important Indigenous-settler events in Ontario’s multi-cultural history with a national impact.
“The word incident means an event or occurrence but what historians call the Mica Bay Incident has far-reaching cultural and legal implications, especially for the Métis Nation of Ontario, some First Nations and levels of government.
"I was the intrepid adventurer with a buddy of mine, Brian Emblin from Timmins, we were determined as there was a reference through the abandoned mines of Ontario registry, and we knew this went back to 1849.”
Experts were contacted to make sense of it, a significant Indigenous occurrence.
Searching and finally finding the copper mine (albeit it was one of those bushwhacking times, maybe it’s over there?) told me that in early times Indigenous people were not consulted. Times have changed and will continue to do so.
Maybe there will be a roadside plaque, some day? Listen to the BRB podcast regarding Mica Bay.
Water mega projects
The June 29 story of two mega projects underlined the historical fact that this would never happen again without consultation.
Water power is still sought after and these post-Great Depression economic times indicated humankind’s need for electricity.
The lede to the story sets the scene.
“In the past, the idea was to just about dam everything.
“Did you know they were going to create a sixth man-made Great Lake? Other than Lake Nipigon and beyond.
“You always wonder who 'they' are?
“We don’t know much about 'them,' but two other mega hydro projects did evolve, significantly raising the water level of the Great Lakes.
“One of these projects is a water control dam much wider than the famed Hoover Dam on the border of Nevada/Arizona. The other scheme created an erosion-plagued reservoir twice the size of PEI.”
So seeing what was, the environmental grandeur and degradation are good enough reasons to go way back on the back roads. Listen to more about this on the BRB podcast.
A new one
There always seems to be another northern Ontario waterfall to find. And High Falls was all so worth the trek and it was one of those “should we cross this deep water, beaver dammed once logging road?”
This story took place in the heart of the summer on July 13.
It begins with ”You can add this find to your list of back roads exploring some of the most dynamic waterfalls in northern Ontario.
“It is more than a scenic place to see, it is the context for many stories linked to the chi contained within falling water.
“Waterfall-watching calls upon the senses and initiates a range of natural emotions for you and others.”
And it did, far enough from Caramat-Longlac and on long abandoned, once-active logging roads. The drop is mesmerizing and the water flow on that visit (as per the photo) was so worth it.
High Falls was once featured in a past resource guide and I found the author in Manitouwadge, a kindred spirit of sorts. Listen to the story of the river driver on the BRB podcast.
Upon review of these stories. we do live in this vast and magnificent land with so many destinations and stories worth telling.
Next week, January 4 we look at the second half of 2024.
Find my email below and tell me what were your favourite stories from the back roads.