AdrianR wrote:
PacketFiend, which one would be the most beautiful drive in Ontario?
Well, since you asked, allow me to pontificate...
I like to drive. Like,, I
really like to drive. Really far. RIght now I have at
least ten official Ontario road maps in my office, of various vintages, and I'm eagerly awaiting a delivery of new ones in the mail. There's two kinds of driving I like. There's the hours on end, nothing but an open sky and an open road kind of driving, and then there's what I call small town driving.
For hours-on-end driving, I actually usually take highway 11 to Thunder Bay. It's flatter, easier, and although you can't see as far on that route, the scenery is still quite something. You can really see the temperate turn into the boreal on that drive. It's remote enough in places that people tend to congregate, especially in inclement weather, and form what I would call "silent convoys". Highway 11 just North of Nipigon has the same feel as the approach to Wawa from Chapleau to me; you can visibly see the terrain and vegetation changing.
The approach to North Bay from the south is definitely something to write home about. That view is spectacular. Oftentimes, rather than 11, I'll detour through Sudbury and take 144, stopping in Timmins as a halfway point to Thunder Bay rather than the Sault. I really enjoy the northern part of 144, north of Gogama, where it's nothing but mines, reservations, and logging roads for a couple of hours. Once or twice I didn't see a single other car between Gogama and Timmins. There are some spectacular scenic and panoramic views along 144, the best of which are south of Gogama.
Other times I'll take the Sultan Shortcut (which is amazing in its own way, although anything but "beautiful"), which starts about two hours north of Sudbury and then heads west to Sultan and on to Chapleau. Chapleau is a nice place to stop - a very proud town with a great sense of civic pride. From there to Wawa it's a lot of mostly deserted roads that are (as of this summer) in quite good condition. As you approach Wawa the terrain seems to start closing in around you. You can smell the Superior Coast coming in the wind.
The drive to Ottawa on 416 is quite nice. It's wide open and cleared enough that it's easy to forget that this is not a place you want to be stranded in winter. A few years back I took a trip down memory lane and drove 15 to Ottawa, through Tweed. My god, I forgot how bad the bugs can get on that road. But it's really fantastic farming country to drive through - you see the farms fade away as you go north off the 401, and it all slowly starts to come back as you approach Ottawa.
Then there's my other favorite kind of driving, the small town driving. I'll be honest, Northern Ontario really sucks for that. I'll take any chance I can get to drive along the lower Great Lakes shores. I particularly love driving through Prince Edward County and just kind of going where the dart lands. That area is gentrifying quickly, so go see it in all its glory while it's still there. The Niagara Peninsula is also a great place to do this kind of driving - lots of wineries and roasters, and it never really gets cold (snow-squally at times, but that's easy enough to avoid with a half-baked plan).
Living in the GTA suburbs, when I can't venture far from home, I really enjoy the Escarpment. I took up gliding this year (I won't tell you I'm a pilot, though), and joined up with a soaring club near Arthur. During the summer I'll take the "very scenic" route there, leaving with no food, but arriving with a trunk full of fresh, local produce, and maybe a few trinkets. There's some really nice towns around. Elora and Elmira come to mind. It's mennonite country, and assuming it's not Sunday, everyone and his brother is selling farm fresh eggs or something of that nature. (Fun story, we had a pilot "land out" in a mennonite's field. The whole fam damily showed up as we packed the glider into a trailer for the journey back. They were great people, a testament to their creed. And no, "landing out" with a glider is not
that big a deal.)
The Forks Of The Credit used to be a favorite of mine. Great scenery there, and with the terrain and limestone and difficult building, I doubt it will ever get overbuilt. But in my youth, I drove that road too fast and I had a good scare or two. It's a great place to just pull over and explore, and there's Belfountain on the western end of it.
Well anyway, there's my thoughts on my favorite drives in Ontario. I've never driven west of Thunder Bay so I can't tell you much about that area. Funny how the Sunday Algonquin Circle Tour didn't make the list, but I suppose that's only been ruined by the pandemic and it'll come back.
(Did I mention I love driving? Just consider yourself lucky I didn't talk about the survival kit in my car, either the winter or summer kit. Let's just say I've needed it once or twice.)
recped wrote:
It used to be an even more beautiful drive when the original highway opened in 1960.
If you think the current road is "nasty" you should have driven the original. While the pavement was good the ups and downs were killers balanced by many more spectacular views of the lake, lots of questionable bridges and the sight of log runs on every river you crossed. No passing lanes either so what can now be driven easily in a day would take at least two back then.
It's not "nasty" anymore really. But if you're pulling a two ton trailer behind a 4 cylinder Outback with a slipping clutch, in early spring with snow falling around you, it's definitely nasty. By the way, of anyone needs a mechanic in Thunder Bay, I can recommend one:
H & H Auto Service & Towing 
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