Roadtrippin with friends is so much fun!
We started out from Kettle Lakes Provincial Park on an Adventure to Cochrane! One of the most northern towns you can drive to! It is a cool little town with an awesome train station. This is where you would catch the train to Moosenee. The train station has been kept really nice and original. There is a cute little restaurant and a part for bus and train tickets. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed due to covid. So hoping it is not a commercial victim because it had great food and was cool to sit and eat in. Hopefully it will be open for business next time we are up there.
Cochrane also has a very cool polar bear exhibit. Not all the parts were functioning so we did not go in but I have been there before and to see those huge majestic animals is neat! Although Cochrane is pretty far north, it is still way to far south for polar bears naturally. Black bears oh ya but not polar bears!
Your not going to believe this but right by the Tim Hortons is Biway!! Remember those? It is of course closed but was strange to turn the corner and see the sign! Hahaha!
We went on down Hwy 11 to Moonbeam! The Aliens have Landed! The Aliens have landed!! Hahaha! Well maybe, maybe not, but they left their space ship. 🛸
Moonbeam actually got its name from early 1900 pioneers who saw flashing lights falling from the sky into the creek. What were they? Could it have been Alien life forms coming to visit? I guess we will never know but it sure is a cute little town with a neat space ship in the middle of nowhere!
Driving back to the park through the forests is always one of my favorite drives. Some parts you drive through up here are so dense you can only see a few feet in. I often wonder how something the size of a moose wanders through it. The Boreal Forest is a huge forest range that actually runs the length of Canada! How cool would it be to drive that eh!
The next day we spent a relaxing day in the park planning a trip to Cobalt to go to a mining museum and playing with the chipmunks. Kim actually got to pet one! Hahaha! Cutie little creatures aren’t we!! 😉 My plan was to let them wander and me work on my blog but the museum was closed but there was this trail you could follow called the Heritage Silver Trail. It took you through historical mining and the ruins of old mills. Ok this is cool!
Site #1 was the Glory Hole! Hahaha! It was a big hole. You knew it was deep as when you approached it you could feel the cold air coming up through the crevice! Oh btw we started at site #12 cause ya know the middle is always the best place to start! Lol!
It was a maze of very cool ruins and neat stories. Old mills and long forgotten buildings! Gravel roads and oh should we??? I love those types of drives! I had to remind Kim that if I can get in I can get out! Lol!
The last stop was the coolest and I mean cold. The sign said it was an Ancient Lake bottom. The ripple in stones show the years before when the water ran through here and is representative of an dryed lake. To the left there was a sign that said ” adit” this way! Hmmmmm what the heck is an adit???
The adit was a tunnel that must have gone really deep. As we walked closer the air began to cool. We came across the opening of the tunnel and the cold air coming out of it was like a wind. Colder than any air conditioning that I ever felt! How far down must this tunnel go to create that kind of coldness?? It felt pretty good actually it was a very warm day! Lol! There was 2 sets of grates. New ones on the front and old one just about 10 feet inside!
On the way to the adit we came across this huge white pine tree!! It was so massive I could not get into the whole picture! As you go north the pines get smaller apparently! It was interesting!
What a great day with great friends!
Hope you had fun coming along on my Chipmunk Adventure!! See you next time!
🐿