Friday was the day the trip was planned for. We were up at
5:00, long before the sun, and it was “Springhill coal mine” dark! Coffee was
in travel mugs ready for the trip to Sault Ste Marie where John promised Egg
McMuffins before heading to the Agawa Canyon Train Station.
At the end of WW I, Lauren Harris led an assembly of artist
friends to the Agawa Canyon on the first “RV” trip. Their accommodation was a
specially fitted red boxcar that they parked along the Algoma Railway line. It
was the base camp for the now famous Group of Seven boxcar trips, which
produced the iconic Canadian masterpieces! Today we traveled the same historic
line to gaze in awe at the views that inspired the familiar paintings. It isn’t
difficult to understand how they were inspired to paint. The views along the
line, even in the rain are beautiful!
When I started out on my year off, one of my fall goals was
to watch the leaves change. Our timing of this trip has provided the
opportunity to do just that. There is still a predominant green to the view;
part of that is of course the abundance of evergreen on the Canadian Shield,
but many of the deciduous trees still cling to their green. The bright, verdant
green of the spring and early summer has faded however and the green that
remains John described as “tired”. I couldn’t had said it better myself!
Liberally mixed with the green however, are splashes of magnificent colour. The
reds, oranges and yellows that are beginning to appear offer the ever changing
landscape that is iconic Canada!
Fall used to be my least favourite time of year. As a child
I really mourned the loss of summer. Summers in Newfoundland, though short,
were spent outdoors. We were a camping family and I remember vividly the
excitement of the last day of school. It signaled our transfer into our tent,
or in later years our tent trailer, and a move to a Provincial Park. We would
sometimes spend the entire summer there, with my Dad donning court robes in the
campground to head in for a day of work! We would spend our days swimming, hiking
and exploring, and generally making our own fun. On Sunday morning we would go
home for Mass, laundry, proper baths and regrouping before heading back to the
park! Fall in Newfoundland put an end to all that. Even if the weather did
cooperate, getting four children ready for school from a tent was
understandably more than my poor parents were willing to tackle! So fall always
represented a loss. Additionally, much of Newfoundland forest is coniferous, so
depending on which part of the province you lived, “fall colours” really
weren’t much of a thing. I remember my first springs and falls in Ontario
reminding me more of things I had read about in books than my actual experience
of the change of seasons. It took a while for me to appreciate fall. In fact I
remember specifically the year it happened. In the fall of 1984 we bought our
first home and anticipated becoming parents in November of that year. I believe
the joy of all the new beginnings and possibilities that year helped focus a
different perspective. I remember standing at a top floor window, painting our
new home, and a large flock of geese flew over. Their v-formation and incessant
honking had me gazing out the window over the blazing colour of leaves in our
neighbourhood, realizing that I loved fall. I remember being startled by the
realization! I’m sure it also helped, that back in those days, sans A/C, I was
appreciating the end of the suffocating summer heat that this girl from the
North Atlantic has never learned to appreciate! Whatever the reasons, from that
day to this, I have thoroughly enjoyed 35 autumns, and this year is no
exception.
The train ride is a lengthy endeavor. We boarded the train
at 7:30 and we were chugging along by 8:00. We arrived in Agawa Canyon by noon
where we were let loose for 90 minutes before re-boarding for the ride home. We
were back at the truck at 6:00, preparing for the hour long drive back to the
park. All in all, up at 5:00 AM to prepare for the journey, and back in the
site by 7:30 PM – a long day!
The rain throughout the day did little to dampen our
enthusiasm for the experience! It was however startlingly obvious how light
changes our perception of colour. There was a camera on the front of the train
projecting images onto monitors in the rail cars. At first I thought it was
projecting black and white footage, which I thought odd, until the sun came out
to correct my error! Through the window, the forest appeared a dull green.
There were occasional splashes of colour for sure but overall, during those rainy
times, there was scant evidence of the brilliant scenes of autumn that appeared
during those moments of sunshine – a very interesting, and striking contrast.
The company was great, the train narration provided intermittent bits of local
history, geography and culture, and the lull of the train’s motion was calming
and pleasant rendering the rain an almost neutral factor.
We were quite pleased though when fate deemed our 90 minute
hike through the Agawa Canyon rain free. We hiked along the river to view several
waterfalls and had a chance to “re-create” the Group of Seven art with some
help from Canon and Nikon!
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| One of the many times the train runs high above the road below. |
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| The change of season was evident |
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| The train waiting in the Canyon while we explored |
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| We hiked along this pretty river |
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| My favourite shot of Bridal Falls |
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| An easel at the site displayed this reproduction of how Lauren Harris captured Bridal Falls |
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| Clearly this was the spot where he sat to paint! |
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| I took a picture, of David taking a picture, of John taking a picture! |
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| The very definition of tenacity! |
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| Several other waterfalls along the way |
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| Pretty streams |
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| Inviting paths through the woods |
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| My favourite picture of the day! |
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| Another falls |
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| Another stream |
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| Another falls |
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| Glimpse of the train through the trees as we make our way back |
