Pages Menu
Categories Menu

Nature Trail and Legend – Dokis – Lake Nipissing West – Hwy. 64

Cultural Trails Tell Stories: Dokis Embraces More Tourism by Back Roads Bill Trails are integral to the landscape and develop meaningful connections between people and nature. No more so than to our First Peoples and their relationship with the land. Besides evidence of where people lived and travelled, trails offer clues as to the cultural values and practices of the people who used them and use them. Dokis First Nation on the far west side of Lake Nipissing at what is called the “Little” French River is a good example of a burgeoning tourism “gem.” It started a number of years ago, the Dokis First Nation, with members of more than one thousand, including 300-plus residents, overwhelmingly voted to not commercialize its fishing and forestry resources. There is no commercial netting of fish and forestry practices are restricted to pulp and firewood and stand improvement. Clayton Dokis has been working on the trails for more than eight years and is the community’s eco-tourism project manager. He is an interpretative...

Read More

Mountains in Northern Ontario – Our Peaks

by Back Roads Bill Not often but sometimes we carefully climb to the top of our roof to check the chimney, the shingles, the whirligig, the satellite dish and to secure Santa and the elves. There is something more special when you climb to the top of a mountain and you experience the 360° view. It includes the process of getting there. Measuring mountains might not seem overly complicated, but there actually are several ways in which it can be done. Depending on which technique is used, the title of world’s tallest mountain could go to any of several mountains in various regions of the world. Some scientists heatedly debate the issue, arguing that their technique is the most accurate. The world’s tallest mountain differs depending on whether a mountain’s height is measured from sea level, by vertical rise or from the base or even from the center of the Earth. This clouds the debate in northern Ontario as well; what height of land claims the title for us?...

Read More

Fairy Point – Chapleau Game Preserve

The Rock Fairies – Spiritual Pictograph Site Take Care for the “Little People” by Back Roads Bill   When we hear older legends about fairies, or the “wee folk,” many of us usually create the picture of green pastures in Ireland or maybe the highlands of Scotland. How many people actually think of the fairies being residents of the Northern Ontario, known as the “little people.” As you round Fairy Point, look carefully into the deep crevices of the granite walls and the quartz veins. Can you see those diminutive beings linked to the metaphysical or supernatural of most Native cultures? It is those playful, prankish, tiny beings who emerge from their rocky refuge to steal your camping supplies or rock your canoe for no apparent reason.  These tiny folk are the Memegwaysiwuk, the fairies whose stone canoes are painted on the wall looking down on you. There are many pictograph sites in Northern Ontario. The Fairy Point collection on Lake Missinaibi is one of the most extensive in...

Read More

Mashkinonje – Noelville – Verner

Where to See the Ultimate Swamp – or Fen, or Bog or Pond The Best Interpretative Trail by Back Roads Bill Just where is the best interpretative trail anyway? It is place you will not want to go for a “quick hike.” It is an area where our ecological perceptions are changing. At one time everything was a “swamp,” not a place to go for a holiday or spend some quality time. We are now learning wetlands are important but we still don’t know much about bogs, fens, swamps and ponds. We all have seen a pond or swamp of some description. They take many forms including marshes, estuaries, mudflats, mires, ponds, fens, pocosins, swamps, deltas, coral reefs, billabongs, lagoons, shallow seas, bogs, lakes, and floodplains; some are man-made. Ecologically speaking wetlands are areas where water covers the soil or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year or for varying periods of time during the year, including during the growing season. Water saturation...

Read More

‘The Tower and the Road’ – Temagami and Lake Temagami

Lasting Legacy by Back Roads Bill You have just climbed the Temagami Fire Tower and hiked the White Bear Forest. What a view, one of the many you will discover in Northeastern Ontario. And those white pine trees, majestic. After all it is Grey Owl country! There are many forest access or logging roads in Northern Ontario. One road in particular reflects a long standing heritage. It is a few kilometres north of the town on Highway 11 and worth the detour. A heritage important to many, one individual is a well-known and early environmentalist then known as a conservationist. In more contemporary times the road truly represents the natural and cultural values of one icon of stakeholders wanting to utilize and protect the wilderness. Impostor has Love for Nature Sunday, September 18, 1989, marked the centennial celebration of the birth of Archibald Stansfeld Belaney. That name is seldom recognized.   Although he only lived for one-half of these 100 years, Grey Owl ‑ as he is better known, remains...

Read More

‘Three Vistas!’ – Mattawa Snowmobile trails

In the Beginning – Before the Trails!  by Back Roads Bill  Take your camera! When you are riding the snowmobile trails, to these three expansive lookouts, you are discovering more than just a Northeastern Ontario legend. There are reasons for it beyond the good days you are having within the Mattawa-Bonfield area. One of the most difficult eras in history to comprehend, are the millions and billions of years that preceded the arrival of humankind on Earth. As you ride the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Club trails throughout Northeastern Ontario, enjoying the outdoors and natural resources, the first remark made is often related to the scenery that confronts you. It is a common denominator throughout the entire tourism region. Knowing how the hills, lakes, beaches, and rock outcroppings were formed is important in understanding how the original inhabitants and the European settlers travelled, and chose suitable pockets of land near waterways. The destinations you will visit is just a snippet of what went on a long time ago. It...

Read More