Another successful trip completed!
Returned from Sudbury Saturday night, just a little after 9:30p. Not bad considering we left Sudbury proper at around 5:30 and waited 20 mins in line just outside of Parry Sound for a bathroom.
At 450kms or so, that's a little under 2 kms/minute (over if you exclude the bathroom break). Almost ideal!
The week went reasonably well and included sufficient lounging time to actually call it a vacation.
I must say, Northern Ontario, it's rocky mountains and it's crystal lakes, still have a vista like no other.
Camera happy? Yes. Have some!
In addition to the usual visits to Science North and the tourist-esque spots (that Sudbury slag heap is just so damned sexy!), we also managed to sneak down some lesser travelled routes to a couple of ghost towns ... or at least what little is left of them.
Unfortunately for historical exploration types, many of the old mines are being reopened by INCO due to rising metal prices and the discovery of deep-shaft diamond deposits in the Sudbury basin. As a result, you are either confronted with monster fences, Danger/No Trespassing signs and/or the area has been devistated with the final remanants of the towns having been destroyed, bulldozed or victimized by altered waterways.
Fine examples of The Corporate Machine cutting not only into the environment and rock faces but carving out pieces of our tenuous history as well.
Already the ghost town of Creighton has had it's roads cut and blocked off to the public due to the reopening of the nearby shaft (and yours truly getting the serious eyeball for travelling down, what turned out to be, employee only roads).
Even the commemorative plaque is off-limits!
Worthington is also at risk as the old Totten mine is under heavy construction (origionally closed on 4 October, 1927 when the mine collapsed). The drastic changes to the forest and watershed are destroying the last of the foundations and roadways. The new mine there is set to open in 2010 and I can only imagine what damage the slag and trailing wastes will do to the beautiful swamps, forest and waterways found around the soon to be minehead.
I suspect some of the remaining towns like Mond, Benny and Milnet are facing (or have already faced) similar fates.
The Environment Canada studies have already been done around all these sites, so it's now only a matter of money determining the final chapter these long forgotten towns.
If you want to see them, I'm afraid we're all out of time and you will have to go now.
Consider that a call to arms for all area photographers to preserve these final hours.
Over the next week, I'll try to get up a few pics from Victoria Mine to show what little is still there. The final remaining building seems to have been torn down in the last few years, so only cinder roads, foundations and the slag from the open air smelter remain.
If anyone needs maps and directions, drop me a line and I can get them out to you, or most of these places are also included in the 2007/2008 Ontario Road Atlas by Map Art.

For more and pics, stop by my site. I'll be running pics all week while I try to convince myself to get back up there for the long weekend.