Agawa Canyon trip

On Wednesday the 4th we crossed over to Canada and took the Agawa Canyon train tour on the Algoma Central line. The trip is 114 miles from the Soo one way. We departed at 8:00 a.m. sharp and returned at 6:30 p.m. The trip up was great. We ate a good breakfast in the diner car which was a cool experience. I had heard previously that the food was expensive and not good quality but found that to be false information. We enjoyed lots of superb scenery along the ride with the highlight being the dam at the Montreal River at about mile #92. There was a huge reservoir with huge granite bluffs to the east and a view of the downriver side including a peek of Lake Suprior on the west side. The tour nprovides a good booklet that lists teh different sights and the mile markers along the way. We arrived in the canyon at about 12:20 and had a quick picnic before heading out on a hike to explore the trails and three water falls. The trails to the water falls are easy walking and the flora was very interesting to look at. The moss growing on the rocks in the area was so thick that some small ferns were able to grow and sustain themselves on top of the moss. The different mosses were beautiful(daughter Kate would love this). The birch trees in the canyon are the biggest I have ever seen anyplace in the northland, there were so big I could not reach around them.

There were two downfalls to this trip that we all agreed on, #1 was that the time in the canyon was too short. We were given an hour and half to explore which was cutting it close. The second downfall to is was that the ride back to the Soo was long. Suggestions to counter these are to eat before or after the canyon and be ready to hit the trails as soon as you get off the train. #2 Plan to catch a good long afternoon nap on the way back. The ride is very relaxing and the crew on the train is very accomodating and friendly. Bring your music or a good book and the ride back was not bad.

The Scenery on the way seemed better on the right (east) side of the train going up until about mile 95 after the Montreal reservoir. Once we were north of there, we started catching very nice scenic views of Lake Superior and the Agawa Canyon on the left side. I was told that photographers prefer shooting the west side going up and the east side coming back to avoid the glare of the sun. I was shooting out both sides and will post up my pics on my picasa pages once I get to a good to a good hookup back home.

Overall it was an awesome adventure and I would definately recomend it to anybody who loves seeing good scenery.