Trip Synopsis

Trip Synopsis

This is a 7day Motorcycle trip and a photography safari into Northern Ontario, travelling along Hwy 11 and 17 (Trans Canada).  Highway 11 is called Canada's Route 66.

The official trip patch.

Part of this trip is to explore and photograph the Pinetree Line.   The Pinetree Line was a series of radar stations located across the northern United States and southern Canada at about the 50th parallel north, along with a number of other stations located on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Run by NORAD (after its creation), over half were manned by United States Air Force personnel with the balance operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force. The line was the first coordinated system for early detection of a Soviet bomber attack on North America, but the early 1950s radar technology quickly became outdated and the line was in full operation only for a short time.  All the stations are now abandoned but the sites are interesting to visit none the less, there are three sites on our tour:  Edgar (Barrie), Ramore, and Lowther.

For details and a list of sites, see this excellent link at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinetree_Line

Highlights: (areas to be visited)

• Cochrane and the Ontario Northland Ry.
• Smooth Rock Falls
• Kapuskasing 
• Hearst (joint ONR/ACR operations)
• Longlac (Longlac cut-off CN)
• Nipigon
• Historic Rossport on the shore of Lake Superior
• CP Division point of Scheriber 
• Terrace Bay
• Marathon
• White River
• Wawa and ACR-Hawk Jct.
• Chapeau
• Iron Bridge
• Manitoulin Island Tour
• Manitoulin to Tobermory Ferry
• Bruce Peninsula

There will of course by the usual support equipment for the trip, cameras, and video equipment. Plus I will be shooting road video with my Go Pro HD Video camera as well.

Of course in keeping with the tradition of the Rail Commander, you will be able to follow the trip in real time via my satellite tracking and daily blog right from the heart of the action – so check this site often and follow the blog, action events will be posted to the twitter account first so check it first for field reports at:  (https://twitter.com/euclid905) these will be in real time as long as I have cellular coverage for the iPad.