In early April I posted a ride on several forums advertising my wish to find, and explore some of Ontario’s abandoned places. I planned the ride for the May long weekend.
There was quite a lot of feedback, commentary and expression of interest, but in the end it was myself and one other rider who made the trip, and experienced the adventure. Thank you Michael Fritz, for coming along and making the adventure even better.
I left Ottawa early on Friday morning and headed to our rendezvous point – yes, we are a predictable lot – a Tim Horton’s in Kemptville. I arrived at about 0830, and Mike was there ahead of me, enjoying a coffee.
We chatted about the trip in general, and quickly agreed that we preferred to leave the adventure as wide open as possible, adhering to no set schedule and making adjustments on the fly.
Our first abandoned destination was an old GW Martin lumber mill near Harcourt, just at the southern edge of Algonquin Park. I had posted that we would stop for lunch at the South Algonquin Restaurant on the off-chance that any riders from the GTA, or from the Sudbury / North Bay area, chose to join in at the last minute, so we made that our first rest stop.
We rode highway 43 through Smiths Falls to Perth and then took highway 7 to highway 62 and headed north to highway 28 at Bancroft, where we turned west, making our way to highway 118 and eventually to highway 648 and into Harcourt.
I had never been on the 118 before. It is a really nice riding road, with some nice hills and a lot of really nice gentle, sweeping curves bringing you through some gorgeous scenery. We arrived at the restaurant and stopped for lunch, enjoying a couple of mugs of coffee and the typical riding-lunch fare: a burger for Mike, and a club sandwich for yours truly.
Leaving the restaurant we headed off in the general direction of where I believed the lumber mill to be, and on the way I was introduced to another amazing little piece of asphalt.
I have read ride reports from others about Elephant Lake Road, and it always kind of intrigued me, but I was not prepared for just how fun that little road can be. Reminiscent of the 511 / 508 / Centennial Lake roads closer to home, I found myself thinking that even if we did not find the lumber mill, elephant Lake Road was worth the trip!
A few minutes later, we found this:
I had seen some pictures of this old abandoned mill online, and they really piqued my interest, which led to my coming up with the idea for this 4 day long weekend ride. The pictures – both mine, and the ones I found online – do no justice to the actual mill. I swear you can almost hear the ghost-like sounds of the machinery and smell the heat from the dehydrators as you walk in the footsteps of the men who toiled their lives away there from the early 1900’s up until as recently as 2004. There must be so many stories captured within the rusting metal and crumbling brick-work…
We spent a little over an hour and a half exploring the old mill, and still did not see all of it – but enough to have realized the we were well into a true adventure, and then we decided to carry on and try to make it to our next destination in time to set up camp before dark.
Mother nature, however, had other plans for us, and 3 hours of dropping temperatures and cold rain later we arrived in Bracebridge and decided that a comfortable motel room was in order. I revelled in the pleasure of a steaming hot shower before eating supper in the dining room of the Muskoka Riverside Inn, and we then went across the street where I enjoyed a bowl of Dutch apple pie ice cream – a new favourite of mine, unfortunately (or fortunately, come to think of it) it is not easily found in grocery stores. I guess it may just be one more reason to come back to this beautiful part of Ontario more often. That, and the painfully cute ice-cream girls,…but I digress…
After heading back to my room for the night I decided to revisit that hot water and soaked in a steaming hot bath for 25 minutes before crawling into bed and falling almost immediately asleep.
Awaking in the morning, I did not regret the decision to stay in a motel one bit. I love camping, but setting up in the rain, when you are already cold and soaked, is no fun at all. Period.
We had a quick continental breakfast, loaded the bikes and got back on the road. We stopped in Parry Sound for a coffee and more food, and then headed to Burwash, Ontario – the site of our prized abandoned destination – the Burwash Camp Bison Correctional Centre.
Opened in 1914 and mothballed in 1975, Camp Bison not only housed as many as 800 prisoners, it also gave rise to the town of Burwash, populated by up to 1000 residents, most of whom either worked at the correctional centre or were married to someone who did. The town literally came into being to house the guards and correctional services employees who worked there. And when the work camp was closed, the town closed down as well.
The entire town was bulldozed in 1994, and all that remains now is the Camp Bison jail facility.
Once again, I had learned of this place and found photographs online. This was going to be the highlight of the trip – no question about it. There were even stories circulating that it was, in fact, haunted…
Michael and I made plans to spend the night camping there before we even left Ottawa and we were stoked to get there and set up camp.
We followed the highway towards Sudbury, aiming for Burwash on the map, even though technically it no longer exists.
Along the way, we came across this motel, with vacancies…
But we chose not to stay, and continued down the highway until we saw the exit that we were looking for.
We leaned into the curve of the exit ramp, made a right hand turn onto a service road, and started tearing up the gravel, eager with anticipation. Before too long we began noticing more people – and dogs – than we expected to see. I stopped at an RV and asked the gentleman who was busily calming his dog if we had inadvertently ridden into a hunt camp…and discovered that yes, there was a bear hunt on…just one more twist of the adventure handle, lol…
This same guy informed us the the old abandoned prison was only about 3 or 4 kilometres ‘that way’,…and pointed off in the direction that we had been heading….”but be careful though. There’s railroad tracks ahead. Not sure you’ll get those bikes across…”
Obviously he had no idea of just how resourceful and adaptable the two V Strom riders he was chatting with really were…
We said our thanks and headed off, carefully navigating a road that was quickly becoming a trail consisting of sand, loose gravel, sand, and sand….and within 1000 meters, we came to the end of this portion of the adventure.
There was no way we were going to be able to get these 240 kilo bikes across the twin set of railroad tracks before us.
We searched for building materials to fashion our own crossing out of – but supplies were limited, to say the least. Combined with the fact that this was still an active rail-line – and the as-fate-would-have-it fact that there was a rail-maintenance crew less than a kilometer down the tracks, we decided to make at least one valiant effort before accepting defeat. The foolishness is evident here
Not willing to dwell on the so-close-and-yet-so-far irony of getting into prison, we turned our bikes around and headed off towards a now wide-open adventure. Where, or where, should we head to next?….
Well, Manitoulin Island, of course.
Michael had never been before, so I thought this to be the perfect opportunity to revisit one of my favourite Ontario motorcycle destinations – as well as a favourite campground. At $10.00 – and they even threw in some firewood – how could anyone say no?
A nice Manitoulin Island backdrop…
After packing up camp the next morning we decided to ride the Chi Cheemaun ferry to Tobermory and then ride the Bruce Peninsula. As usual, the ferry ride was spectacular – peaceful, relaxing lake breezes, a warm sun glittering off the water, gulls escorting us across Georgian Bay…as close to sublime as it gets…
We off-loaded in Tobermory and headed down highway 6 to Wiarton, making our way along the Bruce Road #1 from there to Owen Sound – what an amazing ride along Georgian Bay – stopping at abandoned places along the way
The trip was a resounding success. We saw more abandoned locations than we had expected to, and although a little disappointed that we were not able to see the prized jewel, we made a commitment to head back to Burwash on another occasion – with a couple of more inmates to lend a hand…
Ontario is a province blessed with some of the most incredible beauty to be found anywhere – and certainly some of the best motorcycle roads in the country – if not the world. So get out there. Explore your little piece of paradise….before it too, is lost….
