I came across this article and thought some of you may be interested in discovering what the area has to offer those willing to make the drive North on Hwy 11 to the town of beardmore, enjoy..
One of the great things about northern Ontario is that many of our main highways hold all the components of a good back road. Today I'm on Hwy. 11 east of Lake Nipigon. Labelled the Trans-Canada on my map, Hwy. 11 has two-way traffic over two lanes that snake through, around, and over the bulbous northern landscape. Like any good back road it leads to interesting places, such as the community of Beardmore.
I cross the stained waters of the Blackwater River and cruise through a downtown core that looks like it was once a busier place. Mining and logging interests have moved on, leaving Beardmore with a population of around 300, which one resident says must include all the dogs in town.
In the tradition of the Wawa Goose and other massive sculptures at the gates of northern-Ontario towns, Beardmore boasts a giant snowman wielding a fishing pole. Once past the smiling statue I turn down a side street towards the river. Dark, slow, swirling current indicates pools of pike and walleye literally a cast away from many Beardmore residences. Typical of a small northern town, residents are flush with small aluminum boats and canoes, but decorating many yards are hulking steel-hulled vessels designed for big water. Such craft reflect Beardmore's proximity to Lake Nipigon, about 12 kilometres(7.5 miles)away via Hwy. 508.
One large boat, the Monica Lew, is accepting a fresh coat of red paint in the parking lot of the Hook Shop. Ted Cox, the man behind the brush, is customizing the 13-metre(42-foot)steel fishing tug for overnight excursions on Lake Nipigon. Ted, his mother Norma, and father Nolan run the bait and tackle shop in town and Hooker Charters from the municipal marina on Lake Nipigon. Inside The Hook Shop, Ted tosses a night crawler into a large aquarium. A 30-centimetre(12-inch)brook trout darts out and inhales it before it can sink to the bottom. There's an 18-kilogram(40-pound)lake trout too, but her eating days are over. She's one of several impressive mounts originating from the fabled trout waters of Lake Nipigon.
Beyond Beardmore I see evidence of a forest fire that tore through more than 30,000 hectares(74,130 acres)in spring of 1999. As Hwy. 11 heads closer to Lake Nipigon's Pijitawabik Bay, the classic, flat, boreal landscape gives way to rolling, wooded hills. Every now and then, when the highway crests a hill, I get a view of odd-shaped headlands that wait in the distance. At Hynrick Lake I take a short detour to the native fishing community of Macdiarmid. A small cluster of homes perched on a hillside overlooks a sheltered cove. A fleet of handsome fishing vessels is docked in the calm of the harbour.
As Pijitawabik Bay funnels into smaller, narrower Orient Bay, the road heads inland before being forced back to water by the topography. At the top of Orient Bay a handful of buildings, the highway, and the Canadian National Rail line are squeezed between water and a line of towering cliffs.
At several points I see long, free-falling strips of white water spilling from the top of the flat-topped cliffs. If it was 30 degrees colder I might stop to climb a frozen waterfall or two. In fact, the Orient Bay cliffs are the gathering point for ice climbers during the North of Superior Ice Fest held every March.
As I continue south, Orient Bay peters off into a series of interconnected lakes enveloped by brooding hills. Where the road descends onto a broad flat, I see the distinctive blunt landforms that haunt the coast where the Nipigon River meets Lake Superior. Beyond the flatland, Hwy. 11 mirrors the east shore of 12-kilometre(7.5-mile)Helen Lake. At the bottom end is St. Sylvester's Mission Church, built in 1880 on the site of a Jesuit Mission established 28 years earlier.
Trans-Canada Highway 11 meets Trans-Canada 17 at the outflow of Helen Lake. Despite being principal thoroughfares, the rugged northern-Ontario landscape ensures that our major highways will always maintain the stature of good back roads. And this is good.
Lake Nipigon is a huge, remote piece of water. Access to its southeastern reaches is via Hwy. 580 west of Beardmore or at Macdiarmid. Lake trout weighing more than 9 kilograms(20 lbs)are common, and brook trout regularly top 2.27 kilograms(5 lbs). Legendary trout fishing casts a long shadow, but walleye, pike, and whitefish angling is also good.
Travel info:
North of Superior Tourism,
1119 East Victoria Ave.,
Thunder Bay, Ont. P7C 1B7
phone 1-800-265-3951
website: www.nosta.on.ca
Ministry of Natural Resources,
5 Wadsworth, Box 970
Nipigon, Ont. POT 2JO
phone 1-807-887-5000
