Trainspotting in Temagami, Ontario

After the Northlander experience in North Bay, I knew trainspotting in Temagami would be very anticlimactic, but nothing would stop me from trying anyway, including the long drive...

Endless forests on the Trans Canada...

Bigger than life fish, tall tails in the making...

Cabins with garages for boats on small islands in endless lakes...

Temagami

Once in Temagami, 1.5 hrs north of North Bay we parked the car and began exploring.

Theodore's Chip Stand in front of the train station

Theodore Moose? Looks almost like a classical African statue.

Here the train station in Temagami while still working as such, from the wiki page.

The train station looking north. Single track mainline, with passing siding.
Passenger service ceased in 2012. The Northlander would have stopped here.

A group of Keewaydin campers portaging through town to put into Lake Temagami.
Great to see for myself what my daughter did several times a day for years... The little kids with big loads and big smiles were inspiring and reassuring. Hard work but loving it.

 

And crossing the tracks to go 2 more blocks to the lake, then back for another load.
My daughter just had her 5th summer with "rival" camp Wabun based on the same lake.
Her trip was 6 weeks and 1000km+ in the sub-arctic.

Oh, you were expecting to see pictures of trains...?

These decommissioned freight cars now serve as storage units for a hardware store...

 Was told the afternoon Ontario Northland train could arrive around lunch (a two+ hour window). Parked myself next to the tracks, talked to the campers and other locals perplexed to see someone waiting for a train that may or may not come, and read John Water's Carsick (also this). Just like going fishin' on a hot summers day... S  l  o  w ... Was a good chance to work on my "librarian's" tan too (long sleeved tee-shirt and pants with hat)

Was a l o n g wait, but then a rumbling, quickly placed two Canadian quarters on the tracks and snapped it coming and going. Not a terribly long train, but there it comes...

 ... and it's gone again... Back to sleep/reading.

And this, watched it flying circles over the lake with tourist...

Here a map of Temagami... 

Click here for a great richly illustrated trip report (in German) on railroading in this part of Canada posted to the Drehscheibe Online forum. Link goes to the last of five posts but has index with links to the other posts at top. Enjoy.