In mid-July 2020 my dad and I went up to Northern Ontario with a couple of goals in mind. We were going to visit the Ontario Northland Railway flag-stop of Fraserdale, canoe in the Abitibi River, see New Post Falls, and find the grave of our ancestor Alexander McLeod at the former HBC post of New Post.
Along the way there were many opportunities to photograph the ONR, the railway my great-grandfather worked for, and to explore the town of Cochrane.
While we visited Fraserdale and successfully canoed in the Abitibi, a large hydroelectric project that had been completed three years ago radically changed the local rivers and topography. The project didn’t appear on any of our maps, and in the end we played it safe rather than risk overextending ourselves.
With these lessons in mind, we’re already planning our next trip to Abitibi Canyon and New Post!