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glimpses of Agawa

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

, 2011.08.17

Today we took a train tour north of the Sault to the famous Agawa canyon, a scene of terrific beauty and dramatic vistas etc.

Or so we were told. The forests on either side of the train were so thick that it was impossible to really see the canyon except for a few brief glimpses. Those glimpses were very worth seeing, but nothing like the images I've seen (which I can only assume were taken by hikers well away from the tracks). We eventually stopped under dark grey skies to have 90 minutes to ourselves hiking in the canyon, but that was cut short about ten minutes after we got off the train by rain that steadily worsened. The rain was so bad that some people had to buy whole new outfits at the little souvenir shop in the canyon, and others slept through the return trip under towels. The silver lining to this was that I was able to pick out some images of low clouds moodily drifting through the wind-shaped pines that clung to the high slopes above us. I've said it before and I'll say it again, "Thank God for black and white film."

During our rained-out visit, I decided to approach one of the railway employees and ask why they didn't clear some of the woods so that passengers could really see the famous views. She told me that there was now "too much red tape" and that it was effectively impossible. I can understand the importance of environmental stewardship, but all they really need to do is add a couple of five minute stops to the trip and clear enough space for the six-car train's length. There were literally only two places were they need to do this (a third spot where I think they should stop is already cleared, but the train just cruises right through it).

I can't recommend the trip as it is, now. After having done the trip from Garmisch to Innsbruck through the Alps (an "A" for sure), and the one that crosses New Zealand's "South Island" from Christchurch (a "B"), this was a solid "C". There was less to see on the Agawa trip than there is on the commuter trains run by Go in the greater Toronto area!

But if the tour disappointed as far as scenery, one surprisingly helpful addition was the audio/visual presentation that came on the speakers and computer screens at intervals. I've never before learned so much from anything like that, and in this case I picked up some information I'd actively been looking for recently. This was - how were the Great Lakes formed in the first place? Often you see this attributed to the ice age (or ice ages) but it's obviously nonsense. Surely, Michigan, Ontario, and Erie were given shape by ice but if the glaciers could have carved Huron, Ontario, and Superior in particular out of the continent why are there so few lakes? Why not dozens? The answer, according to the train, was in a failed rift valley similar to the East Africa Rift Valley (the home of humanity), where a continent begins to split into pieces. While the East Africa is still going strong, the Mid-Continent rift, running the curved length of now-Lake Superior failed to result in the continent splitting (thanks to a timely collision with Europe, it seems). Smart train!

There's no sign of a rift running up the Saint Lawrence river and through Lake Ontario, so the hunt for an explanation of that ~80m deep (on average) lake that's situated just so between the Appalachians and the dome of the Canadian Shield. I continue to dismiss out of hand the idea that glacial ice is responsible for somehow making the lake and producing fits and starts of volcanic rock around its shores.

rand()m quote

Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid.

—Valery Legasov