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After several days under the endless skies of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, I was on the final leg of a six-week solo trip following my ancestors’ migration in Western Canada. Although it was time to get home, I still preferred travelling on secondary backroads rather than sticking to the Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) whenever possible.
And so when friends Doug Houghton and Mary Johnson, who I was visiting in Beausejour, MB, suggested following the original Highway 1 route into Ontario, I didn’t think twice. To add to the experience, they offered to join me for part of the day.
Historic Route 1/Highway 44
When the new TCH running south of Winnipeg was completed in 1958, the original northern route became Highway 44, also known as Historic Route 1. It begins just north of Winnipeg and is easily accessed from Highway 101, the ring road around the city. From here it passes through Beausejour and northern farmland before becoming very narrow, hilly, and winding.
As much as I loved the openness of the prairies, the sight of the rocks of the Canadian Shield emerging from the earth made me feel like I was almost home, even though home was still 2,000 km away. One gets the impression that nature has agreed to allow the road to pass through, but granted only the minimum space needed. It’s an intimate and personal passage through a wilderness that is only a blink away.
The road was just beginning to gyrate when we stopped at the Alfred Hole Goose Sanctuary in Whiteshell Provincial Park. From its beginnings in 1939, when four orphaned goslings were taken under Alfred Hole’s wing, the site has grown to a sanctuary where flocks of geese pass through on their annual migrations.
Although always paved and mostly smooth, the road surface changes frequently and shoulders are often non-existent so it pays to be vigilant. Still in Whiteshell Provincial Park but further east, the magical Lily Pond opened up on our right. Formed 3.75 billion years ago when glaciers carved a small depression out of the soft bedrock, most of the summer the pond is covered in yellow and fragrant white water lilies, also know as Fallen Stars. Thankfully, there was enough room to pull over and time to reflect on this ancient paradise.
