Green Reclaimation in Sudbury

My stay in Algonquin Park came to an abrupt end. I enjoyed my opportunity to canoe one of Canada’s premier paddle parks. It was a great way to kick off the summer research season. The adventure provided me some great scenery, as well as, my first encounter with flying bugs and hot, hot summer days.

Up a 6 AM, I left Algonquin Park and looked forward to my next destination – Sudbury. Yes, I said Sudbury. Sudbury is conducting  a green reclamation project. It is an effort to turn, what was once,  damaged land back into park and wilderness areas.  I was eager to see the results. You see, before I researched the community, all I knew about the community was that  Sudbury was a mining town.   Boy was I wrong?

The Greater Sudbury area includes over 300 lakes! And one giant nickel. There are wetlands, parks, hiking, trails, lookouts, waterfall and did I mention the lakes and one big sucker of a nickel. There was no way, in my lifetime was I going to hike, sight see or paddle all of the lakes, so I needed to be selected. Sometimes researching is conflicting.

When I arrived in Sudbury I learnt that  there was only one campground.. HUH? It turns out the provincial parks and other campgrounds are over 40+ kilometres out of town.  If I camp 40-60 kilometres out of town how am I going to see Sudbury. So my campground selection was an easy decision.

I set up camp and before 1 PM I was in downtown Sudbury walking the streets, clicking my camera, taking lots of pictures and making lots of notes. Since I only had a half day, the downtown of a community was a good place to start. So I headed down to the waterfront, which tends to be always the most developed. I was right (I had a map already of the community. Makes me look smarter).

The waterfront was excellent. There was a 2 kilometre trail lining the shore.  Some of the trail is on raised boardwalk leaning over the lake. The rest of the trail is on clay tiles and dirt.  The Dynamic Earth attraction anchors one end of the trail and Bell Park the other. The day was hot and there were many people out walking and at the beach in Bell Park.  I finished my day downtown taking pictures and, since I was in the area, snagged some groceries.

Got home and researched the next day. I always try to plan the directions and the order I am going to research a community. Order  of research is important because there is nothing more time wasting and frustrating than driving back and forth across communities in traffic. Ugh!

The next day I left the campground for researching at 7 AM and arrived back at the campground at 8:30 PM. It was a hot, hot day. A long day. A very good day.  And I  covered allot of ground.  I hiked the Lake Laurentian Wetland Park, the Oak Forest Loop Trail and Blueberry Hill  (main picture). Plus I visited the Giant Nickel, Sainte Anne Depris Park, Hnatyshyn Park, Spirit 83 statue and the Grotto Lourdes Shrine.