Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 11:47:30 -0600 (MDT) Subject: Aloha from Canada! (Message #4) Greetings once again! Yesterday I crossed the border for the 17th of 18 times on this trip. I am now in the city Canadians call Hogtown or simply T.O. -- Toronto. It's the largest city in Canada (in terms of metro area population; in central city population, Montreal is largest). But since I just got here, I'll have more to say in my fifth and final message in about nine days. Anywho, I left off my journey in Calgary the day of the standoff at the bus station. From there, I went to Banff, perhaps the most beautiful spot on the continent. Banff is a quiet tourist town. Just last week, the federal government announced a moratorium on new development in the park. This will likely drive Banff's already high real estate prices even higher. There are many fine trails leading from the town. The park has done a good job of making the town pedestrian-friendly. The highlight of this mountain trip was a climb to the top of Sulphur Mountain. (Yes, there really was the smell of sulphur at the base.) I walked up the foothill the entire way from the level townsite. I decided to have breakfast on the way up, something pretty rare with me, since I was already running out of steam on the hilly street. So, got to the base and tried to find a place to leave my coats. There was no coat check, or even a coat rack in sight. So implemented a scheme. I went to a secluded area of this fancy resort hotel and "forgot" my coats by the pay phones. By the time I returned, they had been found by staff and hung up in housekeeping. Shhh... So, set off to climb the mountain. It was a very nice day. The trail was rated "moderately difficult." Supposedly it would take two hours. There was a tramway on the mountain which was free to those going down. The mountain offered a great variety of scenery. There was a small waterfall about halfway up. The trail wasn't especially difficult except at the zig-zag portions where some snow (melted and otherwise) from the previous weekend had to be negotiated. It got very treacherous near the top under the tramway where the vegetation had been cleared, providing no protection against erosion. There were a couple of spots where I nearly had to get down and crawl. (My walking stick was rather inadequate.) At one particularly poorly maintained crossing of the tramway, I resolved not to look down, which served me quite well. Although I did not miss my coats at all along the trail, it was very cold and windy at the summit. All in all, I made the trip in an hour and thirty-four minutes, which I thought was a good time for a novice climber. There was a wooden walkway to the top of another mountain, but I decided to save that for another trip. Anyway, what kind of adventure is it to walk up a mountain on a wooden deck? (Of course, a rock climber might say the same about my ascent of Sulphur Mountain on a trail.) Upon disembarking from the tramway, I remarked, "Well, anyone can BUY a round-trip ticket..." I next passed through Calgary and Edmonton again, stopping at the World Waterpark once again. Yes, that eighty-five foot, eighty-five degree drop does give pause even the third and fourth times through. I stopped briefly in Lloydminster. Lloydminster is right on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. They erected a series of 110 foot "sights" along the border, like the sights on a gun. Naturally, I had to stand on the border and take pictures through them. The locals say the trick is to live in Alberta where the taxes are lower but work in Saskatchewan where the benefits are better. Arrived in Saskatoon during the U.S. presidential debate. I had been listening to the debate on the bus using my shortwave radio. It sounded to me that Clinton won, since Dole kept stumbling over words. Did Dole look as bad as he sounded? Probably not, so people who watched it on TV probably didn't think he did as poorly. I didn't think Saskatoon was quite as vibrant as Regina. It seemed like just a big prairie town, an oversized Fargo or Sioux Falls. In any event, got a car and headed for Prince Albert National Park. The park is a very scenic venue where the prairie gives way to the northern lakes and forests. The park village of Wakesiu Lake was nearly deserted. The only person I saw was the postmaster. I did, however, manage to spend a few hours on the park trails. The glaciers did a fine job carving out the area. The next day, there was a spectacular fire in Saskatoon. It was only by happenstance that I found out about it, but I was able to be on the scene rather early on and videotape most of the progress of the fire. An early 1900s furniture warehouse was completely engulfed in flames. Firefighters nearly had it out by 7:00 a.m., but there's a big difference between nearly having it out and having it completely out. They couldn't send people into the wooden building to finish the job. After the fire spread to the front, there was no saving anything. At one point, the place I stayed the first night had to be evacuated. The fire was so tremendous that it was sending off tornadoes. I next spent a day in the 'Peg, Winnipeg. Got to catch up on my mail and laundry and also spend an hour or so at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The WAG is built of fine Tyndall stone -- even the freestanding chimney is Tyndall. But the museum is small enough that in order to accomodate the two special exhibitions which were there, nearly the entire permanent collection had to go into storage. The hottest political issue in Winnipeg last week: Whether recycling boxes should be left on the street or alley ("back lane" in Canadese). There was an interesting series on Manitoba Indians running in the Winnipeg Free Press last week too. If I'm lucky, perhaps I'll make it to northern Manitoba sometime in the next year. Some of the Indian Reserves seem to be war zones, where the people don't enjoy the same civil liberties as the rest of Canada, let alone the U.S. The series described one reservation where the Mounties search every bag coming off every arriving vehicle and seize anything that can be used as an intoxicant, including cleaning fluid and mouthwash. This particular community of 500 people has had 2500 person-nights in its jail so far this year. More than half of the young people are said to be addicted to gasoline fumes. To further complicate things, townspeople believe in "bogeymen." As a cure, the RCMP has proposed assigning a Mountie there full time -- as a basketball coach. From Winnipeg, passed briefly through Lake of the Woods and then along the North Shore of Lake Superior. The lakes were very nice looking this time of year with most of the leaves having turned but not yet fallen. I spent two night in Sault Ste. Marie. This is where the Soo Locks permit passage from Lake Superior to the other Great Lakes, bypassing the rapids of the St. Mary's River. SSM is also the home of the Worst Diner in Canada, where I unfortunately ate the Worst Chicken in Canada. It had the texture of ribbons, and the place's atmosphere was enhanced by the arrival of loud drunks. I had a much better time crossing the border to check out the Michigan Sault Ste. Marie. You know, one thing I don't miss about the U.S. while I'm up here is the ridiculously cute call letters on radio and TV stations. In Canada, all call letters start with CF, CH, CI, CJ, CK, or CL (government owned ones with CB), so there is nothing like KARE, WOW, WBOB, or WUSA. CITY seems to be the limit. Hardly anything funny at all. I then headed for Niagara Falls, passing through Hamilton, Ontario, center of the Golden Horseshoe, and home of noted lyricist and musicologist Gene Lees, who just happens to be a member of this mailing list. :) Niagara Falls is truly one of the wonder spots on earth. I took at least three rolls of film there and about an hour of video, checking out the falls from many angles. Free enterprise seems to dominate the falls, with attractions that ought to be public domain belonging to private vendors. It's too bad the governments of the two countries don't declare the place an International Park. There is an odd assortment of vendors on the Canadian strip -- the Guinness Museum, JFK Assassination Conspiracy Archives, and places selling t-shirts you'd wear in Minneapolis only to attract mayhem. I decided against a trip on the famous Maid of the Mist, which sails right into the water coming off the falls, but I did walk close enough to get wet. I also took some close up video of the Maiden voyage. The falls are beautifully lighted in the evening. I ascended the Skylon Tower for a better view. Altogether I walked across the Niagara River six times on Sunday. I have a theory about cops. At the highest echelons, they are very polite, even deferential. Chieves are basically politicians, of course. As you move down the cop food chain, they seem to get ruder and more arrogant. At the very bottom, you have these 22 year old border guards who probably work part-time for $10 per hour screening pedestrians on busy weekends. Always nice to come to Niagara Falls and be ordered around like a peon. Yesterday was Thanksgiving here, so crossed the border into Buffalo, where it was Columbus Day, also a holiday. Buffalo seems to be greatly underrated. They have some magnificent architecture in the downtown area, as well as a fabulous shoreline on Lake Erie. Their massive City Hall is perhaps the finest Art Deco building I've ever seen. Which brings me to Toronto, Canada's version of New York City. I actually found a lot of businesses on Yonge Street open on Thanksgiving evening. Here's hoping that the nice weather lasts the rest of the week and that Madonna's baby doesn't turn out to be the Anti-Christ. Tony in T.O. ----- You can read my earlier epistles on my home page! http://www.nyx.net/~thill