Day 4 of the trip was the long haul to Hearst. The previous day has ended with a 4 hour, incredibly stressful drive through a massive rain storm into Thunder Bay. Worst of all, the aurora must’ve been bright – because I actually caught some through the clouds but couldn’t stop because it was too dangerous. That night, and every night since, I’ve gone out to shoot only to be thwarted by heavy rain, or as we went further, snow. It’s heart breaking work, let me tell you.

We left Thunder Bay in the morning after a brief stop over at Kakabeca Falls.

After Nipigon we changed to highway 11 – which goes pretty far north, roughly the same latitude as Winnipeg. The drive has a beautiful austerity all it’s own.

One of the highlights was obtaining photographic proof – just outside of Nipigon, that there are bald eagles in Ontario. We’d never seen one before, imagine the surprise at finding a whole family of them.

Then I pissed off a squirrel something awful – he squeaked and sqawked and squirrel-kiai’d at me until I stopped aiming my camera at him. This is squirrel stink-eye.

In the aboriginal reserve of Long Lac we found this broken down church that I was so fascinated with I stood in the pouring rain on the highway to shoot it. It’s decrepit, and literally in the middle of nowhere.

Here’s a closer look:

And a panorama I shot from the other side of the highway. Getting soaked was worth it!

Despite restless scanning for moose we didn’t encounter one. Probably a good thing, in hindsight.

Tomorrow’s blog post shall feature, in large part, the blessing and bane of today’s long drive – a snow storm.