Last update: 28-NOV-2009
28-NOV-2009
I get a good bit of response about this page so I have decided to keep it online. Most of it is good and it
helps people plan trips into the region.
UPDATE: Clicking on the Two Bay Tours page State: Unfortunately, after almost 40 years of operation, as of Labour Day, 2007 Two Bay Tours has closed its doors for the last time... Thanks to all of our past customers; it was genuine pleasure serving you all! Interesting. I guess we are not surprised. Too bad they could not improve the experience ! We signed up for the Frontier Package offered by Two Bay. This included the train ride up and back. Two nights in Cochrane and two nights in the "needing a good clean-up" town of Moosonee. At the start/ end of our trip we stayed at the North Adventure Inn in Cochrane. This Inn was very clean and it looked new and I would have no issues staying at it again. The trip up on the train was uneventful. We were in the second car of 12 or 13 and there was plenty of room to stretch out. The way that the seating in the cars was laid out is that all of the Frontier package people were in one car. The third car was empty.
As I walked through the train the quality of the cars decreased. After the dining cars you encounter the cars where the locals were packed in. I should have figured from what I saw in these cars that where we were going would be similar. I would learn this in time.... The last car was the smoking car. I could not believe the amount of smoke in this car. I am not and never have been a smoker but, I can usually put up with it for a short time. The windows would not open and the locals with their children were sitting in this heavy smoke exposure puffing away. As long as I stayed towards the front of the train I was having a great time. As you head north you cross a number of rivers and pass a few dams. Also, the vegetation changes as you travel north.
We arrived in Moosonee on time and a old school bus picked us up and took us to our hotel. While we were waiting we were entertained by a large number of stray dogs, some with puppies running around in the traffic.
I love all of the arctic this... and arctic that... which will be pushed on you. Moosonee is at the same latitude as London, England and I bet your average Londoner does not think about living in the gateway to the arctic.
We were taken to our hotel, the Moosonee Lodge. (The polar Bear Lodge down the street looked and was much cleaner) We then got our tour pass from Two Bay Tours and got prepared to go on the Fossil Island Tour. The trip was nice and we found some nice fossils. We also saw a seal swimming near us on Fossil Island. Along the river going on the Fossil Island tour.
The view of the river from the Lodge. Two tides a day which make the sandbars come and go.
We went on the Twilight Bus Tour on the first night that we were there. It really should be called the "Moosonee Ghetto Tour", Don't get me wrong, it was fun but there is not much to see in this town. We went by run down houses with even more stray dogs running around. We saw the abandoned Pine Tree Line radar site. We were told by the Two Bay tour guide that the native population destroyed the base when it was given to them. We went by the Ontario Package store where we were told by the Two Bay tour guide (who said that he worked there part time) that the store has one of the highest sales of them all and also the highest armed robbery rate. This place was starting to remind me of Baltimore and one of the many reasons why I never go there anymore. The highlight of the trip is when we stopped at the town dump to watch the 14 large well-fed black bears walking around. While we were watching a number of other cars showed up, so this must have been the hot spot in town. Don't get me wrong... I am a very small town person / country person and I don't need to be entertained. And watching the bears was great. But, it would have been nice to see them out in a meadow or some other natural area vs. a dump that was managed to attract them for tourists.
The big shocker came when we all were informed that the doors are chained shut at 11PM and that NO-ONE is allowed to leave. No exceptions. I was looking forward to checking out the Northern Lights and the stars. I asked the woman at the desk in the lodge and was told that after dark she would not even walk the 200 feet to the other Lodge alone. After it got dark I watched with amazement that the town was very busy driving around and displaying a good bit of public drinking. I guess you got to spend those public assistance checks on gas and alcohol so they will send you more. At this point I was very happy to be locked in my fort, the Moosonee Lodge. (I have received a number of e-mails on the above paragraph but this is what I was told by the woman at the desk. I did not make this up. Everyone in our tour that asked to go outside was told this. I am sorry if this statement offends you but it is the truth.) Well, we survived the night and headed off on the Wilderness Excursion. This was a 13 mile ride up the river into the James Bay. After all, this was the reason that I came all these miles. It was fun and the area is beautiful when you are not around the developed areas. The day was cool and the water was calm. They were saying that it had only been about six weeks since the ice had melted (mid June).
We then headed to Moose Factory. I was very surprised to see a place that was even in more disrepair than Moosonee. Two Bay tours trucked us around and we stopped at a church which was interesting. Those that did not want to shell out $6.00 to look at the Cree Village tourist exploitation center (a.k.a. Cree Village Complex) were taken to the Northern store where they could watch the under-employed shuffle past. I did get to mail out some post cards here so something good came of this.
The main road in Moose Factory
The Polar Princess and a few more stray dogs at the dock
The last night we had our "Wild Game Dinner" at the Sagabon Restaurant which was very good. I had the Caribou stew. We all had plenty to eat and it was fun considering the strange (Local) Items on the menu. The day that we returned to Cochrane we had the Muskeg Walk. To me it was a walk in a buggy swamp which looked like any other muddy area. But, to my wife, the biologist she enjoyed the walk. Two Bay supplied boots, head nets at no charge.
We also stopped at a gravel quarry to look for more fossils. Many were found. But, they said the Indians said we could not take them. Sorry... Consider it pay back for the welfare checks !!
One last look down the main street of Moosonee. More Dogs...
Some views of the train right before the 187 mile trip back to Cochrane.
Our goals of taking a train trip to a remote place and seeing the James Bay were satisfied. The town was in disrepair... The Lodge was nothing special and there were not many options to eat. One of the nights we ate at a Pizza Hut at the Northern Store. So much for an exotic, romantic dinner. This was billed as the farthest North that you can go and 150 miles north of any road. But, looking at a map I guess that Two Bay Tours never heard of Churchill, Manitoba, which is much farther North. Also, Quebec has a number of small towns on the East side of the Hudson Bay that you can drive to. On the train we went over a number of paved RR crossings that had heavy truck traffic. Looking at various Internet Mapping resources I see the closest road is at Coral Rapids / Otter Rapids which is appx. 75 miles below Moosonee so I am not sure where the 150 miles claim came from ? Perhaps a government maintained road ? Would I ever go here again ?? NO ! Would I recommend this trip to someone ?? NO ! I would look into the other options along the East side Hudson Bay or just save up and go to Churchill. Polar Bear Express The name of the train is somewhat misleading -- polar bears are rarely seen anywhere near Moosonee. The Polar Bear Express today mostly services the residents of Moosonee and Moose Factory when they travel south from their communities that lack road connections to the rest of Ontario. During the winter, many passengers are from communities further north who travel to Moosonee by winter road before taking the train. In summer 2008, track conditions resulted the train running very late much of the time (2.5 hours by railway announcement). By late 2008, running times had improved somewhat and timings of five and a half to six hours for the 186 mile (300 kilometre - all distances are shown in miles along the tracks) trip were becoming typical. Service deteriorated significantly in 2009 mainly due to bad track conditions and mechanical failures -- on one occasion the train, scheduled to arrive in Cochrane at 9:42 in the evening did not arrive until 4:00 in the morning. NOV-2009 Update In the fall of 2005 we went up to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. I was shocked with the quality and the people of the town. I was sorry to say I expected the worse. It was clean, friendly (perhaps very friendly as free condoms were everywhere) and seemed to be doing very well. That trip report is on the web at:
NOV-2009 - I cleaned up some of the editing on this page to make it similar to my other travel pages.