Planes, Trains and Snowmobiles

Gravenhurst has an airport which was home base, "Little Norway", for Norwegians who trained here for aerial combat in WWII. Our railway station, which connects directly with Toronto, although hardly Grand Central, does see a train in each direction once daily. The good thing is you can choose a bus with the same ticket, Northlands Ltd. operating both transportation modes out of the same building. The buses run six or seven times a day each direction. But the way of getting around here, par excellence, is by Arctic Cat, Polaris, or Bombardier to name just a few of the snowmobile makes. Some people will go for hundreds of kilometres on a weekend along staked out trails. Most trails are dependent on frozen water and until the lakes freeze it is no go. I should know because the lake next to me is a real thruway now after being tranquil until late January with the late onset of winter. Fortunately the sounds are muffled with all the snow. Up close the engines are noisy. In town the snowmobilers hunt in packs descending on restaurants and gas stations in groups. You have to be brazen to nip ahead of them. The local tv station was in one restaurant the other day, prersumably a snowmobile related item, and filmed my back although the blue eyed blonde opposite me was full frontal, pleasant for me. At night from the house it is sharp to trace the snaking course of the snowmobiles as their lights dance across distant lake highways. Snowmobiles are required to be back in port by 11 pm, not the story for blue eyed blondes I would hope.