8 reasons why I’ll be going back to Wakami Lake Provincial Park

#2 It’s a long way to go, but worth the drive

Time on the road is how you get to places where the people are few, but the fish are many. And Wakami is indeed a long way from Ontario’s populated south. It took me over 10 hours to get there from Toronto, including a final hundred clicks on a rough gravel thoroughfare, called the Sultan Industrial Road. (Though if your car—or your nerves—aren’t up to the challenge of this road, there are longer routes that stick to paved roads.)

However, if you do take Highway 144, there’s a very cool point of interest just north of the Sultan turnoff: the northern Continental Divide (top). There, a marker notes the spot where all water starts to flows to Hudson Bay, while everything south of the divide flows to either the St Lawrence or the Gulf of Mexico. It’s also an excellent time to listen to “Across the Great Divide,” by Canadian musical heroes, The Band. (OK, I know they’re referring to different divide, but in my car, there’s no bad time to play The Band.)