>This route connects Ontario’s important northern mining towns on a thousand kilometre drive across the Precambian Shield. See glacier-scoured rocks, thousands of lakes, and never-ending Boreal Forest. You get to seeĀ four of the most magnificent lakes in Canada: Lake Nipigon, Lake Superior, Rainy Lake, and Lake of the Woods. And in the southern portion, travellers can see Lake Simcoe and Lake Nippissing.
This Northern Route of the TransCanada runs from the island/city ofĀ Montreal initially on AutoRoute 15 Ā or AutoRoute 117 through the LaurentiansĀ towns like Saint Jovite, Mont Treblant,Ā and Mont Laurier. AutoRoute 117 runs from downtown Montreal, and meanders through many communities and has lots of traffic lights, but the 4-laned AutoRoute 15 is an expressway rough the North Shore Montreal suburbs into the Laurentian communities and runs up to Sainte Agathe-des-Monts.Ā The route then continues on AutoRoute 117 north from the Laurentians through the LaVarendrye Wildlife Reserve into Northern Quebec. The Northern Route then continues into Canada’s “mining belt” with cities like Val d’Or. From there is contenues toĀ Kirkland Lake via ontario Highway 66 , where it connects to Ontario’s Highway 11 and contines west past Hearst and Nipigon, where it joins the Trans-Canada main routeĀ to Thunder Bay.
Ontario’s Highway 11 has claimed to be “the longest street in the World” for startingĀ at Toronto’s waterfront, running up Yonge Street through Barrie, Ontario’s cottage country (including Orillia, Huntsville, and Gravenhurst), to North Bay (where it crosses the Main Route of the Trans-Canada Highway). The Trans-Canada North continues to Kirkland Lake and arches around to Nipigon and Thunder BayĀ before continuing west to Fort Frances and Rainy River (two towns on the US border with the state ofĀ Minnesota), for a total running length of 1,896 km, which Guinness Book of Records recognized Yonge St as the “Longest Street in the World”.
(1998Ā highway changes and relabelingsĀ between Toronto and Barrie may threaten that record).
The heart ofĀ Ontario’s cottage countryĀ runs through the MuskokasĀ starting at Orillia (just west of Highway 400), and then in quick succession, the communities of Severn Bridge,Ā Severn Bridge, Bracebridge, Huntsville, Burk’s Falls, South River, and PowassanĀ to North Bay. As yo umake that drive you pass by the may scenic lakes, and from Huntsville a very good entrance into the scenic Algonquin Provincial Park.
North Bay – Highway 11 North with rock cut
The officially designated Northern Route begins where#11 crosses the Main Trans-Canada at North Bay. From this point the Northern Route arches abouve Lake Superior through a chain of northern Ontario mining towns, that because of their strategic importance to American(and Canadian) weapons manufacture during World War II were quickly conected by road.
These towns were already connected by rail lines built in the late 1880s and early 1900s. These town include Temagami, Cobalt, Temiskaming Shores, Englehart, Kirkland Lake Ā (where it connects to the Quebec Northern Route from Montreal and the Laurentians (introduced above), and then continues to Matheson, Iroquois Falls, Cochrane, Kapuskasing (today, best known for its wintertime cold-weather testing for the car manufacturers), and then Hearst, Longlac, Geraldton, Beardmore beforeĀ bending sharply south to avoid Lake Nipigon and then crossing the Nipigon River into Nipigon.
Between Nipigon and Thunder Bay,Ā the Main Route #17 and the Northern Route #11 share the same roadway. It is currently being “twinned”. This began with the Thunder Bay Expressway, meant to bypass the urban areas of Thunder Bay to speed through traffic. The 4-lane Expressway arches around the west end of the city, and has since been continued east. The portion betwen Ā Ouimet Ā and the Dorion East LoopĀ has recently been completed (2023),Ā leaving about 35 km of the 110 km from Thunder Bay untwinned to Nipigon.
From Thunder Bay, travewllers can cotinue northwest on the #17 to Dryden and Kenora, or west of the #11 to Fort Frances and Rainy River (which now runs SOUTH of the Main Route). From Fort Frances, travellersĀ head west a bit to Emo, and then head north on Highway 71 past Nestor Falls and Sioux NarrrowsĀ to reconnect with the main Trans-Canada Route #17 at Kenora. Highway #17 is 490 km between Kenora and THunder Bay, and the Highway 11 & 71 route is 560 km. Highway 11 continues west from Emo (junction with Highway 71) for another 50 km to the town of Rainy River, where there is a border crossing with Baudette, Minnesota.
This route along #11 was actually completed much earlier than the Highway 17 main route of the Trans-Canada. During World War II the strategic metals being mined inĀ northern Ontario accelerated road-building (just like that war accelerated the construction of the Alaska Highway).
This northern route is much less travelled than #17, so travellers should heed “last gas for XX km” signs, and gas up at any major community they pass through
Truckers know when there is “lake effect” snow storm hitting (or forecast to hit) the Sault Ste Marie to Wawa section of the highway, they choose to take the Highway 11 Northern Route, between North Bay and Nipigon, which generally does not get the same depth and frequency of snowfalls.
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Here are the segments of the Northern Route of the Trans-Canada Highway. We have set them up so that each segment’s start- and end-points are a population centre with traveller options for accommodation, gasoline (or battery recharging), shopping, things to do, and attractions.
| Barrie to North Bay | 262 km (2:40 hrs) |
| North Bay to Kirkland LakeĀ | 250 km (2:50 hrs) |
| Kirkland Lake to Kapuskasing | 256 km (2:45 hrs) |
| Kapuskasing to Longlac | 321 km (3:30 hrs) |
| Longlac to Nipigon | 193 km ( 2:10 hrs) |
| Nipigon to Thunder Bay | 120 km (1:00 hrs) |
| Thunder Bay to Fort FrancesĀ | 360 km (4:15 hrs) |
| Fort Frances to Kenora | 215 km (2:30 hrs) |
