Sunday Sept 8 - Cochrane, Ontario - out and about

 Our hotel room overlooks the train tracks.  This morning a 7 passenger car train came down the tracks run by Ontario Northland.  I watched the train switch tracks where train reverses and then to go forward to get onto another track.  Then the train reversed and disappeared down the tracks.  A mystery train.  From what I could see, no one was on it except for the train engineer and there was a train worker walking beside it, changing the track control.  Apparently there used to be a train from Toronto to Cochrane up until 2022 when it was cancelled by Premier Ford.  This year he stated he would bring back the train to Cochrane.  This maybe was the train.  Ford indicated that he wanted this started up for tourists to take the Polar Bear Express to the northern towns.  

The same train just came by and stopped in front of the train station.  It has two more cars added to it.  These are two flatbed train cars with new cars on each.  Maybe 10 new-looking cars in total.  Wonder where this one is going.  This is the same mystery train and now on the closest train to the train station.

It is a rainy morning here and a cool 4 degrees outside.  

We went down to the Station Inn cafe which looked open for breakfast today but it turns out the place has been closed since early July 2024!   It was really cold outside and we went back to the room.  We had more coffee with the idea that we would go out in an your.   I put on two sets of leggings, socks, a turtleneck and merino wool sweater and a neck scarf.  So finally warm.  

We went to the Polar Bear Centre where there are two Polar Bears.  Last weekend they lost a much loved Polar Bear that had been here for a number of years.  The 20 acre enclosure has two sets of wire fencing and a 10 acre lake.  There is a visitor centre and part of the visit is a heritage visit where one can go into old heritage homes and stores and it looks as if the people living there just left with a set a card game in play.  

We also found pockets of warblers in the bushes: Black throated Green, Black and White, Blue headed Vireo and American Redstarts.  Finally in B enclosure we saw Henry being fed by spoon by park staff.  They also asked him to show his paw and he tried and then lay down.  Henry is a beautiful 1,242 pounds of Polar Bear.  I asked about the lake and the staff said it was too windy today to let the bear through to the lake enclosure.  Usually the bears have access to it and Henry swims in the lake sometimes for 6 hours a day.  He loves it.  BUT today the wind was over 40kph and the bears do not have access. The reason being the wind could take a tree down over the fence which could hurt the bears and or humans.  We watched Henry roll around on his back and finally he walked over to his brick house enclosure for maybe a nap.  This is a super place!!  Only complaint is that if one is taking photos, one is taking the photo through two layers of chain link fencing! Too bad.  

Here is the stylized polar bear at the entrance to the Center. Photo by Emily 

From here we went to find some lunch.  Emily decided on a Pita sandwich which she enjoyed.  I went for my Harveys' favourite Angus beef burger and french fries.  It was too cold to eat outside, so we took it back to the hotel room and ate here.  Mine was a bit messy with some drips on my sweater but Emily had an exploding pita and it was good but really messy on her pink shirt.

There was a freight train through here.  Now in the last hour I have counted 7 rail construction/maintenance track machines come through.  So the train maintenance crew is doing some work today.  The track the Polar Bear comes in on is kind of chewed up right now.  So that was our day to tour Cochrane.  The Polar Bear Center is highly recommended. 

We are to meet up with the group for supper.  I met a couple of people that are part of the OFO group and then we all met up at the 49th parallel restaurant at 5:30 pm.  We walked back and I parked my car in the train station end of the parking lot as it will be parked there for 5 days.