Travelling Highway
17 in Northwestern Ontario
Need a Rest Break?
Travelling along Highway 17 in Northwestern Ontario takes
one through some great wilderness areas with a variety of scenes,
which change with each season. Perhaps, some moose and other
animals straying by the roadside will be seen.
Highway 17 through Northwestern Ontario is part of the main
Trans Canada Highway system. All traffic crossing
Canada from the East coast to the West coast follows this route.
This results in several thousand vehicles per day using this
part of Canada's Trans Canada Highway all year around.
Travelling on weekends and at night on the long distances
between towns and service areas in Northwestern Ontario, a
driver may tend to get tired or need a thigh tightening rest
break. If one is traveling during the summer months, chances
are the towns along Hwy 17 will have open service stations
or restaurants where one can take a potty break, knock back
a fresh cup of hot coffee, stretch your legs and refresh a
bit for the next leg of the trip.
Restaurants, truck stops and service stations generally have
clean washroom facilities, with flush toilets, running water,
soap to wash one's hands. These are certainly normal facilities
for health standards in 2006.
However, this all changes at night in the summer, and off
season through the winter months when most of the usual
commercial places with facilities are closed early, and remain
closed during the night hours.
Now what? For several months of the year, during the
winter months, rest areas are limited or non existent for hours
and hours of driving. A few 'Snow Plow' turn arounds are clear
of snow, but are generally marked 'No Parking'.
Bathroom breaks now have to be made by the side of the road if one is not lucky enough to have stopped at the last open truck stop! This problem is compounded when one has children or gastronomic conditions!
Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MOT) 'Rest Stops' along
Highway 17 are a very much different matter in Northwestern
Ontario. For the most part, they are open only in the summer
months, even though they may be a lifeline to a sleepy driver. Most
have no nighttime security lighting.
Following are comments and pictures of
MOT Rest Stops between Thunder Bay and Dryden, a distance of about
338 Km. Most
of the rest stop locations are nice, roomy and very manicured.
However, none of the rest stops had any SOAP or hand washing
facilities nor running water!
No hand sanitizer dispensers are available. In
some cases, NO TOILET PAPER! Some
had terrible stenches, urine on the toilet seats, doors that
had no privacy latch (broken off or removed). Others seem to
be better maintained. Use of these facilities are undoubtedly
for cases of extreme necessity rather than a rest break where
one could use the toilet facilities, clean up a bit, then have
a sandwich break on one of the picnic tables!
How many of the
toilet facilities at any of these rest stops would meet normal
hygienic standards? Note:Looking
down toilet holes is no way a hobby of mine!!
These observations and pictures were taken on July 14 - 17,
2006. These rest areas are probably typical of what to expect
over most of the Northern part of the Province. This is what
you may encounter on your rest stops! Remember,
these are Government run facilities!!
(Closed during winter months)
Ontario Ministry of Transportation Rest Stops
Thunder Bay - Dryden
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