Bugging Out In Northern Ontario, Part 6: One Final Run Up To Detour

I drove south towards Smooth Rock Falls and then east to Cochrane after a fantastic day of naturalizing in Fraserdale, the subject of the previous blog post. Originally, my plan had been as follows. 1: Drive part of the way back home in the evening, maybe reaching the New Liskeard area. 2: Find a good spot to set up the moth sheets. 3: Complete the drive home the next day with some birding and dragonflying stops along the way. But after missing out on my main dragonfly targets earlier in the trip along the Detour Mine Road, I wanted a chance at redemption. 

When I reached Cochrane, instead of turning right and following Highway 11 to the south, I instead meandered through Cochrane headed for the Detour Mine Road. My new plan was to drive most of the Detour Mine Road this evening, sleep in my car, have an earlier start and hike into the fen in the morning (targeting Quebec Emerald, Whitehouse's Emerald and Canada Whiteface), and complete the long 11 hour drive home afterwards. 

It is best to be vigilant when driving along the Detour Mine Road, especially at dawn or dusk. This is not necessarily because of other traffic (there is almost none) or difficult road conditions. But rather, it is because there is always the possibility of discovering mammals like Gray Wolf, Black Bear, Moose, or even Canada Lynx; species that seem to come out of the woodwork when light levels are dim, as day turns to night or vise versa. 

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