6-29-08 Day 2 Niagara to Sault St. Marie

Sunday morning we left Niagara Falls with a goal of getting to Sault St. Marie. The weather was partly sunny with temps in the 70's. We took the QEW up toward Toronto and then onto route 400 to route 69 to 17 which is the TCH (Trans Canada Highway). I had envisioned the TCH to be a double 2 lane divided highway being that is Canada's main east-west route. NOT!!!! It's a plain 2 lane non divided road similar to route 32 that goes through occassional towns where you need to slow down. What it hasw is a 3rd lane every once in a while, usually at a hill where one direction has the passing lane. The main speed limit is between 90 - 100 kmh which is 55 - 62 mph but through the towns it goes down to 40 kmh or 25 mph. We stopped for lunch just before getting on the TCH. A few minutes after getting on the TCH a police car blew by us, lights & sirens going. About 10 minutes later a second cop blows by. We keep going along about 65 - 70 mph as most trafffic does. About 30 -40 minutes later we come upon a traffic jam which now explains the police cars. The entire road is shut down in both directions and everyone is out of their cars/trucks off their bikes. We hear from others that there was an accident and someone died, possibly a policeman, and the road will be closed for an unknown time. We are also told that there is no alternative detour around the accident! After a little more time we hear that there's a power line that parallels the highway and thaat the locals have trails on them and there's an entrance a couple hundred yards ahead and the trail will take you around the accident. We decide to scope it out. I'll leave the rest of the story for Tom to tell as it's a classic that lends itself to coming from Tom with his dirt rider background. We lost about 2-1/2 hrs due to the accident and the rest of the trip to Thunder Bay was uneventful. The pavement surface on all the Canadian roads so far have been in good to very good condition.We arrived in Sault about 7:30 and found a hotel, had dinner and went to bed after another good day on the road.