Via Rail offers lovers of the dramatic scarlet, orange, lemon-lime, gold and purple shades of fall a six-night train ride through the forests of Southern Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.
Fans of the fabulous foliage immortalized by the Group of Seven flock year round to the National Art Gallery in Ottawa and the McMichael in Kleinberg to get their autumn fix.
And, even as the threat of jail hung over him, Conrad Black tipped his hat to the changing leaves of Canadian fall by demonstrating the art of pressing a maple leaf on the Rick Mercer television show. (It must be pressed between two very large books. Small books won't do.)
So where are the most beautiful canopies of colour this fall?
Jane McLean, a self-anointed Canadian fall foliage expert, has posted a top-10 list on about.com, the New York Times-owned online repository of expert advice on everything from accessories and acne to yoga and zoology.
She says fall colours are a "real industry" in the U.S., particularly New England. She posted her list of lovely northern vistas because she didn't want Canada to be overlooked.
"We have just as much to offer, without the crowds," she said from her home in Dundas, Ont.
Already, her list is making waves.
"I've had some heated emails from PR people for tourist boards scolding me for not including them."
That not surprising, since her about.com posting is influential and attracts thousands of hits a week.
Four of the spots that made it into McLean's Top-10 are in Ontario. (Algonquin Park made the cut, as did the Bruce Peninsula). Quebec's Laurentian Mountains got the nod and Alberta's Rockies. In the east, McLean recommends the Cabot Trail of Cape Breton Island and New Brunswick's Fundy Coastal Drive. She likes the forests of PEI since the warm waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Northumberland Strait create a climate that can produce one of the longest fall foliage periods in northeastern North America.
But pity the poor residents of British Columbia and Saskatchewan, provinces without even a mention (Manitoba and Newfoundland also get a pass from McLean).
And before regional pride provokes a national scrimmage, it's important to note that although the Rockies are listed as No. 1, and the Fundy Coast No. 10, McLean's list is in no particular order.
"I generally work my way west to east," she says, with the insistence of a parent who could never choose a favourite child.
Does she have a secret guilty pleasure? Yes, she does. It's Via's Fall Foliage Romance by Rail journey through the forests of eastern Canada.
"There is a romance to it," McLean says. "It's hard to deny that it's a bit old-fashioned. The cabins are dated, but for me that has an allure. And the views through the domed observation window are very strong."
But wait. The writer of the list, the expert on all things autumnal, won't be pinned down after all.
"The subsequent article I write should be how there are many more places that could be added to the Top-10 list that you might not know yet," she says with a laugh.
Really, are there any unappealing locales from which to view the fall leaves of Canada? We think not.
One little-known treasure is the spectacular Canadore Trails on the grounds of Canadore College in North Bay, Ont., a four-hour drive north of Toronto.
Towering maples stand tall and proud next to the beautiful ash and birch trees. In early fall there are still enough leaves to provide an umbrella from light rain. The young trees sprouting from the forest floor fill out the wooded wonderland with strokes of white and brown, while the orange and red leaves that have fallen to the bed's floor sizzle like the year's best sunset.
But it's up the Maple Trail toward the wooden lookout over Lake Nipissing where the most enchanting colours come into view. Carley Size, a North Bay resident who at 13 is still young enough to tap into a magical imagination, has named it The Lemon-Lime Forest, and it is the most apt description imaginable.
If the season's reds are blistering, the green and yellows are refreshing.
Prof. Root Gorelick, a biologist at Ottawa's Carleton University, says '09 is a banner year for anyone who enjoys the lemon-lime hues of fall.
"It's been a good and not very stressful year," he says. "The wet year and warm autumn haven't produced pigments as vibrant as the red and orange shades we're used to," he says. "And this year, the leaves may fall before they turn those shades."
A word for the curious: Gorelick doesn't have a favourite either.
"I don't try to travel this time of year but, if I can, I don't miss an opportunity to look out the window."
Quite.
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If you go . . .
Jane McLean's list: http://gocanada.about.com/od/canadatravelplanner/tp/fallfoliage.htm
Via Rail tour: http://www.trainpackages.ca/packages/Fall-Foliage-Romance-by-Rail.ht ml
PHEV’09 – Hybrids and EVs are still the Far West!View from here easy on the eyes
