Back Roads Trail Find – Timmins

What You Find On The Back Roads

Trail of Passion and Love

Memories that Matter – Natural Celebration

by Back Roads Bill

The back roads contain interesting stories. There is a trail in the north like no other.

Why do we place our hand on monuments, walls of honour, plaques, headstones and memorial photos? It is an act of remembering and celebrating an event we relate to or to those no longer with us. We connect because our memories process information by encoding, storing and retrieving.

We walk and snowshoe trails because they are full of adventure and are just waiting to be explored (winter was mentioned in passing). There are other motivations. Estelle and Leo Duciaume enjoyed the long walks they used to take with their daughter, Nicole. That was years ago when their daughter was alive as a toddler, child, teenager, woman and mother.

She left behind her husband Darren and baby daughter, Kennedy. “She left us with wonderful memories of herself and left us with her beautiful daughter, Kennedy Lynn, who will continue to enjoy the beautiful surroundings of this area,” said the Duciaume’s. “Star Lake was a love of hers and was a little piece of her heaven on Earth. She started coming here was an infant to her grandparents and when we finally settled here, it was her home.”

But when Nicole died suddenly from undiagnosed cardiovascular disease in 2002 the Star Lake Cottagers Association decided to do something about it to honour Nickie’s memory.  The trail is a labour of love for the Duciaume family and all who enjoy the Star Lake area of Timmins. On the commemorative plaque it says: “The nature trail is dedicated to the memory of Nicole Duciaume-Poan, a young daughter, sister, wife and mother who left us too soon. She made a huge impression on many and provided lasting and loving memories. Nickie was a friend to all who loved the bush and shared it with family and friends.”   For Leo the evolution of working the trail “has been good therapy.” They take strength from knowing the trailhead represents their daughter and the future of their grandchild.

Nickie’s Trail

The trail is known affectionately as Nickie’s Trail and opened in June 30, 2005 and the Duciaume’s want others to make their own special memories on it. They said it is honour to have the trail named after their daughter. They can look out their window every morning and see Nicole’s photo adorning the trail entrance and for them “it is a reminder the trail embodies their daughter’s spirit.”

There is the adage, “if there wasn’t bad luck there would be no luck at all.” Kennedy’s father Darren Poan died suddenly from a massive heart attack, two years ago. . The practice of tracing the sign of the cross is most prominent in the Roman Catholic Church, the symbolic gesture of acknowledging the trinity. At bed time Kennedy would ask her grandparents to trace one cross on her forehead, then it became two. She is now 13 years of age, we can only think of the “adjustments” a child has to go through, but she knows the trail “is her mother.”

But as “luck would have it,” when it was time for trail photos, along came two first-time trail users. By chance it was the parents of Kennedy’s good friend Melodie, Andre and Joanne Verville. Natives of Timmins they had never experienced the beauty of this boreal forest ecosystem. They were overwhelmed with the experience. “Such a wonderful place to think about what matters,” they said.

And the beauty and the fragility do matter and this trail captures just that. The boreal forest is Canada’s largest vegetation zone, making up 55 per cent of the country’s land mass. Although the zone includes varied terrain, including lakes and wetlands, the majority of the region is dominated by trees. The area houses a diverse group of wildlife, and is crucial to maintaining biological diversity, storing carbon, purifying air and water, and regulating the climate. As an example, of the 300 bird species that call Canada’s boreal forest home during the summer, only 30 stay through the winter. Beyond this it is the solitude and sightliness of a forest untouched. Tembec has withdrawn this Crown Land from its harvesting allocations.

Look for the shadows. Peter Pan lost his shadow; and of his frantic effort to find it, catch it, and have it re-united with himself. Although the angle of the sun determines the length of the shadow look for the light filtering through the stately jack pine; the shadows create magical lines as if drawn on the forest floor. More than one thousand visitors per year utilize the trail; it is a great snowshoeing venue.  In the winter Leo says, “After a heavy snow the jack pine bend over creating a cathedral of pines to go through.”

There is an expansive, open sided, pavilion with a photo gallery at the trail head. There are three loops that circle Little Star and Ellery Lakes (the Turtle Trail, 1 km, Fox Trot 1.74 km and Rabbit Run, 8.85 km) with interpretative signs along the way describing the flora and fauna, with periodic rest stops, two areas with comfort stations and picnic tables and a wonderfully designed viewing platform at Sunset Bay.  There are a multitude of benches dedicated to other loved ones in the greater Timmins community. They said the project was proudly supported by a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, a program which builds healthy and vibrant community projects. This was money well spent matched by the passion and commitment of many who care. “It is hoped that the same love and respect that Nickie had for nature and this trail, which she walked, will grow in each of us.” One of the user groups is Science Timmins Science a non-profit organization that helps promote science especially among young students.

See the Erratic

Nickie’s trail is easy to find.   From the junction of Highways 144/101, west of the city with “the heart of gold,” travel 15 km to Star Lake Rd. It is 3 km north from the highway, follow the signs to the trail pavilion.

(Detour, like on the ‘Amazing Race.’ There was a recent Back Roads Bill story on erratics, those glacial boulders we might call “glacial droppings.” Most likely one of, if not the largest glacial erratic in Northern Ontario, called Archie’s Rock, is found on nearby Little Star Lake Rd.  It is perched on top of an esker. While in the neighbourhood travel 2 km west of Star Lake Rd. on Highway 101 and drive 3 km NW to a distinctive “Y” and veer SSE or left for 1 km; the massive boulder is less than 50 off the road; the GPS coordinates are WGS 84   17 U 441684 5351481 or N48° 18.830’ W81° 47.193’; worth the visit if you like big boulders that are anomalies. The Mattagami Region Conservation Authority will be erecting new signs before winter’s onset, yikes, sorry eh! )

On the long term many rural trails suffer from a lack of maintenance, management, mapping and marketing. You will never see someone’s momentary indiscretion along this trail, the tender loving care continues with the memories. For those with any mobility issues Nickie’s Trail is most likely the most accessible in the north.

Some trails have a storyline this one does. And maybe, just maybe this is a “kind of” natural memorial with a difference because of the motivation to remember. Memories span the years and warm our lives. I put my hand on Nickie’s plaque, made the connection and walked forwards into a natural place, unconditionally, to make a memory.