Hello and Welcome to my Web Page. This gives me the opportunity to boast about my Home Town (as Bruce Springsteen would say) the city of North Bay.

This is my first attempt at putting together a web page, so please bear with me if it doesn’t look too great. I will be upgrading it as I get new ideas.

My name is Denis and my email is [email protected].

Plenty to do in the Near North

North Bay is in an enviable position.

Few cities can offer visitors all the benefits of urban life and at the same time act as the jumping-off point for short sidetrips to the wilderness and environmental sites which leave long-lasting memories.

The city is the ideal location for fine dining and accommodation. It has the shopping convenience and several malls.

It also has one of the province"s longest beaches and a Lake Nipissing waterfront which is a magnet for both visitors and local people. Fine flower gardens and the Kate Pace Way are added attractions.

Throughout the summer, there is a wide variety of special events such as the Heritage Festival and Air Show, Step Dance and Fiddle Contest in Sturgeon Falls, and jet ski races in Temiscaming.

Two additional city draws are the Chief Commanda which opens its season June 7 and the Heritage Railway, a favourite with children.

The Chief sails as far as the French River, across a lake which means Big Water in Ojibwa. It is the fourth largest inland lake in Ontario and is 87,000 hectares in size.

The lake also is one of the province’s best for angling with walleye and pike being the two most popular species sought.

The average depth of the lake is 4.5 metres (15 feet) and the temperature during the summer ranges between 20 and 22 degrees Celsius.

Another phenomenon of the lake is the shadfly which has a direct relationship with the walleye. The fish feed on the shadfly nymph for a good part of the spring and summer.

Using the city as a hub, there are a variety of day-long jaunts which offer new interests for the visitor.

The east is becoming more and more popular, especially Mattawa which now features the Timber Train, an award-winning tourism attraction which opened last fall.

The train, which runs along the Ottawa River between Mattawa and Temiscaming, Quebec., features guides who narrate the rich history of the area that attracted early explorers and fur traders.

The 65-kilometre return run boards in Mattawa at 8:30 a.m., departs 15 minutes later and arrives in Temiscaming at 11:15 a.m.

While in the quaint Quebec town, train passengers have two-and-a-half hours in which they can either take a tour or a leisurely stroll.

There is a bus tour of historic sites and scenic lookouts and also a tour of the giant Tembec Inc. mills which employ more than 1,000 people in the pulp and paper business.

A one-hour drive north on Highway 11 takes the vacationer to Temagami, long considered the heart of the province’s environmental beauty with a myriad of lakes and some of the province’s only old growth red and white pine.

These giant trees, some of which are 300 years old, start at Marten River where there is a provincial park of the same name. The park has a full-size replica logging camp exhibit which features a bunkhouse, scaler’s shack, cookery, stable, hay shed, office and blacksmith shop.

With North Bay as a base, there are several other day trips that are possible and popular for different reasons. It is a 90-minute ride to Sudbury where people can take in Science North. Two-and-a-half hours to the south off Highway 11 is the Rama Casino and people can make the scenic trip around Lake Nipissing in one day.