Toronto to Winnipeg

  
   The cross country train is really popular. Tourists love the sleeper cars, panoramic rooftop views, and the good food in the dining car. The train also has a couple of economy class cars where passangers can come along for the ride if they sleep in their seats overnight. Since I am making this trip alone and on a budget, I bought the cheap ticket of course.

   After the high tech train from Montreal, I was a little surprised the cross country train had no internet connection. In fact, with the route going through thick forest with only a few small towns, there wasn't even a cell phone signal after we got outside of Toronto. It felt strange to be so out of touch from everyone for two nights in a row.

   Not being an experienced train rider, I don’t know how well I’d do with 4 consectutive nights sleeping in one seat, so I decided to break up the trip by getting off a couple of times on the way to Vancouver. But since the train doesn't make the trip every day (3 trips a week only), when I get off I have to wait a couple of days until I can continue on. Since I'm hoping to keep the trip to around 2 weeks, I have to be careful where to get off for breaks.

   I decided to make my next stop (after two nights aboard) in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It's about halfway across the country and on a map, it's directly north of North Dakota. I found a room for 2 nights at a downtown hotel and I can explore the city before catching the next train on Saturday. I'll bypass the next cities of Saskatoon and Edmonton to get off next in the Rockies at Jasper National Park. From Jasper, I hope to travel by bus or car down the Columbia Icelands Parkway to Banff (above Glacier Park in Montana) and from there hop back aboard a train to Vancouver.

   During the daylight on Wednesday, Ontario seemed like thick endless forest, broken up every couple of miles by small and medium sized lakes. The route was a couple of hundred miles north of the Great Lakes and is heavily populated by black bears. Despite tips on where to look from the train folks, I didn't manage to see any, mostly just birds around the lake areas. Maybe I'll have better luck spotting wildlife later on the trip.