Preparing for the road trip to RCAF Station Parent and Casey

(UPDATE: This trip happened) 

To recap, I'm going camping with ~8-10 of my craziest friends in the near future, and here's where we're going, in excruciating detail for my next of kin.  All times are approximate, and I've put no times to events on Day 2 and Day 3 because other than getting home around dinner time, I have no schedule I need to keep!

Day 1 ~450 Km:

• 09:00  Depart from Carp, ON
• 09:45  meet the rest of the expedition at Tunney's Pasture, by the giant microwave dish.
• 10:00  Pick up the downtownie, in the market
• 10:15  Travel to Mont Laurier, QC; via the 105, 107 and 117
• 12:30  Meet the Montrealer who's joining our merry band of lunatics there.
• 13:00  Allowing time for the unexpected, depart from Mont-Laurier for Parent, QC
• 16:00  Arrive at Parent, QC, make camp

View Larger Map

Day 2 ~55 Km:

• Break camp
• Explore the remnants of RCAF Station Parent
• Travel from Parent to the Casey Air Strip
  (NB: The road is not mapped, I will be GPSing it and adding it to Google Maps upon my return)
• Explore the remnants of the Cold-War-era air base near Casey, QC
• Make camp!

View Parent, QC to Casey Air Strip in a larger map

Day 3 ~500 Km?

This is where it gets a little hazy.  By this time we've been in the middle of nowhere, in below freezing (at night) temperatures, for 2 sleeps.  Some of the expedition may have become disenfranchised with the trek's vision.  Some may be cold.  Some may be whiny. 
By the start of Day 3, if all goes according to plan, we will be waking up at the abandoned airstrip at Casey, QC.  If we haven't done enough exploring the day before, we can explore some more.  By noon, at the latest, we should be heading home.

I have a "Plan A" and a "Plan B". 

Plan A  ("The Safe Way" - Back the way we came ) ~500 Km

• Casey, QC to Parent, QC
• Parent, QC to Mont-Laurier QC (Wave goodbye to the Montrealer who would take the 117 back East)
• Mont-Laurier to Ottawa, drop off the downtownie and whoever else.

If by day 3 we've had an incredible time, and we all feel invincible, we get to take the "new" way back, the road less traveled.

Plan B  (AKA The Yippe-Kay-Yay Way - BOOYAH!) ~480 Km

• Head along the forrestry roads from Casey, QC to "Chemain de Manouane" 
• Head SE along Chemain de Manouane, find the turn off SW toward Rivière-Rouge
• Decision time
• If the road toward Rivière-Rouge looks traversable by a Jeep Liberty, a Subaru, an Iltis, and a couple of pick up trucks - GIVE 'ER.



RCAF Station La Macaza - 1963
Credit: Donald Norrie

• If the road toward Rivière-Rouge looks too rough, head to Saint-Michel-des-Saints, to Montreal, and to Ottawa - skip the following instructions.
• Head to the Correctional Services Canada La Macaza Institution... and try not to get arrested. 
• See BOMARC Missile bunkers
  (from a distance I expect)
• Take the 117 to Route Des Ormes to the 323
• Take the 323 to the 315
• Take the 315 through Mayo to the 148
• Take the 148 to Ottawa

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Weather
Here are the weather forecasts for the areas which we will be visiting. 
In case of rain, snow, sleet, hail, tornado, flying pigs - too bad, we're going anyway...
DOORS OFF!

It's quite possible there will be a few people who won't talk to me after I put them through this! 
It looks like it's going to be really cold!

Planning for Camping in Parent, QC and Casey, QC

(UPDATE: This trip happened)

If you hadn't noticed, my fall trip to Thunder Bay, Ontario (~1450km) fell through, completely.  By buying my Iltis from Renfrew, I missed out on an awesome 2-3 day camping extravaganza, in near freezing temperatures, across northern Ontario.  Yes, I was in fact looking forward to it.  I'll need to do it eventually, but for now the plan is shelved. 
I hope to extend the trip all the way to Sioux Lookout, Ontario (via Armstrong Station, Ontario).

What I do have on the agenda is the original plan to drive to Casey, Quebec and see the abandoned cold war concrete airstrip. 

When?

Looking at the recorded temperature highs, lows, and averages for the area I think late April or early May are the safest ideas; so the camping party can enjoy the time as best as possible, as soon as possible, without many bugs.  The nights will be cold, so that should kill off the bugs/mosquitoes.  I hope.

Library and Archives Canada

Library and Archives Canada

I discovered that Library and Archives Canada (395 Wellington Street, Ottawa) has several collections including old military archives containing everything from commanding officer logs, to the layouts of sewer systems, where and how roads were constructed, etc..  From that information I should be able to study up on the facility.  I've looked up online, through their search tools, over a half a dozen different applicable files.  I'm hoping to find enough records about RCAF Station Casey to make a composite map/collage of the area, and know where to look for building foundations or other facilities such as water pump facilities, power facilities, sewage facilities, off-site radio facilities, etc. 
From that information we'll know what we're looking at and where we're going.

The National Air Photo Library
(Natural Resources Canada)

The National Air Photo Library
(Natural Resources Canada)

In order to get a better idea of what buildings have stood on the site of the old military airstrip, it only makes sense to consult old air photos.  I've spoken to the staff at the National Air Photo Library (615 Booth Street #180, Ottawa) and they are very eager to help with this kind of research.  I just need to find a time that works for both their office hours and my schedule that will allow me to work with them and review some of the vintage air photos from the 50's, 60's and 70's of the area.

What route?

This is the part that I'm having difficulty with.

The last trip to Parent, Quebec took the main road from Mont Laurier to Parent, but that's easy, because it's the *only* road to Parent!  The road is dirt, but it is very wide and easy to drive.

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Parent, QC to Casey, QC

Casey, QC
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/37889047.jpg

Thanks to some local advice I've recently been given, I can confirm that there is a road from Parent to Casey which is passable by regular vehicles, thanks to the 2011 logging which has been happening East of Casey, QC!  Unfortunately it's not really "on the map" yet, but I expect will turn into a real road eventually and get picked up by Google Maps.  It's plainly visible from Parent to Casey all the same, using Google Satellite view.  Disregard the blue line, the road is sand/dirt and viewable pretty much right down the middle, left to right.

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Then comes the challenging bit... Casey, QC back to Ottawa, ON for some, and Montreal, QC for others.

Casey To...
Casey to Montreal or Ottawa share the 1st leg to the Manawan road. The road from the Manawan reserve to Saint Michel Des Saints was built in the 70's, it is a good road, then it's the 131 all the way in to Montreal - but...

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How to get from Casey to Ottawa?
Well... you know the old ditty... You take the high road and I'll take the low road... there's a road on the map, which doesn't look very big, but goes right where I want it to.  I've been burned by Google Maps before, and I'm intent on having it burn me again, so unless someone can tell me that road is a impassable ATV only hell hole I'm going to do it!

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Not Ottawa?

Oh, so you noticed that is not Ottawa... yes indeed, that's the site of the former CFS La Macaza - home of the Canadian 447 SAM Squadron from 1962-1972 who manned the famous BOMARC nuclear tipped anti-aircraft missiles - that's right, one of two nuclear SAM sites on Canadian Soil!  This is the location of the camping trip "BONUS ROUND" if we've made it this far without killing each other or ourselves we can drive by, wave, and likely not actually stop... because the former base is now a medium security prison for sex offenders and recovering substance abusers! 
Camping with me is never dull!

From there we go on to Ottawa!

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There we have it.  To Ottawa, via the 323, then the 315, and the 148.

The name of the game will be fill up at every gas station, and drive like a psychopath.  Hey, when in Rome...

 

Road Trip to RCAF Station Parent (Parent, QC)

For the past decade or so I've wanted to do a cold war road trip through the southern states and west coast; hitting most of the national labs, test sites, aircraft graveyards, and other historically significant places to do with the cold war and nuclear weapons programs. Unfortunately, due to the increased level of paranoia in the US, I don't think a foreign national coming into the country to take pictures of missile bases and such would be terribly popular, and might even end me up in jail. So, what's a guy to do? Well, what do we have IN Canada that's interested? Beavers, Moose... we have the Diefenbunker! But... the Diefenbunker is a hop skip and a jump away from my house, there's no fun in that. What about the radar stations from the 1950's which protected CAN/US interests from the Soviet bomber fleet? I knew there was one in Foymount ( a nice day trip if I went there ) but I didn't know how many other sites there were across Canada. According to Wikipedia, 44! Then I found out about the BOMARC program, that adds at least another two sites. With a little digging I found the locations of all these sites; they stretch from coast to coast, and then up the coasts! I don't know that this idea is quite the same as the cold war road trip that I'd originally went looking for, but it sure started to look interesting.
Looking for information regarding the current state of these sites, I quickly discovered something. Some of these sites have been razed to the ground and totally wiped off the planet. Others have been re-purposed and are inhabited ...But many were re-purposed, then abandoned - and the radar sites that are the most remote, are the most intact. Radar stations which are close to urban centers (I'm looking at you Montreal) have been burned out, grafiti'd, and generally abused. The bases I'm most interested in are those which look as they did, or even if the buildings were razed, I'd like the area to look as they did. I realized that I wanted to get up there, and take a lot of pictures. I wanted to chronicle what it looked like today, and by being there, understand some of what the people went through when they were stationed to these remote stations. I want to get to the top of each hill, stand where the radar station was, and take pictures of the view - as the first people stationed there would have 60 years ago. 

MY FIRST?
I settled on a radar station that was located near Parent, Quebec; RCAF Station Parent (1950-1963).
By doing my research, I found many family pictures of people who were stationed there, the winter carnivals, halloween, christmas parties... you name it. The bonus; many of the pictures had the station or it's buildings behind those who were posing!

HOW FAR?
Looking at how far this trip would be, I didn't think ~400Km would take *that* long, and I'd pack a lunch, and probably a sleeping bag. Google suggested that the trip would take ~9hrs. WHAT? Well, after the first two hours of travel gets you to Mont Saint Michel, the road quality drops off. What's the good news? I found pictures of the roads around there:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/ride-tales/parent-quebec-50674
Dirt road, yes, but not so bad! Google has no idea how quickly people can travel on an unpaved road, so I hope it's just a very conservative 9hrs. Also, the road is *THE* road and realistically should be beaten down by the trucks, as it is the ONLY road that heads south from town, and there is a heavy lumber industry in the area.

LODGING
I was kicking around the idea of camping vs. Motel, but once I found out that only one of four motels in town gave you your own bathroom (all 1 star I might add), I figured camping sounded pretty good. With the bears... Sleeping with a shotgun... The camp site also has toilets and showers; civilization! I tried calling ahead to reserve a spot; they were quite surprised I even called, and insisted they would have lots of space.
I get the idea nobody in their right mind goes to Parent, Quebec to camp...
http://www.tourismehsm.qc.ca/thsm_en/index.php/food-and-accomodation/camping/355.html

NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF CANADA
The national archives have copies of all the commanding officer's logs from the ten year period the station was in service, as well as the years preceding that when it was being built. It is incredible how much information is contained with them, including reference to the Cuban missile crisis and elevating their threat level to DEFCON 3A!
I have lots of stories from the commanding officer's log regarding the very interesting and colourful beginnings of the base (including Canada Goose and UFO stories...) but here are two of my favourites:

"the combined mess building was taken over by the RCAF and to relieve the boredom for those on the scene, a combined canteen was organized on 18 Mar 53. To mark the opening of the canteen and also as it presented the first opportunity for those present to reciprocate for the hospitality extended by the local inhabitants, a party was arranged for the night of Saturday, 21 March. This party was intended as only an informal "do" and would be by written invitation. However, the local inhabitants, isolated as they are from what is going on in the "outside world", let their imaginations run wild as to what an Air Force function would be. As a result, the number of people invited steadily grew in order not to offend anyone and word came back to the RCAF personnel of elaborate purchases of evening dresses, etc. Rather than disillusion those who were going to such great lengths, the small party of RCAF personnel kept adding to the programme for the evening. As a result, the final party and the free dinner that went with it would have done justice to any of the large messes in the RCAF. The food for the party was prepared and given free by the firm of Crawley & McCracken, who were mentioned earlier as catering contractor for the project. The company spared no expenses in preparing a wonderful spread. The next morning a great deal of food remained and all the members of the RCAF Detachment dined on it rather than the rugged bill of fare they were accustomed to daily in the camp cook house. Afterwards a quantity of food still remained, and so it was decided to parcel it up and donate it to an encampment of Cree Indians situated halfway to Parent. This was probably the best food the Indians had had in many a moon as they had been scavenging the garbage dump for food from the contractor’s camp. From that time on until the Indians broke camp with the coming spring, the RCAF vehicles passing through their camp were treated as "the great white fathers" and received the joyous shouting and waving of all the "braves". This one episode has been recounted in some detail as it can serve as a criterion of the many pleasant experiences enjoyed by the Detachment in the early stages of 14 ACW Squadron."
    - CC Underhill, Wing Commander, Commanding Officer, 14 ACW Squadron
        November 30th, 1953

"of interest for the record to note the social and economic side effects that the construction of the radar station invoked. Prices of commodities and services in the town of Parent immediately soared, especially those services catering to entertainment and relaxation of a large body of construction workers. The peak work force was in the neighbourhood of 1,000 men and with the high rate of pay and a cost plus project, money was plentiful. The purveyors of alcohol and hotel operators in particular, found their income exceeding their fondest expectations. In a town where previously only one ancient taxi cab operated, now a fleet of thirty modern taxis roared uninhibited on the gravel roads making a small fortune for their operators. Under such conditions it was inevitable that social dislocations would occur and the writers of this chronicle have heard the stories of impromptu battles when gangs of lumberjacks and construction workers met head-on in the town of Parent. The high point of this episode was the night in Parent when a hundred men were involved simultaneously in one huge free-for-all on the main street."
    - CC Underhill, Wing Commander, Commanding Officer, 14 ACW Squadron
        November 30th, 1953
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO THERE?
I get a lot of people asking what I want to do up there. Well, it's like a treasure hunt really. To the casual observer, the base is a bunch of razed buildings, and some Primary Married Quarters buildings still stand. To the treasure hunter and amateur historian (um, me) I have found out where the pipes run, how much rock had to be blasted, where the septic facility was, that there was a 100,000 Gallon reservoir buried at the top of the hill, and potentially a 2nd 10,000 Gallon reservoir. Those holes weren't filled in, so they're still there - vast caverns buried underground. The basements of the facilities are likely still intact as well, although some deterioration of the concrete can be expected and has been photographed by previous adventurers. Someone mentioned welded doors leading to a tunnel, where are they, and where do they go? No, I'm not going up there to break and enter, but I will photograph the entire area and try and put together an idea of how the base was laid out, back in the day.

WHO LIVES THERE?
The Village of Parent has a large lumber mill which employs at least 150 locals. The village is (at most) 250 people, so it's a one industry village; but they have a gas station, corner store, post office, churches, etc. They are a hub of outfitting come hunting season, as they are in the middle of nowhere Quebec - I bet the hunting is pretty darn good up there (too bad I don't hunt). I just hope the locals are as friendly in person as they have been on the phone. I suspect they'll like a little influx of cash at the local resto/bar.

WILL YOU VISIT ANYTHING ELSE?
As well as the Main Site (at the top of the hill) and the Domestic Site (at the bottom of the hill, where they slept), there is a small landing strip, an antenna I'd like to check out (for the view), a derelict hydro electric dam somewhere which looks very creepy, and a fire station which is begging for me to photograph it!

WILL YOU SEE IT ALL?
No, sadly I know I will not. There is a cold war airbase east of there with a ~14,000+ foot CONCRETE runway, but inaccessible to a two wheel drive pickup (mine). I need at least a 4WD truck or jeep. Anyone want to lend me an H1 for the weekend? No? Bah. To the best of my understanding RCAF Station Casey was built (or seriously upgraded) in the 1950s by the American Army Corp of Engineers, who blasted a channel around the airstrip to divert a significant amount of water traveling along a stream/river, and installed the massive runway to service fully laden nuclear bombers, en route to the USSR. B-52 bombers, to be exact, needed that long an airstrip to land/get up to speed with their full payload of ordinance. If there was a B-52 doing maneuvers in Canada's North, the US wanted to make sure they had a few emergency airstrips dotted around to service their planes. Well, that's the official story, so far - I think the base was used for more than that, but I have more digging to do.
I know with certainty that the base was located near the rail line, so any heavy equipment, fluids (gas), or ordinance could be easily shipped in. The airstrip was extremely remote, and invisible from the rail line. I know for a fact the base was capable of refueling planes up to and including the 1970's (as the below plane crashed on takeoff). The RCAF Designated Base was officially closed in 1960.
Since that time, there has been at least one crash (in 1972 killing all three aboard). That crash was a Lockheed L-1049H, the same type of plane that was used by The Rolling Stones, and frequently flown by Air America... you remember them, right? The airfield was also the site of the biggest coke bust in Canadian history, performed by an RCMP interdiction squad, after four CF-18s gave chase. I believe the aerodrome ceased to be operational in the 1980's for anyone's use, but I'm looking into that.

Reference:
"Captain Jim Carlin and (it is believed) Flight Engineer Rick Riccatelli lost their lives in the crash of another Connie ... On 9 June 1973, Lockheed L-1049H Super Constellation N173W (c/n 4674) was taking-off from Casey, Quebec in Canada when it crashed into trees soon after take-off and was destroyed by explosion and fire. The third crew member, First Officer A. Condey, was also killed in the crash. The aircraft had been modified for spraying pesticides on forests and it was engaged in these operations on the day of the crash. The investigation revealed that the flaps had been retracted prematurely after take-off. N173W was previously owned by Lance Dreyer's Unum Inc."
http://www.adastron.com/lockheed/constellation/stones-connie.htm
"1992 Casey Quebec - RCMP seize record 4,323 kilos of cocaine with a street value of $2.7 billion. The Canadian military, with the help of the US DEA, track the plane from South America, then chase it with jet fighters and military helicopters over New Brunswick, forcing it to land at a remote Quebec airstrip; on Nov. 20 they close a processing lab in Laval and arrest 4 Quebeckers, 3 Columbian nationals."
http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/ancient-medieval-early-modern-ages/40946-today-canadian-history-2.html
-Stef