by Penny Trottier

Created on: November 30, 2008

Nakina's Summer Visitor

Mike feeling his age of 60, slowly walked down the snow-covered edge along the railway track; it was an early morning in May. He was checking the boxcar connections. All seemed find it was just a routine inspection, it was one of the rare occasions a train would happen to pull into Nakina for a short stop over. The stops became very infrequent over the years the track was used only as a run threw now.

The quiet little town of Nakina nestled in the Canadian forests of Northern Ontario had seen busier times. Built as a railway station stopping point over 60 years ago, the Canadian National railway had come to an end of this station in the middle of 1980. Fortunately, the wood industry had a market increase in the late 1970's so it picked up the slack of the Canadian National railways pullout. Now with the continual decline in the wood industry again by 2005, the population was again back down to around 500. Nakina was known for its hunting and fishing destination, at the end of Hwy 584 a secondary highway off Hwy 11, which stretched, from Toronto Ontario to the Manitoba border.

Mike had worked for CN for his entire life after graduating high school. He had moved from a small town in Southern Ontario taking a job with the railway. He remained in Nakina being content with the simple life it offered, and grew to love all of the outdoor activities associated with Northern Ontario. He had become a good hunter and angler and looked forward to all the seasonal changing activities associated with living in the north.

He was getting to the end of the train when he caught sight of something coming from under the boxcar, and scurrying away. He bent over to look under the car, he seen what he thought was a raccoon disappear into the nearby bush. It had been many years back to his youth that he had last seen a live raccoon. They were commonplace in southern Ontario, considered a pest, to the area residents and farmers. They were not native to northern Ontario, winters were too harsh, and so they stayed only in the lower regions of Ontario.

Since he was crouched down on his knees he took an upward glance of the underside of the rail car in the general area of where the animal had been seen jumping from. He could see a hole in the floor. He stood up and reached for the side door panel. Slowly he pulled it across; he managed to swing himself up into the rail car, to have a look around. The boxcars were all empty they were being relocated to another area. The

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