So I had a bit of an adventure during my attempt at accessing Burwash.
We were coming up from Toronto. It was supposed to take 4 hours but we hit some snow around Barrie (what is it with tractor trailers doing over 100km/h in blinding snow?).
So a total of 5 hours on the road and we make it to around the south end of Neilly Lake in Burwash.
There was also snowfall in Burwash but they plowed the "main" road to the gravel site.
Burwash Correct Centre Road passes Neilly Lake then Sawmill Lake (going off Google Maps here), then you're supposed to make a left turn onto an unnamed road that heads towards the train tracks.
Well, the road that branches off Burwash Correct Centre Road was not plowed and yours truly had to be a big shot and attempt to conquer it with 2-wheel drive and no winter tires. Yours truly made it a couple hundred feet, lost speed, hit a deeper point, and got stuck.
How long were we stuck? Oh about 3 hours.
About 1.5 hours into the ordeal I decided to call a tow company to ask about rates because efforts were futile. I didn't have any numbers so I had to call OPP who were kind enough to provide me with some numbers.
First company I called said they wouldn't even send a truck to Burwash (from Sudbury).
Second company quoted $90/hour, which I'm guessing included travel time. So half an hour from Sudbury one-way, I was looking at $180 minimum total. And yours truly didn't have that much moolah.
And I guess that's when something snapped inside my brain. I can't fully explain it but I went into Neanderthal mode. I don't know how I did it but we did that trick where you go forward a tiny distance, back a tiny distance, forward a tiny distance, etc., until you're steadily going back and forth and make a little trail for yourself. At other points in the ordeal the car wouldn't move in any direction even half an inch. Yes, we tried taking out the car mats and placing them under the tires for traction.
So 5 hours on the road, 3 hours in the snow, 8 hours total, we're finally ready to start our hike in.
Google Maps sort of betrayed me here. I inputted directions and it said we could drive up to a point where we would only need to walk 20 mins to the prison.
Well, that's not the case.
My fault for not researching entirely but just to confirm what the article said, you cannot drive over the train tracks, unless you have an off-road type vehicle.
So we left the car around the south end of Neilly Lake and we start walking. It was myself and one other person. It was also 20 below with a considerable amount of snow on the ground but the area is in a valley so absolutely no wind which helped tremendously.
We walk an hour, nothing. Two hours, nothing.
It's 2pm at this point and it starts getting dark between 4-5pm.
We decide to call it quits and head back. Even if we had made it, we wouldn't have had that much sunlight left and it would've been a rushed exploration.
To sum up: 5 hour drive, 3 hours in the snow, 4 hours total of walking (2 hours each way).
And now that I got back home I found out a yahoo purchased the property who's had run-ins with explorers. Maybe 3 hours stuck in the snow was a blessing in disguise.
I'm planning to go back in the spring.
Here's a few pictures I took on the way in. Of course none of the pics are of the actual prison since we didn't make it in.
http://imgur.com/a/nWx6e As you can see in the 2nd last pic, you will have to cross a little waterway that's about 6 feet long. There's also another one further down. If you can't jump or don't have high boots you may find these areas challenging.
