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Hitchhiker HellHell: Wawa, Ontario
Definitely Not the Opera, CBC Radio, September 14, 2002
I heard the legend about Wawa while I was hitching across Ontario. I took the Number 17 highway past Ottawa, Petawawa and Mattawa before I finally got to the infamous Wawa. The name is Ojibwa for “wild goose”. The town has two claims to fame. It’s the home of a giant fabricated goose sitting next to the highway-3 of them, in fact-and it’s supposed to be the hardest place in North America to hitch a ride.
A lonesome trucker dropped me off in the middle of Wawa. The strip has a couple of restaurants, a general store and a bunch of hotels. I hoped I wouldn’t be spending the night at one of them. That’s what Mike Fordis had to do when he hitchhiked through Wawa in the early sixties.
“I just couldn’t get a ride out of town for a day and a half. Walked back into town and stayed in a hotel over night, went out to 101 next day towards Timmins and got a ride that way, but I couldn’t get a ride on 17 for some reason. I think the goose brings the bad luck, ha ha.”
Sarah: So what would you recommend to people trying to hitchhike from here?
Mike Fordis: Good luck, ha ha, you’re going to need it. Try to get a ride past it.
James Owen works at Wawa’s tourist centre. He’s heard many stories about Wawa’s dubious reputation.
“It used to have the name ‘hitchhiker hell’ in 60s and 70s. We get a lot of adults coming through here who hitchhiked through Wawa at that time. They remember camping out around the goose or on this bluff right here, there being hundreds of people here at a time, all stranded in Wawa.”
But why Wawa? The town of 4,000 people seems friendly enough. In my brief stay in town, I was invited to a home cooked breakfast and a family barbeque. Sergeant Scott Robinson of the Ontario Provincial Police has a theory.
“There’s no longer any 24 hour gas stations, so it’s rather dark, except the intersection of highway 17 and 101 going into Wawa is the only bright spot to stop and hitch. Also, because of the isolation. We’re 140 miles from Sault Ste. Marie, and there’s nothing much in between.”
Susan Therrien is on the town council. She once had a hitchhiker refuse a ride from her after they found out she was going to Wawa. She has her own ideas about why it’s so hard to get away from this place.
“The only reason it’s that way, I think, is because you don’t have to slow down when you’re on 17. At Blind River, White River, Sault St. Marie, traffic slows down, but because highway passes Wawa, you don’t have to slow down. They’re all doing 90km and I think people don’t want to slow down to pick someone up.”
In fact, Therrien says it’s because the people of Wawa are so friendly, that so many people end up here.
“Obviously people who live in Wawa pick up hitchhikers on a regular basis. The problem is not getting here, its getting out of here! Everybody wants you to stay.”
According to local legend, some stranded hitchhikers did ended up staying in Wawa. One wayward traveler is said to have married a local girl. Personally, I hoped I wouldn’t be in town that long. I headed out to a roadside restaurant for a last meal before I tried my luck. But the legend of Wawa was working to my advantage. A man named Fern came up and asked if I needed a ride.
“I see all these people trying to get rides and then I drive by again and I see them in the same place or a little further down the road….I’m heading to Toronto tomorrow and I just figured I’d ask you guys which way you’re going, but we’re going in two different directions.”
Unfortunately, I was headed northbound. So I stepped out on to the highway and stuck out my thumb.
Sarah: “What’s the time? It’s 2:25.”
(Sfx: cars rush by)
Sarah: “It’s been half an hour. What’s the time? 5 to 3. There’s these big crazy dust storms, a big cloud of white dust, and we’re still in Wawa. There aren’t many cars going by, and most of them are going southbound.”
“She’s motioning to us.”
“She’s going towards Thunder Bay, to Marathon…it’s two hours from here.”
It took 45 minutes to get a ride. That’s a little longer than average, but not too bad. In fact, from my own experience, the worst place in the country to get a ride it postcard-perfect Lake Louise. So hitchers headed through Ontario needn’t beware of Wawa. Even if they do get stuck here, at least they’re on friendly ground.
For Definitely Not The Opera, I’m Sarah Efron.
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