This is a story for those who are dedicated to their cottages, their second homes that vy for home supremacy with their home back in the city.
Gail Aziz is a retired educational administrator with phenomenal recall, a photographic memory which served her well a couple years ago when she decided to write a book about her cottage. Actually, the book took a little detour and became the story of the construction of a road to her cottage.
The story begins in 1985. The Aziz family were about to cross a stormy Kawartha Lake to reach the cottage, built in Muskoka country with access by water only. As always it was a challenging boat trip but this time it lead to a new wrinkle. The light bulb illuminated in Larry Aziz’s head, family patriarch of the Aziz family. Let’s build a road to the cottage.
Once the initial shock of the idea subsided, discussions moved into the reality stage and thus Larroger Road was given birth.
The idea of building Larroger Road never eased into reality as truth be told, the cottage was isolated in the Muskoka wilderness. Trees, rocky terrain, swampland and no nearby road made the idea more an ideal than a possible reality.
The dream couldn’t be shaken. The more Larry verbalized it, the more real it became. More than a passion, it became a dedication.
Once Larry recruited a neighbouring cottage owner, Roger Smith, reality took flight and the dream actualization began.
Gail’s narrative was created as a legacy to her family and to all the families of the cottage owners that are part of the Larroger Road saga and whose cottages border the rustic road.
Her story is a very niche one, appealing to a small, concentrated group of cottage owners, just over thirty. So the book has very limited interest. It will appeal to this small group of cottage owners and possibly other cottage owners who have had similar dreams about their own cottages.
The Kawartha country region of this road
In 1985, this area was what politely would be called, backwoods. Isolated, accessible by plane and boat rather than by car. There were main roads but few secondary ones and none that made the area where Larroger Road was to be accessible.
Gail’s story unfolds as bumps and jolts along a wilderness trail.
Team Larry and Roger wrestled to get the road started, a Herculean task that few believe could be attained.
Unexpected obstacles impeded progress every foot of the way. Area municipalities with their regulations, government ministries from the Environment to Natural Resources. And the cottage owners themselves, particularly as construction costs became a reality and rose as these costs are wont to do. Greed and control on the one hand, profit and property access and right of way on the other. The challenges and difficulties never stopped.
Construction underway
By 1991 construction was well underway and the realities of the Muskoka region were constant challenges. Flora and fauna, new problems. These aspects of the Muskoka lands had to be respected, recognized and protected. Otherwise, various ministries would handcuff progress with regulatory demands to protect the environment.
Everyone wanted a piece of the action
From construction company owners to Indigenous people of the region, each wanted a say, and input as to how and what would be built. Some only saw dollar signs but others were authentically desirous of protecting the land as much as possible.
Geographic problems beaten
The Canadian winters and Canadian landscape were added problems. Winters were unpredictable but when spring thaws began, the constructed roadway became a nearly impassible quagmire of mud. An engineering problem was eventually resolved with culvert and drainage solutions.
Road completion in 1991
By the end of 1991, the road was completed but its travelability was very questionable. Nevertheless, the construction team and the executive of the Larroger Road Association, now known as the Larroger Muskoka Road Limited, popped the bubbly and celebrated. More obstacles faced the celebrants.
New bumps in the road, 1992-93
The road build never came easy, never smooth. From disagreements over rights of way to survey and boundary settlements and clarifications about property ownership. Regulatory obstacles by municipal, provincial and even federal authorities threw in more bumps, detours and delays. The road builders slogged on.
Each year, new bumps in the construction
Each year from 1993 forward, new obstacles appeared. The construction and building team became adept at overcoming playing whack-a-mole with each problem.
With so many whack-a-moles popping up, it was incredible that the dream kept moving forward inching closer and closer to reality.
In 2005, a sigh of relief blew down the road past all the cottage owners’ properties. The worst was over, the roadway completed.
A road such as Larroger Road in Muskoka is never really done. Mother nature, road users, changing regulations always presented new bumps in the road but Larroger Road is a success and complete.
Gail draws her book to a close with snapshots written by a number of the cottage owners along the roadway. They talk about the naming of sections of the road, the idiosyncracies of memorable spots along it and the memories they have of the early days when the area was more wilderness than accessible cottage country.
Trans Canada Highway, meh…
Larroger Road, there’s a story
The story of Larroger Road may seem inconsequential and insignificant to outsiders but to those who were involved in its construction, it was as monumental as the Trans Canada Highway was to other dreamers.
