Algonquin Park, Part II

Another trip we made in the park was a paddle along the Oxtongue River.   This river is much narrower than the Barron Canyon River, with many twists and turns.  It would be a great river to canoe on an early morning mist as you'd have a good chance of spotting some big wildlife.  There are rapids every so often along the river, but our canoe is too large to shoot them.  My son managed one of the tiny rapids in his kayak since kayaks don't sit as low in the water. 

 

This (above) is the point at which we turned around (rather than lug the canoe through the short portage around these rapids).  Last year we watched some kayakers go through these rapids in their enviably tiny river kayaks.  There is a canoe-in campsite at these small rapids, and we thought it's a very pretty spot to camp.  I love the sound of the rapids, and when I was young my parents always did a fall camping trip to Palmer Rapids where we would hear the water rushing all day and it would lull us to sleep at night ... perfect ;)

Oxtongue River is one of the first destinations we have planned on when we get a lighter canoe, and we can paddle for a much longer journey, taking the canoe easily across these short portages.

Getting set to head back up the river (below photo).  The deerfly were pretty bad on this river since we were so close to the shore and there were a lot of lily pads that the deerfly like to rest on.  Last year we found a skeleton of a moose along the shore.  We stopped to have a look, and my son picked up the jaw bones to decorate his room(?!), when we came past the spot again on the way back, the large hip bone was suddenly gone!!  We all thought the same thing ... bears! ... and quickly got back in the boats and paddled away.

My son's kayak, which he is very proud of and bought with money from his paper route :)

 

This was the only wildlife we saw on the Oxtongue.  The best time to see any wildlife in the park is early morning or early evening. All along this river you can see paths down to the water made by moose and otters.  Last year we saw an otter along the shore, but he was too quick to get a photo.  We've been fortunate to spot wildlife at any time during the day.

 

 

Here's an example of what we saw around 10:00 a.m. one morning along the highway ...

 

 

A young bull moose.  I just love moose, they're so docile and huge!  Of course, you don't want to meet a bull moose during their mating season in the fall when they crash around the brush looking for their darlings!  This next cow moose was together with the bull ... just look at that loving look in her eye and endearing smile!

 

 

We see a lot of moose in the park because they are protected from hunters here.  There are over 3,000 moose in Algonquin Park!  We saw seven.  The three below were causing a "moose jam" on the highway ... everyone pulls over to see the moose and take tons of photos ... there were probably 30 cars pulled over for this trio :)  They were actually quite a distance away (thank goodness for zoom lenses!).

 

Most babies are born on an island to protect them from wolves.  Fifty percent of baby moose don't survive their first year.  It's a real treat to see a set of twin calves with their mother.  Moose are perfectly adapted to this wilderness as their long legs can take them into deep water of marshes (above) where they love to munch on aquatic plants, and they also make it easy for them to manage the deep snow in winter.  Moose are great swimmers too, and will cross large lakes without difficulty.

I couldn't stop snapping photos of these three ... they were just so adorable.

 
While photographing the above mother moose and her calves, the heron (below) was trying hard to steal the show.  He was perched on this rock ...

And then decided there was better fishing right in the water, so he leaped off the rock ...

... but found he miscalculated the depth of the water!  I laughed when I saw him sink down in the water ... it's always so unexpected when wild creatures misjudge ;)

 

A large snapping turtle was sunning himself on a log quite close to us too.  Snapping turtles have a wicked strength in their jaws.  My mom told us of when her brothers once found a snapper on a hike and they teased it with a thick branch until the snapper bit the branch and wouldn't let go.  They lifted the snapper up by the branch and carried him between them still latched onto the branch all the way back to the farm to show their dad.  I've seen many snapping turtles in various lakes when we camp, and I'm always leery of them. 

 

 

This moose was on Rock Lake Road, and a mere 10 ft from the roadside.  Actually, I think this is the same young bull moose we saw previously.  Isn't he just so gosh darned loveable?!

 

 

Moose are mercilessly attacked by flies ... see all that tan "dust" on his rump ... all flies that rise in a cloud and settle again with every step he takes.  At least they have thick hides!  Unfortunately, one of the main causes of death in adult moose is from a disease caused by ticks.  They loose their fur, and often die in the winter from exposure.

 

 

Anyway, we were heading down Rock Lake Road to canoe down the length of Rock Lake.  Rock Lake is the first campground we ever camped at in Algonquin Park (some 15 years ago), and it is a terrible campground.  There is no privacy between the campsites and everyone just seems to be piled on top of each other.  We hated it!  But Rock Lake is one of the prettiest lakes along the corridor, and it's fairly large.  So when the wind picks up, you have to really work at paddling to keep your canoe from overturning.

 

 

Well, the wind picked up.  The lake was covered with little white caps, and it was hard going, and you can tell you're not getting anywhere fast.  Cody couldn't keep his feet and was falling all over inside the canoe.  My husband was concerned for my son who was struggling in the kayak as well, so after half an hour of barely getting out of the bay, we gave it up and turned back and stopped at this little beach instead.  You can see in the distance a tall hill which has a trail along it with a fantastic view of Rock Lake. 

 

My son entertained Cody on the beach with a large log ...

 

 

 

 

Then it was off again ...

 

Damp doggie at the helm ...

 

We're always so busy at Algonquin Park ... we never want to just sit around the campsite.  With 20 hiking trails within the park, and two biking trails to choose from, we never have enough time to see all that we want to.  One of our favourite trails is Centennial Ridges, which has a spectacular view over Whitefish Lake on one side.  The photo below is 'stitched' from four individual photos.  You can imagine what this looks like in the fall ... bright orange, reds & yellows. 

 

 

A lot of the trails have great views from cliffs ...

 

 

After long climbs to the top, it's a great excuse to sit and admire the view (aka "catch your breath"!)

 

 

Of course Cody loves the hiking trails best ... especially with his pal who never misses a chance to throw a stick into the water for Cody along the trail!

 

 

... although getting into the water sometimes proves a challenge for the silly dog (I'm sure he's thinking he can get in, but how is he going to get out!)

 

Always neat things to see thanks to nature ...

 

The roots that become exposed are so interesting ...

 

I won't push your patience any further with the photos (well, just a few, but you don't have to look at them if you don't want to ;)  Needless to say we have a marvelous time in the park every time we go, and endless memories.  We did more canoe trips this summer than hiking, and even then it seemed our week flew by.  We also cycled the railroad trail with the dog trotting alongside us (22 km round trip) ... he was one tired (but happy!) dog at the end of that.  We also canoed on huge Lake Opeongo where my son was thrilled to see the float plane bank around a point in front of us and come over our heads for a landing beside us. 

 

Lots of wildlife was spotted, including two beautiful red fox.  In August the park holds a "wolf howl", and I noticed that this year is their 50th anniversary for that.  We've been to them before and have heard the call of the wild along with over 1,000 other visitors as we all parked alongside Hwy 60 ... so if you ever get the chance ...

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy

 

 

 

A small arm of BIG Lake Opeongo ...

 

A memorial on Canoe Lake to Tom Thomson, a painter with The Group of Seven who drowned on Canoe Lake ...

  

Canoe Lake outside the outfitters store on a Saturday afternoon when everyone has rented a canoe, but not many of them know how to steer (we were almost rammed twice through this little bay!)

 

Algonquin Park ... Paddling up Barron Canyon River

Every summer we head off to Algonquin Park, about three hours north of us, for a week of camping.  My daughter had a meltdown one fall camping trip where she exclaimed "I HATE CAMPING!!" ... now that she's almost 20, she has opted out of these trips.  We tried over the years to make it enjoyable for her, but although she loves to swim in the lake, she's not crazy about the rest of it.  My son tells us he's never going to stop camping with us, and I'm glad he enjoys it as much as we do. 

So we packed up husband, me, boy, dog, bikes, canoe, kayak and trailer and headed off to the Great (white) North for a week's camping in the woods.  There are various ways to camp in Algonquin Park.  You can bring a tent or a trailer and camp in the campgrounds with showers and hydro (which is what we do).  Or you can drive to an access point, park the car, load up your canoe and paddle into "backcountry" where there are designated individual campsites dotting lakes and rivers that have a fire pit and a privy down a well-beaten path far away from the comforting glow of your nighttime fire. 

Canisbay Lake at the "pet beach" ... or "Cody's beach" as we like to call it.

Black bears are prevalent in the park, and I'll admit that this is my only worry if we were to back-country camp.  For the most part, bears only arrive in your campground when they are attracted by the smell of food.  You can usually scare them off with some yelling and waving of arms.  But there's always that ever so slight risk that a bear will attack you if you make a wrong move ... like if you run away from them, they then see you as the weaker mammal and give chase.  An even rarer instance is my favourite, the "predator" bear, which will purposely stalk and attack humans.  But the park authorities assure all campers that predator bears are very uncommon among black bears and not to worry.  We've had bears come through our campsite, and I've come face to face with a bear very early one morning when I cycled over to the showers  (he was tearing through some garbage that some lazy campers left outside the garbage bin), but the bears are honestly more interested in sneaking some food and making a quick get-away.   

There are 12 campgrounds within the park, but we always camp at Canisbay Lake (above 3 photos) campground, and take day trips all over the park.  A two-lane highway runs through the lower corridor of the park (from west to east gates, it's about 60 km) and you can access lots of lakes along that highway.  During our paddles around, we've often stopped at the canoe-in sites and we're sometimes disappointed by the amount of garbage people leave behind.  The rule is if you pack it in, you must pack it out, but we've found broken camp chairs, fishing rods, lanterns and just general garbage littering some of the sites.  It bugs me that people leave it all for someone else to clean up.   However, most of these sites are clean and have beautiful views of lakes and rocky shores that you just can't beat! 

 

My son kayaking on Canisbay Lake with Cody tucked in front of him.

We've never done "back-country camping" in the park, as we've become somewhat spoiled with a soft dry bed at night and relative safety from the violent thunderstorms that hit the north (ok, my second fear is a tree being struck by lightening and falling on your tent with you inside it!).  But after this trip, we've decided that next year we might just do it for one night over on the east side of the park.  The east side of the park is decidedly less-travelled.  We've been there before, and this year we drove over again with canoe and kayak to paddle down the Barron Canyon River.  It's about another three hour drive from Canisbay Lake to the east side and Achray Campground.  But it's a lovely drive through amazing northern countryside with lots of old log barns and houses mingled with quaint towns.  We drove through a portion of the Ottawa Valley, and were fairly close to Petawawa where there's a military base where my brother-in-law was stationed years ago. 

The Barron Canyon River is a nice width and meanders gently along where there are some very pretty canoe-in sites.  We passed beaver dams and marshes, and even saw one beaver on the way back to the truck.  

Shortly after starting along the river, we were forced to portage around some small rapids.  The portage was .5 km over some rough ground.  Our canoe is quite cumbersome to navigate through dense forest and up and over rocks, being 65 lbs. and 17 ft long .  We bought it years ago when Kevlar canoes were just coming into fashion.  Ours is a very stable canoe which has been perfect for two adults, two growing kids and an active dog.  Now that it's just my husband and I in the canoe,  we've got our eye on a nice Kevlar canoe that's only 15 ft and weighs 35 lbs.  We've always tried to avoid having to do long portages with our monster.

 

There was apparently a heavy storm in this area just prior to our camping trip, and there were a lot of large trees down.  Here you can see the trail has been cleared of a couple of fallen trees over the path.

 

 

I was left here to wait while my husband and son carried his kayak to the end of the portage.  Lots of people were leaving the park that day, and this portage was hopping shortly after I took these photos. 

 

We happily continued on our way up the river and enjoyed the beautiful scenery on either side of us.  The gentle hills gradually rising up higher and higher, and the turkey vultures soaring above us.

My son paddling up the river and our first glimpse of the cliffs ahead.

 

The small point on the right of the photo below is a canoe-in site.

 

 

The wind was actually quite strong that day, and it was hard going on the trip into the canyon.

 

Cody loves being with us, but he's a bit annoying in the canoe.  He usually tries standing up on the tiny tip of the canoe and whines and cries till you just want to toss him overboard ... and yes, I have done it ... oops!

 

Here is the main part of the canyon, which is really more like a deep gorge.  The rock cliffs are so colourful, and it was so quiet and serene down here on the river.

 

We passed only a few other canoes, but we were mostly alone here.

To give you an idea of how high the cliffs are, there is a man on the edge of this cliff that I zoomed in on ... he's taking a photo ...

 

And if you look closely, you can see him here in the regular shot ...

 

I know it's not the Grand Canyon, but it's still impressive to paddle along and look way up to see these rocky cliffs.  There's a trail along the top of the cliffs which we've walked along another time, but I enjoyed the view from below better, I just love the look of the cliffs.

 

 

It took us all day to drive to the canyon, paddle up and back down the river and then drive back to our campsite, but it was well worth it!  Next time we do it we're thinking of booking a campsite along the river for one night because it was fairly exhausting to do all that in one day.  If we stay overnight, we can go further up river and enjoy a waterfall where you can slide down a rocky chute!

 

And that's all for today folks!

 

I'll continue with more Algonquin pics another day ;)

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy

 

PS...Cody loves to photo bomb ;)

 

 

In a Cavern, In a Canyon ....

I've been away again, but will be posting shortly of my wonderful vacation in Algonquin Park ... here are a few photos, but will have more in a day or two!

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Wendy