Algonquin

Tues. - Thurs. 8-10 September:  Algonquin

The Magic of the Algonquin:  sunset colors from my campsite

If you’ve been to the Algonquin, nobody needs to tell you what a special experience it is.  If you haven’t been, then put it on your list of places to visit. 

This was my first visit, although it had been on my list for many years.  This first time wasn’t exactly a wilderness experience.  Most people come here to find total isolation by canoeing out across a lake to a remote campsite.  By contrast, I chose the main Algonquin “corridor” of Highway 60, which crosses a southern arm of this huge Provincial Park.  Highway 60 is a very good start to anyone’s Algonquin experience.  It hosts the visitor centre, several nice campsites, a number of enjoyable looped trails, and an abandoned railway line – everything a passionate hiker might want.

Over three days I did my best not to waste any time!  I went on eight hikes, ranging in length from 1.6 to 9.1 km, and three bike rides, ranging from 5.6 km to 28.6 km.  Overall I travelled almost eighty kilometres.  I reached lofty lookouts, with views down onto tree-fringed lakes, and explored where the Ottawa to Georgian Bay railway line once strode high across a valley on a tall metal bridge, and across a lake on a trestle bridge, both now gone, but foundations still visible.

But I did more than this.  At the Visitor Centre I enjoyed the museum with lifelike exhibits of wolves and moose in their natural settings.   There were outrageously colorful oil paintings of Algonquin in the Fall at the Art Centre.  At Cache Lake I walked around the site of a luxury hotel of a century ago – the Highland Inn - now returned to forest.  I visited Canoe Lake, with its thriving canoe rental shop and opportunities for guided and unguided trips into the remotest corners of the park.  Several travellers were heading out across the lake.

Crazy as it sounds, there was a feel about this place which reminded me of the great Rocky Mountain Parks.  It wasn’t about the scenery (comparing the mountains of Banff with the lakes of Algonquin would be as hard as choosing one precious stone over another).  In special places like this, a person can really find – or lose – themselves. 

Here in the Algonquin you can get into a canoe and travel far into the remotest back-country imaginable.  And if you do it in October, with the crazy autumn colors at their peak, you might just discover a paradise that can be found nowhere else in Canada.

Just to wrap things up nicely, as I was driving home through beautiful rolling countryside, a little black bear cub raced across the road ahead of me.  I braked hard, expecting to see either another cub or the mother, but they must have been just ahead of it. 

Enjoy the pictures, which I have grouped into logical sections.

Note:  single-click on the first picture above to scroll through the photos separately.

Statistics (summary):

Number of trips:          Ten (10)

Total Distance:           28.0 km (hike) + 50.8 km (bike) = 78.8 km

Height Gain (cum.):    1,680 ft.        

Time on Trail (cum.):  14 hrs. 15 mins.

Temp:                          Low 20s C   

Weather:                     Cloud and sun

At the Visitor Centre:

Don't miss the Algonquin Visitor Centre on Hwy 60

A realistic pack of wolves howling

You never know what to expect when visiting a Canadian Park

Happy moose (obviously no hunters)

Current list is kept of wildlife seen in the Park

Important warning

Lake of Two Rivers Campsite:

I may have left the Rockies behind - but not the bears!

Huge thunderstorms overnight left campsite puddles

Misty morning in camp

Much better day with an orange sunset

The Old Railway Bike Trail:

The old Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway makes for perfect biking

Well-signed trail

Beside the Madawaska River - view east

View west into a fold of hills - Madawaska River

Good maps along the way

Western end of bike trail - here the line spanned the river (see below)

The stone bases for this bridge still sit in the riverbed

Further west, the remains of the trestle across Cache Lake

What a sight it must have been

J.R. Booth - lumber baron and railway builder

Misty morning - heading east down the line

Rays of sun through the morning mist

New bridge - old stonework

Whitefish Lake - perfect reflections

Rock Lake - eastern end of the bike trail 

Cache Lake - Yesterday and Today:

The scene today beside Cache Lake

The (almost) exact same view back in 1919.
The grand Highland Inn to the right.
It closed down in 1957.

Work barge heads out across Cache Lake

Wealthy guests heading out to remote Bartlett Lodge

On the Trails:

Typical surface of an Algonquin hiking trail

Smoke Lake from Hardwood Lookout

Cache Lake from Track and Tower Trail 

Handy stairs leading to Skymount lookout ridge

Cache Lake from lookout viewpoint

Rock Lake from Booths Rock

Lonely canoe way out on the middle of Rock Lake

There is a Visitor Book at every trailhead:
today this trail was travelled by people from many Countries

A Doorway into the Wilderness:

This is what Algonquin is REALLY all about

Canoe Lake;  access point to the remote back-country

Nature - or not!

Definitely looks poisonous

Tree fungus

Tall "tree"....

...but attached to the ground by BOLTS???
This is a cell-phone tower (well disguised)

Cloudscapes above the Algonquin...

...and for my Australian and NZ friends
(note two small ripples at bottom left)

A foretaste of the glory that is now just 2-3 weeks around the corner.
That is the time to return to the incomparable Algonquin