ALGONQUIN PROVINCIAL PARK – AUGUST 2009

The first week of our 2009 holidays, we stayed at Canisbay Lake campground in Algonquin. It was a really quiet campground with lots of wildlife around. The day we arrived, the park trapped a mother bear and some cubs just a short distance from our campsite. They were released away from the campground.  The campsite itself was very large, although not very private. The showers and comfort station was freshly painted and always clean as well. Our week at Canisbay was pretty busy with kayaking and hiking.  Our first trip outside the campground to see where everything was located in the park resulted in two cool wildlife sightings right on Hwy 60!

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We launched from the canoe launch at Canisbay which is basically the beach. We ended up kayaking in Canisbay Lake about four times during our stay here. I don’t have any pictures, but the best paddle was my nightime one. The moon was full and there was a slight breeze on the water. I spent time just drifting watching falling stars and the moon on the lake. Beautiful!

The pic above is a view of Smoke Lake from the Hardwood Lookout Trail and the waterfall is Ragged Falls on the Oxtongue River. Below are some pics from the Spruce Bog Trail hike.

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Another cool place we kayaked was Cache Lake. There is also some cool history here regarding the Ottawa Arnprior & Parry Sound railway that used to bring guests to Algonquin as well as history on the old hotels that were on this site. Here are some pics of our Cache Lake kayak trip.

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Below are some pics from our Peck Lake Trail hike and one of many campfires.

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The next trail we hiked was the Track and Tower Trail. It was a tough trail that climbed to an incredible lookout over Cache Lake. Here are some pics:

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We kayaked on Source Lake where I found the old railway bed for the OA &PS Railway.

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The temperature cooled off a little at night, giving us the mist on the water. The photo on right and in the middle are from our hike on the Big Pines Trail. Below are some pictures of our last kayak outing on Canisbay Lake.

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Canisbay Lake was one of our favourite parks so far. We loved Algonquin in general. There were so many trails to hike (we did all but three) and countless lakes and rivers to kayak. We felt like after one week at Canisbay, there was still so much to do. Here’s the link to Algonquin Park:

http://www.ontarioparks.com/english/algo.html

For maps, I use Chrismar Adventure maps. They are waterproof and fold up nice. They have a fair selection, here’s the link:

http://www.chrismar.com/

And finally, here’s a link to my Canisbay Lake Album at Picasa:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/D81gO1SsK9WfECs83