Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario

Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario (Provincial Motto: “Loyal She Began, Loyal She Remains”) is an environment dominated by lakes, rivers and forests. It sits at the intersection between the deciduous and boreal (pine/fir) forests – please see below for an explanation of this sharp diversity of flora. Since walking in boggy forests is pretty frustrating, Algonquin is best appreciated from the canoe or other lightweight water vessel. Although there are a number of walking trails in the park – including the 88-km loop of the Western Uplands trail – the majority of backcountry (North American word for “bush”) exploration in the park is done by canoe. The lakes and rivers of the park are connected by portage routes (trails that connect navigable sections) and are dotted with the most serene and isolated campsites that we've ever encountered. For reasons that become evident when you read about the history of the park, the Eastern and Northern parts of the park are far wilder than the Southern and Western sections that are dominated by the Parkway Corridor Road. Algonquin is an enduring, serene, massive and pervasive (not to mention empty) wilderness. As compared to Acadia National Park, we were struck by the size of the park (some 7,630 square kilometers), the ease with which you can escape all traces of other park tourists and the calm stillness of Algonquin.

History

Algonquin was established in 1893 as the first provincial park in Ontario in what appears to be an alliance between beaver-lovers and loggers against farmers. The proclamation of the park refers to the recommendation of the Royal Commission on Forest Reservation and National Parks that the land be set aside as a forest reservation and national park in order to preserve and maintain the catchment areas of a number of important Canadian water systems and to preserve the forest for scientific investigation (mostly for the logging industry) and as a habitat for birds and wildlife (in particular - beavers). All of the resources we picked up in and around the park emphasize that the park was not established to stop logging, and indeed, that the eastern side of the park remains one of the most important sources of lumber in Ontario (apparently this logging is carried out in a sustainable fashion, but you're not allowed into the areas that they log). Conveniently located midway between Ottawa and Toronto, and less than 3 hours from Montreal, the park was 'discovered' by fishermen and the naturalist artist Tom Thompson – who, if he lived, would have been a member of the Group of Seven (making it the Group of Eight), an artistic movement that founded the first and best-known Canadian art movement, the Algonquin School - at the beginning of the 20^th century. (Thompson's painting, “Jack Pine” was painted near Achray Campground http://www.artchive.com/artchive/G/groupseven/thomson_jack_pine.jpg.html). Google “Group of Seven” to find out more about this fascinating art movement, but don't confuse it with the other “Group of Seven”. They are way more boring:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_Seven_(artists)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G7

No one is exactly sure what the word Algonquin means, though the interpretation usually given is “the place of spear fishing from the bow of a canoe.” Although somewhat fitting, this is not the name for the region used by the earliest inhabitants. This derivative of the name is from the Micmac language, a tribe located 930 miles east of the park, in the Maritimes. But in the language of the Etchemin tribe (who acted as translators for Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer who encountered the Algonquin people at a time of celebration) “A'llegon Kin” - the closest word to Algonquin in their language - means “those who are doing a dance.” De Champlain accordingly labeled all of the 30 tribes in the Northeastern part of Ontario with this misnomer.

Flora and Geology

The Western side of the park, on a dome of the Canadian Shield mountain range, gets more rain than the Eastern side, which is at a lower altitude. In addition to this “rain shadow” effect, because of the lower altitude of the Easter side, melt waters from the receding glacier washed away much of the silt from the soils of the Eastern side of the park, and these sandy soils support the pines of the boreal forest, but not the maples and beeches of the deciduous forest.

The melt waters of the last ice age created much of the geology of the Eastern side of the park. A string of large lakes (including Grand Lake, Stratton Lake, St Andrews Lake, Lake Travers, Radiant Lake and Cedar Lake) form part of the Fossmill Drainage Outlet, which was the geological system that drained the massive Algonquin Lake which formed behind the Canadian Shield mountains as the glacier that once covered Canada and part of the U.S. retreated north. At the narrowest point, waters flowing through this Fossmill Drainage Outlet carved out the Barron Canyon, now a dramatic, 100m gorge that is the feature of the Barron Canyon trail.

What We Did

Our first Algonquin campsite - keen readers will recall from the previous entry – was Achray, located in the Eastern park amongst a stand of fine white pines on the calm shores of Grand Lake. Achray remains the gold standard for campsites on this trip, its generously spaced campsites are all close to flushing toilets, sweet fresh water and are equipped with new tables and braai / bbq pits. In the morning we swam in the lake off our little private beach – our courage bolstered by the assurances of our neighbours that “the river snakes aren't venomous.” To add to this edenic picture of Achray, as we packed up camp, an otter trotted across the same beach and we were constantly accompanied by furiously active red squirrels and chipmunks.

Our wildlife-spotting efforts began with the Berm Lake Trail, an easy afternoon stroll around picturesque Berm Lake. The free trail guide that you pick up on the trail itself provides a lot of information concerning the plant ecology and geology of the Eastern part of the park – much of which we have shared above. We had ample opportunity to read this trail as our animal spotting efforts were not rewarded with any sightings.

Our foray into backcountry camping was via the Eastern Backpacking Trail, which is a very manageable overnight trail to High Falls at the end of St Andrews Lake and a short distance up the Fossmill Drainage Outlet from Barron Canyon. High Falls is the obvious highlight – a series of granite pools connected by excellent rock-slides and ending with the spectacular 10m waterfall (a trap for the unwary rock-slider) of High Falls itself. You can camp at High Falls, although when we went the four campsites there were occupied, so we took one on nearby Stratton Lake. Again, the sites were well set-out amongst a comfortable pine grove right on the shores of the lake. We built a nice – but conservative – fire, strung our food and toiletries in a bag between two trees in observance of “proper food management practices,” and Lish cooked us up a magnificent variation of campfire chilli featuring the remains of the Schwartz' smoked meat. Needless to say our wildlife spotting efforts were not rewarded with any sightings other than the odd duck that swam by on Stratton Lake.

Upon our return to Achray, we rented a canoe from the friendly, youthful ranger ($35/day including paddles) and set off around Grand Lake. First time in a canoe for either of us, we were pleasantly surprised at how easy they are to paddle, despite being rudderless and flat-bottomed. We were instantly awakened to the joys of canoe-camping with the vastly increased carriage capacity (in terms of volume and weight) that it accommodates – we could probably have unloaded the entire Prius into our canoe. The best thing about the canoe, though, is that it gives you much more flexibility of route to discover the entire lake. It can be completely silent, and so we believed that our chances of spotting an animal were greatly improved from the hiking. We stroked around the lake, venturing almost to the northern end, for 3-odd ours. We saw many empty beaver dens and one that was most definitely occupied. On our return leg we heard the slap of a beaver-tail on the water (apparently a warning to its mate) near this den and saw trails of bubbles leading to the den. Unfortunately, despite such close attention, we were not rewarded with an affirmative sighting this time. We did see plenty of loons though, which are a duck-like bird that seem to fascinate Canadians (although in their defense, the loon does make a very un-birdlike call which is more like a howl).

To top off a very active day, we dropped off the canoe and then rushed onto the Barron Canyon Trail which follows the rim of the canyon a few hundred meters – and of course has its own trail guide featuring the geological information faithfully reproduced above. Another interesting feature of the Fossmill Drainage Outlet is that it has resulted in the presence of ancient crustaceans in the Barron Cayon River and the other lakes and rivers that were part of the system, which crustaceans are otherwise found only in Arctic regions.

In a last-ditch – some may say desperate – attempt to see any wildlife (read - moose or beaver) at all in Algonquin, we dashed over to the Parkway Corridor that evening. This entails a 3-hour drive out of the park, through some sleepy Northern-Ontario farming towns and back into the much more popular Southern section of the park. One of these sleepy farming towns is home to Beauchamp's Bunnies, which is featured in our food section below.

We chose Canisbay Lake Campsite on the Parkway Corridor, largely due to its proximity to the Mizzy Lake Trail, which is a walking trail designed specifically for spotting animals and all but promises a sighting of moose, beavers and otters. Indeed, guidebooks even guarantee a moose sighting on the Parkway Corridor itself. We saw no moose on the Parkway Corridor heading into Canisbay.

Canisbay Lake Campsite is typical of the Parkway Corridor campsites in that it affords far less space between sites. Facilities there were top-notch though, and include spotless warm showers and even laundry facilities. Our first night at Canisbay featured our first encounter with a mammal – a tenacious raccoon with a penchant for Vegemite. He was undeterred even by a (somewhat regrettably sharp) poke with the walking stick and only moved on once the Vegemite was in the airtight food box in the car.

The following morning we trekked the Mizzy Lake Trail. It is 11km long and directs the hiker through boggy marshlands which apparently the mammals of Algonquin frequent. We were promised beaver, moose, otters, blue heron, deer, wolves and bear. We came up with blue heron and some far distant dark spots which we think were otters. Also we saw a pheasant type bird, a woodpecker and some interesting fungi. Possibly we identified a bear-paw print and maybe a moose track, but its hard to say for sure. (For more on this, read our future blog “The Moose Myth ~ The Dark Side of Canada.”)

Food

Algonquin itself is not a foodie's paradise like Acadia National Park. Nonetheless, nearby Quebec is. For us Quebec was all about dairy – full fat creamy dairy. The cheese, milk, butter and yoghurt is all significantly creamier than what we are used too, even the 2% milk. Yum.

Whilst at Schwartz' in Montreal, we picked up an extra pound of smoked meat for our travels. This Montreal specialty served us well in Algonquin, although we finished the pound by the second evening there. Similar to pastrami, the smoked meat is salty, fatty and extremely tasty.

If you visited fair Canada, you've probably heard of “poutines”, a national specialty. Both Ontario and Quebec tout themselves as the creators of the poutine, hot potato chips, covered in chicken gravy and cheese curds. The curds are meant to be so fresh that they will squeak when you bite them. We tried the poutines in Tremblant under the supervision of our bilingual guide Denis, and again at a roadside stop called Beauchamps Bunnies in the Algonquin region. The poutine (pronouced “pootun” or “putin” by the guy taking orders) at Beauchamps Bunnies was pretty amazing, but completely overwhelming. The two of us together only got half way through the small size serve.

Downside

Its tough to write a downside to Algonquin, because it is terrific – BUT – it is also expensive (in comparison to other parks). Camping for us ranged from $30 to $45 per night, depending on the location, including the interior camping. Park permits are $16 per day, but this should be included in the price of your camping if you're staying overnight.

The only other negative is the lack of animals we saw after being promised that we would definitely see heaps of moose. Several smug Canadians pointed out that we were basically retarded if we didn't see a moose in Algonquin. Well, I have a few thoughts about that. Stay Tuned....