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Its Friday, I’d be still in bed if i was in Canada right now, but i could just about go for a Tim Hortons breakfast with a double double right now.. Still, after some of the storms some of us had yesterday, at least here at the moment it seems sunny, and I’d hope the rain showers forecast tomorrow don’t make it a miserable day hm? So, again – we’ll think about things to do outside, and I’ll feature another of Algonquins Trails. Today – Booth’s Rock Trail.

Booth’s rock trail starts one kilometre south of the Rock Lake Campground Office. After skirting two small lakes, it climbs to the top of a large cliff known as Booth’s Rock – where the trail gets it’s name funnily enough, descends the far side of the lookout and loops back to the starting point. The trail is 5.1kilometres long and fairly rigorous but may be easily covered in a couple of hours by an active person. From the cliff top you will have a magnificent view of Rock and Whitefish lakes and several hundred square kilometres of Algonquin Park will lie before you.

The trail guide for this trail tells you many things about how man has once again changed and is – or could change Algonquin Park and some of its hidden treasures. Not always for the worse though. On one side for example, it talks about Rosepond Lake. People have always found Rosepond Lake to be particularly intimate and enchanting. Hidden away from the rest of the planet by its whispering cordon of gaunt and lonely Black Spruce, the little lake lives a life of its own. The delicate orchids and the cool, deep moss near the water’s edge, the basking frogs and the furtive schools of minnows all seem to be as remote and secure from man’s troubled world as they could possibly be…
And yet, the truth is that Rosepond Lake is not nearly so safe as it may appear. The highly industrialised North American societies smelt ores and burn coal and oil in enormous quantities, The trouble is that we try to get rid of the smoke and gasses created – by releasing them up giant chimneys into the atmosphere. The pollutants may indeed travel hundreds of kilometres from their sources but eventually they do come back down to earth. Usually washed out of the sky by rain and snow – which is why, even here in Algonquin Park, the rain is often so acidic that no fish could live in it. (more…)

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Friday once again, and although the UK may be forecast a poor weekend of weather, we’ll once again look positively towards the rest of summer, and Algonquin park, where – this weekend, unlike the gales and cold weather we have coming, there it’ll be sunny with a few clouds, and temperatures of 27 degrees Celsius – So on that note, today’s article is on Algonquin Park’s Lookout Trail.

The Lookout Trail, situated 39.7 kilometres from the West Gate, is a 2.1 Kilometre loop which climbs up through a young Algonquin forest to the top of a high cliff, follows the cliff brow for 100 metres, and then descends back down to the parking lot.
In addition to the spectacular view from the cliff top, the trail affords several good opportunities to observe a variety of Algonquin Park’s geological features.
As you walk along the trail, you are surrounded by life. There are trees and shrubs and then, down in the dead leaves and decaying wood on the forest floor, millions of microscopic plants and animals create the organic soil which sustains the forest. It is only on the trail path itself that we can even glimpse the underpinnings of this great living system; thousands of hikers have worn away the soil and exposed jumbled assortments of rocks, sand, and gravel. (more…)

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Well i hope those of you who visited the Canada Day event in London had a great time! But it’s once again Friday, so it’s time for another article, and yes, I’m going to be featuring Algonquin Park once more, bulking out our coverage further of this amazing Provincial Park.

Today’s featured trail is the Centennial Ridges Trail.

The Centennial Ridges Trail is a 10 kilometre loop which takes you along two high, parallel ridge systems and features some of the park’s most outstanding scenery. It is a very demanding trail that visits five separate cliffs and involves much climbing. At the highest point you will be 170 metres (560 feet) above the parking lot, but because the trail has several major rises and descents, the total vertical distance you will have to climb during your outing is approximately 360 metres (1,200 feet). It’s not advised to head out on this trail unless you are in good health and good physical condition. And with this Trail its absolutely essential that you wear sturdy, ankle-supporting boots, and give it six hours to take on this challenge!… And of coarse, if you do happen to have kids who are as adventurous as you – the cliffs are not fenced, so keep them close to you at all times.

The trail was opened in 1993 as part of Algonquin’s centennial celebrations and, at its various lookouts and scenic viewpoints, it honours 11 representative historic people who have helped shape the present day park and make it so famous as a place to understand and appreciate the natural world. (more…)

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Well, it’s been a pretty hot weekend, the weather, other than the odd thunderstorm has managed to keep its act together for us, which makes a nice change to the cold wet snap we had earlier in the month – so since it’s a great time to be outdoors, i thought we’d have a look at another Algonquin Provincial Park trail – The Beaver Pond Trail.

The Beaver Pond Trail winds two kilometres through rugged Algonquin terrain, offering excellent opportunities to observe the roll of the beaver in the park environment. You may or may not actually see beavers during your walk, but everywhere about you will see signs, informing the observant hiker of their presence, activities and influence.

The Beaver is considered one of Canada’s national symbols, up there with the moose, the maple leaf and ice hockey – so this Trail is perfect if you want to enjoy a hike through the Algonquin landscape, while learning more about these special creatures. The trail takes you round in a circuit, visiting ponds, lakes, rivers, dams and meadows – and these features were not necessarily there all the time, As the trail guide explains to you, Beavers have had a significant impact on the landscape they live in.. an impact so significant that their effect on the environment is second only to humans as far as tailoring the landscape to their own needs.

At post two on the trail you visit a typical beaver pond – one of thousands in Algonquin Park. It is such a common place sight in fact, that we sometimes forget what an extraordinary thing it is. By damming the stream,. the beavers have actually changed the environment to suit their own needs – from a forest with a stream trickling through it, to a wide open pond, one or two meters deep. (more…)

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It’s another Monday article – and since we still have a few more Algonquin Park Trail articles to do, i thought I’d continue the chain to feature the Two Rivers Trail today.

The Two Rivers Trial at Algonquin Provincial Park is subtitled as ‘Changes in the Algonquin Forests’. The Two Rivers Trail is a 2 kilometre loop featuring a pleasant walk through a young Algonquin forest and leading to a clifftop overlooking the North Madawaka River. The trail should be good for all the family as far as difficulty is concerned – but remember with the trail visiting a cliff – you will need to keep a very close eye on children to make sure they don’t go running off up the trail.

As the subtitle to the trail says – this trail, as you’ll find from the trail guide is about seeing the changes that have occurred in the park over the last two hundred years. Many visitors to Algonquin automatically assume that the Park forests are thousands of years old and that they have been untouched by man. The truth is that these forests are no different from the ones outside the park. All have been profoundly affected by man over the last 150 years and, often, what we see today are completely new stands that have grown up after the original destruction of the original forest by logging and fires.

Along this trail you can still see rotting pine stumps – that remind us of how these changes began. In the early years of the last century, a market developed in Britain for the huge Red and White pines growing in eastern Canada. Each winter more and more men pushed farther into the wilderness felling the giant trees by axe during the day and retreating to primitive, isolated camps at night. When spring came they floated the great timbers down the rivers to the outside world and then, the following winter they would return and push even farther upstream. They reached the area this trail is in – the Lake of Two Rivers area if of the Madawaska River system, for example, sometime in the late 1870s, twenty years before Algonquin was declared a Park. The technology of these early loggers was primitive but their impact was enormous all the same. (more…)

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It’s Friday, and I’ve got a nice weekend set up, so I’m hoping the weather will behave for once.. Unfortunately its not a weekend in Canada – as cheap as i can get flights from Canadian Affair — £330 ish – return is a little much for a quick weekend.. not to mention the travel time involved!  So – Today’s article is once again in Algonquin Provincial Park – looking at the Bat Lake Trail.

The Bat Lake Trail is a 5-kilometre loop which takes you through a variety of Algonquin forest types and includes a lookout, a bog and a lake. The trail will take you into an Algonquin forest and, especially if you are new to such places, it may strike you as endless and overpowering .. and though this may sound slightly over the top if it is your first trail or first venture into this park? This isn’t an over-the-top description.
It really does cover a huge area, but in another important way, the forest here is almost insignificant. After all, it reaches from only a metre or two down in the soil below your feet and up no farther than to the treetops. This distance hardly ever exceeds 30 metres (100ft) and, as such, represents a mere 23 millionths of one percent of the earth’s diameter. The forest, and all the life it contains, is therefore confined to an almost unimaginably wispy film on the surface of our planet. Seen in this light, the forest should be thought of as highly delicate.
Among other things, we should expect it to be extremely sensitive to any variations in the structure and the chemistry of the rocks below and the air above. On this note, as you progress on this trail. (more…)

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Its Monday, and yeah, Saturday ended up being a big disappointment, at least for the north of England as far as weather was concerned — but – lets forget about that and talk about another one of Algonquin Provincial Park’s trails – The Track and Tower Trail.

I always state the same basic information on all of these trails: if you’re going to park up anywhere in Algonquin Provincial Park or do any of the trails, you’ll need to pull up at the gates (big buildings just off the side of the road either end of Highway 60) and go in to get a Permit. These are $16.00 currently but the rates do change depending on the time of year, so remember to check out their website (linked at the bottom of the article!)

Make sure you’ve picked up one of the Algonquin park news papers (aka the Information Guide) while you’re getting a permit, they’re free and they’re very .. VERY useful to use the map on the back so you know where you are going!

Before you go on any of these trails, remember to have brought with you, proper walking equipment – for example decent walking shoes with a good degree of tread, and comfortable clothes suitable for what ever the weather may be on the day you go on the trail. Another thing you’ll want to factor in is the bugs! If it’s forecast to be warm, chances are you’ll be up against the Mosquitoes and or Black Fly – so bring your bug repellent!

The Track and Tower Trail, beginning at km 25 on Highway 60, offers two major opportunities for the more abitious hiker wishing to see some outstanding examples of Algonquin Park scenery and history.
The main loop trail, including a visit to the old Skymount fire tower location and view out over cache lake, is a 7.5 kilometres long round trip. There is also an additional 5.5 kilometre side trail off the main loop leading east down the old railway bed to the Highland Backpacking Trail, the old Two Rivers airfield, and the Mew Lake Campground. The most efficient way to do this part of the trail is to leave a vehicle at one of the east-end parking possibilities and arrange to be dropped off at the Track and Tower trail entrance to start your hike.
In addition to these two major choices, the trail joins and leaves canoe route portages and a bush road in several places and it has two short-cuts, making it important to refer to the trail map and to carefully consider the distance and time (more…)

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Monday and back to normality again. During the last couple of weeks we visiting Algonquin Provincial Park a few times, visiting all the trails on the map of the Information guide you pick up at either East or West Gate – so expect to see a lot of the trails in the coming weeks! So on that note its probably fitting to start the new articles off with one of these trails: Algonquin park’s Hemlock Bluff Trail.
Should you be reading this as the first article you’ve seen about this Provincial Park, do not underestimate the size and sheer number of things to do in this place. The first time i went to Algonquin Park was in 2009 and we expected (having not done much research) the park to be similar to a UK national park such as the peak district.. but we were very wrong!
The park has many places of interest on the main route in the south, highway 60, especially trails you can go on. Remember if you’re going to park up anywhere in Algonquin Provincial Park or do any of the trails, you’ll need to pull up at the gates (big buildings just off the side of the road either end of Highway 60) and go in to get a Permit. These are $16.00 currently but the rates do change depending on the time of year, so remember to check out their website (linked at the bottom of the article!)

Make sure you’ve picked up one of the Algonquin park news papers (aka the Information Guide) while you’re getting a permit, they’re free and they’re very .. VERY useful to use the map on the back so you know where you are going!

Before you go on any of these trails, remember to have brought with you, proper walking equipment – for example decent walking shoes with a good degree of tread, and comfortable clothes suitable for what ever the weather may be on the day you go on the trail. Another thing you’ll want to factor in is the bugs! If it’s forecast to be warm, chances are you’ll be up against the Mosquitoes and or Black Fly – so bring your bug repellent! (more…)

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When i was a kid, i loved science. I remember one birthday my parents took me to Eureka in the UK, and i still remember it fondly! One of the things special about Eureka is that it’s a Science Museum which allows kids to learn through play, and the place I’m looking at today; Science North, looks at things in the same way.

Science North is an interactive science museum in Greater Sudbury, Ontario. The complex, which is Northern Ontario’s most popular tourist attraction, consists of two snowflake-shaped buildings on the southwestern shore of Lake Ramsey, just south of the city’s downtown core, as well as a former ice hockey arena which includes the complex’s entrance and an IMAX theatre. The snowflake buildings are connected by a rock tunnel, which passes through a billion-year-old geologic fault. This fault line was not known to be under the complex during the construction of the building in the early 1980s. Where the walkway reaches the larger snowflake, the Inco Cavern auditorium is frequently used for temporary exhibits, as well as for press conferences and other gala events. (more…)

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While i was over this October i decided to once again shine a light on Gravenhurst.. mainly since i knew my photos didn’t really do it justice. We went on a pretty miserable day which didn’t show exactly what the place truly was like.. So – we headed back on a glorious sunny Autumn day to have a wander round the lake and have some lunch at the Sunset Grill. We were also lucky enough this time to go on a day where the Muskoka steam ships were running! Unlike the previous visit!

As you can see, its quite a contrast to the grey-sky photos on my previous Gravenhurst article!
The Sunset Grill was as good as last time, and this time i made sure to have the peameal Bacon sandwich – along with a coffee. It was the first time I’d gone to Gravenhurst with my partner in crime – and although i did mention that the coffees were free-refill he had a hot chocolate – that although very nice – my free refills did make him jealous! Where as i had my sandwich with the trademark chunky veggies (raw carrot and cucumber sticks with a dip) – he had a toasted bagel as something lighter.
(more…)

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