Aug
5
2011
Algonquin Park: Booth’s Rock Trail
Author: RockyIts 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…)














