Algonquin
Provincial Park
– the
most attractive travel spot
in
Ontario, Canada.
We live in Toronto which is in the
Ontario province of Canada. Ontario -home of Canada’s most diverse population,
gives the province a multicultural buzz like food, festivals, cultural activities,
sports… almost everything. To all its directions and corners, scenically,
Ontario is one of the most beautiful provinces of Canada.. Getting away to the
cottage is long standing summer tradition; we could escape from the busy and
highly populated Toronto city to the lake districts and provincial parks of
Ontario to celebrate a vacation. Algonquin Provincial Park is one of the province’s
largest protected green places. In fifteen years; we visited Algonquin Provincial
park twice.
To the north of Toronto, Algonquin
Provincial Park and Muskoka Cottage Country are high rated tourist attraction
spots for outdoor life: camping, cottage-living, hiking, canoeing, fishing. Though
they are open round the year, hundred percent facilities are available from May
to Mid-October. July and August are the
busiest travel months. But, we like to visit the tourist places of North,
Northeast Ontario during fall; especially from Mid-September to Mid-October
when the foliage of the entire regions blooms luxuriantly and becomes most
dramatic with bright gorgeous colors of fall.
First time, in Summer, we headed to Algonquin
Park for camping. We means my husband,
Jhumri and Misha- my elder daughter and her husband, Jhelum- our younger
daughter and myself. We started at dawn,
It was Saturday, so our first halt on the long way driving was in Barrie. We
visited the Saturday Farmers Market, outside City Hall and ate local made
patties and cakes with coffee. This market has been operated since 1846. It
moves inside City Hall during every winter --from November to April. Besides
seasonal products, yummy baked goods, prepared food and many crafts were there
for sell. Though the environment was joyous and attractive we left the place
soon thinking of reaching Algonquin before the sun set. Barrie is 105 km north
of Toronto --spreads out along the shore of the beautiful lake -- Simaco, so
the lake could be strolled everywhere, even in the heart of the city. In Berry, among many things to visit and
enjoy, there is a small but worthwhile art museum; Maclaren Art Centre which
exhibits Canadian and regional art pieces.
But, Berry was not our destination; so we proceeded to Algonquin with
the second break in Muskoka.For many Ontarians, Muskoka -- with countless
lakes, is a Cottage country; an ideal vacation place to escape from the city
where spending holidays means sitting on the porch of the owned or rented
cottage, dot on the lake. If one needs
more; of course one could go for hiking, site seeing cruises, fishing and
canoeing. For tourists, there are Bed & Breakfasts and hotels. The northwest
extension of Muskoka Cottage country is the beautiful Georgian Bay with
numerous islands and dense forests of Bruce Peninsula. The northeast of Muskoka
Cottage Country is extended to Algonquin Provincial Park. We took a lunch-halt
just on the lake-front to enjoy the spectacular scene of the lake, collected an
extra tent from Mountain Equipment Co- Op ( M.E.C. -- a Canadian chain that sells
and rents camping equipment, clothing and other supplies) for three of us; my
elder daughter possessed full set of camping equipment (including a tent of
their own) which she loaded in the car on the previous day of our trip.
When we reached and entered the west
gate (0 km spot) of the Provincial Park, from Highway 60, the sun was just set
and it was getting dark. Our spot was at one of the two lakes of the Two Rivers
Lake camping ground at km 31 -- more or less in the middle of the Provincial
Park. Jhumri and Misha booked the spot at
least three months ago; so we reached the designated spot reporting at the gate
( showing our permit and booking information). There we received the brochure with all rules-regulations,
information and maps. The park’s main sites are listed from West to east; that
means 20 km spot is 20 km east from the westernmost gate, 0 km spot; East gate
is at 55.8 km from West gate. However, we
could see the beautiful lake in front of us and the line of tents, lantern-
light and wood-fires opposite side of the lake. Hurriedly my daughter Jhumri
and her husband Misha set the tents and light the fire woods (we bought at the
entry gate). There were 2 picnic tables. We lighted one lantern and spread our
dinner on the table keeping all other food in the wooden box. Algonquin is a
black bear country; so we took extra caution about food while eating and
dumping the inedible parts in the designated huge lidded can. Our dinner was
very humble; sandwich, banana, apple, cake and wine. There were street lamps in
between two rows of camping grounds facing one lake, occupied by tents of
different colors, shapes and sizes -- while searching for the nearest toilet,
we found them. There were too many lakes to count and circling those lakes,
like ours, there were designated camping spots. We crawled inside our tents with
torch lights extinguishing the fire. That time, we didn’t have any idea how
vast and spectacular the entire provincial park was! It is immense -- 1.9 million acres area
stretched along a wide swath of Northeastern Ontario, covered with hard-wood,
coniferous forests and lakes and there are more than 1,300 camp sites.
Next morning, we wandered the area
surrounding our lake and camp site to get acquainted with the close vicinity.
We walked through the camping grounds and rode our car along accessible paths.
The lakes like Tea, Canisbay, Mew, Two rivers, Pog, Kearney, Coon, and Rock etc.
have different facilities like their locations, showers, flash toilets, laundry
and swimming beaches. Mobile phones did work within about 3 km from of highway
60, but there were dead spots too! Within the park, three stores sell camping
supplies including basic first aids, rain ponchos and mosquito repellent. For groceries and small selection foods, we
found the Portage Store at Km 14 ( near West Gate), Two Rivers Store at km 31.4
( centrally located) and Opengo store to the east near km 46.3. After the traverse and ride to get
acquainted with the close part of the lake; we lighted our stoves and prepared
tea. The place was full of campers, still unnaturally quiet with sound of the
waves, winds through the leaves and whistles of birds. Few children and
toddlers passed by giggling and chatting followed by their dads or moms. Opposite side of the lake seemed to be busy
too with the start of the day preparing breakfast and tea.
We read the map and planned our
schedules and went to the Visitors Centre first. There are too many spots for
hiking, biking, skiing, and canoeing to cover in three days. Actually fifteen
days camping is good to know and enjoy most of the Provincial Park. We decided to start from the closest and
cover as much as possible. So, Art Centre at 20 km, ache lake at 23.5, Lake of
two rivers at 31, Visitors Centre at 43 km and Logging museum at 54.5 were
included in our ‘must see’ list. Among the Hiking trails, we chose the easy
board walk path though there were all day long strenuous excursions and more
experienced hiker can stomp along more than 140 km of backpacking trails
through the park’s interior. From 0 km,
consecutive trails from west to east are: Whiskery rapids, Hardwood lookout, Mizzy
lake, Peck lake, Track and Tower, Hemlock bluff, Bat lake, Two rivers, Centennial
ridges, Look out, Big pines, Booth’s Rock, Spruce Bog Boardwalk and Beaver
pond. There are three areas that offer trails for cross country skiing: Fen
Lake Ski trail, Leaf Lake Trail and Minnecing Trail.
Within our stay period, ultimately we
managed to hike Beaver pond ( 2 km hike), Spruce Bog Boardwalk ( 1.5 km walk)
Two rivers (2.1 km walk and hike)Hemlock Bluff ( 3.5 km hike) and Hardwood
lookout ( 0.8 km hike) besides checking in all of our must see list. Our
everyday routine was: tea, breakfast, use of nearest toilet (without shower facility),
hiking through one selected trail as I mentioned above; shower from the central
building that includes many shower rooms, preparation of Khichri (rice, pulse,
green vegetables; all boiled in water with
salt, black pepper and green chili) and potato chips or wedges; having food,
rest for a while, visiting Art Centre or Logging Museum, then walking or hiking
through a new trail or boardwalk around a lake. Besides making tea/ coffee and sandwiches, we
did not cook anything in the evening. Returning to our camp, we used to wash
our hands, legs and mouths in the adjacent washroom, eat our humble dinner and
entered within the tents at the soonest. Jhumri got mosquito bites everyday
while walking in the tree trails and she got red swollen rashes all over the
exposed parts of her body. Not only she, all of us used to apply the repellent before
we went for a hike. We usually tried to spend the sun set hours in the public
beach of the Two Rivers Lake. One day Jhumri, Jhelum and Misha managed to bathe
in the lake which was quite a fun to them while Dilip and I went to the store
of Two Rivers Lake to fill our car with fuel.
The Art Centre exhibits works of artists
who had/ have an Algonquin connection. The Centre also allows drop- in art
activities for both children and adults. In the Visitors Centre, we watched a
twelve minutes film about the park’s history and natural features. There is a
museum that exhibits life style and paintings of Aboriginals, history of
Algonquin and the Aboriginals in more detail, birds, fish and animals of the
area. From Brook Trout to Bass, Algonquin has unique fish communities. Moose,
Black bear, Wolves, Dear, Beaver are the common animals of this region. There
were a big shopping center and a cafeteria inside the Visitor’s Centre. Two hours long Logging Museum walk was quite
interesting and fascinating. We could explore the changes in lifestyle and
technology in Algonquin’s logging industry from the 1830s to the present…
..from Camboose Shanty to sawlog camps and from alligators to skidders.
For the second time when we came to
Algonquin as a conducted tour by a Chinese Travel Company, it was a halt from
Sudbury- Aguya Canyon trip on our way back home to Toronto. First time we went
for camping in summer, might be in May-June. That time the entire Park was
luxuriant with green trees. Next time
the purpose of our trip was to see the overwhelming fall color of the foliage
in autumn; so we took the conducted trip on September –October. Algonquin
Provincial Park was immensely colorful at that time with shades of yellow,
orange and red! That time we had lunch in the cafeteria of the Visitors Centre,
watched the museum again and made some shopping. The attraction was the deck
out back, which overlooks a wide range of the park. We went to the short Fire Tower Trail, a
boardwalk that leaded to a reconstructed Cupola – the lookout at the top of a
fire tower. The spectacular color-floods
made us overwhelmed. There are so many attractions and
historical information to say about Algonquin Provincial Park; I could not
cover everything here; may be talked later in another reference.
[MITRA G. CHATTOPADHYAY]
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