Algonquin Park

Well at last! My first post. The 12th and 13th of September saw S and I visit Algonquin Park. It was nothing too adventurous but it was a good time.Algonquin is an incredible place really; considering it is probably Canada's busiest park it is clean and there is plenty of space for all users. mind you we always avoid it in the peak season. September is a good time to go - no bugs - no kids!

We went up in our van with the kayaks strapped to the roof. We camped at the Lake of Two Rivers campground just off Highway 60 and on the Monday morning were treated to a really nice sunrise.

So what did we get up to? Well we arrived Saturday morning and set up our tent, had a light lunch and were paddling down Lake of Two Rivers just after midday. It would have been sooner but some old codger came along and wanted to talk about kayak design, the merits of skegs and the optimum sized hole for climbing in and out of. He was a good kayaker, we know this because he told us so but his boat didn't go in the water. At the end of the lake is a nice sandy beach so we relaxed there for a couple of hours having worn ourselves out giggling taking underwater photos of each other, well parts of us anyway. Swimming was great, first swim in a lake this year and probably the last too. We paddled on a bit further down the Madawaska River to the deserted Pog Lake campground.

We paddled back in time to eat before the Sun went down. S had preprepared a chicken curry so all we had to do was heat it up. Of course no camping trip is complete without a campfire. Obviously chopping down trees around the campsite is heavily frowned upon so one would thing that taking your own wood is a good thing, but no. Apparently where we live the firewood contains some bug that could devour entire continents of wood in seconds if released, even if you burn the critters. So you have to buy firewood at the park. Now I don't mind too much as it is all for a good cause but when the darn stuff comes from a place not more than 30 kilometers from home you have to ask, what is going on. Not to worry though the fire was wonderful.

Sunday the weather wasn't quite so nice so we decided to walk. We ended up walking about 15 km that day. A very pleasant walk in fact because it was along an old rail bed so it was flat and

wide enough for the two of us to walk side by side and even hold hands - like one does.

Now the beauty of walking in Algonquin is that you are never far from water which means you don't have to carry so much of it. We take our water bottles full to start and our trusty filter. For some reason this is also great entertainment for S who thinks it's really funny that I stand in the lake which is now 20 degrees cooler than the day before - or so it seems, filtering

water.

The most important thing about camping is a good breakfast so we usually take bear attracting bacon and eggs. We didn't attract any bears though even after being warned. The bacon and eggs were really good though. On our return home we both drank a liter of red wine to flush the cholesterol through.

S sleeps well. In fact Monday morning I was able to pack up most of the gear and take down the tent fly. She was quite surprised to find herself camping in the open in full view of the rest of the campers; luckily S is really good humoured first thing in the morning so we had a good laugh about it.

Too soon we were heading home, the relaxed feeling slowly slipping away as we neared home. It's got us thinking about another kayak day out before the winter though.