Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Two Moose! (or the same moose twice!)

We just got back from Algonquin Park, after a very VERY cold stay in Kearney Lake campground. One night got as low as 5 degrees, possibly even 3 degrees, if you believe the rumours.
We stayed warm, and mostly went hiking since it was too cold to swim. We discovered some really REALLY great sites to try booking for next year, but I won't give those away now - tune in next year to find out if we got them!
For this stay we were at site 159 in Kearney Lake campground, it was a pretty decent site, despite its proximity to the vault toilets - this only proved to be a problem the day we packed up to leave, methinks the wind must have changed direction that day.
We hiked Spruce Bog, Booth's Rock and Big Pines trails. Booth's Rock was a great trail, we ended up on top of this big rocky cliff, I'll try to post some pictures of that soon.
Ender had a blast, it is rarely too cold for him to swim, and yesterday, Don even went in with him (avec neoprene, mind you) The two of them had found a suitable jumping rock, and they both took a few flying leaps into Lake of Two Rivers. Unfortunately, yesterday was the only gorgeous day we saw, but we had already made up our minds to leave a day early, next time we won't be so eager to get out of there.
Okay, and now for the moose. We saw a moose on two separate occasions (and two separate times)at the side of Highway 60. Now, the second moose looked suspiciously like the first, so we think maybe we ended up seeing the same girl twice. She was about the size of a horse, with nice beigey-grey ears. Both times she was going in for a dip at the water's edge.
The thing you need to know about looking for moose along Highway 60 is that you don't necessarily need to look for moose. What you are looking for is a throng of cars, along both sides of the highway, and people out of their cars armed with cameras and binoculars. Just determine the direction they are looking in, turn your attention in the same direction and voila, wildlife.
It's that simple.
We did notice that many of the leaves had started to turn - I don't blame them - thanks to the cold temperatures.
We also found a great dog beach at Canisbay Lake campground - Ender met a couple of females there that were as determined as Ed that Ender was beneath them. They both put him in his place quite a few times. In all fairness, Ender had been playing at the beach before they showed up for about two hours, so he had already used up quite a bit of energy before he was forced to defend himself. This dog beach has a beautiful view of the lake, just blue water surrounded by hills of trees, as far as you can see.
I think that's what I like so much about Algonquin Park - the fact that from almost any point in the park, we could see an undulating growth of trees surrounding us.
And may I also send my compliments to my chef, Don. Over our campfire, he made mouthwatering steaks and pork chops - and for breakfast, he made omelettes, hash browns, and fluffy pancakes! YUM The food is another of my favourite parts of camping!

If you have never been to Algonquin Park, I strongly suggest it. It's the best place I've been in Ontario - but remember your mittens and toque! (I'm not kidding, I wished I had brought mine for this trip!)

That's all for now...