Day-trip to Slim Lake

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I went into The Park on Thursday January 7th for a quick 2 hour trek in and out of Slim Lake. I had never heard of it. I was browsing thru Jeff’s map and looking for ways in that where off the beaten path and saw Slim Lake and took the chance. Read More...
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Sunday snowshoe to Swan Lake

I was up in The Park on Sunday for a snowshoe to Swan Lake.
The lake can be accessed from the road to the Swan Lake Forest Research Station. The trek at just under 3km is a hilly affair but offers some very fine views of yellow birch, maple, beech and hemlock stands.

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An Early Spring??

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I noticed the temperatures seemed to be fairly mild in Algonquin Park this winter. I should mention that when I did my annual winter camping trip on Family day weekend, our group experienced the coldest trip yet with an overnight low of -42°C one night. Man, that is cold!
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Day-trip to Mizzy Lake trail

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Sun setting over March Hare Lake, Mizzy Lake trail, Algonquin Park - January 16th, 2016

We drove up on Saturday morning for a snowshoe of Mizzy Lake trail. Weather conditions were favourable with a temperature of -3°C and light winds. I had been watching the radar the evening before and watched as most of Algonquin Park received a healthy dumping of snow. A feeling of euphoria overcame me and a smile crossed my face as we entered The Park along highway#60 - It was picture postcard perfect. A decent amount of fresh snow covered the pines and lakes. It was great to be back in The Park again. We stopped at the West gate to pick up our daily vehicle permit - A requirement if visiting The Park during the day. The permit was now $17.00 - Ouch!

Once we acquired our permit we drove on, heading for our trail which was only 15.4km from the western park border. I was astonished to see Smoke creek was wide open - I could’ve brought my canoe! I have an upcoming winter camping snowshoe trip in February and open water in mid-January meant one thing: The ice on the lakes could be thinner then usual this year - That and the unusually warm winter so far. No ice crossing this time around, we would stick to travel through the bush. Thoughts like that crossed my mind as we pulled into the parking lot of the trailhead for the Mizzy Lake trail.

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Quick day-trip to Swan/Scott Lakes

forest mgmt research station entrance

My friend Jeffrey and I went for a quick day-trip visit up through the road that runs to the Forest Management Research Station just before Kilometre#11 on highway#60.

We picked up our daily vehicle permit around 9:00am at the West Gate. On the way there we saw three deer; a Doe and two fawns running down the highway at us just outside of Dwight. All was well as traffic stopped both ways and the deer made their way off the highway and into the surrounding bush. We also saw a red fox at the West Gate, that was neat!
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Winter Camping thru Cache Lake Access#8

cache lake in february

Returned yesterday from three nights of winter camping via Cache Lake Access#8. While I am feverish for a paddle thru a favourite Algonquin Park Lake, winter never keeps my friends and I away.

Winter in Algonquin Park is quite different offering a rare and unique beauty that none of the other seasons can mimic.
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Another quick trip

Spruce Bog trail

I grabbed my friend Sean(of Ajax) and headed up Friday afternoon to Huntsville where we checked into a motel. There was a mini-snowstorm happening so we dressed for the weather and went for a stroll through downtown Huntsville. We stopped by the Algonquin Outfitters store, drooling over the gear there, then made our way to cool pub; Moose Delaneys. The rest of the evening was spent pigging out and channel surfing in our motel room.
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Missing The Park terribly

snowshoe track

I hadn't been to The Park since October 10th, 2011. That is almost four months. Four months too long to be away from my favourite place on Earth.

Having some spare time and needing a break from trip-log writing (Yes, there are some new trip-logs coming!) I hopped into my vehicle and made my way north.
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A quick trip to Barron Canyon Road

I was in Ottawa over the weekend and the weather was fantastic on Saturday. With nothing to do and Algonquin Park being only two hours away, I was eager to visit The Park. Grabbing my girlfriend and some water and a sub sandwich for each of us, we drove to Barron Canyon Road on the East side of Algonquin Park.

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Back from Lake Opeongo

A brief report from our interior winter trip to Lake Opeongo.

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