Its spring, the perfect time for Moose Hunting (avec camera NOT gun) in
Algonquin Park. Early Saturday morning we gathered the girls next door, Happy and Susie, their two dogs Snoopy and Zora, and our Mcgregor and headed for
Huntsville, just north of Muskoka , southwest of Algonquin, the huge wilderness park on the
Canadian Shield, with eyes out on stilts for our first view of a gangly fifteen foot Moose. (Our quest for Moose began in 2005, though we've hunted them in Cape Breton,Nova Scotia; Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, upstate New York, Ontario and Quebec, we are still without a sighting!)
First stop (and unlikely Moose sighting venue) was the newly zooped up area around the wharf at Lake Muskoka to see the
RMS Segwun, the oldest steam ship still operating in North America. In 2005 we took a gentle 3 hour cruise on her with my parents and happily discovered the joys of a Canadian iconic beverage served on board.....the
Ceasar a mix of clam juice, tomato juice,vodka, spiced with Tabasco, the glass rimmed with celery salt and garnished with lime and a long stalk of celery avec leaves.
Muskoka is the heart of Cottage Country.
Everyone has a Cottage (bach at the lake) and
everyone bails from the city Friday night and heads for
Cottage Country ( to get away from the fetid humidity of the city during July and August when temps can hover easily for weeks around the 30+C.) It's the thing to do and magazines, TV programmes and books stock the shelves at this time of year purporting the coolest and best for your cottage this summer.
Families spend up to 8 weeks at their cottages while the kids are off school for the months of July and August. Canadian Mums really know how to take summer break with the kids, graced with reliable heat and fine skies. There are huge family traditions attached to these cottages and it all revolves around the outdoors and lake, socialising in party boats, around fire pits and grilling (bbqing in our speak......although bbq up here is smoking your meat off direct heat, low and slow, spice rubbed then mopped with sauce to blackened smokey deliciousness). It's not uncommon to see float planes peeling off to land at remote or close by bays, the family pouring out with dogs while Dad ties the plane to the dock or mooring! Celebrity hideouts and the tucked away retreats for local multimillion/billionaires abound amongst the more modest cottages, with over 600 lakes even the most world weary celeb can hide out up here and do!
Needless to say our float plane remained parked in never never land and we took the more usual route via four wheels on Hwy 400 to Cottage Country.
There is more water in these parts than land so finding a cute lake to hike around the first day was easy peasy. Huntsville, now famous as the site for the coming
G8 meetings, is a quaint lakeside village with open public access to beach and the waters edge. Teens were swimming from the town dock whilst smart fizz boats tied up at lakeside pubs and restaurants.
After
poutine and a burger grilled lakeside at the "Cabin" (a local burger shack) we headed for a walking track nearby which took us through pretty woods carpeted with forget-me-nots and wallflowers along the lake edge. Not officially summer yet, this was our first chance to break out the swimmers and both Pip and I took advantage of a floating dock attached to the walkway to chance the black lake waters for a swim. My boyfriend took the plunge first, meaning I had to save face and follow. A kid further along the dock was trying to get her big brothers to go in with her so she and I teamed up and jumped in together....brrrrrrrrrrrrr!! it was pretty frosty beneath the surface but after another couple of jumps we were having fun. Air temps were already above 26C so pretty yummy really.
Pub on the Docks at Huntsville; Pip and Ju apres swim with Snoopy, Mac, Susie and Zora the Sheltie
With no Moose sightings to report and the doggies tired out from walking and swimming we left them sleeping at our digs at days end and headed to town for dinner. We scored a table on the top deck of the Pub on the Docks, drank cooling beer and ate pub grub until the sun set behind us. The view (our stunning blonde waitress added to Pip's enjoyment of the event) and warm air were so lovely. Its hard to describe how amazing it is to sit out like this over the water when you live in a downtown building with 120 other families surrounded by high rise every which way you turn. Being out in the countryside, amongst trees and water is shockingly wonderful. Also shockingly wonderful was our stop at the Nutty Chocolatier for gelato and ice-cream for the afters! (Our second stop there that day...ooops!)
Next day dawned perfectly and we loaded up our tribe of Moose Hunters and headed for the Algonquin Park. Our drive took us past Delta Grand View Resort Golf Course which look fab set along the lake, Native Indian stores and Lakeside lodges and
campgrounds. All of which we hope to explore later this summer.
Sadly no browsing Moose loitering along the highway but hopes were still high.
Canoe Lake Map
Fifteen dollars buys the park permit needed to drive in the park, another thirty bucks per canoe saw us set for our adventure on Canoe Lake. Kitted out in life jackets we hefted the doggies amidships in each canoe and set forth for
Tom Tomson's Cairn about 4ks up the lake, where a headland sporting a totem pole is dedicated to Tom, the most famous of all Canadian Artists.
Canadian canoeing is not the most comfortable sport I've ever undertaken, more partial to the one man kayak than this upright one sided paddling action. Anyhooo its a great way to see the great outdoors and means that Mac, to his complete horror, gets to share our adventure. Settled unhappily on his 'faux fur' rug he panted the whole day away desperate for the torture to end, poor darling, though once ashore he was a pig in it getting dirtier than Snoopy (tiny black poodle) or Zora (very pretty sheltie) within five minutes of his swim.
Idling the day away paddling, we cruise past two famous
Algonquin Summer Camps for kids (just exactly as depicted in all those movies..the girls camp on one shore and the boys camp on an island just a damn good moonlight swim away!) These old camps were wonderful and in six weeks time will be thronging with city kids getting their summer vacation sans parents and concrete jungle.
Lunch at Tom Tomson's cairn; our canoes; views south on Canoe Lake
Wildlife, which you would expect to abound in this wilderness park, seems very sparse and shy. Birdsong is ripe in the air but no waterfowl yet, whatever birds that migrate to this lake haven't got here yet! We reach our camp spot for lunch without sighting even a flutter of Moose ears and set up camp. Pip spots a fish in the clear water by the dock and the dogs swim like mad. Once again the Big Boy beats me in so once again I inch my way into the copper brownish lake water, this time its a lot warmer...maybe its shallower than yesterdays black depths.
We chat to passing canoeists returning from 5 day excursions, portaging their canoes (carrying between lakes) to 6 different lakes, camping out in the wilderness. It sounds so romantic but...not so sure about the carrying the canoe and all the gear bit!
Later we hike up to the Totem on the hill and take in the still lake view. The air here smells like fresh air...something Happy remarked on in the car driving here this morning. "I like that smell" she said sniffing at the open window. I replied.,"That's called fresh air!" Crazy but when you get into a fresh air zone you really really can smell the difference. Then its exaggerated when you drive past the groves of wild Lilac on the roadside which perfume the air like some exotic paradise.
Pip hiking to Totem Pole; Dirty little white dog; lunch; Mac sunbathing; chowing down on the dock.
After lunch we paddled across the lake to an inlet well known for browsing wildlife. We came upon a Loon, preening itself in the sunshine. The call of these birds is the most Iconic sound of Canadian wilderness. Its eerie high call sounds across the lake in the evening and morning. Their long beaked heads and distinctive black and white markings are unique. Apart from our Loon we flushed out a small family of Canada Geese and some songbirds in the trees but alas no Moose.
At the end of the day I was glad to see the Portage store appear around the corner. We gave back our sturdy double ended aluminium canoes and headed for the beach to swim and let the dogs have some more exercise.
Portage Store; campers returning; Pip in the swim; Susie; Pip and Zora
After a cultural stop for the benefit of Quebecers Happy and Susie at the
Kawartha Dariy Company for more ice-cream, (famous in these parts) Pip steered our chariot homeward and into static traffic..suddenly our 3.5 hour trip was looking scarily like 5-6 so we hightailed it off into the countryside at Barrie,(Lake Simcoe) and drove all the way home down Yonge Street (we live at Yonge and Isabella). Supposedly the longest street in the world Yonge Street took us through grain farms with huge old barns and soaring silos, then the upmarket suburb Forrest Hill then down past the Toronto Ladies Golf Club and into our neck of the woods.
Celebrating Victoria Day and commiserating on the lack of Moose we drank a little wine on our balcony, grilled (bbqued) some hot dogs and onions, smeared these between bread with mustard and ketchup, pickles and sauerkraut and called it a day!
