After
a quick research, Catherine and I found a totally new area for camping &
canoeing, just south of Algonquin Park, Ontario. A few phone calls later, we
reserved a campsite on a small lake, 1.8 km from the parking lot.
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| Algonquin Park’s Wolf Den, at “Nan & Jack’s Cabin”, enjoying a glass of wine on the porch |
We
left Toronto on August 21, 2016, drove on highway 48 and then on 35, stopping
briefly at the “Independent” store at highway 48 & Argyle Road (in 2000
Chris and I had stayed there in motel for three nights, but the building had
been demolished a few years later to make way for the new stores), where we did
our last minute shopping. When we arrived at the Herb Lake access point at 6:00
pm, it was very windy and we would have faced headwind, making our short paddle
very tedious and long. Considering it was getting late, we decided to look for
a different accommodation that night. We checked out a nearby motel, but it was
rather crappy and cost $115 plus tax for the night.
We
headed to Algonquin Park’s Wolf Den, where Catherine had stayed several times
and loved it! The place was teaming with tourists—it was a Sunday evening—yet
we were lucky: its French owner gave us an awesome cabin, which had just become
available—having our own sleeping bags certainly helped. It had one bedroom,
bathroom, porch, kitchen, BBQ and no TV set (hurrah!!!).
The
cabin was called “Nan & Jack’s Cabin”, named after Jennifer’s (one of the
owners) grandparents, who were passionate amateur naturalists. We quickly
grilled fish & corn and later enjoyed a few glasses of red wine on the
porch. The air was so fresh that we almost felt intoxicated (even before having
the wine!). Later I listened to the news-it was the last day of the Olympic Games
in Rio de Janeiro… wow, I did not even know they had started! We slept like
logs and in the morning got up refreshed and full of energy.
There
were also several cabins on every side of highway 60, some new, some rustic as
well as a number of rooms beneath the lodge at a cheaper rate. The kitchen was
communal. Large groups tend to book on weekends. It was possible to walk to the
Ragged Falls from and down to the Oxtongue River.
I wish
we could have stayed longer at this awesome place and checked out all the other
facilities, but we wanted take advantage of the good weather and paddle to our
campsite as soon as possible.
Let me
digress here for a moment. In September, 2010 Catherine and I had visited the
community of Wilno in Ontario, the first and oldest Polish settlement in
Canada. We stopped at a building housing the “Red Canoe Café” It was closed and
there was a big “For Sale” sign. What immediately caught my attention was the
real estate agent's photo and here her name, “Anastasia Kuzyk”. As there were
still plenty of descendants of the original settlers from Poland living in the
area, it was quite common to spot Polish surnames, albeit often distorted and
anglicized. I took a photograph of the sign and later posted it in my Flickr
album.
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| September, 2010 |
While
relaxing in our cabin at Wolf’s Den, I picked the most current Algonquin Park
Tabloid (such publications are annually published by parks) and in no time
spotted the familiar face of Anastasia Kuzyk, the same one she used on her real
estate sign and the following caption:
In Memory of a Dear Friend.
Anastasia Kuzyk shared her passion for nature
and the outdoors, especially birds, with everyone who had the privilege of
knowing her. Anastasia worked in Algonquin Park with the naturalist program
between 1998 and 2001. We were deeply saddened and shocked by the news that she
was unexpectedly taken from us on September 22nd, 2015. The Staff of
the Algonquin Visitor Centre shares our deepest sympathy with the Kuzyk family.
Since
she was only 36, I thought it must have been a car accident or cancer. Later I
found out that her demise was much more tragic: she and two other women were
murdered by a Basil Borutski near Wilno. The alleged murderer’s trail is
scheduled to take place later in 2017. What a horrible tragedy…
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| Ready to depart to our campsite! |
We
were up at 9:00 am, packed up and left our lovely cabin, paying a quick visit
to the Algonquin Outfitters store, where I purchased a map of the area as well
as a can of a powerful bear spray. Then we headed to the town of Dorset and its
famous Robinson’s General Store, where we bought water and some red wine in the
nearby LCBO store, and again arrived at Herb Lake’s access point. Nobody else
was there, so we leisurely unpacked the car and were on the water at 03:55 pm,
arriving in less than 30 minutes at our campsite no. 87. It was very
picturesque, located on a steep rocky peninsula. We circled the peninsula and
docked the canoe on the other side, in a small bay. I quickly set up the tent
and Catherine brought everything else from the canoe. The adjacent campsite
(some 100 meters from us, on another peninsula) was vacant, so we could enjoy
total privacy and solitude. It was the fifth anniversary of Jack Layton’s death
(at that time he was the leader of the official opposition in Canada)—I
remember that we had been camping on the French River on ‘Boomerang’ a.k.a.
‘Banana’ island when in the morning I heard the news of his passing. Time
flies…
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| A very scenic 'parking' for our canoe! |
Tuesday,
August 23, 2016 was our first full day on Herb Lake. At 5:30 pm we canoed to
the end of the lake and passed a family with a motorboat. We checked out from a
distance the other campsites; the map that I had purchased at Algonquin
Outfitters turned out to be very useful. We paddled into some beautiful back
bays which remained us of Killarney Park. Three loons on the lake were making
their special sounds—two adults and one baby. Sadly, our sunset paddle was
disrupted by a very noisy motorboat which was just cruising on the lake just
for fun. Later we had a great campfire and grilled excellent Polish sausages
obtained from “Eddy’s Meat Market” in Mississauga. An adult couple with a dog
stopped for a day excursion on the adjacent campsite 87A, but they (and the
dog) were quiet. The next day a family moved to the nearby campsite, they had a
motorboat, but thanks heavens, they were quiet!
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| A perfect spot at our campsite to enjoy our dinner--and admire sunsets! |
On
Thursday, August 25, 2016, we decided to paddle to the parking lot and then
drive to Dorset, yet we were delaying our departure as both of us were
engrossed in reading excellent books: Catherine was reading „Don't Let the
Goats Eat the Loquat Trees: The Adventures of an American Surgeon in Nepal” by
Thomas Hale and I was mesmerized by “The In-Between World of Vikram Lall” by M.
G. Vassanji (later I read the other book as well). In the first book the
author, a missionary surgeon, described his amazing experience in Nepal in the
early 1970s, where he had to face numerous challenges and trials, including a
very angry mob because he accidentally killed a sacred cow! The second book,
which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize (deservingly, I must add!), was set in
the 1950s-1970s in Kenya. By following Vikram Lall’ life, the author portrayed
the country under the British rule, the violence of Mau Mau and finally its
independence—and the enormous and brazen corruption of its black African leaders
that became a norm. I guess not much has changed since then...
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| Fallen trees near the small fall, its root system totally exposed |
By the
way, having read the two books, I also read a book by John Grisham, “The
Litigators”. I must admit that in the late 1990s I had read several books by
this author, they were typical page turners… but I did not think they were
afterwards very rewarding, I much preferred reading non-fiction. So, the first
time in almost 20 years I again picked up a book by Grisham. I loved the first
page of this book:
“The
law firm of Finley & Figg referred to itself as a ‘boutique firm.” (…).
Boutique, as in small, gifted, and expert in one specialized area. Boutique, as
in pretty cool and chic, right down to the Frenchness of the word itself.
Boutique, as in thoroughly happy to be small, selective and prosperous. Except
for its size, it was none of these things. Finley & Figg’s scam was
hustling injury cases (…). Profits were as elusive as status. The firm was
small because it couldn’t afford to grow. It was selective only because no one
wanted to work there, including the two men who owned it.”
Whereas
it was yet another legal page-turner, reading it was quite relaxing, akin to
going to the pub and having a pint of two of beer.
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| Our campsite in the morning |
We
quickly paddled to the parking lot, attached the canoe to the post and drove to
Dorset, where we first stopped at the Library/Community Center, where Catherine
spent probably 2 hours checking her abundant emails (I did not bother—for me
vacation means no Internet, no cell phone). We also spoke for a while with a
very charming employee of this establishment, Sue Penny. She was a very
interesting and helpful person, who used to work at marketing for leading
companies—it turned out that both of us had worked with Mr. Clive Minto—I had
met him while working at Pepsi Cola’s Canadian head office in Toronto in 1985
(he was the company’s president), she at Canadian Tire, where he was one of its
senior vice-presidents. She also told us that we could take a shower downstairs
for a small fee. Of course, I spent a lot of time browsing the library books
& magazines which were for sale and bought quite a few of them. Afterwards
we went to Robinson’s General Store & LCBO, stocked on food, water and wine
and ended up getting a huge ice cream at Zachary’s. We sat near the dock area
and watched passing boats Later we walked over the bride to the Post Office,
where I mailed my postcards. At 7:30pm we left for the parking lot and as we
were pulling into the landing, a woman with a leashed dog and two boys were
walking down the drive. We chatted with her while loading the canoe. There was
a dog on the other side of the lake and it must have gotten quite curious about
her dog, as it suddenly jumped into the water and swam over to us to meet &
greet his new canine friend. Soon we paddled into the sunset and arrived at our
campsite.
On
Friday another couple paddled in and set up camp on the adjacent campsite, yet
they were quiet. We enjoyed a delicious dinner of salad & corn topped off
the evening, although the mosquitoes were hungry too.
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| Paddling in the morning mist |
Since
the weather report said the next morning would be foggy, we got up very early
in the morning and spent 2 wonderful hours paddling in the mist-filled bays, it
was magical! Initially we could hardly see anything; everything was enveloped
in fog, only later it gradually dissipated. Once we were back at the campsite,
we had breakfast, sat in our chairs, began reading… and fell asleep, only to be
awaken by a flotilla of multi colored canoes which were HEARD long before they
were SEEN, no doubt because their very inexperienced paddlers. We watched as
they zigzagged to the group campsite about 1 km away—but not far enough! Well
into the evening we could hear shouting. Later we paddled by and saw that they
had set up a number of tents and were enjoying the swimming immensely.
We
paddled to the nice site beyond where one lovely wood canoe was moored. The
camper was having a final rip roaring fire before he told us he was departing
due to rain forecast. A few hours later, at dusk, he did paddle by our site
with a farewell wave. The adjacent site (87A) had also been vacated, so we were
looking forward to a quiet evening. After a quick grill of steak and corn we
were off for a good night rest.
Sunday,
August 28, started out cloudy and it would have certainly been a good day to visit
Huntsville. But the skies cleared and we decided it was best to wait till
Monday. Catherine assumed that the Asian group would be leaving today and did
not want to get wrapped up in any chaos at the landing—as well as we decided
that the store hours might be better in Huntsville on Monday. We spent the day
at our campsite, waving to day-trippers and mysterious canoeists who had
portaged in from other lakes. It was changeable weather by only 40% prediction
of rain. New campers occupied site 87A—we later saw them across the lake
jumping off high rocks. We paddled back to the ‘waterfall’ (at the end of the
lake), took several photos and listened to the 6:00 pm news. There was a beaver
lodge and marauding ducks, as well as a fallen tall tree, whose huge root
system had been totally dislodged and fully exposed. We were back at the
campsite just in time to sit on sunset point for post-sunset libations, then
had a tasty sausage & beans grill.
The
next day we drove to Dorset in the afternoon and headed to the Library/Community
Center, where Catherine checked her emails and I bought more books &
movies. We also took showers ($2.50 each) and drove to Robinson’s General
Store. Instead of buying just a few scoops of ice cream at “Zachary’s”,
Catherine purchased a 1.5 l. container of ice cream at the store—a much better
deal! After consuming it (and probably gaining enough calories to keep us going
for the next few days), we drove to Huntsville, where we visited the Trading
Post, Thrift Store, Dollarama and a Metro Community Garden.
On the main street,
I spotted an awesome larger-than-life bronze statue of Tom Thomson, unveiled in
2005. It depicts the artist painting an outdoor sketch in Algonquin Park, the
paint box on his lap. A canoe sits alongside Tom Thomson a dedication on the
canoe reads as follows:
To the Memory of Tom Thomson 1877 – 1917
An artist, woodsman, guide and
dreamer, whose brilliant vision defined the Canadian wilderness and captured
the majesty and many colourful moods of Algonquin Park.
We
also went to the Deerhurst Resort where the 36th G8 summit was held
on June 25-26, 2010 (its participants included Stephen Harper, Barack Obama,
Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, Dmitry Medvedev, David Cameron and Silvio
Berlusconi) and drove back to Herb Lake. It was past 10:00 pm when we started
paddling, in total darkness, save for the millions stars in the sky; because of
the clear sky, we could admire them while on the water.
The
next day we just spent most of the time at the campsite, reading and talking. In
the evening we paddled by the waterfalls and talked to a camper.
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| Our rain shelter! |
Tuesday,
August 30, 2016. The day was cloudy and at 2:00 pm it started raining and soon
we heard thunders and saw lighting, so we sat under the tarp and had a very
tasty white borscht (Zurek). At 3:12 pm we saw a powerful, blinding lighting
and just seconds later heard a deafening thunder; apparently, it must have
struck very close to our campsite. We quickly sneaked into the tent and fell
asleep, soothed by the pitter patter of the rain. We heard suspicious noises
around the tent, but probably they were just caused by the rain. Our neighbors
had just left before the rain started.
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| At the waterfall |
August
31, 2016, Wednesday. In the morning we paddled to the parking lot where we met
a family that had just left campsite #107—they had a beautiful hand-made wood
canoe. The previous day lighting had hit a giant pine tree just meters from
their tent (yes, the same one we saw and heard so distinctly!). They said that
they were in the tent because of the rain, saw a flash and heard a big bang.
Later they realized that the pine tree, some 40 feet long, was struck by
lighting and exploded, scattering large and small pieces of wood around the
campsite and the bay and leaving resin in the water. It was a miracle that nothing
happened to them!
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| The campsite struck by lighting |
We
drove to Port Cunnington, visited a small cemetery and church—there were plenty
of graves of people with the surname of “Cunnington”. We also visited a resort,
saw a Tesla electric car and talked to the owner for a while, it was certainly
a great conversation piece! We went to Robinson’s General Store, Catherine
checked her emails in the community center and then had a bucket of ice cream
from the store for just $2.99, as there was a long lineup to the ice cream
parlor. I also picked plenty of mushrooms which I later dried over the fire.
Before
paddling to our campsite, we also paddled to the campsite struck by lighting
and found an very unique piece of wood chipped off by the lighting.
On
Thursday, September 1, 2016, we packed up and paddled over to the parking.
Before leaving, I spent a while collecting mushrooms which were plentiful. We
drove to Minden, stopped at the library and picked up a few interesting books.
Later we bought a grilled chicken, consumed in on the banks of the Gull River
and walked along the river (Minden River Walk).
