Algonquin Exertions

For our "long weekend" in Toronto, I took a trip north from Toronto to visit Algonquin Provincial Park. The park was created as the first provincial park in Canada in 1893. It's 3,000 square miles contain 2,400 lakes and 745 miles of river and streams. It is an absolutely beautiful place. It also happens to be home to lots of moose. Ever since the possibility of seeing a moose first arose in Salt Lake City, I've been a bit obsessed with seeing one in the wild. I couldn't pass up this chance. I've also been thinking a lot about camping since Chris Gurr went on his camping vacation to Idaho and Washington State in August. Having the opportunity to do both things only 2 1/2 hours north of Toronto was perfect.

I set out after the show on Sunday afternoon and drove to Huntsville, Ontario which is near the southwest corner of the park. (I finally found a use for all those hotel points I've been racking up since joining the tour and booked myself a free night in a Holiday Inn Express.) As I drove, I listened to the pre-game ceremonies from the final game at Yankee Stadium. I'm glad I could share in that historic moment even while I drove across Canada...

Monday morning I was up and out of the hotel before sunrise. I was just entering the park at first light.

First light while I was on the road to Algonquin

All along the road were moose crossing signs - I was getting excited! My first stop for the day was the Mizzy Lake Trail. According to the guide book, the Mizzy Lake Trail was the best day trail on which to see wildlife. (Much of the interior of the park is only accessible by overnight camping and hiking or by canoe. Only one road crosses the park - highway sixty cuts through the southern end of Algonquin.) The Mizzy Lake trail is an 11km loop that took me past 9 lakes and ponds and through the two distinct types of forest ecosystems in the park (northern conifer and southern hardwood forests). I took along an afternoon snack, my binoculars and the camera I had borrowed from DVZ.

As I got started on my hike, the morning mists were still rising from the lakes.

All along my hike, there was evidence of beavers. I would be standing next to a good sized pond and wondering why no pond appeared on the trail map - then I would spot the beaver dam and realize that this wasn't a natural lake, but a beaver pond! Their dams are amazing. A couple of times along my route I could stand just below or right next to one of their damns and marvel at them. How a creature the size of a small dog can build these large and sturdy structures was amazing to ponder. Several of the dams were as tall as I am. After several years of maintenance and additions, these dams become part of their surroundings. Grass and small trees start to grow out of them - the dams often long outlast the beavers who built them!

One of the beaver dams I encountered. This one was easily four feet tall!

The beavers build these dams as means of protection from predators as well as to assure themselves of a food source. They build their lodges in the center of their ponds and live there all winter long safe from land based predators. Beavers eat bark and twigs as well as the roots of water plants.

Beaver ponds are important habitats for all kinds of other animals as well. Herbivores (like the moose) eat the plants that grow along the edges of the ponds or wade into their shallows. Fish and water insects thrive on the submerged plants. Woodpeckers especially like the insects that take up residence in the drowned trees. Beaver ponds and dams are also an important means of flood control.

Another beaver pond along the Mizzy Lake Trail

September is moose mating season. The male moose's antlers are full grown around this time of year and are a sign of his virility. If two males come upon the same female, it is the one with the larger antlers who will win her. When a female is in heat, she makes a sound similar to a domestic cow's moo. A male answers with a loud sound described as "gawunk". When they're near one another, the male digs a shallow hole (or rut pit) and pees into it. He then wallows in the pee-mud and approaches his intended. The rest is the stuff of Mutual of Omaha films. My trail guide described the scene: "It is a frosty September morning..." IT WAS A FROSTY SEPTEMBER MORNING!!! As I walked, I kept scanning the water's edge hoping to glimpse a grazing giant.

The colors in the forest were just starting to turn. The mix of green pine trees with the bright colors of the maples were spectacular. Just past halfway along the trail I sat down for my afternoon snack overlooking one of the lakes. I could hear the loons calling to one another and the woodpeckers drilling for bugs. I even caught a glimpse of a beaver gliding along the far shoreline.

The trail guide was full of interesting tidbits about the many creatures that call the park home. I learned about the marten and the fisher (two small carnivorous mammals) as well as the complex interaction between moose and deer. Moose and deer populations overlap very little - the deer carry parasites that are harmful to the moose. As man decimated the wolves that preyed upon the deer, the deer spread farther north into moose territory pushing them even farther to the north. As we have allowed wolf populations to stabilize a bit, the moose have returned to their old habitats (including far upstate New York!).

I reached the end of the Mizzy Lake Trail without a moose sighting. I saw all kinds of birds (including a heron), several small rodents (red squirrels and chipmunks) and evidence of deer. The scenery was beautiful and the walk in the woods was wonderful.

I had quite a drive between the hiking trail and my campground. I didn't plan this part of my trip very well. I picked the campground before I knew much about the park. The Mizzy Lake Trail was in the southwestern part of the park and the campground was in the northeastern corner. As I mentioned before, there are no roads through the central part of the park, so my only option was to drive back the way I had come and all the way around. It was a three hour trip up to the park entrance. Once I arrived, I called Sheila Marie and checked in for the last time on Monday. (Cell service was limited in the southern parts of the park and non-existent farther north. Sheila Marie wasn't really down with the whole hiking/camping/being out of reach all by myself thing, but she gamely put up with the idea.)

I checked in with the park ranger at the head of the forestry road and picked up my permits. The ranger suggested that he could move me to a nicer campsite: "Would you like something on the water?" Ummm, yes! Once I left the ranger station, it was still a 40 kilometer drive to the campground. The first half of the trek was on an active logging road - the park's boundary was 20 km from the ranger station. A couple of tractor trailers loaded with logs came roaring down the road and frightened me before I reached park's edge.

Once I reached the campground, I had a hard time finding my campsite. I drove around and around before I finally backtracked to the campstore and outfitter to ask. The proprietor directed me down a track away from the rest of the campground and along the shore of Cedar Lake. Campsite number 26 was set off in a group of only 3 sites along with a retired ranger cabin. It was prime waterfront real estate and very secluded. Just what I had hoped for!

Standing in the middle of my campsite & looking toward Cedar Lake - the main portion of the Brent Campground was across the bay in the lake, I could only see the beach!

Just beyond my picnic table and fire pit, this trail lead down to Cedar Lake's edge

I arrived around 5:30, so I had plenty of daylight left to set up my campsite. To outfit myself for my trip, I relied on the generosity of some of my tourmates. Erik Hayden loaned me both his tent and sleeping bag. Christopher Gurr armed me all sorts of hiking and camping sundries including an emergency whistle, sleeping bag liner and camp pot. Between the two of them, all I really had to buy for myself was a sleep mat!

Erik's tent rocks! I set it up in about 10 minutes.

After I got settled, I took a walk about to check out my immediate surroundings. A family was staying in the ranger cabin, but the forest was so thick that I couldn't hear the kids playing until I was practically on top of them. A pair of fishermen were ensconced at one of the other two sites. I could see their small trailer only from the water's edge of my site. I discovered a back country campsite marked out nearby as well - there are lots of these in the interior campsites throughout the park for those who are backpacking or canoeing.

My campsite as seen from across the bay in Cedar Lake

As the daylight started to fade, I settled on a rock beside Cedar Lake to enjoy the sunset. As the sun got lower and lower it started to get very quiet. The bird calls quieted down and I was left with just the sounds of the small waves lapping on the shore & crickets singing. I found it very relaxing just to sit and take it all in. By 9, it was entirely dark.

The sun sets behind the trees on Cedar Lake

The depth of the darkness was surprising to me. Aside from my campfire and lantern there was absolutely no light around. Through the trees, in my little slice of sky, were thousands of stars of all shades and variations. I could easily see why the stars were so important to people of an earlier time. I warmed my dinner over the campfire and was climbing into the sleeping bag before 11.

Honestly, I was a bit concerned about the whole sleeping outside thing. I was worried I would be cold (the temperature was predicted to drop to near freezing). I was worried that I wouldn't be able to sleep on the ground or that I wouldn't be able to get back up once I had slept on the ground. I was worried that I would be too nervous to sleep in the tent. Turns out I needn't have been concerned. I snuggled down into my sleeping bag and fell asleep almost immediately.

I woke up the next morning much later than I had anticipated. I imagined that I would wake up with first light - instead, I slept in until past eight. I got up, ate some breakfast and packed up my campsite. Shortly after nine I was back on the forestry road dodging lumber trucks.

The sun, well up in the sky, greeted me as I opened the tent flap on Tuesday morning

At the northern edge of the park, I made one last stop. I climbed the observation tower to check out the Brent Crater. The crater was formed 400 million years ago when a meteorite hit the earth. The crater is about 2 miles across and currently 1,400' deep. Scientists estimate that the impact of the meteorite hit released the energy equivalent to 250 megatons of TNT (the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 18 kilotons). The crater was not recognized until 1951 when ariel photographs made the circular depression clear. While that sounds odd, until I was above the crater looking down I couldn't see it either. The region is hilly and while the sides of the crater are quite steep, the crater just seemed like another hill.

Looking across Brent Crater. The mists in the middle distance are rising from two lakes on the floor of the crater. This photo makes the scale of the crater plain - the hills ridge on the far side of the crater is 2 miles away.

I climbed back down from the observation tower and back into the car for the nearly five and a half hour drive back to downtown Toronto. I kept my eyes peeled the whole way back hoping to catch a glimpse of the a moose, but I arrived back in town still moose-sighting-less. The trip was great fun, though. I enjoyed my hike and my night alone in the campground. It was a welcome change from the hustle, bustle and constant interaction of the tour and all the cities I've visited. I quite liked the camping experience and would like to do it again!


With our return to the US, we've left moose habitat for quite a while. I'll have to put my quest for a moose-sighting on hold. The next time Spamalot is far enough north to see one of the giant brown creatures will be when we play Anchorage, Alaska - we'll see...


JV