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In early September, Zeke and I visited Scotland. We had many spectacular adventures that were only possible because of this website and especially: the walk information, member walk reports and the excellent advice we got from some of the participants on this website.
In return, I would like to share some of the fall beauty of the northern lakes and woods of Ontario, Canada with all of you.
Last weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada and the forecast was not great for our area. We were expecting to see lots of rain and sub-zero celsius temperatures-even warnings of some wet snow. In spite of the forecast, we carried on with our plans to spend the long weekend at a cottage about an hour south of Sudbury, Ontario. To make the drive more interesting to the north, we travelled through Algonquin Park.
The cottage is accessible by boat only and the trails we found in our Backroads Map book were on the opposite side of the lake. The trails are actually snowmobile trails, which means that they are meant for winter use only - when any water is frozen and the ground is covered in snow. When using these trails in the warmer seasons you run the risks of hitting areas too wet to get through on foot or that aren’t even visible. Since we decided to go at the last minute, I was not able to get to the government store to find proper maps and the one we had was something like 1cm:32km or something ridiculous like that.
These walks took place over two days and each day we had to paddle across the lake, pull the canoe up onto the rocks and head into the woods until we found the trail. We travelled one direction of the trail each day.
These hikes were significant for me because they were the first time in 12 years that I’ve walked deep into the woods without quaking in my boots seeing bears or moose around every tree. ChrisW’s adventure in Alberta with the grizzly made me seem quite silly, so I bought a can of bear spray and followed Zeke into the bush! We had a great time!
The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, and we hope you enjoy them – even though there weren’t any mountains or even tall hills involved.
Hopefully my picture links will work for you.
Sparky
http://www.flickr.com/photos/86269388@N06/sets/72157631748544651/