Pictures From Alqonquin Provincial Park


Another perfect trip to North Tea Lake, with my good friend Amanda in mid-September of 2020. After a long paddle all the way to the East end of North Tea we arrived at one of my favourite campsites with a great beach and lots of good tent space. About 10min after getting out of the canoe and walking around we heard a loud noise in the forest and Amanda saw a moose walking in the water, followed by a smaller one! They slowly walked right in front of our yet unpacked canoe (the beach is super shallow all the way across the bay), stopping for a few minutes to look at us. They slowly made their way to the other side of the bay as the sun was going down, and stayed in the water enjoying eating some plants. We set up our camp, had a bit to eat, made our fire and went to sleep. Then, in the middle of the night, we hear something coming up the stairs to our site from the beach - I opened up my tent and the moose were standing right beside Amanda's tent! They took off into the forest and we never saw them again... The next day we did a great paddle with a few short portages and made our way to Biggar Lake, which I have not visited before. We found a great campsite (and an interesting fishing rod) there. We took our time so the excurstion took more than half of the day. On the third day we slowly paddled back along the northern shore of North Tea and stopped at most of the great beaches, enjoyed the fall colours and the warm sun. The last section is a bit hard, having to paddle up the current in the river, so we were a bit tired by the time we got back to the car.



Pictures from a three day trip during mid October 2017 to Maple Lake. Most of the leaves have changed colours already and were down on ground, making it for a fun and crunchy walk! We camped two nights on Maple Lake and enjoyed our hike out, stopping at all the creeks, little waterfalls, beaver dams and other random spots. Lots of good food, including some deer on the fire, port wine and Dubliner cheese (our favourite from Ireland)!



Mid-October 2016 trip to Western Uplands trail with my friend Dan. This was Dan's first real camping trip, which as can be seen from the last picture he survived. His giantic sleeping bag was not as warm as its size would suggest unfortunately, but since he slept in all his clothes he did not have to get dressed in the morning! We stayed at the quiet campsite on Panther Lake, enjoying the sounds of the wind, crackling fire and the smell of autumn leaves.



Pictures from a fun mid-June 2016 trip to Provoking Lake on the Highlands trail with my friend Monica. It was her first backcountry camping trip, and she survived! Good weather and we got a clear sky to see some stars at night, although the moon was out. Seen several blue herons, a bunny and lots of moose tracks. Great morning with a mirror lake, then the winds picked up in 5min.



Pictures from a great mid-Oct 2015 trip to the Faya Lake on the Hightlands Trails with Yue. We have done a lot of hiking together over the years, but this was her first ever bakcpacking trip, and a cold one! The temperature dropped to about -7C, bit colder than usual for this time of the year, but, the huge stack of firewood that we collected kept us alive and warm (both sides...) for a while. There were still some colours left, but, sometimes they were covered by snow and hard to see! We had good weather overall and it's always better to have snow than rain when it's cold. We had blizzard conditions a few times, but then the sun would come out and warm us up. The evening sky also cleared up and we got to enjoy beautiful views of the night sky and I got to see Orion in the middle of the night - always a treat up north.



A nice two day trip with my buddy Mike at the end of July 2015. We hiked to Lupus Lake stopping many times by the other lakes and creeks along the trail to relax and eat some of our good food! Great weather first day and a wonderful night with loons crying on our and surrounding lakes. Next day we were hiking in the rain on and off and 15min before the car in torrential downpour! It was nice and warm though.



First week of November 2014 in Algonquin. A great little weekend trip with Alan to Panther Lake that felt more like a winter camping trip than a fall one! It was a very very quiet and enjoyable trip. We had some snow falling down on the first day and beautiful sunny weather all of second day. All we could hear is the howling wind and the only visitor we had was a little fat mouse. It got lucky as we had some fine Irish cheese!



Mid-August three-day trip to Algonquin with my cousin Dominika who was visiting from Poland. Nice weather, bit of rain, and few people. This was her first real backpacking trip, and she would like to do more! After the backpacking trip we stopped by one of the short hiking trails by the highway to check out a lookout.



Mid-May 2012 trip to Rain Lake with Alan. Very nice trip, few people and not many bugs yet! We got to see a lot of moose tracks but no moose. The forest was still very open with the fall leaves on the ground. Fresh air and blue skies (most of the time). It only rained for a short time after we had our camp all set up and were cooking a good soup under a tree.




These are from a short but great weekend trip to Algonquin in mid-March 2012. The weather was crazy warm in Hamilton, but Algonquin still had a foot of snow and all the lakes were frozen! It was a fun trip though, and we got to see a beaver walking around the river.




These are from a short but great weekend trip to Algonquin in mid-October 2011. The colours were wonderful.





Pictures from a short (weekend) trip to McCraney Lake. We went with two canoes this time, I paddled with Zina and my dad with my sister Anna. We started at Rain Lake and did the 1.8km portage to Little McCraney Lake. Both lakes were very nice and we got to see a great sunset!




The first hiking trip of 2011, to the Western Uplands trail for three days. The trail was a 'bit' wet at some points, but at least the weather was nice with some very interesting fog moving in during the morning hours.




These are from a February 2011 Reading Week trip to Huntsville with Zina. From there we visited Arrowhead Park and the tiny trail that they had. We went to Algonquin where we hiked on two great trails, Zina got to roll a huge glacial erratic boulder, hug a big tree, and we stopped at the Visitor Center to see some wildlife. On our way home we went to Ragged Falls (we have not displayed a valid permit...). It was nice to have a fireplace to come back to and cook hot dogs on :-)




These pictures are mid-January 2011 trip to Algonquin with Zina. We snowshoed on two short trails, Peck Lake and Whisky Rapids. Very cold, and quiet!




These pictures are from a three day canoe trip that I did in late September 2010 with Zina to Rain Lake. This was our first canoe trip together, and while we started out by going in circles, soon we were heading down the lake and enjoying the nice fall colours. We had a bit of drizzle here and there but overall a very nice trip.




These are from a short two day hiking trip I did in early Sept 2010 with Zina to the Highland Trail. We had to go home early because the chipmunk ate most of our food.




North Tea Lake trip in July 2010 with my dad. This was our first time in this part of Algonquin, and we enjoyed it very much. Lots of great campsites and many amazing beaches.




These pictures are from a very nice weekend trip to Rain Lake in November 2009 with my friend Amanda. It was nice to see snow on the ground already and some ice in a few bays. At night we heard wolves howling, loons crying and a mouse stole a piece of our bread.




August 2009 trip to the Western Uplands Trail with my friend Janan. We finally completed the middle loop on this week long 50km trip. We had excellent weather, nice clouds, and no bugs (unlike on the previous trip...). There were lots of good mushrooms around, so we fried some up for lunch once and made soup out of them for dinner. Also, we had a chance to observe the Perseid meteor shower which happens in the middle of August! This was my first time away from the city (and with a clear sky) to view it. We stayed up as long as we could and seen a bunch of nice meteors (one almost hit my tent!).




June 2009 trip to the Highland Trail with my friend Janan. We finally completed the entire loop, hiking down to Head and Harness Lake. Both lakes were very nice and the trail was very good, except for the mosquitos! We each got well over 100 bites on us. I have seen three moose, one deer, snapping turtles and a crazy chipmunk. Check out a movie of it here .




Late April 2009 trip to Rain Lake with my friend Reza. This was his first real camping trip, and he enjoyed it despite the rain, snow, wind and bit of cold weather. His car almost got flooded by the rain!




These pictures are from an early June 2007 hike on the Uplands/Rain Lake trail I did with my friend. We stayed on Islet Lake for two nights but had to cut the trip short because as you can see, the chipmunk ate all of our granola bars...





These are from an early November 2006 trip on the Highlands Trail in Algonquin. I did the smaller loop around Provoking Lake with Janan in three days to complete. We got hit by some snow on the second day, which was very pretty :-) Next day we were sun tanning.




Our second trip (early September) to the Uplands Hiking Trail in Algonquin, starting at Rain Lake. This 48km trail took me and Jenan 4 days to complete. Bit wet due to one day of rain, but great trip overall. We named the trip "I'm sorry, that lake is full".




Late July 2006 trip to the Uplands Hiking Trail in Algonquin, starting at Rain Lake. This 45km trail took me and my friend Jenan 3 days to complete. We had to deal with falling trees, packs of wolves and lots of wet spots !





These are from a three day backpacking trip in June 2006 that I did with a friend on the Highland trail in Algonquin.



Little island off the shore View on Lake Kioskhowski Sunset on some lake on the way home Sunset on another lake a bit later

These are from a car trip to the northern part of Algonquin: Kiosk, 1995.



Early morning canoe paddle on Rock Lake Mist on Rock Lake Sunrise on Rock Lake

The above are from a trip around Rock Lake in the summer of 1996.



Fall colours on the main highway, 62 Fall colours on the main highway, 62 View from Highlands Trail View off the Lookout Trail

The above are from a car trip through Algonquin Park in the fall of 1997.





The above are from a trip around Tim River in Algonquin Park in the spring of 1999.



These are from a trip starting on Rain Lake in the fall of 1999.



My dad getting mad at a fallen tree... My dad falling with the canoe...

Some nasty portage obstacles getting to my dad!



A mean moose trying to block out way...

Typical water obstacle in Algonquin.