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 are from a three day backpacking trip in June 2006 that
I did with a friend on the Highland trail in Algonquin.
These are from a car trip to the northern part of Algonquin: Kiosk, 1995.
The above are from a trip around Rock Lake in the summer of 1996.
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 !
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.
Some nasty portage obstacles getting to my dad!
Typical water obstacle in Algonquin.