I do this every year. Disappearing for four days in early fall. And yet, my partner, the lovely and talented Irene Jansen, puts up with me. I am a lucky man. Year five of the Martin and Chris trips.
There’s probably a reason 70 per cent of the people who visit Ontario Parks never visit the interior. Portages. People think they’re ugly, uncomfortable exercises in self-abuse where even the beauty of the natural environment is mostly blocked from view…
This is what I told the MNR via their online consultation system about their pondering extending leases on cottages within the boundaries of Algonquin provincial park. In short: They've had a good run. And now they're done.
Another year, another canoe trip. This year Martin and I went to Temagami, starting on Anima Nipissing Lake and looping down to Red Squirrel, across Ferguson Bay, up Whitefish Bay, through Aston and into Turner Lakes, returning via Eagle, Little Eagle and Whitewater. If you don't know the area none of this will mean anything to you. But give the report a read. You might still like it.
Irene, Mallory and I had booked a weekend in Frontenac Provincial Park but my father died and the only weekend we could schedule for the memorial happened to be the one we'd booked in Frontenac.