Video

Algonquin is the quintessential Canadian lanscape; a great rugged and seemingly infinte lanscape in Northern Ontario, covered with srpuce bog and home to the omnipresent moose and the largest population of black bears in North America.

I had just a few days in which to get as lost as possible in the wilderness of Algonquin. That was scarcely enough as I found out. I camped myself in the vicinity of Canisbay lake. It turns out that to get into the heart of this great Spruce bog wilderness of the North you need to paddle the streams and lakes away from the primitive paths that criss-cross the dense forest. And certainly you need to get off the main highway! (there's only one). But it didn't stop me from spending three days and nights deep in the forest listening to the call of the loon, the distant cry of timber wolves and the constant hammering of the woodpecker above my tent.

Algonquin has the highest density of black bears in America. Thankfully black bears are not normally aggressive. So all that remains to worry about is the mountain lion, a stray grizzly, and the massasagua rattle snake. Those unlikely threats notwithstanding, I was blessed with the sight of the elusive beaver working near their dam at peck lake. I stumbled across two thirsty American white tail deer feeding in a bog pond and a plethora of moose, young, old, male and female. I saw turtles and terrapins and followed a garter snake through the undergrowth for half and hour, nearly put off by the chipmunks darting across my path.

I was a fish out of water. I don't have sufficient wet weather hiking gear; every piece of hiking and camping gear I own is for the desert. I was lost in this Nordic climate, even in June! But despite being rained on sporadically for three days and nights my tent held out and I made it all work somehow with the help of my pit fire by my tent.

The Algonquin wilderness is smattered with remnants of Canada's old logging industry. Hiking across the backcountry you can take a break or even stay the night in an old logger's cabin made from the mighty pines felled and squared with the logger's own bare hands.

On a plateau
Its not where I belong
I waited so many years
To figure out my way
Upon this plateau
Its all been said and done
And the time is now
And so I must resolve to say it
It's just me, myself and I
And I'm just talking to the wall this time
Just me myself and I
Standing on this plateau
On a Plateau. The Frames

The rugged topography of Algonquin is the archetypal Canadian landscape, actually more typical of terrain further North. But Algonquin makes me miss the parched moonscape and agoraphobic expanse of desert even more. It's that belt of arid wasteland North and South of the Equator stretching around the belly of our wonderful planet that gives me incurable wanderlust. However, I know the desert rat is scarcer than the water-baby and the "mountain-man". So if you like the idea of running streams, waterfalls, misty mountains, bog land, mighty trees of spruce and pine, mountain and valley, abundant wildlife and breath-taking views then you will love Algonquin. For me, well it was pretty nice and I guess I wouldn't change a thing.