Algonquin 2013

A couple of weeks ago we went back to Algonquin, 3 years on from the last time we were there. Of course, places like Algonquin are timeless. It's not like going back to a favourite city and seeing that a store you liked has closed or that there's new construction or a re-named street. No, at Algonquin you remember where the sandy spots are on the bike path where your tires stick, or that the big boulder marks the place where the trail turns. The lakes and rivers and islands are all still there. It feels like you've dropped in exactly where you left off 3 years ago.

But something did change in that time - our kids' interests and abilities, and they changed for the better. When we visited with a 3 year old and a 5 year old we had a good time, and when we visited with a 6 year old and an 8 year old, we had a great time. It helped that the weather was beautiful and there was plenty of food and that we didn't have bad campsite neighbours, terrible bugs, or another run-in with a hungry bear. But what really helped was that our kids were interested and active and could actually do so many of the things that you do when you go up north: paddle a boat, swim to an island, hike and bike and fish, and they could do it all with the enthusiasm that comes from being a kid and doing these things for the first (or nearly first) time.

I don't think any of us expected fishing to be the highlight of the week, least of all me, and yet that's exactly what happened. On his first day out, Liam caught 4 fish and a snapping turtle. I rolled up right as he was pulling the turtle out of the water and I don't think I will ever forget the look on his face when he realized what he had caught. 

After hearing so much about Liam's success, Mallory decided she wanted to fish, too. She fished and fished and fished, as Liam reeled in a few more catches here and there, and she didn't catch a thing. Poor Mallory, we said, how we hoped she would catch SOMETHING before our week was up. 

The following evening we were out in a canoe we rented to paddle up the Madawaska River. We brought the fishing poles with us and as the bugs chased us back to shore, we stopped for a brief time so the kids could drop their lines in the river and see if that might be any different than fishing in the lake where we were camped. Finally, Mallory caught a fish that night, and she couldn't have been any happier...

...unless she had gone on to catch sixteen more fish. Which she did. The very next day!! It was ridiculously, really. Every time she cast her line, she pulled in another fish. Poor Liam was going through a dry spell while this happened and I think he was bugged. When all was said and done, Mallory caught 18 fish on our trip, and Liam caught 17 plus the snapper. So it all evened out in the end.

Besides the fishing, we did lots of hiking. The kids loved this because of all the rocks on the trails. They weren't content to stick to the paths but instead had to try to clamber up every boulder and rock face they could find. Rocks like these simply don't exist where we live, so it was all novel and fun. And, because they were old enough to read the signs saying WARNING - TRAIL VISITS A CLIFF - KEEP CHILDREN UNDER CONTROL AT ALL TIMES, they didn't run around like lunatics at the top of said cliff. A lot less unnerving than last time.

We had some good wildlife sightings - five moose, a bear cub who came out to see me on my morning run and on that same run, once I'd looped back into the campground to pick up Chad to see if we could find the bear again, a wolf.

Plus the usual campsite critters (note the fishing line tied around the peanut - Mallory is attempting to reel him in:)

We ate delicious, terrible camping food, walking tacos and skillet brownies and pancakes speckled with fresh wild blueberries we'd picked that morning, banana boats and s'mores, lots of s'mores:

We caught the news the old-fashioned way. Despite them advertising cell reception along Highway 60, I couldn't really pick anything up. I waited about 20 minutes for the CNN headline to refresh to IT'S A BOY but waited for the following day's paper for the full story:

We made camp crafts:

And paddled to our heart's content, in kayaks, canoes, and even doggy-paddling at times:

And we fell into bed each night when the sky was dark and the campfire burned out, and we slept like the dead until morning, when we woke up and did it all over again.

It was a fantastic trip. (One of these times, we are going to have The Vacation From Hell, to make up for all the good karma we've had when traveling.) Rather than tent it this time around, we booked a campsite with a yurt, which looked like this inside:

It came equipped with an electric heater, which was lovely when the temperature dropped into the 40s overnight. These yurts are available year round, and there's a part of me that has a hankering to head back up there for a few days in the winter, knowing that it could actually be quite comfortable. Not this year, but maybe next. We'll see.