Guides and Trips
Trips
Located just down the highway from the Canoe Lake access point and heading into the bush in the general direction of the Arrowhon Pines Resort, the Mizzy Lake trail isn't in the most remote part of Algonquin Park. On the other hand, at twelve kilometres in length it's one of the longer trails accessible from the highway 60 corridor, and the theme of the interpretative guide is wildlife viewing so it makes...
After a recent hike one of my coworkers asked about going on another winter hike. I didn't have any more winter geocaches on my list so I suggested a trip to Killarney. Geocache or not, I like to have a destination so I decided to combine two adventures in Killarney park that have intrigued me for some time. We were going to try to make it to Teardrop Lake via the decommissioned...
The wilderness interior of Killarney Provincial Park has a very complex geology where granite ridges collide with dramatic white quartzite mountains. The south edge of the park where it is bounded by Georgian Bay is home to another intersection of rock types. Here the pink granite meets the even redder gneiss that originally helped form the LaCloche Mountains.This area is as distinctive, unique, and beautiful as the park interior. The Chikanshing Trail is...
I had been hoping to do a few short solo camping trips this year, but for some reason all of the weekends filled up very early and it wasn't until June that I finally had a chance. When planning an impromptu trip the Haliburton Highlands are much more forgiving than the large provincial parks, and for short trips offer a very similar experience.Yet again I consulted Kevin Callan's "A Paddler's Guide To...
I chose this trip as my first solo canoe trip because I wanted a destination that was close to home, not too challenging, but still scenic. The Herb & Gun Lake Loop described in Kevin Callan's "A Paddler's Guid To Cottage Country" seemed ideal. None of the portages were long or difficult and it would give me a chance to find a few geocaches on the way.First DayEven after driving from Stouffville...
Gibson River Provincial Park is another one of Ontario's minimalist parks. It's classified as a nature preserve and offer's few facilities other than a parking lot. The Five Winds Backcountry Ski Club maintains a trail network throughout the park and beyond, and thanks to the lack of snow this winter it was possible for us to hike the trails without skis or snowshoes in January. The recent freeze/thaw cycles made for some...
Mashkinonje Provincial Park is officially a non operating park, but thanks to The Friends Of Mashkinonje it still has a lot to offer. In fact, part of the parks appeal is that it is less developed (and I assume less travelled) than larger more active parks. I didn't even know about the Mashkinonje until a few days ago when I was looking for a wilderness geocache to find in the Nipissing area....
Muskoka is known for rugged beauty, but not particularly for unspoiled wilderness. There are a few lakes whose shores aren't encrusted with cottages and constantly patrolled by buzzing motorboats however. One of the largest such areas is along the course of the Gibson River.I invited some co-workers to come for a late September canoe trip in order to find some Geocaches. Planning isn't my strong suit, and late September turned into mid...
I've heard it said that Algonquin Park has a subtle beauty. I'm more accustomed to the dramatic shores of Georgian Bay, so for my first visit to Algonquin I opted to visit the Barron Canyon. The Barron Canyon was formed at the end of the last ice age as glacial Lake Aggasiz drained through the Barron River. During a period of just a few hundred years a volume of water reportedly greater...
When I was around 6 years old my family was car camping at Killarney campground. One morning my father and I headed out for a quick canoe trip on George Lake before breakfast. The light breeze turned into a stiff wind that blew us to the far eastern end of the lake. Try as he might my dad couldn't fight the wind with my meagre assistance. We were windbound. Not only did...
PlanningPlanning a trip into any of Ontario's National or Provincial Parks can be challenging. The good sites book up very quickly, and information about the reservation service and park rules is difficult to come by. To further complicate things Ontario Parks was changing reservation services this winter, so the reservation phone numbers were down early in the year.After being disappointed last year I made sure to plan early, and selected our campsites...
When I visit San Francisco I like to get away from the noise of the city to experience the amazing terrain the bay area has to offer in a more natural state. That said I still have to find a place to explore that I can fit into a business trip. This year I decided to try to find the Maya Silver series of geocaches on Mission peak.I planned the hike far...
While our company was in town for WWDC I invited my coworkers on a bicycle trip across the Golden Gate bridge. Only one of them accepted so it was just the two of us who made the trip.The weather in SF is always changing, and this day was no exception. It was bright and sunny at our hotel, but by the time we arrived at the Bike and Roll there was a...
During our San Francisco vacation we decided to spend a night camping on Angel Island. I had to book a site ahead of time, and we had to lug our camping gear on the plane, and then hike from the boat landing to our site with our camping gear as well as our clothes and paraphernalia for the urban parts of our trip. We missed the early ferry and had to settle...
This was a short hike that I took on my way back from camping at Cyprus. I chose the area because I was looking for an interesting Geocache and a good hike to close out the weekend. Unfortunately I DNFd both caches in the area: "Lions Head Lookout" and "The Trial Series #3" but the hike and views were both more than worth the trip. I only explored a small fraction of the...
I camped at Cyprus when I was a young boy. I remember asking my parents why we were going on a hike – not something we typically did while camping. They told me that there would be caves and that we'd have to watch out for rattlesnakes, which made it seem exotic.I was disappointed that we never saw a rattler — it turns out they're quite shy. I was also disappointed that...
My son and I visited the Frost centre for some camping and geocaching on the Nunikani loop. I'd read about the trip in Kevin Callan's "A Paddler's Guide To Cottage Country" and it seemed like a nice easy trip to close out the season.We almost cancelled, because despite booking our site late, seemingly minutes after I made the reservation the weather report turned nasty calling for cold weather, high winds and showers....
This was a canoe trip my wife the dog and I took to find Fishog's Fierce Find It was a beautiful day for a paddle, and despite a breeze that made for some rough water on Head Lake we made good time. Things got a lot easier at the river until the portage.We were about to carry up the first hill when some kayakers offered to help us. My wife carried the gear...
We wanted to find the "Sunken Barge" geocache on Georgian Bay. The description didn't mention where we should put in, so I checked Kevin Callan's "A Paddler's Guide To Cottage Country" and he had a route from McCrae lake up to the cache. It made for a long trip for a day trip, but it was well worth it.For more details see my logs for the caches we found:Sunken BargeMcCraezy on the...
In 2006 our little family went on a vacation to the UK. We had just acquired our first GPSr, so our trip planning consisted of downloading as many interesting POIs into the little eTrex as we could. We then wandered aimlessly about the country as our whim took us from point to point. We missed many of the 100s of destinations we had chosen as potential places to visit, but we also...
