Today was the first weekend that my girlfriend was back in town so I wanted to do something rather than just sit around at home. We decided to go to Indian River Reptile Zoo but it was rather small and everything was behind glass so I couldn't get any pictures, plus I feel like taking pictures in zoos is cheating unless you show that the subject is in fact in a zoo. After the zoo, we decided to go to Mark S. Burnham Provincial Park which is just outside of Peterborough. It is just a day use only park and only has one trail going through it. The park itself is unique because when people were settling the area, the people who owned this land decided not to clear it. This has resulted in intact hardwood forests with very large stands of Hemlock and Maple. The park is also on top of a drumline so it has good views of the surrounding forest. The first two pictures in this post are looking over the forest floor which is just starting to wake up from its winter slumber. The next picture is of a red squirrel which is much rarer to find in southern Ontario compared to the grey and black squirrel. This particular squirrel has a peanut in its mouth. The following picture is of a Red-Breasted Nuthatch sitting on a log. It did not sit there long and quickly flew away after I took this photo. The next picture is of a Trout Lily which is a wildflower found in southern Ontario that blooms in the spring. The final picture in this post is of a Garter Snake, I see at least one of these snakes each spring when I go for walks and this year was no exception.
Six Days Alone in Algonquin: Canoe Lake to White Trout and Back My first back country canoe trip of 2025 was to what is normally the busiest part of Algonquin. I left on May 4th from Canoe Lake and returned on May 9th to Canoe Lake. In between, I stayed on Rainbow, McIntosh, Misty, White Trout, and Sunbeam Lakes, each for one night. The total distance for the trip was 99.07 km, as recorded on Strava. The way I recorded my days on Strava didn’t differentiate between paddling and portaging, but I did roughly 36.03 km of portaging. I double-carried each portage, so I did each portage length three times. Waterfall between Timberwolf and Misty Lake Day One – Canoe Lake to Rainbow Lake: 12.18 km, 4 hours 17 minutes I recently got a new car this winter -a Chevy Equinox EV. Since this was my first time traveling with a canoe on the EV, I was interested to see how much it would affect my range. I left Ottawa at 98% and got to Bancroft with around 30%. From there, I charged ...