Iain Leitch Photography

I spent a day hiking a cluster of trails off of the Basin Depot Road in Algonquin Provincal Park. My day started at the Charles Lafleaur Homestead trail and ended at Buck Lake, which is a drive-in backcountry campsite. In between, I hiked three more trails and stopped to check out a historic building at Basin Depot.  The Charles Lafleur Homestead The first trail of the day was a short 0.88km round-trip trail, accessed just off of Basin Depot Rd. There's a small grass parking lot right off the road,  the trail itself is cut grass that runs from the parking lot to the historical homestead. At the homestead, there are a few decaying buildings alongside two log cabins that are being maintained. The buildings are locked, and there isn't anything to see through the windows. A few dozen signs scattered around the homestead, telling you about the history of the place.  Historic homestead building. Whispering Winds (Egg Rock) The second trail of the day was Whispering Winds (Egg R...

Near the start of July I had a free day on the weekend and the weather was quite nice so I took the opportunity to get out to some local hiking areas that I had been meaning to check out, nearish to Ottawa. I went first to Marble Woodlands, then down to Baird Community Forest, then over to Purdon Conservation Area.  Marble Woodlands My first hike of the day was to Marble Woodlands, which is a Mississippi Madawaska Land Trust property that is open to the public. There is a small parking lot at the entrance, which isn't signed from the road. You start off the hike going through a long grass meadow that had amazing wildflowers, dragonflies, and butterflies. The trail then transitions to a mixed forest. At the complete opposite end of the property there is a little patch of Hemlock trees, which was an interesting find. Near the end of the trail you transition back into a tall grass meadow and the trail leads you back to the parking lot. It was 3.3km long and took me 51 minutes to compl...

 The second hike of the day was in Charleston Lake Provincial Park. The write up of the first hike can be found here . This park is mainly front-country camping but has a few backcountry campsites along this trail. The trail is 10 km long, but due to how busy the trailhead parking lot was, I had to park 600 m away at a different trailhead and walk back to the trailhead. The first section of the trail is shared with the Quiddity Trail, which is a short 600 m trail that leads to a lookout. The first maybe 400 m or so is wheelchair accessible, as it is a bed of level, smooth gravel with two boardwalk sections. Once you get to the Tallow Rock Bay Trail, it splits in two as the trail is a loop—you can choose either side to go down. I picked the side closest to Charleston Lake to start with, for no other reason than the fact that a couple had picked the opposite side a short while ago and I didn’t want to follow them. I recommend you pick this side of the trail to start with first, as ...