These photos are all from the 11km Arkon Trail in Frontenac Provincial Park. This was my first time in this park and I will be back for sure. It was a beautiful park with a very nice looking forest. Most of the forest is secondary growth which means relatively small trees but every now and then there are quite a few large old growth ones. Almost all of the trail is hardwood with a few scattered pines throughout. The main species are oak, maple and hickory, among others. The trail itself is very easy to follow with great way finding at any intersecting trail heads. The trail passes by multiple lakes and stream with all have bridges going over them. The Arkon Lake portage landing is a great place to stop for a rest or for lunch which is what I did. I used this hiking trip to test out my new hiking boots. I got a pair of Merrell Moab 3 hiking boots and they were great, good grip, my feet didn't get to hot and they didn't give me any blisters the first time I used them so overall ...
My most recent trip to Algonquin Provincial Park was a short one-night stay on Oram Lake. This was my third back country trip of the year, but what made this trip important was that it was my wife’s first time going back country camping. We left Ottawa around 6:45 and, after a quick stop at A&W, hit the road to the park. We got to the Shall Lake access point just before 11 a.m., including a quick stop in Bancroft to charge our EV. The parking lot at the access point was full, so full that there weren’t any spots, and I had to make the trek up to the overflow parking lot. We got on the water around 11:20 a.m. and made it to the portage around 11:45 a.m. The landing for the 480 m portage into Oram Lake is nothing but mud. My wife sank up to her knees, and I managed to sink up to my mid-calf. The thing with this landing is that the ground looks very solid, but it’s far from it. After a lot of work freeing ourselves, we scrambled onto some rocks and made quick work of unloading the c...