Chickadees

December is a busy time, people have to start holiday shopping, students are finishing assignments and doing exams, employees are trying to meet end of year targets, and animals are trying to eat as much as possible to survive the winter. This is exactly what these black-capped chickadees were doing when I took their picture. I took these pictures at a local environmental education center that has a bird feeder. I was able to get close to these chickadees as they are used to humans around them and did not seem bothered by me. If you are lucky like I was you can even get them to eat out of your hand. I saw some other birds while I was around the feeder but they were too quick or far away to get a good picture. I saw a couple american gold finches, a downy woodpecker, nuthatch and a blue jay along with a red squirrel or two. I think I will be heading back to this center soon to try to develop a better relationship with the birds and for some more pictures.

The Numbers Behind the Noise: Algonquin Backcountry Bookings, Lake by Lake

The Algonquin backcountry is a wilderness treasured by many people, sometimes too many. Your quiet backcountry escape can sometimes feel more like a car camping site than a rough backcountry site. As a result of this, I wanted to know if it was just because I was bad at picking lakes to camp on or if there was something else behind it. To answer this question, I wanted to know which lakes were the busiest and which were the quietest in any given year. I filled a Freedom of Information request with the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks to get the booking data for each “booking zone” for 2024 and 2025. A booking zone is what you see online when you make a reservation. This data provides a lot of information. Easy access lakes are the busiest, while hard to access lakes are often the most quiet ones in the park. The data also shows that lakes such as Burnt Island, which has 43 campsites, are more busy than lakes such as Frank, which only has 1 campsite on it. To try to u...

A Wildlife-Packed Weekend at Murphy's Point Provincial Park

Our latest camping trip was to Murphy's Point Provincial Park on June 19–20. We stayed at site 197, which we'd stayed at before back in 2021. Murphy's Point is great as it's about a 1.5-hour drive from my home in Ottawa, and it's a well-managed and well-kept park. I find there are always people around, but it never books up fully, and the sites are spread far enough apart to make it feel private. We like site 197 as it's a bit on its own, and is right beside a water tap and a short walk to the vault toilets, or a bit longer walk to the comfort station if that's more your style. Once we had camp all set up, we wanted to go for a hike before it rained, as it was calling for scattered storms later that evening. Since my wife and I had been to this park before, we had done most of the trails except for Loon Lake (which is a loop) and McParlan House Trail (which is a there-and-back trail that branches off the Loon Lake Loop). My wife is pregnant, so we wanted som...

Four Days, Ten Lakes, and a Thunderstorm: My Fall Canoe Trip in Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park

My last backcountry canoe trip of the year was to Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park. This was my first time in the park. I started the trip on October 4–7. The trip comprised 43.51 km total, of which 13.6 km was portaging. I double-carried each portage, which meant I ended up walking each one three times. Day 1. I left Ottawa around 7 a.m. and drove to Madoc, where I charged my car for about 20 minutes. I got to the access point around 10:45 a.m. After unpacking the car and parking, I got on the water around 11 a.m. Long Lake is a very pretty lake and sure lives up to its name. You essentially go straight for a long time until you hit Loucks Lake. It would be impossible for anyone to get lost on Long Lake as it’s super narrow. Loucks Lake has a bunch more cottages than Long Lake did, which made finding the first portage a bit of a challenge. It ended up being right beside someone’s cottage which, as someone used to Algonquin, I found a bit odd. However, before I got to my first ...

Godda and Booth Lake Trip Report: Algonquin Provincial Park Solo Trip

My longest back country camping trip this year was into Algonquin Provincial Park. I went from September 16-19, 4 days and 3 nights. Originally my plan was to stay until the 20th but circumstances forced me to change my original route. Originally, I had planned on going from the Shall Lake Access Point(17) to Godda Lake for one night, then head down to Boot Lake for two nights, up to Booth Lake for one night, then home. However, during my first day, I realized that I had overestimated my capability to portage with a 75 pound canoe, and I had planned too long of a route. I altered my plans and instead spent two nights on Godda Lake and one night on Booth Lake. Day 1: I got to the access point at 11:10am and had everything unpacked and loaded into the canoe by 11:25am. I made my way through Farm Lake (which has super clear water) to the first portage into Kitty Lake. The portage was only 100M and was the first of the trip. It took 10 minutes to double carry. I was able to do t...

Six Days Alone in Algonquin: Canoe Lake to White Trout and Back

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 ...

Iain Leitch Photography

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