The Snake

Forgot to mention....i think the snake may be an eastern ribbon snake but have not had this confirmed by the park. Common garter's are usually not this distinguised in colour when they are in a brownish stage. This guy was beautiful!

Wildlife June 2012 trip

Mid June 2012 I travelled through Canoe Lake and Tepee Lake into the Little Oxtongue River toward Tom Thomson Lake. I was fortunate to see geese and goslings, loons, giant spiders, a chipmunk, an un-identified (as yet) snake, and to have a moose wander by our site both nights along with river's edge.

May Longweekend 2012

Great Trip beginning at Rock Lack travelling through Pen Lake to Clydegale. Lovely. Quiet. Visited with some handsome Park Rangers.

This trip was great because of the quiet lakes, great sites and amazing May 2-4 weather. Rock Lake is always busy - but is worth the trip to see the Native Pictographs. On this trip there were several canoes at this location. It is a busy cottage lake with small engines allowed so can be wavier than necessary. It is also a lake that you can traverse from in about 3 or 4 directions by portage or paddling.

Pen Lake is pretty with several great sites. However it is still a small engine lake. When we travelled through Pen the only small engine was the Ranger's tin boat - but could see this getting busier throughout summer months. Aside: in all of my years camping in Algonquin I have never met the Ranger - however this was a pleasant experience. It was nice to meet people with similar interest in the park and to know that there are safe guards in terms of ensuring folks use the park in an environmentally and sustainable fashion. Plus they were handsome. That helped things. :)

The portage into Clydegale was steep and wet. We met a woman on the Rock to Pen lake portage (on our way out) who said she hadn't been into Clydegale in 20 years because of that portage. It wasn't that bad - and definately completing to see the beauty of Clydegale. Because my young cousin was worn out upon entry into Clyde, we quickly grabbed one of the first sites on our right after the portage (west side of the lake after the portage). It wound up being a beautiful site on a rock point with a miniature island of it's own, which my 6 year old loved.

On our way back we stopped on Pen and camped for one night. We found a cool island site with a fancy outhouse! The first picture in this posting is of a fallen tree on this island. The second is of a panoramic view of Clydegale.

This was a beautiful trip location. It was my second trip out of Rock and would do it again. I would also recommend any of the other routes out of Rock Lake (both river and portage).