One of the prime canoeing spots in North America is Algonquin Provincial Park in Southern Ontario. Algonquin is an interlaced series of lakes and rivers surrounded by verdant forests. Wildlife abounds with wolf, moose, bear, beaver and loons very common and easily spotted or heard. There is a road accessed campground, a visitor center and lakes with easy paddle to campsites and cabins.
Canoes can be rented at the visitor center and maps are available to plan out your trip with locations of the canoe trails and campsites.
I would suggest you put several portages between you and the main lake with this you will eliminate almost all of the other visitors and experience the true flavor of the park. My friends and I chose Dummer Lake with three portages between the main lake by the visitor center and the eventual campsite. Two of the portages were relatively short and one was about a mile in length. We tend to travel heavy with a dutch oven and plan extensive dinners at camp.
When we arrived at Dummer the campsite was beautiful atop a small bluff of granite overlooking the lake. There was a lean-to on the bluff and several sites in the woods. We set up the tents and the tarp, pumped some drinking water and relaxed with a great roast turkey dinner with all the fixings.
We settled in for four days of relaxation and contemplation. One day was heavy rain the entire day but it was one of the best days I can remember. We all sat under the tarp each with our own thoughts and enjoyed our immersing in nature. After a nice meal we sat around the campfire after the rain had lightened up. We watched as a moose across the lake was swimming and diving below the surface. None of us had seen behavior like this before or hence. While enjoying the antics of the moose, beavers and loons frolicking around us my friend Dave decided to howl like a wolf. Algonquin is renowned for the ranger led wolf tours. Visitors go with the rangers as they howl and at times the local wolf packs will howl back at them. We never expected to get a response ourselves but to our surprise we heard wolves howl back from across the lake. It was unmistakably wild wolves answering us. A feeling all of us there will never forget. One last wildlife sighting takes a more humorous note. The latrine at the campsite was a outhouse style box but without a shed covering it, so in effect you sit on a box in the woods and do your business surrounded by forest. One morning Neal came running into camp as he was sitting doing his business a moose had started walking up the path. A definite case of poopus interruptus.
One of the best canoe trips of my life with an experience in nature that is indelibly etched into my consciousness.
