Pedalling Algonquin Provincial Park

Hi Blog!

We traveled west from Quebec through Ottawa and north around Toronto. We are camped just outside Algonquin Provincial Park. We had learned about Algonquin Park more than 25 years ago. We had traveled to Toronto for a bankers convention. We were seated with a lovely couple from Allentown who regaled us with tales from their multi-day canoe camping trip through Algonquin Provincial Park. We immediately added the park to our bucket list. Well, it took awhile, but we finally made it. Unfortunately, we only have two days to explore the park.

On Friday, September 14, 2018, we dusted off the bikes and set out on the Old Railway Bike Trail. This 16 kilometer trail follows the bed of the historic Ottawa, Arnprior & Parry Sound Railway from Rock Lake to a bridge over the Madawaska River about a mile from Cache Lake. Here we are ready to ride.

Algonquin Provincial Park was established in 1893, making it the oldest provincial park in Canada. The park is over 2,955 square miles, which is about one and a half times the size of Prince Edward Island! The park is home to over 2,400 lakes and 1,200 kilometres of streams and rivers. We have no hope of seeing them all, but the bike trail will take us past a few of them. Here is our first look at Whitefish Lake.

In the 19th century, the logging industry harvested the large white pine and red pine trees to produce lumber for domestic and American markets. Remnants of two old lumber mills can still be seen along the trail.

The park is considered part of the "border" between Northern Ontario and Southern Ontario. The park is in an area of transition between northern coniferous forest and southern deciduous forest. This unique mixture of forest types, and the wide variety of environments in the park, allows the park to support an uncommon diversity of plant and animal species. This guy was kind enough to sit still long enough for us to take his picture.

Since most Canadian campers don't get up until 10:00 a.m., we had the trail to ourselves for the first part of our ride. We ran into a couple of Park Rangers who told us we came at the best time. The kids are back in school and the hordes of tour buses carrying leaf peepers are still another week away. We are just starting to see the fall colors and our trail has a sprinkling of fallen leaves.

We stopped on one of the many bridges along the trail. One last look at Whitefish Lake before heading back into the woods.

All along the trail, there were marshes, bogs and ponds. We stopped at each one in hopes of finding a moose, but we never did see one.

However, there was plenty of evidence that a black bear was in the area and he left his scat all over the trail. We noticed the bear was eating a lot of berries. We found these growing by the side of the trail. However, we have not been able to identify them.

One of the smaller lakes we passed, Pog Lake, is very popular. With a campground right on the shore of the lake, campers can just paddle right from their campsite.

Since Pog Lake is small, it doesn't get as windblown as some of the larger lakes. The water is as smooth as glass and almost as reflective.

From Pog Lake, we traveled upstream to the Lake of Two Rivers. We stopped along the way to admire some busy beaver work. The flooding caused by the beaver dam has made a ghost forest next to the trail.

The trail followed the shore line of Lake of Two Rivers for almost three kilometers.  Just past the lake, is the start of Head Creek Marsh.

The rail service in the park ended in 1933 when a flood damaged an old Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway trestle near Cache Lake. The trestle was deemed too dangerous to use and too expensive to fix, ending rail service. Many of the trails in the park still make use of portions of the old railway rights-of-way. Our bike trail ended at the site of the destroyed trestle. We were able to hike down a steep trail to the Madawaska River. After eating our lunch on the banks of the river, we crossed over a small footbridge and hiked up the other side. The old railroad bed is now just a hiking trail. You can still see the railroad ties poking up out of the old bed.

After about a half mile of hiking, we returned to our bikes. It felt good to stretch our legs. There were a few stops we wanted to make on our return trip. We had head a waterfall along the trail and wanted to go and explore a little. We found this pretty little spot.

While Kathy has her rocks, Dave loves his fungi!

We hadn't realized how uphill the trail was on our ride out, until we found ourselves coasting back to the trailhead. Since we were parked just a short distance from Rock Lake, we decided to take a spin through the campground and check out the beach.

Over the years, we have done several epic bike trails. The Old Railway Bike Trail in Algonquin ranks right up there with the best of the best. Tomorrow we hope to get a little ways into the backcountry and paddle one of the less visited lakes. Stay tuned.