September

Northeast '06 September, p.4

Tuesday, September 19

We connected to Hwy 60 going west and found ourselves in Algonquin Provincial Park. What a wonderful park, very much like the Adirondacks of New York, with a similar history. Big logging country, until the woods were over harvested and the government had to take steps to cut back (sorry for the pun, again). The land was "purchased" from settlers and squatters, at very low rates. The park now tries to balance logging, hunting, fishing, and recreation in a sustainable manner.

We visited the logging museum, which showed how as much as 50% of all able bodied men were employed in the winter to log the white pine for Britain. These logs, only the best and straightest, no knots, were then squared and transferred to ships going overseas (Lake Ontario to St Lawrence to Atlantic). The Visitor Center was also great, with video, animal exhibits, and the history of the place. See the next page for pictures of the animal exhibits at the Visitor Center.

A hike through hardwoods was very colorful:

The leaves are very interesting and colorful on the forest floor.

On the road, still in the park, we stopped where there were about 10 cars on the side of the road, and were treated to seeing a bull moose and two cows. He was "feeling his oats".

We met a couple from Holland who come to Canada every year. Last year they went to the Yukon. Actually we also met several couples from France in Quebec as well. One couple, about our age, come to Canada twice a year and even have a house and truck here in Quebec.

We decided to spend the night at the Two Rivers campground, since it was supposed to be cold tonight, and the campgrounds had electricity where we could plug in our electric heater. The camper actually has a gas furnace that could do the same. We also used the showers and septic tank dump, something we are unable to do when we park elsewhere for the night. The picture is of the beach at the campground.

Wednesday, September 20

Cold today, 46-54 degrees all day. We left Algonquin 60W, 9, 2, then worked our way to the coast of Lake Huron. Here we followed the lake as close to the water as the roads permitted until the bridge to Michigan in the US. We stopped at various beaches looking for a place to stay for the night, and found that they were posted to not allow us to do that. We passed a place that advertised itself as a BEER BOTTLE DEPOT!

Finally, we came to Balm Beach, where a sign said that there was no parking from May 15 to September 15, and we understood that to mean that we could now park, because it was September 20. At 9 pm, we heard a knock on our door, and it was a policeman asking us to move. When I tried to explain that the sign said we could now park, he countered that it was OK to park, but staying in your vehicle was considered camping, not parking. Even though there were no Camping signs there, he said here was a county ordinance against camping anywhere except in designated campgrounds.

We drove a few miles south to the town of Wasaga Beach, and found a large parking lot for a pharmacy and another building under construction, and spent the night there.

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