I have returned from my camping trip to Canada. Usually I like to keep my blogs somewhat short, but this one will be long. If you don't have time to read it all, here are the highlights of what I've learned: (Pictures will follow in a day or two.)
My friend and I could get lost in our apartments (we live in studios).
Canada and Algonquin Park rock.
Toronto rivals Chicago for the worst traffic in North America.
The moose in Algonquin are in hiding.
We set out Sat. The first thing we learned is that Canada is very weird. There was no trash along the street. No one tossing cups out of their car windows on the highway. No billboards selling something every few miles. Drivers signaled before changing lanes. Drivers didn't get right up on someone's butt before changing lanes or while they were behind someone who was passing another car. We stopped at a store to ask some ?'s. The clerk actually KNEW the answers; they did not have to refer us to another person who then referred us to another and then another and then another, until the entire store's staff was standing before us, baffled by our question... very weird! The irony is that there was a lot more customer service in a socialist country than a capitalistic one. Unexpected and weird.
Gas in Canada has always been more expensive than in the U.S., a lot more. Not anymore. The price of gas in the U.S. has nearly caught up; it is only a few dollars less here than in Canada. Of course in Canada, they pay for the healthcare and various other things with each purchase of gas; we don't here. Plus, the price is in Canadian $, so it's actually about the same price.
It took us forever to get around Toronto, on a Sat at 7pm. Unreal. Toronto has grown to the 4th largest city in North America, but has not really expanded the roads since they were 104th or whatever they used to be years ago. So, the roads are jammed, maybe even surpassing Chicago as the worst traffic. (Detroit, NY, L.A. DO NOT have the worst traffic, despite their claims.) Houston is next on the list as worst traffic, behind Chicago and Toronto.
We hit Algonquin Park (http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/), a place to see many different types of animals, most notably and advertised, moose. Algonquin has only one road (a highway) that runs thru it, and often moose can be seen right off it. In fact, they don't have deer crossing signs; they have moose crossing signs! We arrived at the park late Sat. night. Now, Algonquin's website states that at this time of the year, while the colors are AWESOME, no one else will be at the park. A visitor at this time of the year would have the park to himself. We arrived to find the camping ground we wanted to stay out COMPLETELY FULL! Several others were closed. We drove around for an hour before finding an available site. Canada is really good about providing seclusion in their campsites, even when the campground is full. They tend to just cram everybody in here in the U.S.
Surprisingly, we didn't see any moose that night, even w/all our driving around. The next morning we hit a few trails geared to see animals, one going over several beaver ponds. Nada. Zilch. Nothing. We drove along the highway some more, no animals. We hit some more trails and looked for animals again that evening and night. Still, nothing.
I've been to Algonquin several times. The last time I went was my best wildlife viewing. In 3 days I saw: 8 moose (2 of which were calves), some blue heron, a pine martin (rare to see), grouse, a fox, a bear cub, and a lynx (rare to see, and they've been trying to get hard evidence that they actually live in the park). So, not to see anything was weird.
The next day, our last full day of camping (short, 2 full camping trip), we hiked on a trail intended to see lots of animals. Over 6 miles long and partly washed out. We got nice and muddy. Last time I did this trail, I saw 4 moose in the bog part of the trail. This time? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. I couldn't believe it! We saw 2 blue heron and a "marked" turtle. That's it.
Near the back end of the trail, we ran across some gray jays. I got some good photos, as they come close for food. I led most of the trail way. My friend had led once and he started us back the way we came, so I stopped him and turned us around. After looking at the jays, he led again. After a while, we noticed that the trail markers were on the wrong sides of the trees. We started running into people. They have posts w/numbers on them on the trail, and we started to see the same numbers. We became annoyed. Why would they have two trails, and use the same dots for each? How stupid is that? Why would people not realize they were walking down the wrong trail? (Everyone we ran into claimed they had been to the same places as us; clearly they couldn't have been! We started at 7AM, before anyone else was there--we were the only car in the parking lot--and no one had passed us.) Finally, my friend realized, "Maybe I led us back down the wrong way again." Dah! "That would make more sense than all our other theories, wouldn't it?" I replied. We laughed at our stupidity.
We heard there were moose in the bog area we had passed, so we hurried to see them. They were gone by the time we got there. So, we did 10 miles on a 6 mile trail and saw no moose. Doh!
That evening/night and the next morning we drove around. No freaking moose. DOH! So, we saw no moose in Algonquin, after I promised my friend we would. We did see a lot of great colors, have a kick butt campfire, and so forth. So, we had a lot of fun. We will go back next year, armed w/more time, more eyes (people), and in June (prime time to see moose on the road, where they lick salt from the melting ice on the road).
Personally, I'd like to see a bull moose in the fall, when its antlers are all big and when they are fighting over the females. Oh, well; guess I'll just have to head to a club this weekend. I'll pretty much get to see the same thing...
