This post comes from Park Information Specialist Jill Legault of Quetico Provincial Park.
“Portaging is like hitting yourself on the head with a hammer: it feels so good when you stop.” — Bill Mason
Did you know Quetico Provincial Park’s solitary wilderness experience and pristine nature is available without portaging?
Continue reading Quetico’s backcountry routes without portages
Today’s post comes from Joanie McGuffin (paddler, author, and executive director of the Lake Superior Watershed Conservancy (LSWC)), and Holly Drew (LSWC Marketing and Communications Coordinator).
For thousands of years, people paddled birchbark canoes along the shores of Lake Superior to get from place to place. Travelling and trading, hunting and fishing; these were the activities of the historic Lake Superior Water Trail, now being celebrated as part of The Great Trail by Trans Canada Trail.
Continue reading The Lake Superior Water Trail: the greatest of trails
The eastern shore of Georgian Bay is a pink necklace of islands scattered on a turquoise sea. A freshwater sea, that is.
Georgian Bay is part of Lake Huron, and Huron is one of the Great Lakes, the largest expanse of freshwater in the world.
Eastern Georgian Bay is world class. In 2004, the area was designated as a world biosphere region by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Continue reading Georgian Bay Biosphere Region: biodiversity on the Bay
Today’s post comes from Lise Sorensen, Quetico’s Atikokan Entry Station Gate Attendant and off-season Trails Officer with the Path of the Paddle. If you’re planning to paddle the Maukinak Trail, this info will be indispensable.
Follow the path. It will lead you through boreal rivers and crystal-clear lakes, and past silent, watchful cliffs. Your guides will be eagles and your destination endless.
An integral segment of The Great Trail (Trans Canada Trail), the Path of the Paddle is a ribbon of water that stretches from Thunder Bay to the Manitoba border.
The Maukinak segment of the Path of the Paddle transects vast tracts of uninhabited crown land and connects the small communities of Atikokan and Dryden.
Continue reading The Maukinak Trail: paddling from Dryden to Quetico
A breathtaking 13,000 ha of the Thirty Thousand Islands and eastern Georgian Bay Coast is protected by The Massasauga Provincial Park, between Moon River and Parry Sound.
The Thirty Thousand Islands are the world’s largest freshwater archipelago, a 200 km chain of pink rocky islands from Port Severn to the French River.
Anyone who has visited the area will tell you it’s simply gorgeous.
Continue reading Spring fishing in the Thirty Thousand Islands
If you love the great Canadian outdoors then Missinaibi Provincial Park should definitely be on your bucket list!
In today’s post, Scott Gardner, Associate Editor of Outdoor Canada, shares his love for and experience with kayak fishing. All photos below are copyright to Scott Gardner.
On a cloudless summer afternoon, I paddled around a point on Six Mile Lake, eased my boat through a jumble of boulders, and slipped into a long shallow bay. No more than 18 inches deep and blanketed in lily pads, it was perfect Largemouth Bass habitat.
Even better, the propeller-killing rock barrier made it unlikely that any serious fishing boats ever tried this spot. As my kayak ghosted silently to the edge of the weeds, I cast my lure deep into the lily field. I twitched it twice across the surface, and with a heart-stopping splash, it was ambushed by a football-sized Largemouth Bass.
Continue reading Why kayaks are an awesome way to fish Ontario Parks
Today’s post comes from Michelle Halstead, a travel, tourism and eco-adventure placement student with Ontario Parks Northwest Zone.
Canada is proud to be the home of the greatest recreational trail in the world. A 24,000 km trail of land and water that stretches across 10 provinces and three territories.
The Great Trail (formally known as the Trans Canada Trail or TCT) is a project that started in 1992 and with the help of various donors and volunteers working together across the nation has become one of the greatest trails in the world. The trail offers a variety of outdoor recreation activities and scenery throughout Canada’s urban, rural and wilderness areas.
Continue reading Exploring the Great Trail in northwestern Ontario Parks
Today’s post comes from Roger LaFontaine, Outdoor Recreation Specialist at Ontario Parks.
With the warm weather, our minds wander from day-to-day drudgery like the terrible commute, the clicking of keyboards, the abstract shapes, and disjointed words of a presentation.
Suddenly, you’re dreaming about pine trees, a campfire, and great people you don’t get to spend enough time with.
Glazed-over eyes slowly make their way to the window, and you begin to plan your escape.
Continue reading The battle of paddlers: eliminating “Portage Rage”
Today’s post comes from Discovery Specialist Dave Sproule.
It’s a rugged, time-worn landscape. A fractured piece of the Canadian Shield, with fault lines criss-crossing the roots of ancient mountains for hundreds of kilometres. More than 2,500 lakes fill those fault lines, and at over 600,000 hectares, it’s almost as large as Algonquin Provincial Park.
Is it any wonder so many paddlers lose their hearts to Temagami?
