Our Favourite Canoeing Moments

June 12, 2015August 12, 2016 / Oleksandra Budna / 4 Comments

This week is National Paddling Week in Canada so I thought I’d dedicate to this post to canoeing. I have to admit that, while I enjoy all outdoor activities, canoeing is definitely my favourite. In many ways it reflects the life itself. It teaches you to keep your balance, to work together with your partner to move in the right direction. Sometimes you have to brave the waves making sure you don’t capsize. And at times it’s about staying still, going with the flow and enjoying the world around.

So here are some of our most memorable paddling moments.

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Gnocchi with Roasted Vegetables and Goat Cheese

June 8, 2015August 12, 2016 / Oleksandra Budna / 4 Comments

I haven’t posted any recipes for a while so here is one of our favourites. It sounds quite fancy but is very fast and easy to cook, also delicious and filling. Because who said camping food has to be only burgers and hot dogs or, in our case, veggie burgers and veggie dogs? We discovered this recipe works very well on the last day of camping. This way we can use up all the leftover vegetables in our cooler before heading home.

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Happy Birthday to Algonquin, land of beauty, memories and adventures!

May 27, 2015August 12, 2016 / Oleksandra Budna / 3 Comments

So Algonquin Park is turning 122 today! Established in 1983, Algonquin is the oldest provincial park in Canada and it’s becoming even more beautiful and attractive with every passing year.

I couldn’t miss such an important occasion since it’s the place of so many favourite memories: our first trip into the interior, our first four-day canoe trip, our first winter camping adventure in a tent. Beautiful sunny skies, stormy weather, rainbows, fall colours, spring flowers and moose sightings, incredible sunsets and loon calls at night. We’ve visited Algonquin in all seasons, experienced it in every type of weather, explored it on foot, in a canoe and on a bike and it is always beautiful and exciting.

Lake of Two Rivers in the spring

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Camping in Canada’s “deep south”: Wheatley Provincial Park, Point Pelee National Park and Pelee Island

May 20, 2015February 13, 2018 / Oleksandra Budna / 3 Comments

May long weekend camping is always a gamble. Will it be cold? Will it rain? Will the temperature drop down to freezing at night? Where to go? Which park to book? This year, we decided to go to Wheatley Provincial Park with the intention to also visit Point Pelee National Park and Pelee Island located nearby. When we arrived in the park late Friday night, the trip didn’t look very promising. The weather forecast showed high chance of rain and thunderstorms for the next couple of days. Our campsite was soggy and wet. On top of it, our neighbours turned out to be Top 40 fans (not my type of music, especially in the woods, where I want to listen to birds not Taylor Swift). On the plus side, the weather gods waited patiently till we finished setting up (it started to rain the exact moment I zipped up the tent door behind me) and the sound of rain drowned out our neighbours’ music.

The next morning, we woke up to a drizzle that would occasionally intensify to a medium strength rain. After finishing our breakfast under the umbrellas and playing a dice game (I lost), we started wondering whether we should put up a tarp to get some protection from the rain. Miraculously, it stopped raining sometime around noon and the rest of our stay was rain-free. I am even happier to report that our neighbours didn’t turn on their music after that first night. The mud on our campsite never went away, though. In fact, the ground seemed to be getting soggier and muddier the more we walked on it and we brought back a good deal of Wheatley mud caked onto our boots and tents. But then you can’t have everything. Continue reading →

How Green of a Camper Are You? Ways to Reduce the Environmental Impact of Your Trips

April 22, 2015 / Oleksandra Budna / 1 Comment

Green and camping seem to go together naturally. What can be greener than spending time in nature? Unfortunately, every time we go camping, we witness activities that are the complete opposite. I am always perplexed by people who insist on driving their cars everywhere in the park: store, wood yard, trail, comfort station? Isn’t the whole point of getting outside to get some exercise? I am appalled by the amount of disposable plates, cups and cutlery that often piles up on some of the sites and disgusted by garbage found on the beach and along trails. And why do people feel they have the right to turn lakes into their personal bathtubs even if there are no shower facilities nearby?

Camping is a great way to connect with nature, relieve stress, get some exercise and fresh air. The benefits are endless. Yet we shouldn’t forget that our mere presence in the parks can be damaging, so we have to make every effort to minimize our impact. If we want to ensure that our children have an opportunity to enjoy nature the way we do, we need to adopt camping practices that promote nature preservation and sustainability.

Here are some ways we try to make our camping trips greener.

Ditch your car, walk or bike instead

Ontario Parks encourage their visitors to park once and walk or bike the rest of the stay. Last year, we finally managed to do that. We used our bikes or feet to get to park stores, beaches, trail heads, even to bring fire wood. Granted it is sometimes hard to do it in larger parks, like Algonquin or Lake Superior. Several national parks in the United States, including Glacier, Rocky Mountain and Grand Canyon, offer free shuttle bus service to their visitors in an effort to reduce traffic on their roads. Hopefully, parks in Canada will consider introducing a similar service. In the meantime, we try to focus on exploring nearby trails and lakes and plan stops at faraway attractions on our way home.

Dispose of your garbage properly

I am not just talking about not littering here. That should be engrained. It is also important to properly dispose of your garbage at recycling centres available in most camping parks. Sorting your recyclables doesn’t take too long and ensures they don’t end up in a landfill.

Last year, we also tried to reduce the amount of garbage we produce. We buy a lot of our food in bulk and then bring the necessary amount in reusable containers. We try to buy less packaged food and cook more from scratch (there are lots of simple delicious camping recipes that don’t require a lot of time or preparation).

Forgo disposable products

Sometimes I wish parks and conservation areas just banned disposable products all together. This summer, we watched our neighbours accumulate four huge garbage bags of disposable plates, cups and cutlery over two days. Yes, they were a large group of people but that also means they had more than enough people to do the dishes. Yes, washing the dishes isn’t fun, especially in the woods. But isn’t removing yourself from the conveniences of civilization part of the attraction? Just think of it as part of the wilderness survival challenge.

We haven’t used disposable eating utensils in years. Last summer, together with our friends, we decided to ditch foil roasting pans as well. Even with reusing them a couple of times, it was still a waste. The regular roasting pan we use at home works just fine outside. We also bring kitchen towels instead of paper ones because we prefer our trees in their original form and not on our table in the form of paper napkins.

Use biodegradable dishwashing products and toiletries

We don’t use any commercial chemicals-packed dishwashing liquids or beauty products at home and it’s even more important to avoid them in nature. Baking soda can do the job just fine or if you need some bubbles, you can make your own dishwashing liquid using Dr. Bronner’s castile soap (we just dilute it in water 1:3 and add 1 tablespoon of washing soda for each liter of liquid plus a few drops of any essential oil for smell). Castile soap is also great for washing yourself. Your skin will thank you. If you are not into making your own dishwashing liquid, shampoo or toothpaste, you can always buy eco-friendly biodegradable options. And avoid using any toiletries around rivers and lakes. A few days without a shower will not kill you.

There are lots of other ways to make your camping more eco-friendly, like buying used equipment or renting it from an outfitter, staying on trails and using marked campsites, using proper firewood, respecting wildlife, taking nothing but pictures and memories. Visit Leave No Trace Canada website to learn more about what you can do to reduce your environmental impact. Parks and conservation areas are here for us to not only enjoy but also protect nature. Let’s remember that!

Easter Weekend Camping in Pinery Provincial Park

April 7, 2015October 5, 2015 / Oleksandra Budna / 10 Comments

Easter weekend camping is a relatively new tradition. This is our second year, to be exact. Last year, we started pondering over the meaning of Easter and it being the symbol of rejuvenation and rebirth. So we decided that there was no better place to celebrate it than in nature where the magic of rebirth happens every spring. Plus kids love Easter egg hunt in the actual forest even though they have long outgrown the age of believing in Easter bunny.

This year we chose Pinery Provincial Park as our camping destination for a number of reasons. There was more chance that it would be snow free compared to, say, Algonquin or Killarney. The route to Pinery conveniently lies through Waterloo where we could pick up our older son and then drop him off on the way back. We were also hoping to catch tundra swans taking a break on their way north. Finally, it is always fun to see some of our favourite parks during a different season. So far Pinery has been the destination for many enjoyable summer trips and one memorable New Year celebration. This was a chance to see it on the cusp of season change.

We left late Thursday night and with a stop at Waterloo, we arrived at the park close to one in the morning to find our yurt locked. In the hindsight, we should have called the park to warn them about our late arrival but on previous late arrivals at other parks we would find the yurt open with the key left inside or alternately locked but with the key left in an envelope near the registration office. We spent an hour driving around the park trying to locate someone to open the yurt for us, found an emergency phone, alerted the guard, woke up the ranger on duty. In short, it was quite an adventurous start to our trip.

Needless to say, we slept in the next morning. When we finally got outside, it was a nice and warm day. The park was surprisingly busy with almost all yurts occupied, and trailers and a few tents visible on the surrounding campsites.

We spent the first half of the day biking around the park. In the summer, riding the 14-kilometre Savannah trail and finishing with ice-cream is a long established tradition. But since the ice-cream counter and the store were closed for the season, our younger son proclaimed that riding the trail would be pointless. We biked along park roads instead, explored the Old Ausable River Channel, which was still frozen on one side of the bridge and completely ice-free on the other. We even saw a lonely canoeist on the water and felt quite jealous of him but canoes were chained for the season as well.

We then biked over to the beach. Lake Huron looked strikingly different from its usually cheerful summer self. Covered in ice and dusted with sand with a narrow strip of turquoise water in the distance and clouds overhead, it was eerily beautiful.

By then, the wind picked up and it was quite chilly, so we rode back to the campsite. Right on time too. Because the moment we finished cooking the soup, it started to rain and we retreated inside the yurt. With a bowl of hearty soup inside our bellies and the patter of rain on the yurt roof, we enjoyed restful time reading and napping. Once it cleared up, we ate veggie burgers around the campfire and then back inside played our favourite game, Settlers of Catan, well into the night.

Day 2 was gorgeous, all beautiful spring sunshine and blue skies. We rode over to the visitor centre to watch all sorts of birds twittering and chirping around the bird feeders.

We then hiked Cedar Trail, which is only 2.3 km long and starts right near the visitor centre. It has a great lookout platform over the channel, where we spotted an otter in the water (or at least we think it was an otter since it was pretty far away).

There is also a trail extension that leads to the beach. That day, the beach looked brighter with the sunlight against the blue sky. The ice cover alternated between sand dusted frozen waves, long stretches of white and then ice chunks as far as the eye could see. One brave, or maybe just stupid, kid actually rode a fat bike over the lake.

That day we also drove to the field behind the Lambton Museum to see tundra swans. Yes, they were still there! Because the winter was so cold, they arrived later than usual this year (so cold winters do have their bright sides). I was really excited to see them, something I wanted to do ever since I read about tundra swans on the Friends of Pinery website. It was quite a sight and a noisy one too. At night, we could hear them honking overhead while the guy at the next campsite played drums. Those were much better sounds to fall asleep to than the humming of cars back home.

On Easter Sunday, winter staged a short comeback as we woke up to a snow cover outside.

It didn’t stop us from having an Easter egg hunt. In fact, it was quite fun.

As always, we didn’t want to leave. After we packed, we decided to do another hike, this time on the Nipissing Trail, which took us to the top of the oldest and highest dune ridge and also provided great views of the park with a bit of Lake Huron in the distance.

We stopped at Denny’s Drive-in, our favourite fish and chips place at Grand Bend. We were happy to see that they were already open for 2015 season. We brought our blankets and enjoyed our meal outside.

Good-bye, Pinery, till Labour Day!

Time to Spring into Camping

March 22, 2015May 17, 2016 / Oleksandra Budna / Leave a comment

So spring is officially here! And it comes with warmer weather, longer days and a promise of more camping trips. While April and May with melting snow, uncertain weather, lots of mud and quite often still cold nights may not seem like the best choice to head into the woods, there are lots of things that make spring camping special. Here is what I am looking forward to as we are preparing for our first spring camping trip of the year.

Rebirth of nature

After a long winter sleep, nature finally shakes off its white blanket and springs into a burst of colours, smells and sounds. Even though I know it’s coming, every year I am mesmerized by this magic act of rebirth, by the vigour of spring flowers pushing their way through the ground, by the tenderness of swelling buds. The blues, yellows and purples of spring ephemerals and bright greens of first leaves look like drops of paint spattered by a careless artist around the otherwise still bare forest. So put on a pair of waterproof boots and head to the forest. Walk slowly and look for signs of spring awakening.

Trilliums

Yes, it is a flower and could be mentioned above but in my book of spring camping it deserves a separate chapter. It is Ontario’s official flower and spring is the only time when you can see it. Imagine forest floor covered by a blanket of snow-white curvy petals with occasional pinks or reds peeking through. It is a sight worth seeing, practically a must if you live in Ontario.

Twitter

Not the one on your phone, of course, the original one produced by birds. In the spring, woods and lakeshores are filled with chirps, cheeps, peeps and tweets. Ontario Parks offer excellent birdwatching opportunities. Some parks, like Presqu’ile, Long Point or Point Pelee are practically birders’ meccas. So if birdwatching is your thing, grab your camera and binoculars and head to one of the parks. And even if you are not a birder, waking up to a birdsong is way more pleasant than to an alarm on your phone.

Wildlife sightings

As more and more animals wake up from their winter slumber and right before summer crowds hit the parks, spring offers a great window for wildlife viewing. For instance, spring is the best season for moose watching in Algonquin. You don’t even have to go far. You are almost certain to see these animals along Highway 60 as they are attracted by the salt in road ditches. As always, it is important to remember that wildlife may pose danger. So exercise caution when you are driving in or close to the parks, and give animals lots of space whenever you come across them in the woods.

More daylight

Longer days mean more outdoor activities. While there is a certain charm to long winter evenings by the fire and there are lots of enjoyable activities to fill the time, as the days are getting longer I am looking forward to spending more time outside and can now plan for longer hikes or bike rides.

More sun

After a long and cold winter, we all deserve a bit more sun. And with more sun come better moods, warmer weather and more Vitamin D. Spring weather with its gentle sun, a bit of a breeze and without the usual summer humidity is perfect for outdoor activities.

Fewer layers

As the weather gets warmer, we can start shedding all those winter layers. As much as I enjoy winter, I won’t miss extra sweaters, snowpants, scarves, hats and gloves and I am looking forward to spending less than ten minutes getting dressed before going outside. Spring nights can still be pretty chilly so don’t put away your sweaters and hats too far away just yet. If you are concerned about spring chill at night, consider booking roofed accommodations at one of Ontario Parks. They are much easier to book in the spring as more people are choosing to stay in tents.

Cycling

Yes, you can bike in the summer and fall too, but there is nothing like the first bike ride of the season. After a long cycling gap (unless, of course, you are a winter biking enthusiast), the sensation of pushing pedals is always new and exciting. With a breeze in your hair and a birdsong in your ear, spring cycling is filled with childlike joy. So dust off your bike, tune it up and head outside. A lot of Ontario Parks have excellent biking trails, for instance, Pinery, Algonquin, MacGregor Point. Quite a few also offer bike rentals.

Canoeing

Just like cycling, canoeing is not a strictly spring activity. But just like with cycling, I can’t wait till the first paddle of the year: the slight resistance of water as my paddle cuts through it, the splash, the feeling of gliding on the surface. Plus rivers and lakes are at their fullest in the spring after the snow melts making them easier to navigate. Some routes can only be paddled in the spring or early summer at the latest and they become almost impassable as the water levels drop later in the season.

Finally, the best cure for cabin fever

Even though we go camping in the winter too, with only two or three trips over the whole season I feel like we spend too much time in the city. So why wait till summer if you can go camping now. Nothing can chase those winter blues away like the orange crackling of a campfire, the bright yellow of first spring flowers and the tender green spirals of fiddleheads.

Time to start packing! Remember that Ontario Parks have different opening dates while some are open year round. Check Ontario Parks website for help with your trip planning and to book campsites.

Winter in Algonquin: Camping in a Tent

March 19, 2015October 1, 2015 / Oleksandra Budna / 11 Comments

We really love winter camping with its frozen beauty, fun activities in the snow and smaller crowds (add absence of bugs for my husband and our younger son). Usually we stay in a yurt or a cabin, which still sounds extreme to some people. At the beginning of this winter though, we decided to take it to the next level and try camping in a tent. But as the winter was progressing with temperatures dropping lower and lower, we were close to giving up on the idea with the usual ‘maybe next year.’ And then this past weekend, we decided that there was no better time than now, packed all our stuff Saturday morning and headed to Algonquin Provincial Park.

Algonquin’s Mew Lake campground is open year round with seven yurts, which need to be reserved in advance online or over the phone, as well as electrical and non-electrical campsites available on the first come first serve basis. Campsite permits can be purchased at the West or East Gate from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. After four, there is a self-serve registration kiosk at the entrance to the Mew Lake Campground.

The weather didn’t look very promising on Saturday. It was grey and drizzling but at least not too cold. Luckily, there was still a lot of snow left at Algonquin, otherwise it wouldn’t be much of a winter camping. We arrived at the campground around 5. Quite a few campsites boasted all sorts of tents, some with chimneys sticking out, others just regular ones. We snatched a waterfront site with a view of the lake, frozen and beautiful.

We don’t have a winter tent and, after reading all about it, I decided we could get away with our three-season one. There was no heavy snowfall in the forecast so we didn’t have to worry whether the frame would hold. The tent has a fly that extends all the way to the ground so it provides pretty good protection from the wind. We also added a tarp on top of it for some extra protection ensuring there was a good flow of fresh air. We added a tarp under the tent as well, plus two layers of sleeping pads for additional insulation from the ground. We also brought two sets of sleeping bags for everyone for extra warmth. And we did bring our small electrical heater so it wasn’t nearly as extreme as it sounds. In the end, no one was cold, although it was a bit chilly around dawn. The hardest part was getting out of the tent in the morning but with nature calling (pun intended) and a promise of coffee it was doable.

Cooking also presented a bit of a challenge without roofed accommodations to do food prep. So anything that could be just dumped into the pot, mixed with water and cooked quickly worked best. We made our favourite minestrone soup with the soup mix from Bulk Barn: we cut the recommended dose of the mix in half to reduce the salt content and add red lentils and dehydrated vegetables from Bulk Barn as well. We also made veggie burgers the second night and cooked eggs with beans in the morning.

On Sunday, the weather improved considerably. It was sunny and crisp with a hint of spring.

We decided to hike the Bat Lake Trail since it was very close to the Mew Lake Campground. That way we didn’t have to drive anywhere. It’s a perfect trail for a winter hike with frozen waterfalls (our son called them Elsa’s castle), a beautiful lookout point and a few lakes along the way.

Along the trail, our son kept practicing his hide mode technique, which consisted of jumping sideways and disappearing into the snow banks.

Upon our return, we headed to the skating rink and played a game of shinny. It was my first hockey game, if you can call it that since I didn’t even have skates on. But it was a lot of fun nonetheless.

The highlight of the trip was the blue jays that visited our campsite.

We took our time packing Monday morning, watching the last logs burn, savouring the last moments of our trip. On the way home, we stopped at Westside Fish and Chips in Huntsville, which has become our favourite food stop whenever we go to Arrowhead or Algonquin. After a three-hour drive, we were back in snowless Toronto.

Overall, the trip was a great success and we are definitely coming back next year. All my doubts regarding dragging my family into the cold of the winter to sleep on the ground dissipated one morning when our son mused that he couldn’t understand why some people thought that staying in a hotel was better than camping. That warmed me better than the hot tea I was sipping.

Winter at its Best: Family Day Weekend at Allegany State Park

February 18, 2015November 7, 2017 / Oleksandra Budna / 3 Comments

I love Family Day weekend camping. Yes, it’s cold (or even frigid cold as it was this past weekend) and a simple trip to the bathroom requires major preparations and lots of layers. But none of those things matter when you are greeted every morning by beautiful views of the snow-wrapped forest and clear crisp air that makes your whole body vibrate in tune with the singing snow under your feet.

This year, we spent the Family Day weekend at Allegany State Park. Located in the Enchanted Mountains region in western New York, it’s less than a three-hour drive from Toronto. With over 150 winterized cabins, it’s easy to book last minute roofed accommodations. We stayed at one of the cabins at the Congdon Loop. The cabin was pretty spacious with two bunk beds and a kitchenette area that had a fridge and a gas stove. There was a gas heater and electricity so it was warm (well, relatively warm when the temperatures dropped to -25C on Sunday) and light. The comfort station (very warm and comfortable) was about two minutes away. It also had showers (although not sure who would want to use them in the weather like this) and a utility sink, very convenient for washing dishes.

The park itself offers a lot to do. The Art Roscoe Nordic Ski Centre boasts over 20 miles of cross-country ski trails of various difficulty levels and also has gear rentals and a warming hut. Allegany is very popular with snowmobilers. We could hear them whizzing by from time to time. We also spotted a few fishing huts on the Red House Lake. And, of course, there are great tobogganing hills for the kid in all of us.

We arrived at the park late on Friday. Our cabin was up on a hill and there was no way to get the car up there with all the snow so we had to carry our gear and supplies. Nothing makes you move faster than freezing temperatures so between the four of us we were done in a record short time. After having a nice cup of tea and deciding who’d take the upper bunks, we were all in bed dreaming of a great day ahead.

We started the next morning with our favourite breakfast and a nice cup of coffee. We then headed to the Art Roscoe Ski Centre where we rented gear and spent the day skiing. It was snowing lightly when we started and the forest looked magical. It’s amazing how winter manages to create the most enchanting works of art with only one colour at its disposal.

Somewhere halfway through the trail, a snow squall blew in reducing visibility to almost zero. Luckily it passed quickly but our younger son continued to shake snow off the tree branches with his ski poles so by the time we were done we looked like snowmen and, well, one snowwoman.

After our skiing adventures, we drove to the neighbouring town of Salamanca (about 10 minutes away) to buy some food and wood and spent the evening cooking boys’ favourite minestrone soup with garlic toast, building a campfire near the cabin and then playing the game of Life back inside.

The next morning, we woke up to refreshing 25 below zero outside and lots of sun.

After delicious oatmeal with fruit and some warm drinks, we finally plucked up the courage to go outside.

We decide to test our new snow tube on one of the hills. It was fun while it lasted, which wasn’t very long. About halfway down the first run, the tube ripped sending the kids tumbling down. There was a bit of complaining about scratched cheeks and cold snow but nothing a nice hot cup of chocolate wouldn’t fix.

We spent the rest of the day around the cabin, our younger son breaking off icicles, the rest of us warming by the fire. By then, our improvised fire pit (the real one was hidden somewhere under the snow) got wider and deeper allowing us to actually sit around the edge right by the fire. In the end the combination of fire and snow created a perfectly round crater, its walls covered in ice spikes.

Once we went through all of our wood, we retreated inside, made some fish with baked potatoes and roasted corn (yum) and played our favourite board game, Settlers of Catan.

On Monday, it was time to leave. As always, it felt the trip hadn’t been long enough. Two beautiful does came to say good-bye.

Nature in the City: Adventures Close to Home

February 10, 2015October 28, 2015 / Oleksandra Budna / 5 Comments

If I could go camping every weekend, I would. Things tend to get in the way though. Swimming and art classes for our younger kid, university assignments for the older one, grocery shopping and laundry, not to mention piles of tests to grade and report cards to write for my husband. So January went by without a single opportunity to get out of the city. We did go for walks around the neighbourhood but without any snow and temperatures well below freezing, it wasn’t as much fun as an outing in the woods would be. Last week, it finally snowed in Toronto so we spent the weekend rediscovering nature next door.

Colonel Samuel Smith Park

The park is located in Toronto’s west end right by Lake Ontario. Beautiful views of the lake and nice walking trails attract lots of visitors. In the winter, the park has a popular skating loop and a pretty big tobogganing hill. People bring their skis to do some cross-country skiing along the water. We also watched guys kite skiing on the frozen marina. It looked like a lot of fun, although I am not sure if I would put it on my bucket list.

Since we didn’t bring any equipment for skating, skiing or tobogganing, we had to find some other ways to entertain ourselves. Our son got excited about ice-covered boulders by the lake and spent a good hour exploring them in search of a perfect icicle. Even as it started getting dark, he was refusing to leave with the words: “I am sorry, mum, but I am having too much fun.”

Centennial Park

Centennial Park is famous for its tobogganing hills so on Sunday morning we grabbed our sled and headed over there. There is a trail running not far from our building all the way to the park. It’s great for cycling in the summer and takes about 15 minutes to get to the park. Walking through the snow with frequent stops to break ice on the nearby creek and watch a group of extremely cute ducks required way more time but it was all part of the fun. After all, it’s all about the journey as they say.

The destination was just as exciting though. The hill was ringing with laughter and screams from children and adults alike. After about an hour of sledding experiments (forward, backward, sideways), we headed home treading through the snow and breaking more ice along the way.

Waterloo Park

Ok, Waterloo Park isn’t exactly near our home but it is close to Waterloo University where our older son is currently a student. So on a Sunday a couple of weeks ago, as we drove him back to Waterloo after a weekend at home, we decided to explore the nearby park. There is a small lake right in the middle with a pretty boardwalk and gazebos along the shore, a few walking trails and a small river (you guessed it, more ice to break). The park also has a small zoo and some historic buildings, like the first school house and an old mill. The best thing was finding some snow since Toronto was pretty much snowless at the time.

It was all great fun but now I am looking forward to the Family Day weekend when we can finally spend some time in the woods. Only a few more days to go!

Gone Camping

Lessons from the tent

Our Favourite Canoeing Moments

Gnocchi with Roasted Vegetables and Goat Cheese

Happy Birthday to Algonquin, land of beauty, memories and adventures!

Camping in Canada’s “deep south”: Wheatley Provincial Park, Point Pelee National Park and Pelee Island

How Green of a Camper Are You? Ways to Reduce the Environmental Impact of Your Trips

Easter Weekend Camping in Pinery Provincial Park

Time to Spring into Camping

Winter in Algonquin: Camping in a Tent

Winter at its Best: Family Day Weekend at Allegany State Park

Nature in the City: Adventures Close to Home

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