露營遠足 - Algonquin camping trip

This past weekend was our 2 days-1 night camping trip.  The location is at the Algonquin Provincial Park.  The camp site that I chose is a car camping site.  It is for the more leisure type of campers, as the camp ground has an area with showers and washrooms as well as water supply. 

Our camp site's location is one of the best on the Mew Lake campground.  Very nice open view to the lake.  The fire place is right in front of the open view of the lake.  We setup our table beside the fire place, so that we can enjoy the nice view while we had our meals.





Since I wasn't sure if my gf's daughter would like the camping idea.  So I only booked for one night and we didn't have a lot of time to venture around, espeically the first day was rainy.  For most part we just relaxed and enjoy the fresh air and the quietness. 

On the first day, we went to the park's visitor center.  There is a nice view a small portion of the park.  Acres and acres of land with no building and cars, just forests, rivers and wildlifes.  I fell in love with this place since my first camping trip six years ago. 

Look at the cloud, it's reflecting the red color from the woods.




Incidentally this weekend was the best time of the year to see the fall foliage.  All the maple trees are turning yellow and red, and mixed with the evergreen tree.  It is just an amazing view.  Its too bad that the weather was not that great.  If its a sunny day, the view would be completely different.



After the little tour of the visitor center, we went back to the camp ground for a shower and then prepared dinner.

Dinner menu:
Kids: Chicken wings, fresh corn, vegetable soup, apple, and marshmallo
Adults: Fresh spring lamb with rosemary and pepper, fresh corn, vegetable soup, apples and pears

At night, we just sat in front of the camp fire and chat.  So relax.

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Day two, I woke up quite early since my air mattress was leaking and I basically slept on the ground (lucky i put an extra tarp underneath the tent and my sleeping bag is quite warm).  Again we enjoyed our breakfast in front of the lake view.  There was a little chipmunk running around us collecting pine cones while we were eating.  Its quite funny to see the little guy running around and making funny noise.  Then we packed up our stuff and head for a hiking trail before heading home.



We didn't have any idea which trail to go to (too lazy to read the map that the park ranger gave us when we entered west gate).  As we drove we saw a sign for the Hemlock Bluff Trail, so I thought there bound to be some good views on top of a bluff and it turned out to be a good pick.

The Hemlock Bluff Trail is a 3.5km loop, up the hill through the woods to the top of a bluff (small cliff of a few hundred feet) then down to the side of Jack Lake, and then finally up the hill through the woods again to the trail entrance/exit.  Normal walk time for this trail is about 2 hours.  But since we have the little girl with us, it took us almost 3 hours before we saw the entrance/exit lol.









After reaching the top of the bluff, walked along the trail came an lower area with a good view of the woods and hills on the other side of Jack Lake.  I don't think a single photo can describe the scene, so here is a picture with a few shots stitched together.  Look at those red leaves. 





Jack Lake has two bodies of water connected by a stream/river.  Walked along the river there's small bridge with an open area.  Here is a stitched shot of more forest/woods.



The trail has a lot of big and small rocks.  Trees grow around them.  Sometimes you can see the tree roots grew on top and around the rocks.  It looks interesting.



Although time was limited, but it was a great trip!