Oh yes.

I had a wonderful weekend away with B. and the dog. We went up to Huntsville to do some hiking in Algonquin park. I’ve traveled through the park numerous times but this is the first time I’ve explored the park. It is a beautiful area. I certainly understand why it is such a popular destination. We met up with two couples, Pat & Jenn, and Rob and Amy, they were great company during our hikes and dinner.

On Saturday we did our ‘longer’ hike. At kilometer 25 of Algonquin Park we did the Track and Tower trail. Ha. First off, I don’t know why it is called the Track and Tower trail… it is somewhat misleading. We were expecting a tower to climb and a vista, and a cool track to follow… well, the trail follows the location these things used to be. Yes. There isn’t a tower, just a couple moss covered concrete blocks. *eyeroll* And the track is the same… the former location of the track. Again, nothing but a few old decayed concrete blocks. While the history is interesting I was disappointed to find nothing at the locations of merit. That said, the trail itself is still well worth the wall. There is a vista atop a long flight of stairs as well that looks over a lake which was impressive (albeit cold and windy…). Barb and I hike a fair bit together, it was interesting to have a pace set by other people. I often felt like we were running ahead a lot. When we finished the trail and returned to the parking lot we noticed a ‘commotion’ up the road. A bunch of cars had pulled off to the side which can only mean some sort of wildlife was spotted. Now I don’t mind people pulling over on the shoulder and taking photos. I do mind fsckheads driving backwards, in the lane, up a hill to get to the photo opportunity. Unconscious knowledge…

Anyway, I did get a bunch of photos of the poor moose who was quicked surrounded by 20-30 humans with cameras. He eventually tired of the photo shoot and buggered off into the bush. It was a long day of hiking. I’ve certainly hiked farther but it still seemed like a long time on my feet. The dogs were barking that night for sure. We all went out to dinner at Muskoka on the Rocks. I started with a delicious Coconut Curry Chicken soup. The only thing better would have been another bowl. Damn it was good, better than my main course Ribs and Wings. The Wings were typical but the Ribs were strangely bitter, as if soaked in vinegar or something. Ho-hum. B. was also underwhelmed by her steak, especially considering the price. The food was a little hit and miss. I’m not sure we’d go back.

Sunday we were all moving a little slower. We agreed on a much shorter trail, the Oxtongue River trail. Before we arrived at the trail we stopped at Henrietta’s Pine Bakery. Wow… Anyone who knows me knows I have a sweet tooth. Henrietta’s was pastry gold. I did’t get out of there with less than two boxes of goods. Mmmm… the snowball is amazing, as was the sticky buns and danish. Stop there! You won’t be disappointed! Oh yes… back to the trail. I wasn’t expecting much, especially after yesterday’s anticlimactic hike features. Well, this one brought the goods. There was a massive and very impressive waterfall with rapids at the end of the trail. It was pretty intimidating walking on rocks near the fast moving water. If you were to fall in you’d be dead pretty quickly. It was certainly that powerful. We stopped in Barrie at B.’s favourite store Sojourn to look at tents since they had a sale on. We managed to find a reasonably priced light-weight 4-man tent, so we are motivated to get out and do some camping this year. I’ll post a bunch of photos from this weekend on flickr shortly.