ALGONQUIN PROVINCIAL PARK

We arrived at Algonquin Provincial Park around 4. We left Ottawa at 9:00 a.m. It was a long but beautiful ride. Some of the trans Canada highway, Route 417 changing to 17, was a lot bumpy. Some of the clothes hanging in the closet fell out.

We got site 7 which is the most beautiful site I think we have ever had. We are less than forty feet from the lake. The name of the lake is Kioshkokwi (Kiosk for short). The wind was blowing quite hard here so we did not put up the canopy. On Monday the wind was strong with almost one foot high waves. We took the Kayaks out to do a little fishing. We had to keep paddling back out because the waves brought us into shore. On Tuesday we left at 7:30 a.m. on calm waters and kayaked 6 km to the west side of the lake. It took us almost 2 hours. While we were kayaking into a cove that had a large marsh, we saw two moose come out of the woods. There was a mother and a baby (this was a large baby). We paddled closer and just watched them. The mother never took her eyes off of us. It was amazing! We stayed for a little while and then the mother and baby just strolled back into the woods.

There was also a loon on the lake. I don’t know if the older boys remember when we went camping on Conway, NH. We could here and see the loons on Conway Lake. Loons can swim under the water for a very long time. You see them and then they dive and then you have to watch for quite a while and you will see them come up far away.

As we left the cove and continued across the lake we saw two more moose. Another mother and a smaller baby. They watch us for a few minutes and then went back into the woods. We were gone for five hours that day.

On Tuesday the water pump began to act up. The water pressure was very low and the pump made a terrible sound. On Wednesday Steve checked it out and found the pump was leaking. We checked with the office here and the lady let Steve call an RV dealer and they had one in stock. Steve wanted to buy a repair kit and the guy said these pumps are throw and go. This means for $118.00 you buy a new one. We drove into North Bay, Ontario, about 90 km from here. When we got back he put it in and as with pretty much everything in this camper, the pump works better than the original one. Now we had enough water pressure to take a shower.

On Thursday we went out in our kayaks on the lake again and went 4 km in the other direction. We took our time and were gone 5 ½ hours this time. We did a lot of fishing and Steve caught two small mouth bass. One was about 2 pounds and the other was 11/2 pounds. They put up a good fight. His rod was really bent over. I caught a lake trout that was about 14 inches long. It was a successful day fishing.