MUSKOKA – We’ve just finished a fabulous picnic lunch at a table set two meters from the shore on Beausoleil Island in Georgian Bay Islands National Park. We’re watching small waves lap against a sloping, deep orange rock under a sky so blue it would make a robin’s egg jealous. We suddenly hear the cries of small children, and see a gentleman and three young boys walking along this massive slab of exposed Canadian Shield. We learn he’s the grandfather and that he and his son are taking the boys, a six-year-old and two four-year-old twins, camping for a couple Read more
Ontario Parks
I’m looking around at the Whetung Ojibwa Centre, a small country store on the Curve Lake First Nation reserve outside Peterborough. I admire the colourful artwork, dozens of styles of moccasins and sparkling jewelry, not to mention the walrus skulls and old, black and white photos in the basement. As I’m heading out, I spy a large collection of jams and jellies made with local berries. To me, breakfast isn’t complete without toast and good jam, so I pick up a jar and head to the cash register. The woman handing the register looks at me and smiles. “Would you Read more
ON THE BRUCE PENINSULA OF ONTARIO – Zane Davies is guiding me on a hike to the Lion’s Head Lookout in Lion’s Head Provincial NatureReserve. “I went to a beach place in Mexico and it was nice,” he tells me as wind our way along the ancient Niagara Escarpment, sunlight slanting through the deep green trees overhead. “But there weren’t any mountains.” Later, after showing me a rock formation that’s basically a hollow, vertical tube with an opening at the top and a space you can crawl into, he tells me he’s also been to the Rocky Mountains of Canada. Read more
