• Recently Written

  • New Canoe Map Mirror
  • Back from Opening Weekend - Rock Lake
  • Getting Ready
  • April 8th-Spring has sprung!
  • 1922 CNR Algonquin Park Map Posted
  • One full year later - I’m still smoke free!
  • February
  • Vintage Algonquin Map Posted
  • Remember Mendelson Joe?
  • Trip-log#13 Posted

• Categories

  • Announcements
  • Art
  • Articles
  • Gifts
  • Health
  • I spy
  • Maps
  • Mini-logs
  • Past
  • Promises Promises
  • Rants
  • sharing
  • Sharing Info
  • Trip-logs
  • Uncategorized

• Archives

  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007

• Blogroll

  • Algonquin Adventures Forum
  • Algonquin Web
  • Dan Outdoors
  • Jim Cavers
  • Proppe's Paddles
  • Tom Yates
  • Wolf Den

• Admin

  • Register
  • Login
  • Wordpress
  • XHTML

 

 

 

A good Algonquin friend of mine, Jeffrey McMurtrie, has released his own version of a Canoe Map for Algonquin Park and the surrounding region. Jeffrey urges anyone who would download this map to continue to support the Friends of Algonquin Park, either through donations or continued purchases of their map. I have set-up a mirror of the larger JPEG version of the map for download from my main website. Great for viewing online at home. You can download the file here(right-click to save to your desktop). For more information and legal stuff, visit Jeffrey’s website here.

Last weekend, I was at Rock Lake(In Algonquin Park of course). I had the opportunity, to meet up with some friends both new and old, who share a love of Algonquin Park. Bo Knows and Sheila, were there, and if you take a peek at the photos or slideshow section, you’ll see the mess of Brook Trout they caught. There is nothing in this world, like fresh, and I mean FRESH trout, cooked over an open fire. “Stainless” was there too, and he filleted Dave’s catch, which was also a brookie. “Jeff P”, a newcomer to our fellowship, was content to remain on the island, while we fished(I had no luck..as usual!), although he did go for a spin in his bright and shiny new Langford canoe….ahhhh Langford…okay back to writing; The Swede dropped by for another one of his famous late night drop-ins. This is becoming a habit for Swede, a dangerous one, but one that he is exceedingly good at. Paddling at night, with overcast conditions and just after ice-out, makes me squeamish thinking about it. We were all concerned for him, and although he is an adult and can make his own decisions, we couldn’t help but wonder if he was OK, and that maybe we should’ve just clunked him over the head, and put him to bed for the night, safe on solid ground. No clunking occurred and Swede made it back okay. I took another friend of mine, “Jeffrey”, who was just as excited as I was, to be back in The Park. I must admit though, that I’m a little jealous of his upcoming trip, which is a 31 day affair. Oh to be tucked away, deep in the highlands for a month straight! Watch out for the blackflies at the end of May! I’m off later this week myself on another trip, a 10 day trip with my friend Mike Burns and with Swede. Swede planned this upcoming trip, and invited us along. What is really unique about this trip over any other trip I’ve done in Algonquin Park, is we will be staying for 7 nights in a back country cabin! Yeah that’s right, a cabin, spoiled or what? Hey we deserve a relaxing trip for once…one where we can sleep at night and be warm and dry and comfortable, and bug free…should be fun! HA HA

With exactly one week to go until the first Algonquin Park canoe trip of 2008, I thought I had better get off my butt and get moving! The weather was an awesome 24°C and nothing but pure sunshine. I jumped in my car and went shopping. New tacklebox, lots of lures, leaders, swivel-snaps, fishing line, etc. Fresh batteries, bailey’s(for morning coffee), etc, etc. I then spent the afternoon, crimping my new lures, making them “barbless”, sorting thru my new tackle box. Checking the yoke and thwart on my canoe, I discovered the thwart that I reach out and hang onto while I portage the canoe, was loose. Tightening one nut, I moved onto the next one…*snap!* It was a steel bolt, and rusted and it broke(why the original canoe manufacturer didn’t use brass…I don’t know!), luckily, I had some spare bolts, and was able to fix it in a jiffy. Next I inspected my paddles, and the foam pads & tie-downs for the canoe. The foam pads were still pliable, and the stitching on the tie-downs was still intact. I replaced the batteries in my back-up flashlight in the bailer kit. Last week I had my vehicles’ tires rotated and the oil changed…….With all the safety checks and gear preparations for this year’s travels, I am good to go! Seven more days…the long wait is almost over!

  

 

 

 

 

Spring is here! Yup, in my books, it is now spring. This past week has seen sustained gradual warming temperatures, and when I stuck my head out the window this morning, for the first time this year, I smelt that earthy, dewy, fresh smell of spring. The first real sure sign that things are growing again.

Hooray for Spring!

Here is another vintage Algonquin Park Map. Produced by Canadian National Railways in 1922. This map is one of the better quality old maps out there, showing not only old roads and portages, but phone lines as well, as they existed at that time. Under sections 6.1 and 12 of the Canadian Copyright Act, this map is deemed public domain and is free and available for download on the main website, in the “Extras” section. On the back of the map is a travel-guide produced by CNR, to compliment the map. Both the map and travel guide are available in actual size and half size downloads. Please feel free to mirror any maps, to help reduce the load on the server hosting markinthepark.com.  Read more

Although this blog entry about becoming smoke free isn’t about Algonquin Park, it is because of Algonquin Park, that I write this entry. One year, and one week ago, I was winter interior camping in Algonquin Park with three friends. We snowshoed in about 4 or 5 km’s, set-up camp, and for the next four nights, had The Park to ourselves. We explored the surrounding forest, a couple of lakes, some falls, built an igloo, and had an otherwise great time,while camping out in our hot tent. During all of this, I smoked cigarettes. I had been smoking for about 25 years, minus a 10 month break in 2004. I’m definitely not proud of smoking for such a length of time, and can’t imagine the amount of damage I have done to my lungs. It was during our trip last year at the end of February, that we would be sitting in our hot tent, with the temperature a stifling +30°C inside, while outside it was -27°C, and I would sneak outside for a quick smoke. The amount of hacking I was doing, just for a few drags of that smoke was enough to make anyone cough up their kidneys never-mind their lungs! My urge to smoke amid the hacking and coughing in the cold temps got so bad, that I was hacking and coughing much more than I was smoking. I’m sure I looked the pathetic sight standing there in the cold killing myself.

Read more

Blahhhhhh. Bring on March!

Today, I posted my first in what I hope to be a series of vintage Algonquin Park Maps. Today’s posting is of a Government of Ontario, Algonquin Park Area Map, circa 1946. Copyright expired at the end of 1996 and is deemed public domain under Section 12 of the Canadian Copyright Act. Many Thanks goes out to Bruce Sutton & Jeffrey McMurtrie for loaning out the map. Scanning and subsequent image processing by Mark Rubino. Visit the “Extras” section of the main website, to download the map. Maps posted on the main website are freely available to everyone. Please feel free to mirror any maps, to help reduce the load on the server hosting markinthepark.com.

Last month, I was contacted by a fellow by the name of Michael D’Amico. Michael had stumbled upon my website, while doing a search for Algonquin Park. Michael had made a request of me for a moose image of mine to include in his project. The project was a DVD, and it was about Mendelson Joe. Mendelson Joe…now there is a name I’ve not heard in years. That name brings back memories from the ’70’s. Things such as Paddle to the sea, hinterland Who’s who, and Forest Rangers, etc.

Mendelson Joe is a self taught folk artist. Just about any Torontonian has heard of him, and I’m sure many in Ontario have too, the guy has been singing and playing his guitar for almost 40 years now. On top of this accomplishment, Joe is quite an artist too. I remember something of his art, from my younger days.

In 2000, Joe had enough of Toronto, and moved out of the rat race. Joe now lives in a log cabin in Elmsdale, just outside of Algonquin Park. Joe hopes that one day his ashes will be spread on Lake Opeongo, obviously his fav. lake in The Park.

It is amazing the intricate links that Algonquin Park forms with people, and people form with The Park. This is especially true when viewing some of the art painted by Mendelson Joe. My contribution to the video of Joe’s song, “The Canada Song”, was considered by me to be very, very minor. So, imagine my surprise, when I received a copy of Micahel’s DVD, a sort-of tribute to Mendelson Joe, containing 7 tracks. One week later, to my astonishment, I received an 8×7 painting by Mendelson Joe himself, entitled, “The Place”, I’m almost positive it is of Algonquin Park. This was Joe’s way of thanking me for my help. I have never met Joe, but can tell already, that the fellow has a very big heart.

Seeing some of Joe’s art online, has had the same impact for me, as reading a trip-log while suffering from cabin fever…I just want more! Joe’s artwork takes many different forms, I must admit though, that I have a special likeness towards his outdoor paintings, especially if they are of Algonquin Park. I think everyone out there, who likes not only Algonquin Park, but Canada in general will find the collage of Joe’s artwork that is the video of “The Canada Song”, an inspiring piece. 

 

The Canada Song on Youtube:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etGX4XKrbLc

To learn and discover more about Mendelson Joe:  www.mendelsonjoe.com

Thank You Michael, and Thank You Joe, I love your painting.

“The Place”

 

Trip-log#13 is now up for reading. This a lite read about a four day solo trip to Pinetree Lake, near Algonquin Park’s East Gate office. Hopefully some readers will find this read enjoyable and in curing some of those February blahs. Click here to goto the trip-log.

keep looking »