Olga gets some bagels to make-up for the lack of breakfast. We eat them in the car. After yesterday’s sunny day, it’s winter once again. snow starts falling soon after we leave Ottowa. We need our winter tires today.
We drive 2 hours through a frozen landscape, pass an Amish community (and even see a horse and carriage, but Olga is too slow to take a picture) until we reach Barry’s Bay historic train station, our first sight. But it’s snowing so hard that it takes some negotiation to decide who should get out of the car into the cold to take the picture. Tim goes but Zeno wants to build a snow man, so at the end only Cleo stays in the car.
The snow gets even heavier, we take it slow and manage to arrive in Algonquin National Park at 11. There is 10 cm snow now. We start with the visitor center which has a nice exhibition of stuffed wild life that can be seen in the park. Examples include the black bear, wolf, dear, moose, and beaver.
Our next stop is a short 2km hike through the forest covered in snow. We’re sliding up and down the path for 10 minutes when Tim spots blood spots on the snow. We look up to see where it’s coming from, when Tim sees a giant moose. It’s standing 10 meter from the path in the snow. Then she walks ahead of us, following the path. We don’t see her anymore, but we can see her foot steps and blood drips.
We take some pictures at the viewpoint, overlooking kilometers of huge forest and lakes. Then we slide back to our car. The kids are done with the slippery path. Their shoes and trousers are wet and they fall down every five steps.
We still see the moose steps in the snow and the blood drips. We’re just discussing where they seem to go when Tim spots the moose again, eating some branches and small trees 10 meters to our right.
Extremely happy with our luck this single walk in the Canadian nature we head back to our car. We put dry clothes on Cleo and Zeno and continue our drive.
Tim takes some pictures at other viewpoints in the park, but we skip all other hikes. We asked already too much from our kids and they don’t wear proper snow boots.
At 16.30 we arrive at Huntsville, our stop for tonight. We booked a room in a motel which has an indoor pool but that’s no added value at the moment. We go for an early dinner at the Canadian A&W, famous for their root beer. We’re back at 18, and unwind in our small room.
