Saturday, September 12, 2009

Tuesday September 1 - Mashkinonje Provinical Park

Thus begins our hiking adventures...

Pronounced mas-kin-onj, Mashkinonje is native for muskellenge, one of the largest fish inhabiting the surrounding waters of Lake Nipissing. A relatively *new* park, it is slowly expanding it's visitor potential and apparently has over 35 km of hiking trails throughout its 2000 hectares. We did the Loudon Peatland trail -- a nice easy warm-up for the trails-to-come and were blessed with some amazing views and experiences. Mostly wetlands - again, despite the boggy area, NO mosquitoes - it's greatest feature was the fact that we were the ONLY people there! The trail itself was quite overgrown in places and we're thinking it's one of those Best Kept Secret things...

We were very much enjoying the marshy bits --




For the Fungus Collection...a lonely toadstool amongst the lichen....
Yes..that's poop -- by the size of it we're imagining moose or elk....or maybe just a Really Big Deer...
Orchids....they were swaying in the breeze and my shots were blurry so I had to hold onto it -- haven't got around to editing my hand out yet...:)

One of the best things about the trails in this area is the outcroppings of bedrock - the Canadian Shield -- which made not only for easy footing (although we did experience some steep climbing/clambering on later days) but great spots to sit and drink in the vistas...


Back at the cabin....the sun sets on a beautiful day...B and Auntie B and Savannah were out doing some evening fishing so Sebastian and I went out to get the evening campfire started....

Dusting off my fire-starting skills...seems I've still got it....


Why is it that you can't stop taking photos of a beautiful sunset? Must be the need to capture the sheer gorgeousness of it all....

4 comments:

  1. So simply beautiful.... Not much else you can say really.... XX

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  2. What a beautiful, enchanting place. Thank you for sharing it.

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  3. I like the leafy weefs floating on the water. Sunsets are excellent photo opportunities.

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