Ray Piercy headed out on a late October, twelve-day solo trip. Between iced-up water, snow storms, sub-zero windchills, two foot waves and an unexpected 'rescue' .. he now thinks his next autumn solo trip will probably be in September. Originally posted on the CCR forum, Ray has supplemented his original trip-log with some extra photos .. Late October Algonquin Solo

".. an OPP helicopter passed over me coming from the south west, turned over the trees to the east of me and then returned from the direction it had come. I thought this was strange, to see two helicopters in the same day. About 30 minutes later a motor boat approached me across the bay, moving slowly because of the large waves."

Mike Burns, Mark Rubino and Sean Rowley got some super fine weather for their Thanksgiving weekend trip to Tom Thomson Lake. It has more photos (29) than narration. But its humorous photo captions describe plenty of details ... 2008 To Tom Thomson - with Sean and Markus

"The three of us all paddled our own canoes to Tom Thomson Lake. I paddled my home made cedar Osprey. Markus was in his Prospector and Sean picked up a Swift Osprey .. like the one he has on order but was not finished for this trip. Markus and I paddled out first thing Friday morning as soon as we got permits. Sean came later to join us in the after noon on Tom Thomson. The wind picked up by the time Markus and I hit the beaver dam before Tom Thomson Lake."

The Algonquin Forestry Authority is now providing detailed maps of Active Operations in the east part of the park, for immediate short periods of time. They can be accessed through the bottom of their website's Forest Management page.

These maps are labelled "Algonquin Hunting Agreement 2008". They appear to be the result of an agreement between the AFA and aboriginal groups who have hunting rights in part of Algonquin Park. The map appears to not include AFA operations outside the prescribed "fall hunt area".

At the time of this posting, the AFA provided the Algonquin Hunting Agreement 2008 October 1st Map Active Working Sites by way of its www.algonquinforestry.on.ca/pdf/2008AWS_HuntMap_Oct1.pdf website link. With this provision of time-specific AFA activity information to aboriginal hunters, it's hoped it will lead toward the AFA improving its provision of detailed information to campers .. expanding to include spring, fall and winter haulage routes over the entire park area.

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources has issued their Fish Stocking List For Algonquin Park - 2003 to 2008.

The list gives details on the stocking of both Brook Trout and Splake, with stocked amounts in specific lakes for each of the past six years. Included along with lake names, are the lakes' longitude-latitude and UTM locations.

Fishing Regulations for the Algonquin Park Zone 15 area can be downloaded from the MNR website. As indicated, the splake fishing season is year-round in Zone 15. Always be sure to check the regulations' pages of exceptions.

Pete Johnston has emailed us an interesting website address .. to The Algonquin Tea Company. This Algonquin area enterprise produces unique alternatives to conventional modern beverages .. possible refreshments for an Algonquin canoe trip.

"We are located both in Whitney at the east gate of Algonquin Park on the Madawaska River, where we are practicing Permaculture Forest gardening and in Golden Lake on a 200 acre homestead where we are growing certified organic herbs .. only the finest quality herbs are reverently hand picked at the optimum time .. offering 6 delicious and healthy gourmet herbal tea blends."

Darren Dare has added another trip-log to his website. It's of a five-day solo trip he took late this September, down alder-choked North River from Access Point #26 on the Brent Road. He went downstream to North River and Merganser Lakes, returning by the same route. Check out his a Fall 2008 Trip Log.

"Shortly after 3:00 pm I noticed a canoe making its way up the lake with two people aboard. As they approached, I noticed the canoe was an off-white colour and soon identified it as Markus' canoe. When they got close enough I let out a loud "MARKUS" and was greeted by my buddy from Toronto. They pulled up to the site and unloaded their canoe and we spent some time catching up on things ... "

In July of this year, Barry Bridgeford and Bill Warren, took a break on Booth Lake. Twenty-six of the trip's photos comprise a "Flash-driven" slide show .. Farm Lake to Booth Lake and Back.

"The slide show was created using "JAlbum", see ... www.jalbum.net . And, it uses the "BananAlbum skin" ... www.bananalbum.com . To check out the status of your computer regarding Adobe Flash Player, go to http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/about/ . There's a rectangle in the middle of the page that indicates if you have it installed and which version. .

Fall is a good time to visit the Algonquin Art Center, located by Found Lake on Highway 60. The Algonquin Art Center website has just been added to the Algonquin Adventures Resources Section. The center is open through to October 18th, daily.

"In our East Wing, we present “Landscapes of Algonquin”. Here, artists share with you some of the many spectacular vistas that Algonquin embodies: blazing autumn horizons flagged with ancient white pines, gnarled rocky outcrops of the ancient Canadian shield, and lakes that mirror skies. These paintings exhume a spirit of place beyond the acrylics and canvas. Consult our “Map of Origins,” and you will be able to locate the exact place that inspired some paintings." .

Joel Kopel has submitted a trip-log of his four day trip down the Tim River to Rosebary Lake (and back). Joel, Nigs and Lorena made the best of a damp September long weekend to enjoy "getting away" .. Down the Tim, 2008.

"Just after we got into our respective tents there were some ominous footsteps on our site, I’m not one to panic while camping as everything sounds big and menacing in the woods after dark but these were distinctly slow, deliberate footsteps. A bear? An enormous raccoon? Anson Miner? (anyone know that campfire classic story?). We’ll never know but we all heard it. I’m convinced it could have very well have been a bear but Nigs didn’t think so. Since he was dead-on with the age of our resident pine, I figured I’d trust him on this one." .