Friday

With a internationally mixed group we start in Waterloo on the Friday evening. The plan is to defeat a bike trail on Saturday and to get to know the Haliburton Forest. 150 tree-covered square kilometers with over 50 lakes await us. 300 kilometer roads and trails are available for biking.

We reach the park entrance late in the night and find the gate closed. As there is nobody in the reception booth we decide to stay on the parking lot.

The tents are pitched quickly, but Sabine and I prefer to sleep under the starry sky.

Saturday

Early in the morning we register and set up our camp on a campsite on lake MacDonald not far from the base camp.

We rent bikes for Zgiii (Switzerland) and me while Cecilia (Sweden), Christian (Sweden) and Sabine brought along their own mountain bikes. Silvia and Julien (France) prefer to discover the park on foot. The rest of us begin our tour on a trail that is rated as somehow difficult and that's the way it really looks like. Big pieces of rock and vast mud holes give rise to both fun and frustration within the group. We agree on a medium-rated trail and it helps, we make headway.

Soon it is noon and we have already covered some kilometers as the chain of my bike brakes. Unfortunately we didn't take any tools along for a case like that and so a makeshift repair must be enough. After some more kilometers the chain breaks again, further attempts for repairs are pointless. We split up and arrange to meet at the meeting point we fixed with our hikers, too. While I take a "short cut" along the Moose Trail, the others take a longer loop. The Moose Trail turns out to be absolute beautiful an peaceful. Although I don't meet any moose I happen to see a deer standing only 5 meters away. It remains there for several more minutes, then it rushes away, reminding myself to rush to the meeting point (otherwise there might be nothing left to eat...;-)). Unfortunately we miss our hikers, Julien and Sylvia, but our break lasts for an hour, sitting in the sun on a shoreline that is breath-taking again.

For our way back to the base camp we split up again. The bikers ride home on a gravel road, I take my chances on some nice, narrow trails, where animals show up every single minute. Tree hours later I arrive at our camp, tired from the long hike. After a cooling swim in lake MacDonald my feet come back to life. Lucky I am, the others already have picked up the damaged bike and so we can start to cook pasta with tomato sauce (again ;-)) immediately.

This evening we remain at the fire pit long into the night. One after another disappears from our circle, but the starry sky and the moon above the lake convince me to stay on the small wooden landing stage.

Sunday

We have had enough of biking and so we decide to spent this day together. We rent three canoes to explore MacDonald lake and Clear lake.

After we have successful transported the canoes from the base camp to the shore of MacDonald lake we load our stuff and hit the lake.

We paddle leisurely and still reach the portage to Clear lake in short time. On the Clear lake we go on paddling for another half an hour and then stop for a break. We haven't got any bread in the base camp this morning, all we now have are cookies (not bad either ;-)). Besides that we have a lot of milk and fruit and so we spent the afternoon lazy on the rocks, watching the scenic view across the lake.

An hour later we are tired hanging around and so we head way back. The portage seems endless, especially, if one has his head inside the canoe not being able to see neither the trail nor the landscape.

In bright sunshine we reach our starting point again. It becomes really warm and so we have a jump into the cool water. No-one of us got a swim pant and nobody else is around and so we practise a little naturism.

As we come to the surface again two man are standing on the wooden landing stage. But they seem to follow the same purpose, additionally drinking a beer in the water. I released this photo with approval of the others, so hopefully no-one considers that as pornography ;-) (These pages are stored on my German internet account ;-)) After we ended our swim we return the canoes to the base camp. Before we leave we visit the nearby wolf pen. We save the entrance fee and go for a little walk along the fence and we are lucky: only 10 meters away we see a wolf through the wire netting, then another shows up. After a while a young wolf passes, but suddenly all of the wolves disappear. They seemed to be bored, maybe too many visitors come here.

On our way back we have another break, to get something to eat at subways. Late in the night we are back in Waterloo, everybody is really tired, but happy and satisfied.