We got up early this morning, and headed straight outside to Penn Lake to see the dawn. We were not disappointed. The lake was covered in mist and we were treated to some gorgeous pink and golden skies as the sun rose. Wow! Unfortunately, Stu had a few problems with his 'equipment' and missed some potentially great wildlife shots, and some of the best light, so he was rather jealous of some of mine :)
We saw a little mink swim across the lake and disappear under the boardwalk (yes, Bruce Willis has been playing my head today!) We could hear it scurrying about and I was later lucky enough to spot him and take a few pictures. We watched each other for a minute or so - sweet! We also saw a rather nice crane and various other birds.
After a hearty breakfast, we headed into Algonquin Provincial Park and set out to hike the 11km Mizzy Lake trail. This took us past several lakes and through the forest to various points of particular interest to wildlife lovers, including a few beaver dams and some places frequented by moose, wolves and even bears.
Sadly we didn't see any of those, but we did see lots of great stuff including frogs, squirrels, a woodpecker, an as-yet unidentified fowl of some sort, and a little vole. The highlight was at Wolf Howl Pond, where we encountered some very friendly blue jays (I think!), more chipmunks and some very cute Painted Turtles lying on logs in the lake, basking in the sunshine.
While Stu concentrated on photographing one turtle I watched another as he lay on a log, which then rolled over so he fell in. He climbed back on, only for the log to roll straight over so he would fall in again. It was a bit like a round of turtle 'it's a knockout'. After multiple attempts he eventually gave up and went back to the log he'd been on before. Bless!
The scenery here is just spectacular, everywhere you look it's gorgeous - in fact I even described one view as 'breathtaking' this morning and actually meant it. We've so far had glorious weather so we've benefited from sunshine and blue skies, making an awesome backdrop to all the trees (greens, reds and golds) and providing some stunning reflections on all the lakes. Fab.
The hike was quite tough for us as we don't do much of that sort of thing. Although it wasn't too steep you had to watch your footing nearly every step to avoid falling over rocks and tree roots. The second half of the hike was far less rewarding, with less to see, and it was seemingly much harder going, not helped by the fact that our water supply was low and our bodies were aching!
We're definitely photographers first, not walkers! Despite the incredible views I only saw one other person with a camera the whole time. Maybe that's because the ones with cameras were taking their time like us, instead of racing through like the many people who overtook us!
At the start of the trail it said you should allow 6 hours to fully appreciate it, and that's about how long we took. Boy were we tired and thirsty at the end!
All in all a fab day. Hoping to be up even earlier tomorrow to catch daybreak, see our little mink friend if we can, and if we're lucky see the creature that left footprints down on the beach overnight - it looked like a large deer print, or maybe even a moose!
Must go now to pack - we're on the road again tomorrow, headed for Ottawa via another day in spectacular Algonquin.
Dx
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