Algonquin Park – fall of 2011

The Algonquin Park – the oldest, but only the third largest, in Ontario - is iconic in Canada…and likely in many people’s mind around the world! Famous for his camps, boys and girls come from faraway places to enjoy its wilderness! (I remember, as a teenager, considering going as a “counselor” to the Taylor Statten camp – Camp Ahmek for boys – probably the oldest camp in the Park, established some 90 years ago; but then plans changed that summer…

It’s fall and it is beautiful! And we are lucky: warm (it reached 24 degrees one afternoon) and not a cloud in the sky -I even went in the water, even if below 15 degrees! And it is "2011 - The International Year of Forests", proclaimed by the UN!

The park is huge: more than 7600 square kilometers (that is as big if not bigger than PEI or Delaware!), of which a good 80% is considered “backcountry” where you go for multiple-day canoe trips (there are, according to an official publication, some 2456 lakes, 2100 backcountry campsites and 2000 kilometers of canoe routes in the park!).

The park was founded in 1893; there were, and continues to be, logging operations, already going on since the middle of 19th century (Ottawa loggers – J.R. Booth, lumber baron, builder of a railroad between Ottawa and Georgian Bay) – very lucrative harvesting of the white pines, now carried out by a provincial crown agency (the Algonquin Forestry Authority which replaced, in the 70s, some 27 separate operating companies). The founding of the park stopped any wish for agriculture from expanding in the area (which could have been tempting for those who came “late” to nearby Muskoka area to settle and farm (see blog entry, September 2009). A chronology of the Park’s history is contained in a “Technical Bulletin” (#8), reprinted in 2002. There is also a “Logging Museum” in the Park, and a publication tracing the history of logging, reprinted in 2008.

The Park is crossed in the south by Highway 60, on a distance of some 56 kilometers, going on an east-west axis. That is the zone most people coming to Algonquin Park experiences. A “Master Plan” was established in 1974 by the Ontario Government setting preservation and activity “zones”, including a “Development, Access and Natural Environment” one (less than 5% of the Park’s land) along the highway where the organized campgrounds and other “high-intensity uses” are located – such as Arowhon Pines Lodge, and the only 2 other lodges in the park: Bartlett Lodge on Cache Lake, and Killarney Lodge on Lake of Two Rivers, further east along the highway. The Park is well "used": more than 210,000 day-visitors a year, plus some 100,000 campers along Highway 60, and 65,000 campers in the backcountry!

The Algonquin Park was of course named to commemorate one of the great Indian tribes of North-America. The Algonquins themselves though (“of Golden Lake”) proposed in 1988 to take control of the Park (the Constitution Act of 1982 recognized aboriginal rights, and I suppose it is on that basis that the Algonquins are pursuing their claim). The land claim dispute, which extends now to lands beyond the Park, and includes not only the Ontario Government but also the Federal Government as parties in the dispute, has not been settled yet, to my knowledge, and negotiations are still carrying on toward what is referred (see below) to as a “modern-day treaty”… (http://www.algonquinparkresidents.ca/assets/documents/algonquin_land_claim_update_sept2010.pdf)

I was curious how the management and maintenance of the Park were paid for; I thought perhaps out of the logging operations – no! I learn that Ontario has some 329 parks (119 of which are “operating”, that is offering recreational facilities) and 294 “conservation reserves” protecting major natural features, visited each year by millions of people. 80% of what it takes to manage this is funded through user fees and other park revenues such as firewood sales, canoe rentals and park stores, leaving (only) 20% to be paid out of the “Consolidated Revenue” as we say in government circles (read the tax payers…

I read as well that one can rent cabins, all around the backcountry – I have seen advertising for at least a good 15 of them in the Park's "Information Guide" annual newspaper – most of them only reachable by canoe. That is an idea: you go on a canoe trip and then rest for a few more days in a rented cabin…maybe for some summer vacation in the next couple of years…

Arowhon Pines, October 8, 2011

Arowhon Pines Lodge

We discovered the place, Arowhon Pines Lodge, by chance, a month or so ago when looking for a place to lunch, crossing the Algonquin Park, coming from Pembroke on our way back to Toronto. We were enchanted by the site and booked a room then to come back for the (Canadian) Thanksgiving week-end. It’s only when we mentioned the place to a few people in Toronto that we realized it was very well-known (“Everybody in Toronto knows the place” to quote Cynthia!)

It’s been written up several times in many newspapers and magazines over the years (clippings of some of which are featured on the walls of the dining hall – the NYT, the G&M, Saturday Night – August 1976 edition!) The lodge and its picturesque dining hall were built in the late 1930s (I heard 1940) to accommodate parents of campers who were coming to Arowhon Camp, a co-ed facility that legendary (we found out) Lilian Kates had started a few years before (1932) in the Park, on Teepee Lake, nearby. She ran the lodge until her son Eugene took it over in the early 70s; he had then to fight the Ontario Government to keep this privately, family-run hotel in the Park (the Government had apparently decided to phase out leases, so that no privately-owned facility would remain as such in the Algonquin Park – there were apparently several privately-owned lodges, among which the Arowhon Pines). He succeeded, on the account it would appear that it had been profitable since the beginning, in spite of the fact that he had no license (and still does not) to sell liquors! I think it is a great feature of the place, as you can bring the wine you want to dinner, at no extra cost!

“Arowhon”… I thought initially an Indian word, but no; Lilian would have christened the place based on a contraption of “Erewhon” – the title of a Samuel Butler’s famous novel (published in 1872) about some kind of utopian place, and itself an anagram for “nowhere” – and “arrows” (because of Indians one can presume!)

The dining hall itself is quite an accomplishment. The2-brothers team that built it in the late 30s managed to get the lumber out of the surrounding woods, pine trees – there was lots around – and operated without the support of any electrically-powered devices –there were no roads either leading to the lodge then. They installed a huge metal chimney in the center of the hall to accommodate the large fireplace that still adorns the hall today. This is where we had all our meals while here – breakfast, lunch and dinner, at fixed times – you pick your table (first-come, first-served) some of which distributed along the windows of the hexagonal-designed place, giving on the lake. Excellent food, your own wine, and an array of desserts spread out on a central table…

These are the last few days the lodge is open this year; it then closes for the winter – it operates we found out for 18 weeks only during the year. It will re-open I presume in late-May next year. We feel privileged to be here at this time, enjoying a superb weather – sunny and comfortably warm – amongst a forest that is “fired up” with multicolored trees!

Spent a splendid day as it should be, in this wonderful nature: after breakfast (and a stimulating conversation with this “7th generation Pennsylvanian, German-descent Canadian” older gentleman, Maynard Snyder if I recall correctly, from Waterloo, who now lives in a plush retirement home in San Francisco!), we went rowing down a canoe from Little Joe Lake, to Joe Lake, and then, after a little portage – easy, no more than 300 meters or so on a gentled sloppy wide trail – to Canoe Lake where mythical Canadian artist, member or precursor of the Group of Seven Tom Thomson would have drawn, in mysterious circumstances we are told (accident, suicide, murder?), almost a hundred years ago (in 1917 actually). He came periodically to the park starting in 1912, and immortalized this part of the world in his various paintings – that lonely giant black tree against the lake-and-mountain scenery so familiar to this place! – (the best collection of which I can remember is at the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg, a place not very far north of Toronto).

3 hours and a half of rowing opened up a healthy appetite for lunch – vegetable broth and salmon, not overcooked, and Trius Brut from Niagara-0n-the-lake Hildegard winery! Time then for a healthy digestive walk along one of the trails that start at the lodge – went for the “yellow” trail (it could have been named after the yellow that prevails in the tree color at this time of the year!) that goes deep in the forest behind and around Little Joe – again enthralled that we are by the colors of nature that a mixture of evergreens and leafy trees creates – every possible shades of green, yellow, brown, red, orange, etc…, shinning in that bright, warm sun…
Too warm and tempting to resist any longer a dip in the water! Went in for a few minutes – twice actually – in 59 Farenheight degrees water (not as daring as this French woman that went in after me and swam to the floating platform, a good 200 meters away from the deck!) Cynthia is reminded of this soap commercial on TV where the virtues of cold water are celebrated by a woman clamoring that “after all, we are Canadians”, just as her husband goes in, shivering very loudly! She also believed that the older white-hair woman that was on the deck and checked my hand to gage how cold I was having gone in, is Helen, the wife of now deceased Eugene, son of Lilian Kates – which makes her the owner of the place now, I guess! (This was actually corroborated the day after!)

A bit of a rest, late afternoon, before going for an early dinner (the hours are indeed early: 6:30 to 8pm) on cooked ham and venison (Ontario deer – we are told that deer are now domesticated around here!) and a wonderful bottle of Spanish (Ribera del Duero) 1996 Balbas. Followed by a long walk in the moon-lit night, enjoying (me!) a cigarillo… a full, so ever enjoyable day!

We will be back – booked before we left for Labor Day week-end next year…

Arowhon Pines, October 7, 2011

Arowhon Pines, dans le parc Algonquin – le dépaysement!

Oui, quel dépaysement! Après Miami Beach (et ses nombreux hôtels prestigieux bien rangés le long de la mer, la semaine dernière), New-York (et ses sirènes et marteaux-pilons, cette semaine) et Toronto (il y a quelques heures)… Esseulés en pleine nature, sur un lac, et les coloris d’automne dans la forêt et les montagnes qui nous entourent… En plus d’un soleil brillant sur fond azuré –il fera bon ce week-end, nous a-t-on annoncé à la météo…21 à 25 degrés! C’est le long week-end de l’Action de Grâce (canadien, un bon mois et plus avant celui des américains!), et le dernier week-end pour cet endroit de villégiature avant de fermer pour l’hiver…

Le parc n’est qu’à quelques heures de voiture de Toronto (un peu plus de 3 pour être exact), et Arowhon Pines, le lodge, n’est qu’à huit kilomètres, au nord de la route principale (la 60) qui traverse le parc; on y accède par une route de gravier, tout en détours mais très praticable.

Le lodge regroupe quelque dizaine de pavillons parsemés dans la forêt en bordure du lac, pas loin du pavillon principal que constituent les cuisines, la réception et la salle à manger : très pittoresque, niché sur une pointe qui s’avance dans le lac, bâti en bois rond, en forme plus ou moins hexagonale, entouré d’une véranda où il fait bon s’assoir, lire, tout en dégustant un verre de vin!

Nous logeons dans le pavillon Tanglewood qui donne, avec deux autres pavillons avoisinants et de taille semblable – le Sherwood et le Bridgewood – directement sur le lac. Chacun de ces pavillons doit bien loger 8 à 12 chambres à coucher, qui donnent sur un corridor et accès à une salle commune au centre du chalet dotée d’un grand foyer fait de pierres (c’est là que je me réfugie, aux heures creuses de la nuit, pour écrire et lire…).

Le lac – Little Joe Lake – est hachuré : de taille plutôt modeste, il s‘élargit en face du Lodge, puis il s’étend, plus rétréci, vers le sud, pour donner sur un plus grand lac – le Joe Lake - que l’on accède en canot… C’est tout un réseau de lacs – il doit bien en avoir quelques milliers (2,456 selon des sources officielles!) – et de cours d’eau qui parsèment l’étendu du parc.

Le jour commence à faire surface; le ciel s’éclaircit – il est à peine 6h30 du matin. La brume se disperse sur le lac encore très calme… On va déjeuner bientôt, mais pas avant d’avoir pris une bonne marche! Je pense même à prendre une nage dans le lac en face – l’eau y est plutôt froide – mais j’hésite à cause d’un rhume qui m’a accablé tout au cours des 10 derniers jours et dont il reste encore des traces…je vais réveiller Cynthia…


Arowhon Pines, le 7 octobre 2011

Business in Miami Beach

A week here, for working meetings of Societies'reps to deal with issues related to Information Technology - common network and tools without which we would have to rely on archaic methods to identify foreign repertoires in each other's jurisdiction. Miami, because it's central - well, as central as it can get when you have people coming from Europe, South America, Asia and US/Canada! And it is also affordable...

Staying at the Soho Beach House, on Collins Avenue, a boutique hotel that operates like a club, part of the British Soho House group - other hotels in London, Berlin, New York and a few other places in the US, I believe. Room (#17) rather cosy (read small - great shower though!) but a large librairy space on the 8th floor, overlooking the beach, where I spent most of my working time at the hotel (wireless everywhere).

Great food on the premises, at Cicconi's - reminiscent of the eponymous restaurant in London - where I had all my breakfasts and a few luncheons. (Funny, one night, great party, it's their first anniversary in Miami - the place is packed, literally, with "the young and hip, rich and beatiful"! Conversation with, among others, a real estate agent who is ready to sell me some condo that gives on the beach - not ready to buy! Music by the pool, food and booze - until 4am! I could hear the noise from my room - not the only one, apparently, but did not bother me...

Meals with selected colleagues, here and there: Michael's Genuine Food & Drink, Rosinella, Morton Steakhouse (twice - à mon corps défendant!), Mr. Chow (Chinese, at the W Hotel), Hakkasan (more Chinese, at the neighboring mammoth Fontainebleau Hotel, etc...

Meetings held at the Eden Roc Hotel, nearby - huge structure, very nice but for tour groups!

Took half an hour on the beach during the week!

And runs along the Boardwalk (about 2km from one end to the other) in the morning - a wood structure that runs along the beach - you wonder sometimes if the girls that run there are in "for the show" or for the exercise...

Weather not great - warm (much warmer for sure than Toronto at this time!) but overcast all week, with a storm and heavy rain to cap it all on the last day!

Miami Beach, September 30,2011