Pre Christmas Yurt Trip – Part 2

We woke up Sunday morning to a lovely winter scene thanks to the little bit of fresh snow that had fallen overnight. The snow was a fantastic sight because the plan was to go hike some of the trails Algonquin has to offer in the winter. Unfortunately, a couple of our favourites were closed due to bad conditions, but it worked out because that forced us to head to an awesome trail we had never hiked before! If you missed part 1, you can click here to read about our trip so far.

We weren’t in a huge rush, so I was able to walk the campground to enjoy the fresh air and take a few pictures of the sun rising over the airfield. Once back at the yurt, we got our kettle boiling to have our usual meal of oatmeal and hot drinks. It’s a great way to start our mornings while winter camping.

With our bellies full, we headed out for a hike on the Spruce Bog trail. When we did this hike last year, we noticed some of the other hikers were feeding the birds and getting them to land on their hands. We didn’t have any bird seed, but they were kind enough to give us some, and we ended up spending quite some time with the birds. So this year, I remembered to bring along some of our own bird seed so we didn’t miss out. Hayden always enjoys having the birds land on his hands and it’s so great to hear him laugh and talk about how light they are and how their claws feel on his hands.

These chickadees are so fast that it is really difficult to capture them on camera. Luckily the one in the photo below stood long enough on my hand to get a picture.

After hiking the trail we headed to the visitor center to check out the winter views from their back patio, and to give Hayden a chance to log our sightings of the turkeys and pine marten from the previous day on the wildlife sightings board. He was pretty excited to finally have an opportunity to write on the board.

By then we were getting close to lunch, so we headed back to our yurt for a break. We find that camping during the winter demands many intervals of inside to outside time to keep all of us going, but mostly it’s to give Hayden a break and to warm up (and dry off) between our activities. While prepping lunch, we were visited by blue jays and a couple of pine martens. The pine martens were running all over the yurt patio, but they were fast so it was difficult to get pictures.

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With bellies full again, we headed back out for more hiking at the Lake of Two Rivers trail. We had never been on this trail before, and it was literally across the road from our campground, so it was an easy choice. Although we were hoping to do some snowshoeing, we left them in the car again for this trail and headed out on foot because it was so well packed.

Even though it was clear that this was a very popular hike, we were lucky to once again find ourselves alone on the trail. If you love peace and quiet on the trails, then winter hiking is when you can find it. As we meandered through the trees and up the hill, we eventually came to the spot where the ground drops to the river below. It was so quiet that the running water could be heard from the top of the cliff. My boys enjoyed a few minutes of quiet as they sat and listened to the water below – and ate snacks.

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After all this hiking, we needed some down time which meant Hayden watched some shows on Netflix, Dan and I played some cards, and we all enjoyed some snacks and hot drinks. Once we were rested, we headed back out to go skating on the rink. I decided not to go skating as my feet just don’t like my skates anymore, so I hung around the warming tent and campfire roasting marshmallows for the boys. The marshmallows and roasting sticks are provided by the park staff along with all the wood needed to keep the fire going all day and night. This is a perk about camping here in the winter – if you get cold from being outside, you can warm yourself by the fire and inside the hot tent at any time.

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It’s like they say – time flies when you’re having fun – and before we knew it, it was supper time. We made our world famous pizzas and cooked them on the campfire by the yurt. When renting a yurt it is beneficial to know how to cook over a fire as you won’t have to depend on getting a camp stove going in the colder air – although you’ll want to have some dry wood as you can’t always depend on park wood to burn! Also, having such a nice fire does keep you warm while waiting for you food to cook. Let’s just say that I was not cold at all while waiting for these to be done.

While cleaning up after our great supper, where I received compliments again on how good it was, Dan used a new folding bucket that was in one of our last Explore gear boxes for washing the dishes. We have been receiving these boxes for two years and have enjoyed all the gear inside, but we decided to cancel our subscription since they are pretty expensive. We might not write about each item we get, but almost all of them, like the bucket, have been added to our collection and gets use.

We had one final activity left to our day – going back to the rink to skate some more under the night sky. Another family (The Camping Family) had also arrived that day and we got a chance to meet up and chat by the fire. They were in their hot tents and planning to stay all week until after New Year’s. We’ve been enjoying the yurts but the more I chat with people about hot tents the more I want one! I think we will have to get one by next winter (wink, wink, hubby…..)! Hayden skated into the night as we chatted by the fire and eventually we all headed back to the yurt. We spent the last few hours before bed playing cards, celebrating Tibb’s Eve and loving our winter adventure.

The next morning, which was Christmas Eve, we packed our things and said goodbye to Algonquin. It was time to go home and spend Christmas in our own house. As I have said before, we shall return – and maybe even spend Christmas in Algonquin.

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