FINAL EXAM: READING

Image: Algonquin Park, Canada

Algonquin Park Adventure
by Alastair Humphreys

Toronto, Ontario is an exciting city. People from all over the world call it home. It has a great transportation system and wonderful restaurants. But in my opinion, the best thing about Toronto is that it is only a short trip from there to Algonquin Provincial Park. That makes it the perfect place for a microadventure.

Along with a friend, I drove north from Toronto to Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada's oldest provincial park. It contains over 7,000 km² of wilderness, 2,000 lakes, and a large number of rivers. Usually I plan my trips alone, but this time we had a guide for a three-day tour of the park.

Autumn is the perfect time to visit the park. I've experienced autumn before, in the UK and elsewhere, but the colors in Ontario are amazing. I would have been happy spending all our time looking at trees.

However, we had plans to be more active. We enjoyed hiking and biking on the trails. One day we went fishing for Canada's famous lake trout, which were bigger than any trout I had ever seen. We didn't catch any, but our guide had brought along a trout that he had caught earlier, and he cooked it for us. It was the best fish dinner I've ever had.

Image: Trout (Canadian Encyclopedia)

On our last day in the park, we rowed across a lake and camped on the rocky shore. We cooked a meal over a campfire. Afterwards, we listened to the sound of owls calling in the darkness and looked at the stars overhead. It was the perfect ending for a microadventure—only three and a half hours away from Toronto.