5 minute read
Parkbus to Algonquin Park
Car-free camping beckons in Algonquin Park
NEW BUS SERVICE GETS A TRYOUT
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BY KATHLEEN WILKER
For any fan of public transportation, it was good news that the Toronto-Algonquin Park “Parkbus” service that started in 2010 expanded into Ottawa this summer and fall with three pilot weekends.
When booking my seat for August 9-11, I asked if I could bring my bike. Turns out, yes, if you book early. So I biked from my house to the bus stop at Mountain Equipment Co-op on Richmond Road with everything I needed for a weekend of camping. The other Ottawa stop is at the Rideau Centre. Parkbus is a project of Transportation Options, a non-profit group dedicated to sustainable transportation and tourism. It works in partnership with Hammond Transportation (the bus company) with money from Ontario’s Ministry of Tourism and a Trillium grant.
I was travelling light – very – to find out whether someone very new to camping could take the bus and find enough infrastructure in the park for a happy weekend. So, no stove, no-cook meals and instant coffee with hot water from the bathroom.
After the ride from the city, the bus stops at several campsites, canoe outfitters and backpacking trails in Algonquin Park where park staff and local outfitters have developed services aimed directly at carless campers, hikers and paddlers.
Anti-bear lockers (they look like oversize mailboxes), are available with a $25 deposit and $5 per day for safe food storage in the absence of a lockable car trunk. I have bear barrels of various sizes for my back-country canoe trips, so I bungee-corded a small one to my bike’s back rack to store food and toiletries in the woods.
At least two canoe outfitters (portagestore.com and opeongooutfitters.com) will
deliver canoes or kayaks to your campsite or put-in and pick them up when you’re finished. Paddles and lifejackets are included in the fee.
The Lake of Two Rivers general store (fresh produce, dry goods, famous ice cream parlour), rents bikes by the hour or day for adults and children. On this trip, some Parkbus passengers rented a trailer to haul their equipment to their campsite.
MEC offers 50 per cent discounts on gear rental for Parkbus passengers who are new campers. All these services are designed to attract new campers to the Park, car-owners or not. Parkbus is also looking for volunteer ambassadors to help passengers, answer questions and make sure everyone gets on board in time. Volunteers travel for free but arrange their own accommodation in the park.
With my own wheels, I discovered lots to do within a five-kilometre radius of my Kearney Lake campsite. You can get on the Rail Trail – 16 kilometres through an enormous field of blueberries, along lake shores and through forests – at Pog Lake Campground, just across Highway 60 from Kearney Lake.
After setting up on an airy campsite lightly shaded by towering red pines, I set off to see where the Rail Trail would take me. Well-signed, it leads to a canoe launch at Rock Lake in one direction and Lake of Two
Rivers and beyond in the other.
While riding towards Lake of Two Rivers, where I was planning to stop in for a (real) coffee at the store the next morning, I noticed lots of blueberry-rich bear poop. I saw no bears, but decided to make coffee at my campsite instead of chancing an early morning encounter. The Rail Trail far exceeded my expectations. More than just a way to avoid biking on Highway 60, it was scenic, interesting and full of friendly cyclists.
Historic plaques along the route told of the loggers and then vacationers who took the historic Ottawa, Arnprior, and Parry Sound Railway (1896 to 1959) when it ran through the park. A more recent plaque described the prescribed burn on the blueberry patch last summer to maintain the area as the open field it used to be back when it served as an airfield. Blueberries for bears was another reason for the burn.
The next day I biked along Highway 60 towards the Visitor’s Centre. With a generous shoulder and light traffic, this was an easy ride. The only drawbacks here are some of the recreational vehicles, pick-up trucks towing boats, or more gargantuan camper vans. I’m comfortable riding with traffic, but always on the lookout for roads where my children (aged 7 and 10) can ride.
Appealing to visitors of all degrees of ruggedness, the Visitor’s Centre offers free Wifi as well as a café and displays sharing the natural and human history of the Park.
From the Visitor’s Centre, I biked back towards my campsite, stopping at each of the three short hikes along the way – Spruce Bog Boardwalk, Big Pines Trail and Lookout Trail. They lead hikers through very different landscapes, so I picked up trail guides at the start of each and learned how a bog is formed, why loggers in Algonquin Park weren’t interested in these big white pines (leaning over, so no good for masts, or too small), and how cliffs erode.
On the last day of my adventure, I had planned to check out the Minnesing Mountain Bike trails. Just 10 kilometres from Kearney Lake, they seemed an obvious choice, but the day was warm and sunny and the Rail Trail too delightful, so I rode it instead to Rock Lake. A nearby boat launch with a long dock was the destination of some canoe trippers paddling to shore to unload their gear, as I sat on the sunny dock reading
my book. They told me about the outfitter’s deal to drop off and pick up a canoe at the putin.
Then I biked back to my campsite, packed up my tent, and set off for the bus stop. The driver had kindly saved me an entire luggage compartment for my panniers, barrel and bike. With service like this, I may never drive to Algonquin Park again!
Riding home, I thought about an Ottawa-Gatineau Park Skibus service with stops at in-park parking lots. Dream on.
READY TO HOP ON PARKBUS? • Parkbus.ca or 800-928-7101 • Adult round trip: $83.98 (discounts for students, seniors and children) • Next Parkbus weekend is scheduled for Friday Sept. 20–22.
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