To some it sounded like roughing it, but to KITTY HOLLANDit was the ultimate in romantic get-away-from-it-all holidays, made all the more enjoyable by the high standard of accommodation. Just don't tell the folks at home . . .
THINK OF a staying in a log cabin in the Canadian wilderness and you may think: no hot water, outside loos and foraging for food to cook over the campfire.
Well, let the folks back home think you’re slumming it and come instead to Algonquin National Park – one of the most breathtakingly beautiful parts of the world. Travel two hours’ drive north of Toronto, and keep very quiet about the fact you’re stay in a small but perfectly formed “resort” on the shores of a sparkling lake, where the food is five-star and your log cabin is equipped with central heating, a fridge in which to keep the wine chilled and is cleaned every morning.
Bartlett Lodge is the oldest, and smallest, resort in Algonquin, which is itself the oldest provincial park in Canada.
The park is 7,653sq km in size and all its 2,400 lakes, 1,200km of rivers and streams, and natural habitats are protected. Though its resident population is minimal, its proximity to both Toronto and Ottawa, as well as its beauty, make it popular with campers, anglers (hunting is prohibited), nature enthusiasts, birdwatchers, sailors, canoeists, hikers and those in search of a place to sip their GTs by the lake, in a perfect idyll – which brings us back to Bartlett Lodge.
Named after George Bartlett, the park superintendent of Algonquin from 1903 to 1923, this charming resort began life in 1917 as a collection of small lakeshore cabins and tents to serve as overflow accommodation from the now-closed Highland Inn hotel. The inn was on the mainland and what adds to the lure of Bartlett Lodge is the fact it is on an island reached by a five-minute water taxi ride from the shores of Cache Lake.
While one is not paddling one’s own canoe across the lake, there is something magical about bobbing over the water in a little speedboat with one’s weekend bags and wine coolers towards the wooden landing on the other side. A phone line from the shore, direct to the lodge reception, will see the water taxi dispatched to collect guests within 10 minutes. It’s provided by the resort and runs between 8am and 10pm.
It’s an easy stroll from the landing to the main front desk to check in, while bags and other accoutrements are brought straight to your cabin. The log cabins and tents of 90-odd years ago have been all but completely replaced.
The original cabin on the site, the Diel Ma Care, is still standing – though it has been refurbished. It is said to have been built in the early 1900s before the resort opened, by a Dr William Bell from Ottawa, who brought patients with TB and other respiratory problems to the clean air of Algonquin.
In all, there are just 12 cabins, with names such as West Wind, Silver Birches and Northern River, each set apart amid the spruce, hemlock, polar and maple trees of the forest, and vary in size from one to three bedrooms.
Northern Lake cabin has two-bedrooms, with a king-size bed in one and two singles in the second. A well-equipped bathroom which includes a powerful, hot shower – a must after a swim in the lake – sits snugly next to a small, indoor living room, and off this is a screened porch area which looks out over the lake. Tea and coffee making facilities are provided, as is a small bar fridge.
The cabins are not spacious. They are cosy and well-appointed, but given that this is a place to spend as much time as possible outdoors or on the porch, space is not really an issue.
Each cabin has a pathway down to its own decked area on the lake shore, a paddle boat and a canoe. The swimming is wonderful as the water is remarkably warm. There are a number of diving platforms out on the lake and “beach towels” are available from reception.
For half the price of the cabins, there are two tents, which for couples are, to this writer’s mind, the end word in romantic. Not so much tents as luxurious, cosy, hideaway rooms under canvas, they are fully furnished with king-sized bed, a seating area and a small deck outside. The one nearer the lake is the one any starry-eyed couple should request, as its deck faces the shore.
On a moonlit night, far away from your worries, sitting out on the deck with the one you adore, listening to the loons call plaintively from the water, one could not but concede that this is, indeed, a special place and moment you are sharing.
The tents do not have electricity or toilets but do have soft-glowing battery-operated lamps, towels, warm bedding and an individual bathroom, just adjacent. There are no televisions or telephones in the cabins or tents, in deference to the peace and quiet, though a pay phone is available in the reception and mobile phones receive intermittent signals.
BARTLETT PRIDES itself on its green credentials and in 2009 won the Ontario Tourism Partnership’s award for sustainable tourism. One of its cabins, Sunrise, is powered totally by solar panels on the roof, while earlier this year a 10-kilowatt solar electric system was installed at the resort, amid plans to generate 50 per cent of the power consumed on site. The electricity not generated on site is bought from Bullfrog Power, Ontario’s only green electricity provider.
One of the things the Bartlett Lodge is famed for, and for which people get the water taxi over for alone, is its food. Dinner and breakfast are included in the price of your room, though dinner on its own is available. It’s a set price of CAN$59 (€42) for five courses that will include an amuse bouche, a soup and such starters as pan-fried prawns with parmesan crisps on a baby spinach and snow-pea salad with a lime and coriander aioli.
A typical main course is pan-seared lake trout, baby bok choi, yellow zucchini, red peppers, fingerling potato, red beet and a lemon-grass hollandaise. If not too full you might finish with a chocolate-chilli crème brulee with almond biscotti. Don’t forget to tip 15 per cent.
The lodge does not have a liquor licence, but you can bring your own wine – and the Canadian wines from the Niagra region are wonderful, particularly if you are fond of cool climate grapes such as Reisling, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris or Baco Noir, Gamay Noir and Sauvignon.
Sadly, Ontario wineries such as Henry of Pelham, Flat Rock Cellars and Tawse, do not produce enough wine for export to Europe, so it is quaffed mainly by Canadians. Bartlett Lodge will open the wine for you at no charge.
Breakfast too is good, with a buffet of pastries, fruit, cereal, and juice, and a hot menu of blueberry pancakes, eggs benedict or variations on the traditional fried breakfast.
They do not serve lunch but will provide a packed one for about CAD$15 (€10). Lunch can be bought, however, at little cafes and coffee shops around the park, once you leave Bartlett to go hiking or canoeing.
For those with children, the guided trails are great days out. One to recommend is Beaver Pond Trail, which is not too difficult, lasting about an hour, and takes you through a complete beaver habitat. Explanatory leaflets can be picked up and numbered posts on the trail tell you where to stop and about how beavers cut trees, create dams and lodges which provide rich food-supplies of aquatic plants not only for themselves but also for ducks, herons, turtles, frogs and dragonflies.
The time to visit Algonquin is the autumn, when the scenery is at its most magnificent, as the foliage of the hundreds of native tree species, such as aspens, maple, tamaraks and red oaks, turns to brilliant and astonishing myriads of red, gold, russet, amber and orange. So beautiful is the scenery at this time of year that Ontario Tourism has an annual “Fall Foliage Watch” and books have been written on where are the best places to see the Algonquin fall at its finest.
Log cabin living – to some it sounds like sleeping rough. To others, romantic and an utter getaway from it all. You know which category we fall into.
- Bartlett Lodge, Algonquin Park, PO Box 10004, Hunstville, Ontario, 00-1-705-633-5543, bartlettlodge.com. Open mid-May to end of October. Cabins from CAN$167 (€118) to CAN$238 (€170) per person per night, including dinner and breakfast. Tents cost CAN$80 (€57) to CAN$185 (€130) per person per night.
Get there
Aer Lingus (aerlingus.com) flies to Toronto, via Chicago, with United Airlines (it’s from €269 each way, November to March with a Christmas exclusion period, but book by September 9th). Air Transat (airtransat.com) flies to Toronto from Dublin and Shannon (April to October). Air Canada (aircanada.com) flies Dublin-Toronto till mid- September. From Toronto take Highway ON 400 north for 85km, then ON 11 north towards Ottawa for 25km before turning onto the ON60 towards Huntsville, the last town before Algonquin Provincial Park.
Algonquin where to . . .
Camp
There are more than 1,300 campsites in 11 designated camping grounds, most with washrooms, electricity supplies and barbecue facilities.
Canoe
One of the best things to do in Algonquin is the canoe and interior camping experience. Just turn up at one of the park’s rental outfitters and head out into the wilderness an hour later with a lightweight canoe and full camping kit. Provisions for two for several days are easy to carry.
Hike
There are numerous trails to explore around Bartlett Lodge, ranging from an hour long to about six hours, with guiding leaflets available at the start of each. The Mizzy Lake trail, for instance, is 11km long and visits nine ponds and small lakes, affording the hiker some of the best opportunities to see wildlife.
Tour
Algonquin Outfitters (00-1-613-637-2075. algonquinoutfitters.com) provides guided tours through the summer season, including one-day canoe and wildlife-viewing trips, from about CAN$50 (€35) to CAN$100 (€70).
Cycle
Bikes can be hired throughout the park and two trails worth investigating are the Minnesing Mountain Bike Trail, with varying distances of up to 25km, or the Old Railway Bike Trail, which takes riders around the historic Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway built in 1895.
Fish
Fishing is allowed to holders of valid Ontario fishing licences, with a daily or seasonal
permit available from the Ministry of Natural Resources. Algonquin has a reputation for some of the best trout fishing in Canada. Spring is the best season for trout, while summer is best for smallmouth bass.
Visit
The Algonquin Logging Museum, which is just inside the gate of the park from the Hunstville Road, looks at the story of logging from the early square timber days to the last
of the great river drives. It takes in a 1.3 km trail where some of the equipment and machinery used can be viewed.
Wildlife
The park organises “wolf howls” on Thursday evenings in August and September, where people are taken to an area in the park and informed about the habitat of wolves. Park staff will “call” to the wolves and usually get a response. Fun for kids and adults alike.
What to wear
Strong comfortable shoes, clothes tailored to the season – hot days up to 30 degrees in the summer to quite cool in the spring and autumn.