All good things must end

All good things must end

DAY 10

Isn’t that what they say; “all good things must end”?  I don’t know why. But, I do realize that this stay in Algonquin Park is nearing an end. 

It’s day 10 and I am looking forward to getting home and seeing my wife, but I’m not looking forward to leaving the park. I love it here. 

Today my nephew Justin is joining us at our campsite. He’ll be staying with Larry, and next weekend the rest of Larry’s family will be here for Thanksgiving. It has become their family tradition to celebrate Thanksgiving in Algonquin Park. They have been doing it for as long as I can remember. 

With Justin arriving sometime today I decide to make myself scarce after Larry returns from his walk, so father and son can have alone time. 

I’m still thinking a lot of what I have seen in the Thomson paintings at the art gallery and feel my photography has been improving the longer I have been here in the park. While Larry is walking Spruce Bog I get my camera out, put it on a tripod, and take a very simple photograph of a tree trunk and bush. It speaks to me and I like the feel of the image. 

tree trunk and bush
Just a bush and tree trunk on the edge of our campsite. I’m seeing beauty in the simplest things.

 

When Larry gets back I decide to go for a drive along highway 60 looking for photo-ops. Some of the images I capture today are my favorites of the entire week and a half that I have been here. 

Back at the Art Gallery there is a lake next to the parking lot and I’m seeing it in a different way for the first time. I love the detail in the foreground tree trunk.

 

White Birch
The white birch stands out so predominantly against the green of the pines.

 

 

Looking out over Brewers Lake

 

Rocks, shoreline, and fall colours
I was looking for unusual angles to capture the beauty. I love the detail in the foreground rocks in this image and the way everything just leads my eye to the distance.

 

That night we sat around the campfire and enjoyed some really good belly laughs. 

I let the others know that I would be leaving for home in the morning. I already had most of my stuff in the SUV.

DAY 11

I rose fairly early and packed the rest of my gear away in the SUV and then insured the kayak was properly positioned and tied down for the drive home. After a quick breakfast and making a coffee for the road I set out for Cambridge. 

As much as I knew it was time to go home I couldn’t leave the park without stopping to capture a couple of images before leaving. 

Back in 2016, I had made my first trip to Algonquin with Larry, and the first day we were there it was drizzling rain. We stopped here hoping to see a moose, but there being no moose I spent time photographing the swamp and the fall colours. Today there wasn’t the fall colour but there was beauty in the warm tones of the grasses and wood.

 

The water from the above picture flows under Hwy 60 and enters another lake on the other side of the road.

 

Reeds and water
As I said, I’m starting to see beauty in simpler things.

 

One last stop at the Tea Lake dam. This image was just a short walk downstream from the dam.

 

As I walked away from taking this image I turned for one last look. That was the image, but the lighting was going to be a challenge. 

I sat down on the ground and the angle of view was even better, thought about my exposure and how big I wanted to make the image. Having made my decisions, I set the camera. 

Oxtongue River below Tea Lake dam

Was this the definitive image of the whole trip? You tell me. 

Since getting back I read someplace that Algonquin Park is the transition from southern to northern Ontario. That statement makes me want to explore even further north, but at 70 years of age, I doubt that will happen as there is still so much of the park I want to explore and photograph. 

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