Karen and I love Achray, this will be our third visit. In fact we love it so much we brought my sister and her Family for a “Canadian” camping experience here several years ago. This is one of the lower profile campgrounds in Algonquin, miles from the crowded Highway 60 corridor, that tend to be popular with the Toronto crowd. Closer to Petawawa and Ottawa, this campsite is the jump off to a whole series of paddles, trails and amazing locations. Of special note, Tom Thompson painted his famous ‘Jackpine’ painting here.

Our plans had been ambitious…we were going to use our campsite at Achray as a base camp for some excursions, but as my past employment taught me…”No plan survives first contact” and on this particular mission the enemy was bugs! we have never in all our years of camping experienced such a ferocious onslaught of winged devils, no amount of DEET seemed to work. One by one our plans were defeated by small flying insect of the family Culicidae.

Being retired now, and that it was during the week leading up to Canada day, we had the campground mostly to ourselves. We were on site 10 with its own small beach great for launching the canoe and kayak. Of note most of the sites here are located on the North West of the campground and most do not allow dogs (unthinkable)

One trip we had hoped to do, was a visit to High falls, the ones located at end of Stratton Lake. There are three ways of getting there, two trails or paddle. We had paddled this route previously with my sisters family, so were looking forward to a 10 Km hike. The trail head was swarming with bugs, so we opted for an activity more in keeping with retirement (we sat in the comfort of our screen tent and enjoyed some refreshments) The following two pictures were taken during the trip with my sister a few years back.

We were also planning on an overnight trip canoeing the Barron canyon (the last time we did this it was torrential rain and freezing cold) This plan was compromised down to hiking the Barron Canyon trail.

We will return another year (probably in August) and spend a few days paddling this route.

Despite canceling some of our planned activities, we had a great stay at Achray, the weather behaved itself with only rain one night, the wind however seems to howl most of every day, While out kayaking it made for a workout paddling into the wind. During one trip I noticed that the weather was sunny behind me, while storm clouds brewed in front.

One advantage to “car camping” is that you can bring more supplies, without the worry of having to overload your canoe. One key area this was noticeable was in our food. Even experimented with a great Jamie Oliver Carbonara recipe. Karen announced that the experiment was a success!

Just before supper we heard a float plane flying overhead, and then land in front of our site. Shortly later it took off again, canoe strapped to its float. Someone was off on a dream trip to some inaccessible lake. Karen and I both have this on our bucket list, hopefully in a few years up in Wabakimi Provincial park.

It seems that the wind is constant here in Achray, but occasionally late in the evening it simmers down enough to give you beautiful calm conditions for sunset pictures.

Next day, we lost the sun and it seemed like we might be in for a storm, despite that we decided to try and get to Spectacle lake. Grand Lake is a beautiful lake for exploring, including the apparent site of some ancient native pictographs??

In order to get to Lower Spectacle Lake, you must endure three short portages, after the first two we decided that the spectacularly magnificent thundering high falls were too impressive to risk being overshadowed by Spectacle lake (or we were once again tired of the mosquito onslaught) so we decided to head back.

Achray is probably best loved by families for its beautiful beaches, scattered throughout the campground. It was early summer this trip, so water was still a little cold for us delicate types, we did go in a few times (mostly as a precaution against spousal eviction from the tent – There are after all No shower facilities at this campground)

Unfortunately our six days came to an end, and it was time to head home, we will spend Canada Day “Not camping” but will be heading off to North Frontenac parklands next week. Both Karen and I will return, this is one of our favourite places, a true hidden gem of a campground.

As mentioned at the start of my ramblings, this was the location where Tom Thomson painted the Jack Pine. Widely recognized as a masterpiece of Canadian art, The Jack Pine conveys the spirit of the northern Ontario landscape.