Again Seeking Moose
Sunday 25 June 2006, 10:28 pm
Sunday, June 25
This morning we visited
Thornhill Vineyard Church
on the north side of Toronto.
This was a very friendly church. They introduced us to all and they
clapped for us ... and for other newcomers also. We talked to the
Pastor, Dale, and also to another gentleman, Jim. We felt at home
here even though we didn't know many of their worship songs. They
did give us good advice on what to visit ... particularly their
suggestion to visit
Algonquin Provincial Park if we wanted to
see moose.
After church, we headed the three hours north to
Algonquin Provincial Park.
The park is quite large, but most of it is accessible only via
canoe or hiking. There is one road along the southern edge of the
park. The road is about 55 km long (about 35-40 miles) from the
west gate to the east gate. We got there around 5:00 pm and we
figured that might be a good time to see moose. At the visitor
center we were told that moose are seen here every day, but there
were no posted sightings yet for that day. We drove through the
park slowly, scanning every marshy area for the elusive animals.
We took about 1 hour 15 mintues to traverse the park, but no luck.
At the east gate visitor center we inquired again. We were told
that there had been a sighting only about 15 km back earlier that
day. We were also told that the opportunity is better nearest
dusk. We decided to nap for an hour and head out around 7:30.
Sure enough, at the 40 km marker we found a "wildlife jam"
(a traffic jam caused by cars stopping to see wildlife).
There was a mama moose and one cub. They were in a marshy area
behind some trees. The mama was dark in color, while the cub
was more a "caramel" color (as Mary the color expert described it).
We were so glad God answered our prayers to see a moose. We did
take some pictures but the focus wasn't working right so the pics
are probably not the best.
We drove farther north to North Bay for the night. The bugs were
out like an Egyptian plague and when we got to North Bay we almost
couldn't see out the windshield.
(Next morning, we almost couldn't see the white truck or its
chrome underneath the dense blanket of bugs.)
