The fourth day of our trip, like the previous days, started at 07:00. We got ready, packed up and had a quick breakfast at the hotel, before getting into the car and being on the road at 08:00. There were a number of members of the military staying at the hotel; we saw them eating breakfast in the lobby as we ate as well. Patrick was the behind the wheel as we left Petawawa and began the drive along Highway 26 to Highway 58 on the way towards Algonquin Park.
The roads were pretty quiet and the sun was out as we started the drive, however we encountered stretches of highway that were covered in thick fog as we got closer to the park. We were hopeful that the sun would burn the fog off before we arrived at the park, however as we drove into Whitney there was still fog covering the road. It took us just over an hour and a half to reach Whitney from Petawawa, and from Whitney it was just a short drive to reach the park.
As we pulled up to the eastern park gate the fog was gone and the sun was out. There was very little traffic as we drove past the park gate and into the park. We had purchased our park pass online the night before, and had printed it out in the hotel business centre, so we did not need to stop at the gate. Our first stop was at the Algonquin Logging Museum, where we stopped to stretch our legs. There was a small interpretive centre that had some informative displays describing the history of logging in the park, and outside of the museum were a number of log structures that would have been found at a typical logging camp in the park. We walked through a few of these low-roofed structures but chose not to do the full walk. We returned to the car and continued on into the park.
We were only on the road for a couple of minutes before we came upon a beautiful view across Brewster Lake, and we decided it was worth a stop to get a longer look at the viewpoint. The sky was beautifully clear and the surface of the lake was so calm it looked almost like a mirror. We took some photos, enjoyed the beauty of the moment, and then got back into the car and continued on to the Visitor Centre.
It was only a few more minutes of driving before we reached the Visitor Centre. The stop here was brief; we gazed out over the park from a deck behind the Visitor Centre, and visited the gift shop where Patrick picked up his daughter a small moose plushie. After leaving the Visitor Centre we headed towards the parking lot for our first hike of the day at Rock Lake.
The first hike of the day was at Booth’s Rock. Reaching it required driving down a side road from Highway 60 to the Raccoon Lake campground, continuing along an unpaved stretch of road to reach the Rock Lake campground, and then passing through the Rock Lake campground to reach the Booth’s Rock parking lot. We were lucky to find a free parking spot near the trail head, otherwise it would have been a bit of a trek from the campground parking area just to reach the trail. After parking we set off on the Booth’s Rock trail - a 5.1 km loop that started out by taking us past a few small lakes. Shortly after we passed the second lake the trail became quite rugged and required walking up a fairly steep incline that had both roots and rocks as obstacles. At the top of the hill was a cliff-side lookout over Whitefish Lake. The lack of railings was a common theme this trip - there was nothing separating us from the edge of a pretty steep drop when we reached the lookout. We took some photos with the landscape in the background, being careful not to get too close to the edge. After the lookout was a long wooden staircase that took us back down the hill. At the base of the hill were the remains of an old rail line that used to served a dock that extended out from a small peninsula; the old rail line formed the base of the return trail along the side of the lake.
After completing the Booth’s Rock hike, we got back into the car and drove back up the access road towards the highway. As we left the parking lot we encountered a backlog of a half dozen cars waiting for parking spots to become available on the access road - it seems that we made a good choice by arriving to the Booth’s Rock parking lot early on in the day. Once the access road ended at Highway 60 we drove straight across into the parking lot for our second hike, the Big Pines trail. This second trail was described as visiting an old logging camp, and would be a roughly 3 km loop. It was lunchtime, so before setting off we made ourselves sandwiches with the groceries we had picked up at Shoppers the previous evening. We ate lunch while standing at the trunk of the car; it was quite hot out, and there was no protection from the sun in the parking lot, so we ate quickly. Once we finished lunch I reapplied the sunscreen and we headed off on the Big Pines trail. This hike had less elevation gain than Booth’s Rock, but there were still some fairly rugged trails to navigate.
It didn’t take us much more than an hour to complete the Big Pines trail. We somehow missed the logging camp that was supposed to be along the trail, but we did get to see several incredibly tall trees that had not been logged and towered over the forest. There was a particularly peaceful meadow at the end of the trail that was nice to take a few moments to enjoy. After we made our way back to the parking lot we once again got into the car and drove west through the park. It took us about 20 minutes to reach the next trail, at Peck Lake. The trail at Peck Lake was a short, 2 km loop that followed the perimeter of the lake, and after finding one of the last available parking spots we set out on the trail. The Peck Lake trail was definitely the easiest hike we had done thus far, but it had some beautiful views out over the lake and some neat marshes as well. We saw a couple of fishermen early on, however they were the only people we saw on the trail that weren’t hiking. It was probably the busiest of the trails, too.
After finishing the loop around Peck Lake we got into the car and drove to the last hike we would do in the park - a walk along the Hardwood Lookout trail. This trail was a loop about 1 km in length, and it had a lookout over Smoke Lake towards the end. As we were starting our walk, we received a tip from another group that was just finishing the trail that it wasn’t worth doing the whole loop, and it would be better to go right to the lookout. We decided to follow either advice, so we skipped most of this trail and took a shortcut up to the lookout. The lookout itself was fine, but I think we had seen better views earlier in the day on the Booth’s Rock hike. We took a few photos and then returned to the car.
After leaving the Hardwood Lookout parking lot we drove on to the West Gate of the park. We made a quick stop at the gate to visit the washrooms, then we left the park shortly before 16:00. We followed Highway 60 until it reached Huntsville, the location of our next planned Supercharge. Almost all of the charging points were in use, but we were able to find a free one and got the car charging without a wait. We had decided that we were going to be heading back home at this point, since there were no available places to stay, and so we chose to charge the car as much as we could at this stop. It took about 30 minutes for the car to reach a comfortable level of charge, and once we were happy with the range I got behind the wheel and took us to Highway 11 where we began the drive back towards Toronto.
There was a bit of traffic as we drove south towards Gravenhurst, and the traffic got heavier once we passed Barrie and got onto the 400, however it was nothing unmanageable and there were no major slowdowns on the route. I had done this drive several years prior while attending a conference in the Muskokas for work, and I was reminded of that trip as I drove back. We made good time, and reached Toronto shortly before 19:00. As we drove down the 400 Patrick was exploring options for dinner, and we ultimately settled on the Kinton Ramen in North York. It was only a short detour from the 400/401 intersection, and it wasn’t very difficult to find space to park on the side of Yonge St. We did not have a reservation, but thankfully they had space on their back patio and we were able to order quickly. After a few days of mostly heavy food it was nice to have a meal that was a bit lighter but no less delicious. We shared a starter and then I had a tasty pork ramen bowl as the entree. We left shortly before 20:00, but the meal was not rushed at all.
After getting back on the 401 we drove for about 30 minutes until we reached a supercharger in Mississauga. We decided to fill the car up before continuing on, as it would make it easier for Patrick to return the car the next day. The supercharger location in Mississauga was only half full, and it was here where I was able to see one interesting nuance to the supercharger in action. Each pair of charging points is fed by the same transformer, and the capacity of a typical transformer is less than 2 cars can handle. Therefore, it is advantageous to charge at every other charging point when there is space to ensure the fastest fill-up possible. We had a charging point to ourselves for the first few minutes, however shortly after we started charging another car arrived and took the charging point shared by our transformer. This cut our charging speed by almost 50%. We ultimately chose to relocate to another charging point that was entirely unused, allowing us to speed the charge up. We spent a total of 30 minutes here before the car was suitable charged. Patrick was behind the wheel for the last leg of the trip, and drove us back to Kitchener once the charge was complete.
Traffic was pretty light, and Patrick dropped me off in front of the house about 21:45. I grabbed my things and waved goodbye, and he silently drove off. All in all I had been away almost exactly 3.5 days, and I had covered over 2100 km in that time in an electric vehicle!