« Niagara Falls | Main | Toronto »
March 24, 2005
Algonquin Park, ice wine and a wolf
We set out to see the 'cottage country' of Ontario - an area a couple of hours drive from the city, scattered with lakes and waterways that is a favourite weekend retreat for residents of the city. On Friday afternoons during the summer months the 6 lane highway is bumper to bumper with traffic as people flee the concrete jungle for their weekend getaways swimming, relaxing and boating. Now, with snow still lingering from winter, the traffic is thin and it doesn't take anywhere near as long to get there as it would in summer. Looking at the small frozen lakes, with the occasional ice fishermen huddled on the surface, the surrounding trees bare and grey, I try to imagine the lakes glistening blue in the sun, surfaces abuzz with boats and roads busy with traffic. It all looks so serene at the moment.
We continued driving to the Algonquin Provincial Park and went off the main road a little and stopped beside a beautiful frozen lake.
I don't think I've ever experienced such perfect and complete silence and stillness. There was not a sound and not a breath of wind. Straining to catch a faint sound of bird, animal or wind in trees all I could hear was my own blood racing through my veins.
We had with us a bottle of Lailey Vineyard Ice Wine that we had picked up the day before in Niagara-on-the-Lake. It chilled down beautifully in a snowdrift and we drank it in the cold, perfect stillness beside the frozen lake.
Driving back towards the city after we passed a wolf beside the road. It seemed to be limping slightly but it was one of the most magnificent creatures I have ever seen. There could be no mistaking it for a dog of any breed. Tall and rangy with thick pale fur, a tapering head carried low in line with it's body and the most penetrating pale yellow eyes - I felt they saw right through to my soul in an instant.
It was quite late when we got back to the city - it's a beautiful city by night and I could happily sit and watch this view for hours.
The temptation to open the other bottle of icewine and take it down to the pool and spa here in the apartment complex proved too great. I slept very soundly that night.
Posted by Yasmin at March 24, 2005 05:47 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.batangabee.com/mt-tb.cgi/22
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Algonquin Park, ice wine and a wolf:
» payday loans from payday loans
debt consolidation is a niceblog. [Read More]
Tracked on December 8, 2005 04:49 PM