Evening Grosbeak in Algonquin Provincial Park

Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario is the oldest of our provincial parks (established in 1893) and one of the most popular outdoor destinations in Canada. It’s a big place – about 7653 square kilometres! That’s bigger than Prince Edward Island. There are over 2,400 lakes and 1,200 kilometres of streams and rivers running through the park. Highway 60 runs through the southern end for 56 kilometres, and the Trans-Canada Highway bypasses it to the north, but the only way to explore the area is by canoe or on foot. Snowshoes are a good idea in the winter.

I havn’t visited Algonquin Park for a while now (I once fell out of a canoe there), so when by buddies Alex and Judy told me about their recent trip I was all ears. Judy Eberspaecher is a self-confessed “bird brain” and both are excellent photographers and story-tellers.

“We were everywhere that roads were cleared – Opeongo, Spruce Bog, Boardwalk, Mew Lake and the moose (2) were along the highway. We stopped for at least 10 minutes and they just kept munching on dry branches. The Pine marten is a beautiful animal but I wouldn’t want to touch him, although he wouldn’t stay around to be touched. I hadn’t seen Evening Grosbeaks for about eight years so that was the one bird I wanted.”

Algonquin Provincial Park is a four-season destination. There is plenty to do there at any time of year, especially if you’re interested in wildlife. Check out the Friends of Algonquin Park website as well as the official Ontario Parks website. Jeffrey McMurtrie’s maps of the park are insightful and free to download.

More about the Canadian moose – be careful on the highways! Muskoka near Algonquin Park and Ontario Parks 2010.

All pictures on this page are courtesy of Judy Eberspaecher. Thanks for the tales Judy.

Look what is all dressed up for the holidays!!! It was a crisp, cold December evening. We walked from a Sandy Hill B&B over to an Elgin Street bistro for a meal. After dinner, we took a camera and tripod over to Parliament Hill and snapped a bunch of pix including this one.

Happy Holidays CANADA!!

It’s the first game of the new hockey season this Thursday (Oct. 6, 2011) and my beloved Habs (Montreal Canadiens) are in town to face their rival, the Toronto Maple Leafs. A perfect time to talk about a new hockey hang out.

“Dave’s Organic Burger” at Shakey’s in Toronto

Shakey’s is west of Runnymede Avenue on the south side of Bloor, in Toronto’s Bloor West Village, a ‘hood’ with deep European roots. More bistro than sports bar, what drew my attention to Shakey’s is its Toronto Maple Leafs history, decent food, bounty of flat-screen TVs, and its owners’ family connection to Toronto’s hospitality industry. All a good fit for a Roadstories post about people, places and things.

Shakey was Mike Walton’s nickname. Walton played centre for the Toronto Maple Leafs when the team won its last Stanley Cup (way back in 1967). When Walton retired from hockey he opened Shakey’s Original Bar & Grill, one of the first bars in the village, which for many years, ran dry.

Rob Lundy owns present-day Shakey’s with his brother Chris, Shakey’s chef. Their maternal grandfather once owned one of Toronto’s most famous clubs, the Silver Dollar. He also turned the Stardust Hotel and Lounge into the original Drake Hotel back in 1949.

The Lundy brothers have not forgotten Shakey’s hockey roots. Lots of Leaf memorabilia here. Black and white photos of early Leaf glory days hang on the walls. There’s the 1967 Maple Leaf Stanley Cup winners parading down Yonge Street and Walton squaring off with Gordie Howe at the old Maple Leaf Gardens. Even a couple of Habs photos hang by the entrance, a nod to Hab fans in Toronto, I guess.

Then there’s the food. The Lundy brothers have created a place that attracts its fair share of sports fans but not exclusively. Last week, more women than men were having lunch when I was there and when I went back for pictures, a dad and his two daughters and a young couple with an infant were among those ordering dinner. Chris, who trained at Vancouver’s Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts and worked at Toronto’s Crush Wine Bar, the former Lemon Meringue and Montreal’s Garçon and Club 357c , told me his biggest challenge was getting to know his customer base. Initially, he wanted a finer dining menu but he quickly realized that his best plan was still offer pub fare. The big difference is that just about everything here is now made from scratch or sourced from the village, including what you see on the kids’ menu. We tried Dave’s Organic Burger washed down with a Mill Street draft. Made with Rowe Farms organic ground beef, It came highly recommended and didn’t disapppoint. Other big sellers include Chris’s homemade fried chicken, fish and chips, nachos, and his soups which are mostly vegan. Fish for the fish and chips comes from a local Bloor West Village supplier and outside of the Polish pickles supplied by a Polish shop on Bloor West, most condiments, including the mayonnaise, are made in-house.

Thursday’s game will be televised. The puck drops at 7pm. The beer is sure to be flowing and the burgers flying off the grill at Shakey’s.

Got a favourite place in your part of the country to watch Canada’s national game? We’d love to hear from you. Go Habs Go!

Every fall, millions of birds, butterflies and dragonflies from across North America head south for winter. Along the north shore of Lake Erie in Ontario, Canada, these include birds of prey. Nineteen species of hawks, falcons, eagles and vultures have been recorded migrating past here. One of the best places to view them in fall is at Port Burwell Provincial Park, two hours southwest of Toronto and an hour south of London, Ontario.

Fall mornings are best – just after dawn until mid-morning and especially after a cold front has rolled through. That’s when park visitors gather on the beach or in the beach parking lots to watch the migration. Some days, the birds pass by at tree-top level. Other days, they are high in the sky. On a good day and with a pair of binoculars, you’ll see birds everywhere.

The bulk of Broad-winged Hawks pass through in mid September but the month of October produces the highest number of species on any given day. Sightings of ten or more species of hawks a day are not unusual. Peregrine Falcons peak in early October, Turkey Vultures in mid-month and Red-shouldered Hawks in late October. The massive Red-tailed Hawk migration occurs later, in early November, when thousands fly over daily. Bald Eagles can be seen any time during the fall migration period from August to December. In December, heavy snowfalls in the north bring the last of the migrants through, including Northern Harriers.

Turkey vultures scouring the ground for fresh carcasses – a close look at two of the carrion (meat)-eating raptors. Turkey vultures are often identified by their conspicuous red heads, bare of any feathers. Researchers believe their bald heads help keep them clean as they dig through their meals – photo courtesy of Ontario Parks

A free brochure called Marvels of Migration is available from the Port Burwell Provincial Park office at the park entrance. It describes the different species and lists their silhouettes to help you identify them in flight.

Milder fall temperatures in southwestern Ontario attract campers to provincial parks along the Lake Erie and Lake Huron shorelines. One of the best group campsites in Ontario’s provincial park system is found at Port Burwell Provincial Park. Staff call #402 “the site with the million dollar view”. To reserve a group camp site, contact the park directly. You don’t have to camp to enjoy the fall migration though. Park day passes are available too.

The United Nations (UN) has declared 2011-2012 the International Year of the Bat, so with Halloween just around the corner, I wanted to do this post.

Bats are the world’s most misunderstood creatures. For centuries, they’ve been associated with black magic, witchcraft and vampire folklore. But bats are in real trouble right now and desperately need our help to survive.

In North America, White-nose Syndrome (WNS) has devastated bat populations. In other parts of the world, bat habitats are disappearing. The United Nations and bat conservation groups around the world are anxious to get the word out that we need bats for a healthy world. Bats pollinate plants and disperse seed and they help control pests, with some eating half their weight in insects every night.

To understand bats better,  the UN has set up a Year of the Bat website.

Just ten minutes on YearoftheBat.org and its links and I discovered all kinds of interesting facts and figures about bats. The world’s only flying mammals represent 1200 species of bat. That’s one-fifth of all mammal species on the planet. The smallest is the Bumblebee bat, weighing in at less than a penny. The largest is the Giant Flying Fox with a wingspan of up to six feet. The Little Brown which is native to many parts of Canada and the US, eats up to 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in an hour. The Little Brown is the bat that has been most severely affected by WNS.

Here are a couple of other things I learned from YearoftheBat.org:

Golden Crowned Fruit Bat – a type of Flying Fox mega bat

Bats often sing to attract a mate or they do a fancy wing display.

Bats live long lives – sometimes twenty years or more and they only have one pup a year. Pups are suckled by their mothers until they are old enough to fly.

I found out how to remove a bat safely and humanely from a home:  http://www.batcon.org/index.php/bats-a-people/removing-a-bat.html And, I found instructions on how to build a bat house. http://www.batcon.org/index.php/get-involved/install-a-bat-house.html These houses really do work. My mother had bats roosting between the frame and siding of her home and a bat house that we posted on a nearby cedar tree eliminated the problem.

In Canada, many Ontario Parks have bat awareness as part of their natural heritage education programming. At Rock Point Provincial Park on Lake Erie, bats are a part of the park’s summer activities. At The Pinery, a provincial park on Lake Huron, the park’s Halloween weekend always includes a Build your own Bat House session hosted by Friends of the Pinery park volunteers. This year, the Halloween weekend takes place October 22-23, 2011. Reservations are required.

On a recent trip to Long Point Provincial Park we spotted what we thought was a huge, beautiful butterfly. Upon showing her this picture, the park naturalist informed us that it was not, in fact, a butterfly, but a moth. None other than the Cecropia moth, the largest in North America!

Cecropia Moth photographed at Long Point Provincial Park

The scientific name is Hyalophora cecropia and it’s a member of the Saturniidae family of giant silk moths. Females with a wingspan of 160 mm (over six inches) have been documented. It is found all the way from B.C. to the Canadian maritime provinces.

Long Point Provincial Park, near Port Rowan, Ontario, Canada is part of the Lake Erie beaches. It’s a stunning place to visit if you like sand-dune camping and deserted beaches. It is also world-renowned for migrating birds in the spring and fall (many of which probably feed on the Cecropia moth). Bird-watchers have spotted 383 different species of birds on Long Point itself, which is recognized as a biosphere reserve by the United Nations.

The beaches at Long Point Provincial Park on Lake Erie

Do me a favour, nay, do yourself and your sausage & rib loving friends and family a favour and check out The Red Steer if you find yourself anywhere in or around Bancroft, Ontario.

The Red Steer butcher shop near Bancroft, Ontario, purveyors of Old Tyme Service & Quality

For the final home stretch of the BBQ season (for some anyway, in my personal experience I happen to know many a brave Canadian who has pulled the BBQ right up to the backyard sliding door to flip steaks in February) a hidden gem of a butcher shop humbly awaits your meat eating fantasies. The Red Steer provides: steaks, roasts, homemade sausages, homemade Red Steer burgers, Ontario lamb, fresh fish, seafood and Ivanhoe Cheese in a self-described Old Tyme Service & Quality shop. Their beef is ‘dry aged’ (a process of hanging in the open air) on the premises.

Just South of Bancroft on Highway 62 is a newly adopted extension of the town (formerly its own modest sized town) named L’Amble. As the directions to the Red Steer were once described to me from a local resident of Bancroft:

“Whatcha wanna do is drive South on 62. Once you see the sign saying ‘L’Amble’ you’re gonna wanna go ahead and slow right down”.

This is the most accurate way anyone could explain how to arrive at ‘the Steer’ (as now feeling like a regular, having been a handful of times, I feel comfortable using this shorter variation) from Bancroft since the highway is fast and ‘the Steer’ is easy to shoot past.

The man at the helm of this fantastic butcher shop is a hulking, super friendly guy named Duane who makes the most incredible sausages I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. With flavours ranging from Honey Garlic-Farmstyle (his wife Julie’s favourite), Garlic and Chive-Bratwurst (one of his favs), sundried tomato, Cajun Italian and pork and beef breakfast sausage, trying one of each will not be a decision you will soon regret. Softly packed, these sausages melt on the tongue with perfect flavour and soft texture. Duane explained that they get all of their meat within Ontario, their beef and pork hailing from Norwich Farms in London, Ontario and their grain fed chicken is from a farm in Peterborough, Ontario.

The Red Steer has been around for the past five or so years, it was opened by Duane and Julie, with occasional help from reliable workers when needed. I chatted with Duane on my last visit and learned that he has no interest in today’s technology. As a result, you will not find a website, facebook page, blog, tweet or email address pertaining to this amazing butcher – heck, the business phone number isn’t even listed, Duane informed me with some pride. They have a fax machine, but as Duane explained, he has little time or patience for any other technology and its stressors.

On my most recent visit, he was selling vacuum wrapped racks of smoked and seasoned ribs that were marinating within the swells of the packaging in a thick reddish brown honey bbq sauce. He advised, at around ten dollars a rack, we try one out. They have, after all, been selling off the rack… no pun intended…“For example,” he began,

“I had a guy in here yesterday. He bought one. Came back in today, bought five more. I would say I had tried them myself, but I haven’t. Keep selling out before I get a chance!”

Well, not being able to argue with perfectly good reasoning we happily added it to our pile of different flavoured sausages and fresh ribs which we marinated and cooked low and slow later that night.  All other meat we had, for weeks to come, made us yearn for an address closer to what might be one of the best butchers in Ontario.

Author’s Note: at the time of this post, the Red Steer is closed on Mondays. Their telephone number is 613-332-6735. We were unable to ascertain the fax number.

I love everything swim, surf and sunscreen and I discovered all three in Midland, Ontario as well as right here in my hometown of Toronto.

A two-hour drive from Toronto, Midland is the place for those who feel likewise about the sun, a sandy beach and diving headfirst into refreshing chilly water.

Balm Beach on Georgian Bay, Ontario

We discovered the Shamrock Motel in Midland, Ontario last summer. The beauty of this particular motel is that it is family-run and every room sports access to BBQs and picnic tables and has a fridge. There is a playground for the kiddies, and usually a trampoline – I say usually because this time it was broken, silly adults jumping on it no doubt! I happen to know for a “yea, I did that” fact that adults are not allowed to jump on it. Note: it was still fully intact and NOT broken the last time I left it. The Shamrock is located within a five minute drive to downtown Midland and, in the opposite direction, a five minute drive to Balm Beach.

Balm Beach: Huddled in the midst of Georgian Bay this modest public, sandy white swimming spot offers change rooms, washrooms, an arcade, a swim suit shop and a fish & chips /ice cream strip. Wading in, once past the two or so metres of rocky beginnings, you are in knee-deep chilly clean water that stretches out forever. This is some of the best fresh water swimming you’ll find close to Toronto! Diving in makes you catch your breath and is a welcome relief after sitting on a towel dripping in the heat. A buoy five hundred or so metres out tells you where your circumference of safety lies. This beach with all of its ethnic diversity is, in my experience, almost never crammed with people, absolutely delightful, and best of all, it’s only a couple of hours drive from Toronto. Note: no lifeguards were noticed.

What’s this? A twin sister beach? An also fabulous and much-closer-to-my-home impostor? Enter my discovery of Ward Island Beach.

Wards Island, a short ferry ride from Toronto

Ward Island: A quick ferry ride from Queens Quay ferry launch at the foot of Bay Street in Toronto (www.toronto.ca/parks/island/ferry-schedule.htm) and a short walk and we were on sandy white Ward Island beach. Toronto Islands – Ferry Schedule.

No chance I was making any dip in Lake Ontario though! Until I saw the water… are you kidding me?? This is a stellar beach with a white sandy run into clear wonderful water that runs for an impressive distance before you are unable to effortlessly touch bottom! The water is cool and clear and amazingly refreshing. This can be attributed in part to the zebra mussels that began to arrive in Lake Ontario around 1985 (for more info please visit www.aquatichabitat.ca/cultural_influences.shtml). I never thought I would be encouraging anyone to slip into Lake Ontario, but I stand mistaken! This beach has never even been remotely busy or crowded (mind you my experiences have all been mid-week) and it seems to attract couples and clusters of friends in their late twenties and up along with a small clustering of children with doting parents. The last time I was there I noticed a few dog-owners helping their canines cool off in a controlled and non-intrusive-to-other-beach-goers manner. Check out Ward Island Beach, it will blow your mind!!! Note: many lifeguards on duty, both on the beach and in the water.

Toronto’s CN Tower as seen from Ward’s Island

Departing for Toronto on the Wards Island Ferry

Kelly’s back with her take on what beer the gang in Toronto is drinking these days…..

It’s beer drinking season in Canada (it’s always beer drinking season) and I thought it would be fitting if I gave a few of my own opinions on what’s HOT (but served cold) in the Toronto beer drinking community. This is based on my years slinging beer in various Toronto bars and my extensive collection of beer drinking buddies. What I wanted to focus on, naturally, are local, truly Canadian ales and lagers from the buzz breweries right now (with one *delish exception!). In no particular order, I will begin:

Mill Street is a thriving brewery located in Toronto’s funky distillery district and was founded in 2002. Two of the top sellers right now that I have noticed are Mill Street Organic and Mill Street Tankhouse. The Organic is wildly popular: light in colour and not too strong in flavour – it is the perfect ale to drink with pub fare or on its own. When asked to describe the Mill Street Tankhouse my good buddy (and solemn fan of this particular dark ale) Andre, a man of many words, condensed his feelings to a few: “Spicy. Rich. Full-bodied. Refreshing. The best thing to drink after a hot day in the sun”. Mill Street is available in most LCBOs (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) and on draught in plenty of bars throughout the city.

Moving on to a newer brewery, and one of my favourites for their quirky name and design flair, Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery located in Barrie, Ontario. Founded in 2005, FMB has a popular strong India Pale Ale called Smashbomb. Andre obliged me in a taste test of this particular ale. In Andre’s words: “Grassy. Citrus-y. A long pleasant aftertaste. Hop-py notes”. (From what I understand only available at a few bars in Toronto including Shakey’s in the Bloor West Village.

Hop City is a brewery that makes a refreshing and popular traditional Bavarian style Hefeweizen that I have noticed making an appearance on many of my friends’ coasters. Lawn Chair, as it’s comfortably named, is a wheat beer with a cloudy appearance and an aroma of banana and clove. I happened to run in to a beer rep for the Ontario based brewery and asked him how he would describe Lawn Chair, “Traditionally drier then Rickard’s White, Lawn Chair is very ‘hop-py’ so it’s fruity but not in a citrus way. It’s very crisp. A very good summer beer.” After thanking him I mentioned that I would be blogging his description and he thanked me with a cute Lawn Chair tee! Yay swag! For more info on this and their other beers visit the brewmasters Kevin and John’s funky Hop City website.

**delish exception**

For those feeling like a Snakebite this summer (read cider cut with beer, not the real version that could be poisonous or at the very least in Ontario painful and traumatic) or a “straight-up- liquid-apple-jolly-rancher-concoction-that-will-fool-you-into-thinking-you-are-not-drinking-an-alcoholic-beverage-and-therefore-you-cannot-be-blamed-for-the-surprising-intoxicated-result” I have the cider for you. Somersby was recently introduced to me by a good friend who happily took on my request for a taste testing description. Brought to us by the Canadian Carlsberg Group (though brewed in Falkenberg, Sweden) and served over a quarter pint of ice, Somersby was described to me as having “immediate aromas of crisp green apple. Heavy green apple. First sip is sweet and fruity which dilutes as you drink, thanks to the ice. Not as carbonated as Strongbow and not as sweet as Magners. Refreshing and awesome”

I hope this post helps navigate you toward a perfect beer pick that’s both delicious and local! For more info on beer, lagers and the like, visit my buddy Cass’s website The Bar Towel, Ontario’s Premier Beer Resource. This home-grown Canadian site includes beer news, a discussion forum and an array of beer-related events as well as meet n’ greets for Canadian beer aficionados. Also, check out NOW Magazine’s (Toronto weekly alternative news and entertainment paper) first ever Beer Guide and beer style showdown pitting several local beers against similar imports.

Cheers to good beers!

If you’ve never played on Lake Erie’s north shore, go!! Not only will you find some interesting ports of call along the shoreline of the smallest Great Lake, the beaches on Erie’s north shore are GORGEOUS.

The beach at Port Burwell Provincial Park after a big rain storm

We discovered our favourite at Port Burwell Provincial Park. There was hardly a soul on its 2.2 km of sand even though it was a sultry Saturday in early June. Obviously, the summer weekend crowds had not yet materialized. Port Burwell Park is one of several Ontario Parks you’ll find along the north shore of Lake Erie and all of them have beaches. We liked Long Point Provincial Park‘s beach too, where you can also camp among massive sand dunes. It’s part of a gigantic sand spit jutting out into Lake Erie that is recognized as a biosphere reserve and world-renowned refuge and stop over for migrating birds in fall and spring. While touring it with a park staffer, I couldn’t believe the chorus of songbirds. In nearby Port Rowan we heard how up to 20,000 Canadian and American boaters anchor off of  Pottahawk Point on the Canadian side the second Sunday of every July in knee-deep water and hang out for the better part of the day drinking beer and catching up.  The Pattahawk Bash as she’s known has been going on for more than 30 years.  You gotta believe the OPP (provincial police) are all over this one.

The beach at Long Point Provincial Park. All the spring rain had left the water level high

Our two ports of call were Port Dover in Norfolk County and Port Stanley in Elgin County. Port Dover was hopping with lots of motorcycles rolling through town on a Friday night. Its Erie Beach Hotel is famous for its perch and pickerel dinners and it did not disappoint. Since there were only two of us we chose the hotel’s more sedate Terrace dining room downstairs.

The upstairs is a perch and beer affair perfect for groups of friends or family. Besides its famous fish dinners, our salad bar was memorable. Right out the 1950s, our own personal ” bar” came on wheels and had a variety of salads to choose from including homemade pickled pumpkin and jellied horseradish. Both were tasty.

Perch Tugs line the shore in Port Stanley Harbour

Port Stanley is a pretty beach town that is home to one of the last commercial fisheries on the Great Lakes.  Perch tugs which are bizarre-looking all-steel boats line the harbour here. We stayed at the Inn on the Harbour where I had a perfect harbour view. Saturday night dinner was on the patio at the Kettle Creek Inn close by. It was a fine way to end a great weekend.

Early morning on Port Stanley public beach on Lake Erie