Off the Beaten Path

We did some 'Trailbnb' last week, which is basically using Airbnb to find cool places to stay close to trails. Hotel chains don't always locate in the rural areas we like to run, so we have good luck with this approach.

Our hosts were located just outside of Whitney, Ontario, and we enjoyed some relaxing down time as well as exploring trails in Algonquin Provincial Park, near where we were staying, and even Silent Lake Provincial Park on the way home. Here are some trail highlights of our little vacation. We were never off the grid, but we definitely found ourselves off the beaten path at times.

We highly recommend Algonquin Hide-Away if you are looking for a cozy headquarter for your Algonquin and area trail vacation. The completely separate apartment in the lovely log home was perfect for us, and there was even a beautiful trail down to a lake which Siku had fun joining us on.

Next we explored one of Algonquin's most popular trails, the Track and Tower Trail. Not only is this trail very pretty, but the history of train, lodges and fire towers from a hundred years ago in the park was incredibly fascinating. It is a testament to nature how this once-developed area has been almost entirely reclaimed by the forest

Derrick then explored some local ATV and snowmobile trails. Sometimes the best trails are the ones that you're not expecting to find. That was the case with these trails that began as logging trails, became snowmobile trails, then ATV trails, and finally some single track. Like many of the trails in the area it included some good climbing and descending over a short period of time.

We then enjoyed a nice meal of burritos over the campfire in the backyard.

On our way home we took a short detour to Silent Lake Provincial Park, where we found refuge from the heat under the trees and along the beautiful lake. Siku and Sara did a hike while Derrick ran the entire 15 km loop of the lake. The Lakeshore loop was spectacular, though quite muddy in places along the south side of the lake. There are some mountain bike trail options that could be done in addition or instead of the hiking trail.