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.)

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