Jdbonney wrote:

Nope. Cant book before May 14 until Ice out is declared then it will be a mad dash.

I wanted to book a lazy ice out trip (not too deep into the interior) but it's just so busy near all the access points... so many lakes completely booked. I'm hoping that ice out will be earlier than the 14th, and that it won't be a mad dash. Maybe people have planned vacation days already and can't change them earlier etc. Crossing my fingers

I certainly feel your pain.  I've had been trying to book Killarney for awhile.  I was logged in and clicked on a site right at 7:00 am and it appears I got beaten out on 3 different occasions by a millisecond.  Finally on the 4th day/attempt I lucked out and scored a site.  If you want any chance of booking Killarney this year you've gotta be ready to book for 7 am.

TripperMike wrote:

I have a May booking for APP and it will probably be my only trip to the park this year.  I think it's great more people are taking interest in back country camping but the easy target will always be Algonquin.  That being said, I've been trying to make a car camping booking for either Grundy or Killarney for my family and it's booked solid everyday by 730am.  

Swede I agree there is definitely extra pressure on wildlife and game and I think we will see a lot of great sites start to close for regeneration, similar to the Rose Island sites on Rock for example.  

 

BB wrote:

Jdbonney wrote:

Nope. Cant book before May 14 until Ice out is declared then it will be a mad dash.

Wow, that's nuts. I wonder why they are doing it that way? Covid related I'm sure. 

Its been like that for a few years. They used to allow permits early in may and then had to refund people when the lakes were frozen. So now they don't allow anything until mid may (when the ice is surely gone) and if ice out happens earlier they just open the doors and let anyone book. It just makes it so they don't have to process refunds.

I'm sure it also is to prevent people going in when its unsafe. I remember going out years ago and literally breaking the ice, they don't want that anymore.

So, three trips are on the books now for myself and the boys. Reserving our 7 night trip for the first week of August was fun trying to start and end our trip on Saturdays in and around Tim Lake and Magnetewan. Park is going to be packed!

While booking this trip, we attempted to book a night at the Highview cabin, but while speaking with the lovely Parks agent I was informed that all interior cabins are CLOSED FOR THE YEAR. This seemed odd as last season, after the height of COVID, we stayed three nights in two different cabins.

I don't understand the logic on this one, and seems like a bit of unnecessary caution from the Park. The risk of COVID exposure in an interior cabin is much less than a YURT or other roofed accommodation. They are typically used less as they are harder to access (I assume the park lumps them all together in the same category). The risk of COVID exposure/ harm is also much less than the actual risk one takes while travelling in the Algonquin interior as a whole. Plus you can bring disinfecting wipes etc if you really wanted to mitigate some of the viral risk yourself.

Sorry for the rant. I just don't like governing bodies removing access to things and not allowing people to govern their own actions, responsibilities and "risks". 

Hope to see some of you in the Park this year!

The yurts are cleaned by park staff in between each group. Cant do that for the interior cabins. It’s a CYA from Ontario parks. Likelihood of an infection from surface contacts is tiny even without a cleaning but here we are.

At the current rate of vaccinations in Ontario we should have a great summer. Get vaccinated as soon as you can with whichever vaccine they offer you.

AlgonquinLakes wrote:

Along the same lines as the subject of this thread, hope everyone already has their gear squared away for the summer.

I bought enough fuel and dehydrated meals to last the year because those were probably the most difficult to find last year. I gave some of my friends a heads up back in January that if they needed any gear not to wait until the last minute because there's a chance everything will be out of stock.

So many things were sold out last year, and there's only an increased demand this year so I'm expecting it to be even worse.

Same. I bought a few extra every time I saw them on sale.

They can. I buy mine from sport chek.