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Some people celebrate birthdays. Anniversaries. Holidays. That’s cool I guess. But me? I celebrate “ice out”. Once April comes around, I’m constantly checking the park updates and satellite images, waiting for that bright white ice to slowly disappear into nothingness. In 2025, the official ice out date was April 27, which is just one day earlier than the historic average of April 28.
Now here’s the irony… I didn’t even bring my canoe with me for this trip. Water temperatures after ice out can be fatal and I’m still hesitant about doing an ice out backcountry trip with Elo. I’m fully confident in my paddling, and Elo is the most well-behaved pup ever, but accidents are called accidents for a reason. I didn’t want to take any chances.
Luckily, I was able to snag a last-minute campsite at the Mew Lake Campground. Site 88. It’s a spacious site in my favourite area of the campground. I quickly packed my things at 10:00 PM the night before the trip and got ready for my first Algonquin adventure of the 2025 season.
Part 1, Day 1 — Moose, Beaver, and More Moose
Since this trip was so last minute, I still had a bunch of my gear in storage at my parent’s house, so I had to make a quick pit stop to finish packing before hitting the highway. With a generous sleep-in and the slight delay to get my gear, I made it to my campsite at 2:00 PM. I took my time setting up camp and introduced myself to my neighbours, who had their own pair of dogs.
I had three goals for this trip: i) search for wildlife, ii) document campsites at Mew Lake, and iii) grab a copy of the Algonquin Park Information Guide (to check out my photo on the front cover)
The first one is self-explanatory. But let me give a quick explanation about the second goal. Mew Lake is the only campground that’s open year-round. This means the campground is never empty, so I can’t walk around and document every campsite at one time (like I’ve done for the other campgrounds). For the Developed Campground project that I had been working on for the past two years, Mew Lake was the problem child. The one campground that made the project 10x more difficult. I had to document individual campsites in batches, whenever I saw that they were vacant. I had already finished documenting every single campsite at every other campground… other than Mew Lake. I had about 50 campsites remaining.
I was hoping that a few of the remaining sites would be vacant for me to take photos. Since I arrived on the Friday, I knew my chances were highest before people settled in for the weekend. So, right after pitching my tent, I went for a walk around the campground with Elo to scan for vacant sites. To my surprise, from the 50’ish sites I had remaining, I was able to document around 10 of them. It was way more than I was expecting for a Friday afternoon!
After the long walk through the campground, I went for a quick mid-day nap in the tent with Elo. Then it was time to set off for my other goal of the trip… searching for wildlife. I saw a handful of cars pulled over on the highway, and that always means one thing. Moose. If it’s just one car pulled over, maybe someone is taking a pee, or enjoying the scenery. But when there’s multiple cars, it’s almost always something exciting.
Moose indeed! There was a healthy-looking bull moose standing in the bushes at the side of the highway. I kept a safe distance and watched as the moose curiously contemplated which side of the highway would provide the tastiest grass for dinner and the saltiest side-of-highway puddles to wash it all down.
It poked its head out from among the rocks while debating its decision, and then it crossed the highway. Thankfully the cars were paying attention and slowed down to let the moose cross safely. The moose spent a few more minutes enjoying the rest of its roadside dinner, before heading deeper inland.
Roughly 10 campsites documented and my first moose sighting of the year. Day 1 was off to a good start.
I drove to the place that I usually buy firewood, but they didn’t have anything ready to sell for the season yet. I went back to the campground and decided I’d just buy the park firewood instead. However, the campground office was closed, and the firewood was self-serve with cash only.
Wait… cash? It’s 2025, I can’t even remember the last time I carried cash with me! I thought about taking some anyways, and the next day I’d drive into town to get cash to settle the debt, but having an I-O-U with the park just didn’t feel right. I still had a few hours of sunlight left to figure something out.
I made a quick dinner at my campsite while chatting with my neighbours. They offered to share some of their firewood with me for the evening. It was a very kind gesture, and I said I’d replenish their supply the following day. Afterwards, I went back onto the highway in search of some more wildlife. I saw a busy beaver working on its dam, but it was too far away to get good photos, so I didn’t stay for very long. I kept driving and stumbled upon my second moose of the day. It was another bull moose, with slightly larger antlers, and bright blue eyes. I don’t say these next few words very often, but… that guy had really beautiful eyes.
The moose was peacefully drinking from a nearby puddle of saltwater, not bothered by the people in the distance taking photos. There were quite a few people in the area, but everyone was staying quiet and keeping a safe distance. I enjoyed watching the moose during the final minutes of sunlight, until it was too dark to continue taking photos. It was an overcast evening, which provided perfect lighting for the photos, but it also meant that the light faded more quickly once the sun had crossed the shoreline.
I drove back to my campsite to make an evening fire while the crescent moon was occasionally poking out from the cloudy skies. It was cold and windy during the day, and that same weather continued throughout the evening. A gentle rain accompanied the wind later in the evening.
Part 1, Day 2 — Moose, Turkey, Beaver, Fox
One of the perks of my first trip each season is that I get to test any new gear that I purchase throughout the winter. The piece of gear that I was looking forward to testing the most, was my new EXPED MegaMat Duo 10 LW+. I opted for the wide version so Elo could sleep on it beside me. Previously, I had been using a Sea to Summit Ether Light XT Insulated, which has an R-Value of 3.5. The MegaMat has an R-Value of 8.1, and let me tell you, it made a HUGE difference. The overnight temperatures dipped below zero, but I was way more comfortable on the MegaMat compared to the Ether Light. Granted, the MegaMat is significantly heavier, bulkier, and more expensive… but it was worth the purchase for sure. The Ether Light will still be coming with me into the backcountry, but for car camping, the MegaMat is my new best friend.
I also bought a new pair of pants, since my trusted Kirkland pants have been showing signs that they’ll need to be retired soon. Unfortunately, the Kirkland pants were discontinued a while ago, so I took to Amazon to find a new pair. The new pants were ok, but I’ll skip all the small details and nuances because I have a feeling you don’t care to read about pocket depth or tightness around the thighs.
Update from future Cody: After several years of being discontinued, the Kirkland pants finally came back in stock! Yay!
Anyways, my day started at 5:30 AM. I forgot how bright 5:30 AM was in early May. I did my morning routine and went searching for wildlife. I did find a moose, but it was really shy. It was feeding peacefully, hidden among some bushes nearby the highway. I watched for close to 20 minutes, but it stayed shy the entire time, so I wasn’t able to get any good photos.
After the moose encounter, I was taking some landscape photos and I noticed a turkey standing around 30 feet away from me. No big deal, turkeys are peaceful, right? Wrong. The turkey immediately started chasing me and I had to sprint back to my car. I made it back just a few seconds before the turkey arrived, and watched from the safety of my big metal box as the turkey stood beside the driver door looking at me. Within a few seconds it started poking the door with its beak, so I zoomed out of there. I have a newfound hate for turkeys.
I arrived back to the Mew Lake campground and purchased firewood from the campground office. I bought more than I needed so that I could repay my neighbours, of course. Then I went back into the tent for a quick snooze with Elo.
It was a beautiful sunny day, with temperatures in the low teens. Elo and I went for a long walk at the Mew Lake airfield to enjoy the weather and the scenery. During the walk I met someone that works for Ontario Parks; we happen to follow each other on Instagram so it was nice meeting him in person and chatting for a while. Then, back into the tent for another quick snooze with Elo.
The rest of the day wasn’t too exciting. I spent some time at the campsite and went for a drive along the highway. My dinner for Day 2 was a Happy Yak Neapolitan Spaghetti. It was literally just a bunch of spaghetti strands with some dehydrated sauce at the bottom of the package. Despite tasting good, it wasn’t worth the price tag.
My evening wildlife search began with another beaver sighting. I caught the tail end of the encounter, as it was swimming back to its dam, so once again, I didn’t get any good photos. But shortly after, I saw a fox at the exact same spot that I saw the shy moose earlier in the morning. The fox stuck around just long enough for me to snap a few nice shots, and then it slowly disappeared into the bush.
I continued driving and saw a moose carcass at the side of the highway. I think it was relatively fresh considering it didn’t look like it had been picked over by other animals. Not yet, at least. Another group was pulled over and found a few ticks on their body, presumably from being within close proximity to the dead moose. Note to self… don’t get close to a dead moose! Actually, let me revise that, don’t get close to ANY moose, dead or alive!
I continued driving and saw a moose carcass at the side of the highway. I think it was relatively fresh considering it didn’t look like it had been picked over by other animals. Not yet, at least. Another group was pulled over and found a few ticks on their body, presumably from being within close proximity to the dead moose. Note to self… don’t get close to a dead moose! Actually, let me revise that, don’t get close to ANY moose, dead or alive!
Warning: NSFW moose carcass photo below. Hover your mouse over the photo to unblur (if you’re on mobile, tap the photo)
I continued driving and saw a moose carcass at the side of the highway. I think it was relatively fresh considering it didn’t look like it had been picked over by other animals. Not yet, at least. Another group was pulled over and found a few ticks on their body, presumably from being within close proximity to the dead moose. Note to self… don’t get close to a dead moose! Actually, let me revise that, don’t get close to ANY moose, dead or alive!
While driving back to my campground I saw the same fox from earlier. It granted me one final sighting while the sunlight was on its final minutes. Due to the very limited light, the photos from this second encounter didn’t turn out great. But it was still a pleasant experience nonetheless. I’ll always enjoy a fox encounter, even without getting good photos.
Unlike the grey overcast evening of Day 1, there was a beautiful pink sunset with puffy cotton candy clouds during the evening of Day 2. The small crescent moon was hanging in the sky among thousands of stars surrounding it. There was also much less wind compared to Day 1, which made the evening a lot more comfortable.
I went back to my campsite and put my newly-purchased firewood to good use. The warmth of the fire was a welcomed comfort, but it wasn’t a necessity like the previous night. Nevertheless, it’s always nice to end a long day while sitting beside a warm fire. And despite the constant complaining I see online about the park’s firewood being wet and difficult to burn (it’s basically a meme at this point), I honestly didn’t find it to be an issue at all. It’s definitely more expensive than you can find elsewhere, but it burned good enough for my liking. All in all, it was a beautiful evening to end another successful day of wildlife searching in Algonquin Park.
Part 1, Day 3 — Groundhog, Pine Marten, Turkey
This first paragraph is going to be your reminder that temperatures can be super unpredictable in the springtime. During the evening of Day 2, I checked the overnight temperatures and it was calling for 3 degrees, feels like 0 degrees. When I woke up, it was -2 degrees, feels like -4 degrees. That’s a pretty big change considering I had checked the forecast just a few hours earlier. But once again, I slept wonderfully with my new EXPED sleeping pad.
One more quick little side note before I start Day 3… This trip was split into two. I went back to the city on Day 3, and then came back to the park the following weekend for two more days. I camped at Mew Lake again, and it felt like a direct extension of the first weekend, so I’m grouping them together into one trip report. Hence the name “Back-to-Back Wildlife Weekends”. I thought I should explain this now before I start talking about packing up camp when you’re still only halfway through the trip report!
I didn’t have any luck during my morning wildlife search, so I went for a walk at the Mew Lake airfield with Elo. The airfield is her favourite poop spot. Which means we go there quite often. And then we went back to the tent for a quick snooze.
Can you guess what I did next? Another search for wildlife! So predictable, I know. At least this time I found a groundhog, which was pretty cool. I have seen groundhogs before, but never actually in Algonquin Park, so it was technically a first for me. Then I went to get gas, and went back to the campsite for one final tent-snooze before I needed to pack up. As you can probably tell by this point, I really enjoy my short little micro-naps in the tent with Elo.
After packing up camp I walked through the rest of the Mew Lake campground to document a few more vacant campsites. I was able to snag around 5 more. Not too shabby. My final stop for the trip was to look for pine martens. I knew where they liked to hang out, and I was able to get some great photos of two separate pine martens near the end of 2024. I met a photographer on Day 1 of this trip, and he showed me a photo of the pine marten that was currently hanging out at the location (it was different than the two I photographed in 2024). This pine marten had the most beautiful markings on its face and its fur. It was SO cute. I really wanted to see it for myself.
I was standing silently, watching the spot that the pine martens like to visit. After a long time of standing around and waiting, I noticed a (human) family standing a decent distance behind me. They were pointing their phones towards me, taking photos. I was confused at first, but then I realized the pine marten was on the ground behind me, while I was facing the opposite direction! I walked over to the mother and said “How stupid did I look!?” while I was staring, waiting for the pine marten to show up, when it was directly behind me. We both got a good laugh out of that.
Thankfully, the pine marten didn’t run away. It went into the garbage dump, not once, but twice, and emerged with some delicious-looking leftover chicken and ribs. It brought the food back to its stash among the trees, and after 10 minutes or so, it finally disappeared into the bush. Despite the fact that it was constantly moving and didn’t stay still for very long, I was able to snap some photos that I was really happy with.
The markings on its fur were indeed beautiful in real life. It was also half the size of the pine martens I photographed in 2024. It was so tiny and so gosh darn cute. I was totally obsessed with how adorable it was. It might have been the cutest wildlife I’ve ever seen.
The pine marten encounter was the perfect way to end the first half of the trip.
While driving out of the park I saw a few cars pulled over at the side of the highway. I thought “awesome, one final moose encounter!” But wait…
*cue the ominous scary music*
It wasn’t a moose… it was a turkey!
Nope. I got out of there real quick.
Part 2, Day 1 — Moose in the Morning, Moose in the Evening
I mentioned earlier that this trip was split into two. But that’s not how it was originally planned. I went home on Day 3 not knowing that I would be coming back the following weekend. But on Thursday evening, the weather for the weekend looked promising, and there were a few campsites remaining at Mew Lake. I thought to myself “I’d rather be there, than here” and that was all the convincing I needed. Plus, I still needed to accomplish that third goal “Grab a copy of the Algonquin Park Information Guide” (they weren’t available yet on the previous weekend). The only caveat was that I had a Mother’s Day brunch on the Sunday, so the second instalment of this trip was going to be a quick one-nighter.
Just as I was entering the park, I saw a moose in a marshy area beside the highway. Usually, there are already cars pulled over, but to be the first person to spot the moose is always more fun! I found a safe place to pull over and I noticed in my rear-view mirror, another car was pulling over as well. The person from that other car was a wildlife-photographer friend of mine. We were both planning to do some wildlife searching during the weekend, so it was really coincidental and funny timing to bump into each other. By the time I walked from my parked car back to the marshy area, the moose had gone too far away to get a decent photo. Oh well, it was still an exciting way to start the day.
When I arrived to the Mew Lake Campground, I quickly checked to see if any of the remaining campsites on my list were vacant. I counted four in total. I quickly speed-walked to each campsite to take photos, but just as I was arriving to the fourth campsite, the occupants pulled in. But hey, documenting three campsites is still better than nothing.
Next, I went to my own campsite to get everything set up. I was staying at Site 86, just two campsites over from where I stayed the previous weekend (Site 88). On the first half of this trip, I brought my MEC Ohm 4-person tent, but this weekend I decided to bring my Eureka Suma 3-person tent.
I normally use the Suma 2-person tent for my backcountry trips, but I had just bought the 3-person version over the winter, so I wanted to try it out for the first time. The EXPED Megamat Duo LW+ fits snug inside the Suma 3-person, which makes it slightly more difficult to inflate and deflate. However, once it’s set up, it’s nice that it covers the entire tent floor. It’s noticeably different compared to the MEC Ohm 4-person, where the sleeping pad only covers roughly 2/3 of the tent floor.
I spent the rest of the morning relaxing at the campsite, playing with Elo, and taking an obligatory quick snooze in the tent. I went searching for wildlife but I didn’t have any luck, so I went to the Lake of Two Rivers East Beach and laid on the sand with Elo. I closed my eyes and dozed off underneath the warm sun. I went to buy some firewood and then went for a walk at the Mew Lake airfield so Elo could take a poop.
I was making an early dinner at my campsite when another wildlife photographer friend of mine dropped by. He was also camping at Mew Lake, in a separate area of the campground. We chatted for a while and then we both headed out, separately, to search for wildlife.
My evening wildlife search lasted close to four hours. The start of the excitement was a cow moose sighting, but I arrived just a few minutes after it went inland. Shucks. Next, I went to check on the moose carcass, which was looking a lot worse compared to the previous weekend. But there was no sign of wolves or foxes or any other wildlife nearby the carcass. After a quick gas refill, the friend that I bumped into earlier in the morning gave me a heads up that the cow moose—the one that I had just missed—was back at the same spot.
Instead of arriving 5 minutes late, this time, I arrived 5 minutes before it decided to go inland. I was able to get some nice, sharp, clean images of the cow. The composition and surrounding backdrop wasn’t anything particularly special though. Don’t get me wrong, the photos turned out great, but they won’t be getting hung on my wall or anything.
My evening wildlife search ended at 9:00 PM, during the final minutes of sunlight. It was a cool, but comfortable temperature outside while I sat by an evening fire. The previous group at my campsite had left tons of tin cans inside the fire pit, along with a huge pile of foraged firewood. Foraging firewood is not allowed in the frontcountry, so I put it off to the side and didn’t use any of it (I had my own firewood that I bought anyways). And of course, I cleaned up the tin cans that were left in the fire pit.
The moon was shining bright alongside a night sky full of stars. Bugs were out and starting to bite, but they weren’t that bad. It felt like a mid-August trip, in terms of the bugs. A little bit of DEET did the trick to keep them away.
Part 2, Day 2 — Beaver, Raven, Pine Marten
I had an early 5:30 AM wakeup on the final morning of my trip. After brushing my teeth, changing my clothes, and giving Elo some breakfast, I immediately went searching for wildlife. There’s one particular road that is my arch nemesis. People always see wildlife on that road, but I never have any luck. I always have near misses, where I show up 10 seconds late and hear comments like “Did you just see that bull moose pass by!?”
There were still no moose to be found on that road, but I did find a beaver swimming, eating, and basking in the early sunlight. It was checking out its own reflection against the calm morning water. I didn’t think too much of my photos in that moment, but after getting home and giving it an edit, I really love how the self-reflecting photo turned out.
My next stop was a place that I had lots of luck spotting moose throughout 2024. I found some very fresh moose tracks (almost certainly from just a few hours earlier that same morning), along with one massive wolf paw print. No physical sighting of either animal though.
When I got back to my car, a raven landing right in front of me. It seemed curious by my presence and was slowly inching its way closer to me. I was able to get some pretty cool photos… one that gives me Darth Vader vibes, one that looks like it should be in Game of Thrones, and then a bunch of other nice portrait shots. Ravens aren’t exactly the most exciting thing to photograph, but I’ve never actually gotten good photos of a raven before, so I was pretty happy with this encounter.
I didn’t see any large wildlife during my morning search, but between the beaver and the raven, I’d still call it a major success.
I celebrated by going back to my campsite to take a nap. If you’ve made it this far in the trip report, you probably could have guessed that a nap was coming at any moment.
After my nap I was able to document one final campsite at the Mew Lake campground. Afterwards, I had one last item on my agenda before I packed up camp. I had a photoshoot scheduled. With myself. Let me explain…
One of my photos was chosen to be on the front cover of the 2025 Algonquin Park Information Guide. The Information Guide, published by The Friends of Algonquin Park, is a free newspaper filled with information about trip planning, campgrounds, events, and more. Algonquin Park attracts 1 million+ visitors every year and I am very honoured to be showcased on the front cover of the guide. It’s such an exciting feeling knowing that so many people will see one of my photos as part of their Algonquin Park experience 😊.
So that’s what the self-photoshoot was for. I wanted to grab a few copies of the Information Guide and take some photos with it. The third goal of the trip. That was the real reason I decided to come back to the park for this second weekend.
Instead of trying to get perfectly-timed self-photos, instead, I took videos. I would then export single frames from the videos and edit those as individual photos. I got Elo to model too, of course!
After the photoshoot, and after packing up camp, my final stop was the same spot that I saw the adorable pine marten the previous weekend. There were two people there and they said the pine marten had just disappeared into the bush. I knew that this was around the time that it liked to go dumpster-diving in the garbage for some lunch, but based on the intel from those two people, I wasn’t sure if i) it had successfully gotten lunch and was now settling down for the afternoon, or ii) it didn’t successfully get lunch and it would make another appearance very soon.
I decided to wait. My car was packed and my next destination was the city, so I was in no particular rush to leave. I continued to wait. And wait some more. It was another hot, sunny day outside, but at least there was a decent breeze to keep the bugs away.
Finally, after more than an hour of waiting, the pine marten showed up. As predicted, it went into the garbage to check what was on the menu for the day.
Last weekend, the pine marten had spent around 5 minutes inside of the garbage before coming out. But this time, it was literally inside the garbage for 30 minutes. Between waiting more than an hour for it to arrive, and then waiting 30 minutes for it to come out of the garbage, the entire encounter required a ton of patience. But it paid off in the end.
I also found it funny that during the last weekend, the pine marten emerged from the garbage with delicious-looking chicken and ribs. This time, after spending 30 minutes, all that it was able to find was what looked like a cinnamon raison bun. Sorry little buddy! But also, who throws away a perfectly good cinnamon raison bun!? It didn’t even look like a single bite had been taken from it.
*Note: No baiting took place. You should never feed any wildlife, whether it’s a cute little squirrel or a big black bear. The pine marten went into the garbage on its own without any human interaction.
The lighting was also better this time around, compared to the previous weekend. It was the same pine marten as the previous weekend, and it posed in the exact same spot, on the exact same tree as the previous weekend… but the photos from this weekend turned out so much nicer. You can scroll back to Part 1, Day 3 to compare if you’d like, but it’s a great example of how important lighting is for photography.
Overall, I was super happy with the photos that I was able to capture of this adorable little trouble-maker. I was immediately obsessed with this pine marten from the first time I saw him, and I was equally obsessed during this second encounter as well. It was so small, so cute, and the markings on its fur were so unique and gorgeous. I felt very lucky that I was able to photograph this little guy during my back-to-back wildlife weekends in Algonquin Park.
The Aftermath
I went into the back-to-back weekends of this trip with three goals. Safe to say, I was successful with all of them. I honestly didn’t expect to see too much wildlife, but here we are. I ended up seeing several moose, a few foxes, a couple beavers, the pine marten twice, a groundhog, the raven, the annoying turkey, some blue jays, and more. It turned out to be a pretty epic trip for wildlife.
Both of my campsites at Mew Lake were great. The weather was good enough. The bugs weren’t too bad. All of the new gear I was testing performed well. I caught up with some wildlife-photographer friends that I hadn’t seen since last year. And of course, Elo had a blast the entire time. There was really nothing to complain about. Two back-to-back weekends in Algonquin Park full of wildlife and other adventures. It was the perfect spring camping trip to kick off the 2025 season.
