We were lucky to have pre-booked a cottage many months before the holiday lock-down and were able to keep to the booking. We stayed in the cottage except for outings to Algonquin.

Our first excursion was to Beaver Pond Trail. Parking was closed, but we found a nook on the side of the road and trekked in.

The snow was thick and fluffy beneath an inch and half of crusted snow that broke with each step. The quiet around us cast an insulating quality that made us feel we were the only living thing for miles and miles. Perhaps we were.

In the second photo you can see the lookout in the distance to the right. At the top of the look out we stopped to admire the view and enjoy the sensation of melting the pristine snow in our mouths. Something I hadn’t done since childhood and perhaps something the others had never experienced before.