But after another of the downpours that had been dogging us for three days, my wife and I went to Plan B -- touring this 28,000-hectare property in Central Ontario's Haliburton Highlands where commercial logging coexists with recreational and educational activities.
Depending on the season, visitors can also :
- Get a close-up look at a wolf pack;
- learn to handle a dogsled team;
- follow a felled tree through a new timber mill;
- observe the night sky at an observatory and planetarium;
- hike, mountain bike, snowmobile or fish for a rare and ancient type of lake trout called Haliburton Gold.
The canopy tour requires hiking and canoeing to a drawbridge that lifts participants into the treetops. They're fitted with a safety harness and hooked to an overhead cable before following a narrow walkway as high as 60 metres.
There are three tours daily in summer but they're limited to 12 persons each, making reservations advisable.
At the wolf interpretive centre, we joined excited school kids watching the animals through one-way glass.
The two females and four male wolves have a six-hectare enclosure to roam but spend so much time near the centre that Bishop estimates 95% of visitors will see them.
You can get much closer to the sled dogs, 150 friendly Siberian huskies whose only threat is that they might lick you into submission.
There's a fee for each activity. If you simply want to hike or mountain bike, a daily use permit is $15 per adult. Snowmobilers pay $35 to access 300 km of groomed trails.
The reserve is less than an hour's drive east of Bracebridge, about a five-hour drive from London. Visit www.haliburtonforest.com.
Ninety minutes south of the reserve is Petroglyphs Provincial park, where a drive through a pine forest leads to the spirit world of Canada's first people.
Petroglyphs also has four hiking trails ranging in length from five to 16 km. This day-use park is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. early May to early October. In July and August, free natural heritage education programs are offered.
The park is 55 km north and east of Peterborough. Take Highway 28 to Woodview and then County Road 56. Visit www.ontarioparks.com/English/petr.html.
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