On Family Day, I was lucky enough to be in Algonquin Park, and it was a gorgeous weekend! It was warm and sunny, but the park was also still full of beautiful white snow! I had just shown my hot tent at the Winter in the Wild festival and enjoyed meeting so many awesome people, but not I was ready for some time with nature.  Thankfully, I was able to share that time with two amazing people I met through camping at Mew Lake last New Years, Jack and Paula. Well, we met through a note I left in the snow… but that’s another story.

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Jack and Paula spend a huge amount of their lives enjoying the outdoors. When we arrived at the trail, they advised me this was the first trail they’d ever done together 41 years ago!! WHAT?

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I was amazed.   Paula told me they take a photo at the sign ever time they do the trail, and todays visit was no different.

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I got a shot of all of us upon arrival as well.  Then we headed off.

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Peck Lake is one of my favorite trails in the summer months, but I have never done the trail in winter.

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I was pretty excited to see how different it looked. Paula noted that the lake looked like egg cartons and she was right. To me, it looked like it was moving, but it couldn’t be… right?

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It was impressive how well packed the trail was from all the visitors that had been here since the snow had started to fall.

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If you stepped just off the trail, however, you were in for a good drop, maybe a few feet, so we walked carefully.

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Saturday, we saw temperatures in the park rise to 10 degrees. This caused the snow to melt, but as the temperatures dropped again by the evening, everything froze, leaving a slick layer of ice on top of mostly everything.

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You had to navigate carefully, but it was worth it for sure.

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Paula, Jack and I had a great time together, sharing stories and talking about their first time here in May of 1976. Still amazed by this fact!!! WOW!

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You really had to be in love to spend so much time in one place, and continue on with one person.  I felt privileged to be able to share in that bond.

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As we walked along we spoke about Peck Lake and why it was named as such.

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Paula advised me it was named after George Peck and gave me further details, followed by a big huge grin.

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She was making it up, lol.

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By the end of the trail I had devised that Peck Lake was named after Jack and Paula and the first time they visited the trail in May of 1976 where they shared a peck to celebrate completing their first Algonquin Trail.

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I wonder if they knew then, that they would continue to walk this trail over and over and still enjoy it 41 years later as much as they had the very first time they were here? Maybe even more with me along .. right? HAHA!

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I hope you enjoyed my post and come back to check out more of them.  If you have any questions, comments or just want to say hi, please leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as I am able to!

Jack and Paula are followers of my blog so if you’d like to leave a comment for them, I’m sure they’d get a kick out of it, especially Jack!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Hiking!!

Camper Christina