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Summer day, Algonquin Park

Anybody have a good recipe for groundhog stew?? Apparently, the little furball said there will be six more weeks of winter, so today I'm warming things up with a photo taken on a hot day last summer in Algonquin Park. We were paddling on Canoe Lake and stopped for lunch on the shore, across from the Tom Thomson memorial cairn at Hayhurst Point. After a few bites of sandwich, our necks began to prickle and we turned around to see a dark wall through the trees. We thought we were eating on someone's front lawn, but when we walked into the forest to investigate, we saw this abandoned building. It was unexpected, and actually, a bit creepy. The forest is quickly reclaiming the site: the roof is gone and all that remains are the poured concrete walls and the mossy stone foundations. The building is part of the ruins of an old logging company. The Gilmour brothers were granted a licence at the end of the 19th century to log several acres of Crown land on the shores of the lake, south of the railway line. Their agreement with the government obliged them to clear the site of buildings and equipment when they left, but ruins and artifacts remain all over the area.

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