I decided to take my 5 year old son to Algonquin Park this year to join a group canoe adventure.
The minimum age was 6, but I convinced the organization to let him go.
The two of us had such an awesome time. We stayed in a log cabin with no electricity in the northwestern edge of the park. Our family had done some tent camping a few weeks earlier, so I was more than happy to have a few nights of rustic comfort this time around. We used a ground well to get our water and oil lamps for light. It took us back a century and felt so good.
Our days were spent taking adventures around the park: Canoeing, hiking, jumping off rocks, singing, and exploring. Our guide Cedrix was phenomenal. He taught us everything from the best and most efficient way to paddle to what plants in the forest we could eat if we needed to. We learned about animals, birds and trees. We learned how to recognize whether a moose has marked his territory. We learned about mushrooms (edible ones, deadly ones and medicinal ones). We learned about how to extract essential oils from trees like Balsam. And we even learned what forest plants can treat a UTI (urinary tract infection). It was awesome and such a growing experience for both of us.
My little guy was shining. He looked so full of joy. By the end of the trip, our group was calling him “Captain”. It was so cute and he loved it. Apparently he was the youngest person that had taken the group trip and he rose to the occasion. I was a proud mama.
We spent the late afternoons each day at the log cabin chilling, making art, fishing or taking a sauna in their sauna house. I had brought some oil pastels up 
so we could experiment with colouring on wood and the kids loved it. We had found old scraps of birch bark and pieces of wood and had so much fun colouring and drawing in the woods.
In the evenings, we built camp fires, chilled and told stories.
For our last morning, we had breakfast and ventured out on another morning hike. We crossed a river on a “home-made” bridge, used ropes to pull us up on steep rocks and meandered around the forest. The air was crisp and fragrant. We were all in the zone. It felt good.
One last jump in the lake and the “log cabin” part of our trip was over.
We were meeting the rest of the family in Ottawa a day later, so instead of driving back to Toronto, we drove through the Highway 60 corridor near Huntsville and stayed at the new log cabins Jen and Jaques of the Wolf Den bunkhouse built. The cabins are fully equipped winterized cabins. They have full kitchens, wide sprawling front porches with comfy chairs and even have barbeques. That night the two of us barbeqed, made cookies and read stories. We loved it.
Four dreamy beautiful days in Algonquin Park with my son.