These wolves are feeding on a deer near the Algonquin Park visitor centre.  It is interesting that the dominant wolf is enjoying his solitary meal while the others watch and wait their turn.   It’s interesting to watch the second dominant wolf confirm his place with one other wolf at right.

Our Wolf Howl Canoe Trips in Algonquin Park give guests an opportunity to experience the spine tingling howls of the Nahma Lake wolf pack.

We have a bunch of great new trips and retreats including the reintroduction of a couple of great river trips and sea kayaking trips on Georgian Bay, as well we’ve got a bunch of new Yoga retreats and yoga adventures on a brand spankin’ new look to our Web site.

Have a gander at all that’s new at Northern Edge Algonquin.com

With the relaunch of Globe and Mail.com, came a neat surprise when we found our photo adorning the bottom left corner! Featured in the print edition of the Wednesday, May 20th edition of the Globe and Mail we were delighted to be featured among some terrific global destinations that are bringing a sense of romance and style to experiences in nature.

Want to go Glamping? Join us at the Edge and pamper yourself with food and experiences, or head into the park with Alexis and his team of talented guides for a rich encounter with nature.

Camping + Glamour = Glamping

So amazing and inspiring to see the emergence of spring, to feel the pulse of the earth increase it’s rhythm through growth, longer days and the return of bird song. To watch this process occur here, the Northern Edge Algonquin has evoked a well of ideas and new creation that must move forward.

Within our retreat based yoga practice there is a place within that we can access stillness, sink in and listen. What does the body speak of? What is your body story and how might we honor the old story and create a new one. As the old layers fall away we are left with a blank canvas in which to experiment with movement and stillness. I believe we have only possibilities and I hope you can join me this summer for our Yoga Intensive from August 27-30, to dive in deeper to your authentic self, to uncover or increase your life purpose and share in the splendor of nature, it’s rhythm and our innate connection to it! As always we invite you to join us for our Quest for Balance: Yoga and Sea Kayaking Retreat. New this year, we’re offering folks the opportunity to get the great Edge Experience while staying on a raised wooden platform under a large protective tarp, in your own tent. Consider our other comfy accomodations as well (above).

Latino Feel with “Gregor’s Food Trail & Tales”

The Edge kitchen is run very much like any home kitchen where care and attention are found at the top of the ingredients list. Of course this is the case in terms of making things from scratch, but what I want to highlight here is the way leftovers fit into the culinary equation.

In particular, this is a story of how some leftovers figured fairly prominently in the last meal of an Edge program. This is also a story of why when guests ask me for a recipe, I can’t really share any details … although I truly wish I could.

To read more about Greg’s tasty meal from or last Basic Shamanism program click here.

Rattle Making in 11 Shorts Steps

You will need the following basic materials to complete this project, but obviously if you wish to decorate your Rattle you will need various additional materials to do so. We will look at decoration at the end of this article.

1. Rawhide, large enough for 2 sides
2. Cord
3. Fine sand
4. Stick of approx.’ 11″ length and 1″ dia’.
5. Araldite glue. (optional)
6. Strong thread
7. Pebbles to put inside the Rattle

1. Soak your hide it in cold water until it becomes floppy, then lay it out flat somewhere to dry sufficient to be able to draw on it with a pencil. Put these shapes back into the water to soak.
2. Take your handle and shape it. Use a craft knife for this, and sand it down if you want a fully smooth finish.
3. You could varnish or wax it at this point.
4. Take your two rawhide shapes from the water and sew them together, edge to edge. Don’t sew up the neck- the narrow end, as that is where the handle will go, and in through which you will stuff the sand shortly to shape the head. Use a good strong thread for this- either waxed cobblers thread, or strong button thread.
5. Once you have the head sewn together, it has become a bag with a narrow opening like a balloon. Pour sand into the head, and stuff the sand into the head, force it to ‘inflate’. As you do so it will form into the shape that you need. Then stand it neck up, somewhere warm to dry out.
6. Once it is sufficiently hard and dry pour the sand out.
7. Put pebbles into the head, insert your thumb into the hole to keep the pebbles in, and experiment with shaking the Rattle to hear what sound it makes. Pour these pebbles out and keep them to one side ready for use.
8. Stand the head in a cup of water, so that only the neck is in the water as you want to make the neck flexible, but not soak the rest of the head and deform its shape. Once the neck is sufficiently flexible to be pliable, put your saved pebbles back in, then put the head-neck over the handle.
9. Once the neck of the rattle head dries apply araldite to the joint.
10. Once the head is on the handle, and while it’s still wet, bind the cord around the neck as tightly as you can.
11. Put your Rattle somewhere to dry for a couple of days

A Story of “Why He Has no Recipes to Share This Time”…

The Edge Kitchen is run very much like any home kitchen where care and attention are found at the top of the ingredients list. Of course this is the case in terms of making things from scratch, but what I want to highlight here is the way leftovers fit into the culinary equation.

In particular, this is a story of how some leftovers figured fairly prominently in the last meal of an Edge program. This is also a story of why when guests ask me for a recipe, I can’t always share any details … although I truly wish I could.

While a particular theme (say, East European) or seasonal ingredient (say, our backyard maple syrup) underlies the idea of a meal, what I actually cook is based on a combination of what’s fresh in the fridge/pantry, our guests dietary concerns and what’s leftover from previous meals served over the weekend. Todd credits me with being fairly astute at “longitudinal meal planning,” however, for most of my time cooking at the Edge this process plays out like “Oh boy … what am I going to do with all these extra peppers?”

The final meal of the last Basic Shamanism program is a prime example. When planning Sunday’s lunch a few days before the program began I was hoping to balance the globally far-flung flavors of Latino cooking with –for the most part– provincially produced goods. By the time I started cooking on Sunday morning, the dishes I had planned based on this general Latino theme were further influenced by an extra roasted chicken, two left-over accompaniments, and a bunch of Ontario green house peppers that where twice as large as expected.

For the broth with sweet peas: I love to stuff local free-range chickens with coarsely chopped garlic, onions and leek tops (and of course fresh parsley, rosemary and sage if you where able to keep them in doors over the Winter like we were). I then rub the outside of the birds with a combo of coarse sea salt, black pepper, paprika and “salt-free spike” and put them in a hot oven (breast up) to crisp the skin, flipping them to crisp the back, and then roasting them covered so the “stuffing” steams the meat off the bones. Given the place of the roasted chicken on the weekend menu, it was not a long step to take when making soup for Sunday’s lunch. After the roasted chicken was carved and served for Saturday’s dinner I just put the carcasses (and “stuffing”) in a pot, added a few more onions, carrots, covered with water and simmered for a few hours. I discarded all the solids and added organic sweet peas (frozen) and we had simple soup to hopefully balance the stronger flavors of the quesadilla.

For the Quesadilla filling: Like almost all my entrees, caramelized onions form the backbone around which I add combinations of herbs and spices to build flavor. For this dish, I sautéed diced cooking onions in olive oil and sea salt until they developed a dark brown color, I then added diced leeks and garlic. Once they softened, I moved everything to the outside of the pan, added a small pat of butter and toasted cumin, paprika, dried cilantro, oregano and chili powder until a little smoke appeared. I then added the left over roasted chicken, and deglazed the pan with a can of diced tomatoes and some of the stock I was preparing for the soup. I just let everything simmer until the liquid evaporated (about an hour).

For the toppings: Matt did the food shop for the program based on a list I prepared … how was I to know that the peppers were going to be twice the size as I expected. Given that these peppers where grown in Ontario greenhouses, (and I’m in the midst of preparing our gardens) I just could not resist making a fresh salsa loaded with peppers in anticipation of what we will grow at the Edge and what is going to be available at the local market later in the summer. For the salsa, I diced fresh (greenhouse) tomatoes, mixed them with a little sea salt and put them in a colander to drain. In a large bowl, I mixed olive oil (3 parts), apple cider vinegar (1 part), a shot of maple syrup, diced garlic, dried cilantro and oregano. To this I added diced red and yellow peppers and a small red onion (finely chopped). Once the tomatoes were drained, I added them to the pepper mix (the reserved liquid went into the chicken mixture). I let this all marinate for about an hour. About twenty minutes before serving, I pressed 2 fresh lemons into the mix and added a large handful of finely diced chives (from the garden) and flat-leaf parsley (we were able to keep in containers over the winter). The final quesadilla topping was a combination of a fresh chive-garlic sour cream served on Friday night (to accompany the baked potatoes which we had with maple sap braised pork roasts) and a cucumber-yogurt-scallion salad served at the previous days lunch. Both accompaniments were blended until smooth and creamy in a food processor (it was a sunny day … high solar power).

Putting it all together…

Building the Quesadillas was just a matter of baking organic Canadian corn tortillas on a cookie sheet until just crisp, covering the tortilla with the chicken mixture, topping that with some 2 year old cheddar (made a few hours north of the Edge) and broiling until the cheese melted.  Guests where then invited to top the quesadilla with the sweet pepper salsa and the creamy cucumber-chive dressing.  It seemed to go over fairly well.

The lunch bell rang at 12:30, I decided what I was going to make about 3 hours before that, and in between I was just in the moment… I wish I could share more about how much? and for how long? I just never paused to measure, my cooking is about those 3 hours, and the 3 hours before the previous meal, and digging gardens, and dealing with generators … and that’s why I don’t have any “recipes.”

Cheers, Gregor

Spring is in the air up here in Algonquin country and there are signs of the changing of the seasons around every corner.   The Crows and Gulls have returned and I’ve been watching the Ravens gathering nesting material for quite some time now.     Makes me wonder how the Owls are doing and if there young have hatched yet?     Owls are early nesters and the young are in the nest even when there is still snow on the ground.     Amazing and powerful birds!    This morning I crossed the lake with my ice skates and had a great time skating close to shore where the ice was smooth and solid.     This is perhaps the last time that I will get to enjoy this experience and it was an incredible amount of fun!     It is a really cool feeling to skate on a frozen lake with such an expansive view.     I’ve included a video here of my morning skate for you to enjoy.      Anyways we are busy planning for the upcoming season here at Northern Edge and our first canoe trip of the season is fast approaching in a little over a month.   The Nipissing River Trip promises to be an exhilarating and exciting paddle across Algonquin Park.     One of my favorite rivers to canoe.    There’s still space on this trip, please visit the website for more information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivNstmGIwaU

The other day I was heading back to the island and I had an amazing encounter with one of my favorite animals — the Eastern Wolf! All of a sudden this wolf came out of the forest onto the snowbank beside the road and stopped, we gazed at each other for what seemed like an eternity (a few seconds!) before it retreated just into the trees. It then moved parralel to the road for about 75 feet before crossing in front of me. At this point I didn’t have my camera ready, which was too bad, seeing as the wolf was only about 20′ away. It was amazing and very powerful to see this beautiful animal so close. As it moved into the woods and across a frozen bog I quietly followed to the edge of he tree line and watched as it climbed a small hill and sat down looking back in my direction. We each stood silently for close to 5 minutes. The wolf then began to come back down the hill towards me and I managed to get this short video. What a gift to experience this moment. I spend so much time each winter trailing these animals and there has only been a few occasions when I have been fortunate enough to see one. After the wolf left I explored the woods where it had originally come from and found two beds located in a sunny opening in the forest. I followed the trail for a while and then decided to ‘let it go’, revelling in the events that had just unfolded. I’m thankful to this animal for letting me see it and for the many teachings that continue to come to me as a result of it. May the power of the Wolf continue to shine in the forests and hearts of all those it touches.

Eastern Wolf Video

Listen in to Martha, Todd, Wendy and Kate in their last few minutes in the office before the holidays!

Todd and Wendy are chatting about the last of the fall colours.  Todd is hosting Ontario’s Digital Economy in Huntsville, then heading to Manitoulin Island to help the community develop new tourism experiences and bring them to life.

Also, Newsweek and Explore Magazine inquire about Tracking retreats at the Edge.

Congrats to the team for wrapping up a great season this week!  Learn more about Yoga and the Zen of Winter by calling Wendy or Kate at 800 953-3343.

Hello Friends of the Edge,

Chris Gilmour here (guide for this years Heart of Gold Canoe Trip). It is Wednesday afternoon and I sit on my couch watching the leaves drop outside my window. Yesterday at this time I was fortunate enough to be paddling west across Kawawayamog lake (I wonder if that is spelled right?) with a nice gentle eastern wind behind us. This was my second year in a row leading this fall colors trip and I can honestly say my heart and spirit feel like gold right now!

We left for the park last Thursday, a beautiful sunny fall day, just as the fall colors were begining to peak. Each day ( and even every few hours) the colors looked a little different. Patricia, my canoe mate for the week, commented that on the first day the landscape looked like a bright acrylic painting and by day 5 it looked more like a fading old oil painting, warm and familiar.

I don’t know if I could pick one highlight of the week but a few that really stand out to me include our early morning paddle out to bigger lake where we watched a large bull moose, a cow, and baby moose feeding along a marsh edge. We were able to get with in 30 ft of them for some great photo’s. The following day we decided to go for a hike along the portage trail out to Cayuga Lake with a picnic planned on the other side. While hiking the trail we came across a very fresh wolf track that may have been hot on the trail of a running deer (we found the deer tracks as well). After putting a bit of the story together we were hooked and spent most of the hike staring at the ground looking for more tracks and another part of the story of the wolf and deer. We also came across some very fresh fox tracks on that same trail.

That night, after a rice and peanut sauce stir fry, we gazed at the brilliant sky above and used our star chart to find a few of the constellations. No one on our trip should ever have trouble finding north on a clear night again!

Other highlights of the trip included: loons calling at night, swimming under a waterfall, smores on the camp fire, of course incredible colors, and great company.

Fall is probably my favorite season to be in the park, the mosquitoes and black flies are gone, the water is still warm, the nights are cool, and you almost have the park to yourself. Before heading out I was having a little trouble accepting that the summer is gone and the winter on it’s way but after this trip I think I am ready, I have a warm Golden Heart to warm me during the cool nights to come.
Thanks to all who participated in the trip and everyone who helped make it possible,

Warm Greetings to the Northern Edge Community and all their Friends,

Chris Gilmour

Wilderness Guide/Outdoor Educator