Travel Northern Ontario: Arowhon Pines
By DIANA BALLON, AOL Travel

“I moose be dreaming,” says the sign on the board outside the door of the dining hall. Certainly, that’s how I felt when I first stood on the wrap-around porch of the hexagonal-shaped dining hall at Arowhon Pines. It’s the place I would continue to retreat to throughout the weekend, to sip my coffee as the mist rose from the water in the morning; to watch a pair of mating loons, skimming across the water like two hydrofoil boats in a drag race in the late evening.

Here’s what you’ll need to know if you decide to take the escape.

Ambiance

Besides a one-hour optional pontoon boat tour around the lake on Sunday afternoons, and the bell announcing meal times, visitors are left to plan how they want to spend their days. Staying at Arowhon Pines is like being at a well-equipped cottage with a difference: you can enjoy all the water and land activities that you want, but can also sit down to elaborate home-cooked meals each day. The pace is relaxed, the dress at dinner casual, and the vibe is elegant rustic, where stillness and peace are privileged over busy schedules and screaming kids.

Guests to Arowhon Pines tend to be adult. Only 10% to 15% of visitors are families, and the kids that are there are remarkable well-behaved: no scenes at the dinner table, no one poking at the bright red Jell-O disc on the dessert table (except for maybe my four-year-old son). When we visited in early June, the crowd was older – couples in their forties and beyond, as well as what looked like several family reunions, with three generations all staying and eating together.

Only half the guests that come to Arowhon Pines are from Canada – some of the more famous ones being actress Sarah Polley, filmmaker Atom Egoyan, Gordon Downie of the Tragically Hip, and Jim Creegan of the Barenaked Ladies, who also got married here. Others come from the United States, the UK, Germany and further afield. (The resort has small flags that they place at the tables of foreign guests showing the country they come from.) Sixty per cent of guests are repeat visitors.

Surroundings

Arowhon Pines is one of only three resorts in the 3,000 square miles of wilderness that make up Algonquin Provincial Park. It’s a three-hour drive from Toronto, 3.5 hours from Ottawa, and 16 kilometres from the western gate of the Park. The last eight kilometres takes you along a windy gravel road to the edge of Little Joe Lake, where you will see a cluster of red-roofed log cabins, which signal you have arrived!

This wilderness is shared with canoe trippers wishing to get lost in the deep forested green and wide blue spaces of the park; with long-time cottagers and international visitors to the park; and with children at one of several nearby camps, including Camp Arowhon, run by Helen Kates’ step-daughter and Globe and Mail restaurant reviewer Joanne Kates. Together, they share the space with a variety of less civilized species: according to the board outside of the dining hall, the most recent sightings include a bull moose, a snapping turtle, a red fox, otter and American marten.

Food and wine

“If you’re not proud of it, don’t serve it,” says the sign in big bold letters looming over the kitchen. Because Helen Kates is not just the owner of Arowhon Pines, but its executive chef and the creator of all its recipes, food is one of the resort’s central attractions - as is the building where it is served. With its cathedral ceilings, central stone fireplace, and the copper pots filled with dried flowers that adorn the room, the place has an inviting feel, as do the large platters of food.

Kates is proud of the recipes she created over many long winters when the resort was closed. “They must follow them,” she explains, pointing to the overhead monitors in the kitchen where the recipes are displayed. (Over the years, some revisions have been made, along with certain “nuances” to the recipes, inspired by long-time head chef David Cooke.)

Arowhon Pines offers an eclectic choice of dishes, ranging from the more traditional roast venison, to the racier grouper with Singapore noodles, to the comfort of decadent desserts like chocolate mousse, butter tarts and berry pies. On weekends, the food is served buffet-style, along with a choice of three mains that you can order off the menu at breakfast and dinner. (If you really like something on the menu, they’ll even offer you seconds!)

The resort doesn’t serve wine, but you can bring your own, and you don’t have to pay a corkage fee.

Service

In better economic times, the ratio of staff to visitors has been as high as one to three: now, staff numbers are lower, and some perform double duty. (The babysitter, for instance, also changed our bed sheets and cleaned the cabin.) Staff are warm, helpful and accommodating, though not always as well briefed as they could be. When we asked our server which of the three mains she’d recommend at dinner, she said blankly that she hadn’t tried any.

Amenities

Outdoor activities are plentiful: you can swim; take out a sailboat, canoe or kayak; go for a hike; take a private sauna in the pine cabin at the edge of the water; or play tennis on one of two courts. If it’s rainy or buggy, you can sit out in the lovely screened-in porch off the games room, or – as the name implies – play games. There’s ping-pong, bumper pool and board games, as well as a video screening room for after-dinner movies. (A babysitter is available from 6 to 8 pm to occupy young kids here if you want a romantic dinner a deux.)

You can also take over the entire resort for a wedding of up to 120 people. It’s a perfect setting to get married under a canopy of trees, with a backdrop of blue water and sky.

Accommodations

There are 49 rooms spread out over one, two, three, four, eight and 12-room cabins. Each room has a private bath, and each cabin has a shared sitting room with a flagstone fireplace, fridge and variety of antique pine furniture. Most have their own decks. While the dining hall would be considered elegant rustic, rooms are simply rustic.

The resort is open from June 1 through to Thanksgiving. Rates include accommodations, plus three meals a day, but meals can also be purchased separately.

1000 PLACES TO SEE (IN THE USA AND CANADA) BEFORE YOU DIE
BY PATRICIA SCHULTZ

The cry of a loon across a misty lake, a wolf's howl at sunset, paddling through a string of lakes to reach a remote log lodge - these experiences of the Canadian frontier are found today at Algonquin Provincial Park, a sanctuary of nature just three hours but worlds away from Toronto or Ottawa. Algonquin, one of Canada's largest provincial parks - stretching across 3,000 square miles of wilderness forest and lakeland - is traversed by just one road. The Algonquin's backcountry is paradise for paddlers and is one of Canada's top canoeing destinations. The canoe is about the only means of exploring Algonquin's watery wonderland, where more than 2,500 lakes and more than 1,240 miles of designated canoe routes coverage. With lake pouring into lake, experiences paddlers can plan a leisurely multiday trip through the heart of algonquin, or, with a few short portages, complete a lopp circut through the wilds.

When a wolf pack comes within range of the park's southern corridor, rangers offer evening "public wolf hows," one of the highlights of a late summer trip to the park. With up to 2,000 people in the attendance in an outdoor amphitheater, park naturalists howl to the wolf pack and the audience awaits a response from the pack. There's nothing more spine-tingling than hearing the cries of wolves echoing across the lakes and lonely hills under a black, star-filled sky.

At the backcountrys edge, nestled in deep forest, is Arowhon Pines, a historic lodge resort at the edge of Little Joe Lake. The Kates family established Arowhon Pines in the 1940's, when they built the originial six-sided log-and-stone lodge right on the lakes edge, and have been running it ever since.

With a massive three-story stone fireplace at its center, the lodge serves as the dining room, famous accross ontatio for its fresh ingredients expertly prepared, friendly and excellent service, and extraordinary sunset views. Log cabins are scattered around lakefront, decorated with pine furniture and rustic Canadiana. The most romantic are the one-bedroom cabins with stone fireplaces,but it's also fun to share one of the larger cabins (with three four, eight, and up to a dozen bedrooms, all with private bathrooms) with travelers who may come from as far awa as Argentina or Austrailia.