Maynooth, Ontario – Who knew there was so much to see in this area!

The weather was crazy nice last week so Tuesday, 10 November, we decided to pack our lunch and our photographic equipment and head up north. Normally when we hit Maynooth, we turn left to go to Algonquin Park but we decided to keep on goin’ and head north instead.

Further down the road we passed the small village of Maple Leaf (how Canadian is that?) and stopped at Neuman Falls. This is a favourite spot of ours but we haven’t been here for quite a while. But now, sadly, there are no “No Trespassing” and “Private Property” signs ALL over the place so I took a couple of snaps from the bridge and we moved on.

This is one side of the road.

The other side of the road is below, not a great photo and does NOT show the beauty of the area. But it was the best I could do as we were not allowed to go down there anymore, which is really unfortunate. It was a lovely spot.

Then on to High Falls, we think that’s what it’s called. It’s hard to find, it’s literally a hole in a rock wall. And it’s not the easiest trail. It’s very steep and you have to be super careful climbing down to the falls. But, it’s a lovely spot.

It’s also not a spot with signage, you have to know where you are going. This is the spot and we parked on the side of the road.

Below is the first part of the trail when you leave the highway, not too bad.

But after that, it is an extremely steep trail to get down to the water. Someone tied a rope to some trees to help you get down and back up. The pine needles made it kinda slippery and I was able to get about 3/4’s of the way down and then said forget it! Clint went all the way to the bottom but he said it wasn’t easy. Too bad the access wasn’t easier.

So this is the photo I got ! Not very good as I was not at the bottom. One day I’ll get there ! Last time we where here it was early spring and there was still ice and snow on the trail, so I didn’t get to the bottom that time either.

We left there and just past High Falls, we turned onto Boulter Road and it was a scenic route to Rivers Run…………..apparently. Not so scenic for us, we turned around and headed back and on to Papineau Lake. This lake had a beautiful sandy beach. Really nice spot.

Off to White Duck Lake ! Not that we knew about White Duck Lake but we like to explore, this was a really cute lake.

One day we may take our canoe and go for a paddle as there is a boat launch, sort of…………..

Then we went to a look-out overlooking Kamaniskeg Lake. This is near the town of Combermere where the Mayflower sank – NO not THAT Mayflower.

This story actually made it into Ripley’s Believe It or Not. “Dead Man saves three”! It was the worst maritime inland tragedy in Canada occurring on November 12, 1912. Nine people died, but three people survived by hanging onto a coffin and floating to an island!

Below is the view from the top and way out in the distance, you can barely see 2 small islands and the one on the right is the one where the survivors ended up.

After that we headed to Crooked Slide Park. What a cute spot! I really liked it. The story is that there used to be an log chute on Byers Creek used in 1900’s to float logs down to the Madawaska River. This is a reconstruction but so cool. You can follow a few different, short trails along the river and see the cascades.

Entrane to the park, actually there are two entrances

There is more parking at the second entrance, well 1st entrance if you drive from the other way lol. No picnic tables or washrooms though and that would have been nice. We spent quite a while here and ended up sitting in our truck to eat the lunch we brought with us.

You can walk up past the slide to a bridge and along the river.

We will definitely come back some day. View from the bridge in below photo. the other side of the bridge is more cascades, lots of rocks and moving water.

Crooked Slide Park just outside of Combermere

We kept driving on Old Barry’s Bay Road and stopped at the Szare Szeregi Warsaw Polish Monument. Quite a moving memorial I might add.

It was quite impressive even though small.

We then drove a Forest Access Road,(Mayo Lake Road) over to the highway, to make our way home. That was an interesting drive. My small car would not have made it!