Algonquian park is one of the go-to destinations for campers and hikers. Due to its huge size (must take several hours to drive through) and many different mountains, cliffs, forests and lakes, it is full of very differing hikes and plenty of wildlife animals such as bears, moose, wolves, beavers etc. The closest entrance to the park is about 3 hours away from Kingston and depending on where you are heading in the park, that time extends. So, myself and three other friends rented out a car and went on our Canadian road trip up to Algonquian for the weekend. I felt like I was in an American movie!

There is never a best time to go to Algonquian but we heard that it is exceptionally pretty during fall when you can see the full spectrum of tree leaf colours in the forests. However, it was booked out towards the end of fall when we planned to go and therefore we were left to the first days of winter – but how bad could it be? Well, the clue was in the fact that we were not allowed to camp there because of the temperature being too cold to be safe but instead had to rent a yurt if we wanted to stay. For those of you who don’t know what a yurt is here is your education for the day – it is essentially a large heated tent based on old Mongolian huts.

When we arrived at the campground it was dark, there was nobody at reception and we did not get sent our yurt number on the confirmation email. So, we were driving aimlessly around the campground looking for a lifeform to get some information from. After driving past a bunch of other lovely Canadians who were yurting, we asked them where they got their keys from and it turns out that the doors to our yurt should be unlocked with the keys on the table inside. So, we dropped by in the first yurt that we found empty. So our yurting adventure began . . .

The heater in the yurt was periodic and only the bottom 25% of it actually produced any heat. The level of cold need not be exaggerated, all I will say is that it is a good thing that we were not allowed to camp! On the bright side, the toilets were very well heated and had warm water for showers!!!

We went on a couple of hikes on the first day we spent at Algonquian and to summarise in one word, they were AWESOME! We were the first ones on each of the tracks and therefore saw the untouched snowy blanket over the whole park which was particularly spectacular from the mountaintop viewpoints. Although trees are known to be beautiful with their leaves, the beauty of bare, snowy branches cannot be neglected:

My personal favourite view (could be because I’m an engineer) was the running streams amidst all the snow and freezing cold weather. And when topped with the little wooden bridges, it was just a breathtaking view!

Homecoming is a concept that does not really exist to such a great extent in the UK, it is a weekend where alumni of Queen’s wo graduated in certain years come back for the weekend for a reunion with their classmates and a getaway full of fun. It is essentially a weekend where they get to relive their University years. Traditionally, there are two weekends every year for graduates celebrating certain important anniversaries such as their 5th, 10th, 25th, 50th etc. Alumni who are not within those graduating years are encouraged to wait for their turn as it gets extremely busy over the weekend.

Science graduates of 1948 – still have the spirit

However, a few years back, events got very out of hand and due to the health and safety hazards posed by the events, homecoming has been cancelled for several years running . . . . until I came!!!!

Homecoming involves many traditions, one of the main ones being the American Football game at the Richardson Stadium that both students and alumni go to watch.

The impressive Richardson Stadium before filling up on homecoming

The tickets for this are always sold out and students have to queue at 6am to get their hands on a limited number of free tickets. I was lucky enough to get myself a ticket to the game and it definitely lived up to expectations – also, on a side note, Queen’s won the game with an impressive comeback!

Queens vs St Laurier

Many of the other (best) traditions are exclusive to engineers (called the Applied Science department at Queens). The first is that all engineering frosh (freshers) are invited to a kegger (a house-party involving vast amounts of beer from kegs)  hosted by their frecs (freshers reps), here they all get purpled (a legitimate verb meaning to dye your body purple) with chemical dye in a small paddling pool in the backyard.

The purpling of non-frosh internationals

During half-time, all the engineers at the game then storm the field, with all of the purpled frosh getting in the centre and all of the older engineers surrounding them. This year, the storming of the field had been banned due to the fact that in previous games the university had been fined for not being able to clear the field quickly enough. Barricades had therefore been put up to ensure this rule as obeyed – ha! As if!

Storming the field

At Queen’s there is also a tradition of having leather jackets for each subject and yeargroup which is worn to show loyalty to that group. All engineering frosh buy these jackets and have to dye them purple, then get them home without contact with the hand (i.e. kicking them home). This gives the jackets the battered look that is aimed for. To enhance this battered look, engineers practice the jacket slamming at all possible occasions and the storming of the field is one of these. The older engineers surround the frosh and smash their jackets around them. The storming involves singing and shouting many engineering songs/chants and general jolly behaviour.

In the centre of the field, the purple arms of engineers can be clearly seen in the middle

The evacuating of the field was done in a somewhat orderly fashion – another thing you have to love about the Canadians, they do what is necessary for the benefit of the whole community. The field was eventually evacuated quite quickly, efficiently and safely. I’m pretty sure they will not try to enforce a ban again 🙂

Evacuating the field

The game was very enjoyable (despite the game being stopped about 10 times every minute due to the nature of American football), it would have been very difficult not to get into the Queen’s spirit!

International purple crew