MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Winter 2020

31 words & photos :: Kristin Schnelten The holidays passed in a blur, as they always do. Working in the ski industry, last Christmas break was exceptionally blurry—more of a blind, screaming confusion, really. January brought a pause in the mayhem, and we took the opportunity to run away for a bit. Google directed us to a spot that met our simple needs: The Wolf Den Nature Retreat promised to be unfussy and dog-friendly, just a stone’s throw from Algonquin Provincial Park. Perfect. We crammed children, dogs and an embarrassing amount of gear into the truck and hit the road. Arriving under a full moon on a crisp and cloudless -30˚C evening, we found our little cabin and unpacked. Snowshoes, cross-country skis, toboggans, and kicksled piled on the porch, we spilled through the door, gathering around our singular accommodation requirement: the wood stove. I had little doubt a real wood-burning stove would reset our frazzled selves with the rhythm of chopping, feeding, stoking and the calm of simply sitting. Our host appeared at the door with a welcoming armload of kindling, and during our brief chat we found ourselves falling for the place’s history. The original building, a trading post and canoe-up restaurant built in the 1940s, was the last stop on the Oxtongue River before entering the park. Over time, owners added 26 cabins to the mix, but as the property passed through various hands, those cabins fell into disrepair. Eventually even the trading post met its demise, by way of a dramatic explosion. Just three of the original cabins still stand, overshadowed now by a newer main lodge, numerous bunkhouses and four recently built cabins. When Jen and Jacques Dailloux acquired the property, those four cabins were only partially built, each boasting nothing more than a foundation and squared logs, void of even chinking. With Jen’s design vision and months of round-the-clock work, the couple and their family finished and restored the cabins, focusing on ecological building methods and materials. We followed Jacques on a quick tour of the hostel portion of the retreat, including the main lodge, bunkhouses, sauna and the now- sleeping garden. With shared spaces, prayer flags and hand-chalked mantras dotted about the buildings, the place definitely has its own brand of funkiness—chill, with a decidedly earthy, world-traveler vibe. Settling into our own little cabin, we commenced our sought-after respite: we read by the fire, we ate by the fire, we played board games by the fire, we stayed as long and as late we could by that glorious little wood stove. Over the next three days, we found our rhythm: suit up, play, warm up, repeat. We hiked to frozen waterfalls, we explored the river landing. We snowshoed the property, we tobogganed down a steep WEEKENDER THE WELCOMING WOLF Reset your frazzled self at a nature retreat near Alqonquin Park