Winter Events in Muskoka & Almaguin

There's always plenty happening in and around Muskoka and the Almaguin Highlands each winter.

Here are some of the organized events open to the public. Check back regularly for the latest updates. If you know about an event happening in or around Huntsville, Algonquin Park, or the Almaguin Highlands, let me know and I'll add it.

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Olympic Torch Community Celebration

Huntsville

As one of the celebration venues for the Olympic Torch Relay, Huntsville will be welcoming the torch on Dec 30. Watch it arrive to light the cauldron in River Mill Park in downtown Huntsville. Music, entertainment, interactive displays and giveaways. Free shuttle buses from the commerce park at Hwys 11 & 60 to downtown for the festivities.

Dec 30, 12:00 - 2:30 pm

Burk's Falls Winterfest

Burk's Falls

The 15th annual festival celebrates winter with small-town charm. Games, dancing, tobogganing, a bonfire and more.

Jan 16 & 17

Banff Mountain Film Festival

Huntsville

Algonquin Outfitters again brings the Banff Mount Film Festival World Tour to Huntsville's Algonquin Theatre. Two nights of screenings feature a collection of the most inspiring and thought-provoking action, environmental, and adventure mountain films, taking you from remote landscapes and cultures to up close and personal with adrenaline-packed action sports.

Jan 19 & 20

Muskoka Loppet
Arrowhead Provincial Park, Huntsville
Arrowhead Nordic Ski Club invites your to Arrowhead Provincial Park for a day of competition and fun. Serious racers as well as recreational skiers, snowshoers and fitness enthusiasts can enjoy the scenic beauty of Arrowhead Park in its winter splendour. Races include classic skiing 30km, 15km, 5km social course; snowshoe 3km and 9km; and youth races.
Jan 24

Canadian National Pond Hockey Championships

Huntsville

Billed as the largest pond hockey event, and growing larger every year. Two weekends of national playoffs, plus additional weekends of regionals. All on the frozen surface of Huntsville's Peninsula Lake.

Jan 29 - 31; Feb 5 - 7

Family Day Long Weekend
Ontario
A long weekend just to get out of town and have fun with the people you love! This statutory holiday on the 3rd Monday of February makes for a nice long weekend just when you're feeling the mid-winter blahs. Book early as this weekend always fills up.
Feb 12 - 15

Winter Fun Day

Oxtongue Lake

Algonquin Outfitters annual fun (and mostly free!) days of great outdoor winter activities. Find out why we love winter so much! Nordic ski touring and lessons, snowshoe hiking, winter camping demos, games, giveaways, and bonfire. Barbeque lunch and tours are reasonably priced. Great sales in store.

Feb 20 & 21

Ontario Winter Games

Muskoka

Athletes from around the province will be converging on local towns as Muskoka hosts the 2010 Ontario Winter Games. Huntsville area venues will be showcasing: Cross-Country Skiing, Women's Hockey, Table Tennis, Wrestling, Figure Skating, Judo and Gymnastics.

Mar 4 - 7

Holiday gift shopping can be as easy and relaxing as a visit to Fern Glen Inn

Gift Certificates are available for one-night stays, two-night stays, packaged getaways, or any dollar amount.

Certificates can be mailed to you in time for Christmas giving; or mailed directly to the special people on your gift list. For last-minute shopping, we can email you the Gift Certificate to print out yourself.

How does it work?
You choose the number of nights or one of our packages (such as the Sweet Retreat Romantic Getaway) when you purchase the Gift Certificate. Tell us who the gift is for and the brief message to print on it (such as Merry Christmas Joe & Jane from Rover & Fluffy).

The Gift Certificate is valid for any room in the Coach House for 1 year from the time of purchase. When the recipients are ready to use their certificate, they make their reservation like any other guest: choosing the room, season and dates they want based on availability. They can reserve by phone, email, or online, using the gift certificate as method of payment.

They get a relaxing or adventurous experience at a time that suits them. You get to conquer your shopping list without braving the stores and malls. And we get to share our little patch of paradise with the special people in your life.

Call or email to order your Gift Certificates. 1-866-311-8519. info@ferngleninn.on.ca

Or if you're dropping hints for your own wish list, make sure Santa sees this blog!

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Give the gift of Fresh Air, Warm Hospitality and Fine Country Cooking

Happy (Stress-free, Relaxing) Holidays

Enjoy the holiday season without the holiday mayhem

For many people, the holiday season is a whirlwind of commitments and responsibilities... shopping, decorating, wrapping; parties, crowded stores, full parking lots; gift exchanges, high expectations, cooking and baking enough to feed a small nation, an over-packed schedule of things to do and places to go... It's exhausting just thinking about it!
For some, this hectic pace defines the holidays. Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without high blood pressure and a tension headache! I used to get sick with a cold or flu every Christmas, likely due to too much stress and not enough sleep.
I've since wised up and simplified my version of what the holidays should be—and it's not about glitz and gifts! The only glitter here comes from the moonlight shining on crystalline snowflakes. We leave the tree-decorating up to Jack Frost and Mother Nature, who generously dress every bough and branch in the forest. Festivities are in the form of old-fashioned fun (think tobogganing, snowshoeing, and sleigh rides) or low-key relaxing (think cuddles by the fire). And oh boy, are our nights silent!
Holidays now are about unplugging, slowing down, and enjoying the turn of the calendar as one year winds down and a new one begins. If that sounds like your idea of the perfect holidays, then there's room at the inn for you!

We're open and welcoming guests every day throughout the Christmas and New Year's holidays. Holiday rates are in effect from December 24th through January 2nd. Dinners are available with advance notice, or we can tell you which restaurants are open in town.

We can also recommend places to go tubing, skiing, winter hiking and skating. Snowshoes are complimentary for guests to use on our private 10km trail system.

Call us at 1-866-311-8519 or visit Fern Glen Inn to reserve your holiday season getaway.

Screaming Heads

The Almaguin Highlands is rich with artists and artisans—potters, sculptors, wood-crafters, glass-workers, and painters of every medium and style. All are interesting individuals, but one in particular stands out when it comes to sheer scale of size.

Artist Peter Camani has created an immense, surreal artscape of huge cast-concrete sculptures throughout his 310-acre property. Locally referred to as Screaming Heads, the property serves as the artist's home as well as his canvas.
Visitors are welcome to wander the trails that wind through meadows, past woods and ponds, to get up close to—or even walk through—his artwork.

When there, don't forget to take a closer look at Mr. Camani's house, surrounded by thick walls and adorned by a two-headed dragon and a warrior princess. The giant head on the back of the building houses the artist's studio. At least one of the wall towers is a shelter for the many resident peacocks.

Some people find a visit to Screaming Heads eerie, others find it intriguing. I, for one, relish the chance to put myself inside another's artistic vision and step away from the everyday. If nothing else, everyone can agree that it's a unique and impressive piece of work

If you go: You'll find Screaming Heads on Midlothian Road, near the town of Burk's Falls. It's an easy outing from here at Fern Glen Inn, and popular with many of our guests. There is a parking lot beside the house, and a donation box in case you feel the art is worth supporting. Since it is a private home as well as an art exhibit, if the gate to the parking lot is closed, please just enjoy the view from the road.

Click here to see more photos of the Screaming Heads at the peak of the fall colours.

Self-Indulgent Season

Some call it the slow season. Others refer to the low season, shoulder season, or quiet season. But I like to think of it as the Self-Indulgent Season. And I mean that in a good way.

The season I'm talking about is this un-season between fall and winter. At first glance there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of "indulgence" going on. The colourful leaves have fallen from the trees but the snow hasn't come yet (at least not enough to play in) and—thank goodness—it's too soon for the "happy holidays" mayhem to start. It's too late for swimming and paddling but too early for dog sledding and snowshoeing. The crowds that converge on Muskoka in the summer and fall have emptied out of the restaurants, shops and parks.

A getaway now is a getaway "just because". It's a chance to indulge yourself in a slower pace away from the hectic demands of your daily routine. For some, that means indulging in a few days of much-needed solitude with a solo retreat; for others it means nurturing important friendships and relationships overdue for attention (think romantic hideaway or girlfriends' getaway).

Many of us are sooo used to a go-go-go pace—always doing something, always trying to cross something off our list—that we don't know what to do with ourselves when we actually stop moving. Sure, there are plenty of activities to fill your time during a November/December visit to the inn... trail hiking, horseback riding, sightseeing, exploring Algonquin Park among others. But if you let it, it can be as simple as lying low and not planning to do anything at all.

So how might you pass your time on a quiet getaway, whether you're on your own or with a companion? Lose yourself in a book (bring your own, peruse our eclectic collection, or ask us about our favourite lazy-day bookstore). Treat yourself to an afternoon nap and recover from the sleep deficit most of us carry. Take a long, slow amble through the woods or sit by a waterfall with a sketch pad or journal.

If you feel like splurging on some extra indulgences, we can book a massage for you with a registered massage therapist, or even arrange for a tarot card reading.

We certainly hope to see you here at the inn this un-season for our special blend of R&R, but whereever you are, don't forget to slow down and indulge in whatever it is that replenishes your self.

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There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you.... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself. ~Ruth Stout

Pumpkin Cookies

At this time of year, as we revel in the Golden Encore, the world around us echoes the colours of autumn gourds—think deep-hued orange pumpkins, tawny butternut and bright yellow spaghetti squash.

These delicious seasonal vegetables frequently star at our dinner table, but they are also wonderfully suited to baked treats.

This recipe for Pumpkin Cookies is one of my childhood favourites, copied from the well-worn card in my mom's recipe box. I love them as they are, fresh from the oven and still a little warm, but you can also turn them into Pumpkin Whoopie Pies by sandwiching them with a tangy-sweet cream cheese filling.

Using canned pumpkin puree (NOT pumkin pie filling!), these are quick and easy to whip together. You can make them at any time of year, but with Halloween around the corner, is there a better time than now?

Pumpkin Cookies

These cookies have a fine crumb and moist, cake-like texture. I like them best on the same day they are baked, but they will keep at room temperature in an air-tight container for a few days.

Makes about 30 cookies

2 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

1 3/4 cups pure pumpkin puree

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup pecans, walnuts, raisins, crystallized ginger, or chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, spices and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl using handheld electric beater) cream together the butter and brown sugar until fluffy and pale in colour, about 3-5 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the pumpkin puree and vanilla extract.

Add about half the dry ingredients, mixing on low speed until almost combined. Switch to a wooden spoon or rubber spatula and gently stir in the remaining dry ingredients. Stir in nuts, fruit or chocolate chips if using. For the cookies pictured here, I divided the dough into two bowls and added pecans & raisins to one and chocolate chips to the other. Crystallized ginger and white chocolate chips would've been a great combination, too.

Drop the batter by heaping tablespoon onto the prepared cookie sheets, spacing about 1 1/2" apart. Bake until the top looks dry and springy to the touch. A toothpick inserted in the top should come out clean or with moist crumbs attached. About 12-14 minutes.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Make the pumpkin cookies as above, but use the back of the spoon to smooth out and slightly flatten the dough mounds after dropping onto the cookie sheet. Bake and cool.

Make filling: With an electric mixer, beat together 16 oz (450g or two bricks) of cream cheese, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and 1 cup of icing sugar until smooth. Taste and add more sugar if you like it sweeter or to thicken. If the consistency is too thick for spreading, beat in a bit of cream.

Slather a thick layer of filling on the bottom of a cookie, then sandwich with another cookie. Repeat until you use up all the filling or all the cookies. Take a bite and say "whoopie!".

Country Roads

Nothing beckons quite like a country road in Autumn.

Some of our guests on the recent Thanksgiving weekend brought their bicycles and rode 'around the block'—which, here, is a good 32 km trip. They had a great time and came back raving about the colours, the road, the route. So much so that Jim and I took a little break and took a drive up our road for a little eye candy.


We were treated to some sunny spells and patches of blue sky, which always sets off the fall foliage so nicely, but even under clouds, the view was spellbounding.

Round Lake is just a few clicks up from us on Fern Glen Road. The auburn hills with their green conifer skirts cut a colourful swathe between the water and sky. There are not a lot of houses and not much activity on this lake, which makes it a great choice for a short paddle if you bring your canoe or kayak.


These winding country roads, though, offer a wonderful way to see the season. Whether on a bike, in a car, or strolling on foot, the colour surrounds you. The curves and surface of the road make you take your time, take it all in. In places, the crowns of the trees overhead stitch together to form a canopy of colour and light. And every now and then, where the road widens a bit, you just have to pull over, get out, and say Wow.