Quetico Provincial Park may well be the finest canoeing locations in North America. The lakes are quiet and unspoiled. The rivers gurgle over rapids or wander through forested groves. And except for the occasional float boat, the sound of motors is nowhere to be heard.

The park’s network of interconnecting lakes makes for almost endless choices, and you could travel 1,000 miles of waterway without repeating yourself. For the most part, campers and canoeists will be on their own in Quetico Park, where slim indeed is the prospect of finding any particular lake occupied by even one canoe.

Seven hiking trails radiate from Dawson Trail, varying from 600 yards to 6 miles. The Pines Hiking Trail is challenging, but the payoff is a view of magnificent stands of towering red and white pine and the chance to picnic on the sandy beaches of Pickerel Lake.

Quetico’s name summons up the sounds of the call of loons, the rustle of pine boughs and the drip of water from a glistering paddle. It is long-distance canoe tripping that calls campers to this border-straddling wilderness.

Fortunately the park also provides a range of amenities enjoyed by the less intrepid, such as daylong canoe trips and hikes that lead to quiet lakes and old-growth forest. Wile the modest level of facilities and activities in the campground would be disappointing in another environment; the peaceful ambience of Quetico’s campground is both appropriate and appreciated.

Quetico is huge – over 475,000 hectares of serene lakes and rivers, seemingly untouched by human hand and awaiting discovery. Although the forest is largely northern in character, with such trees as spruce, jack pine, aspen and birch, southern hardwoods thrive where deeper soils and warmer temperatures permit.

Quetico is no longer strictly a summer holiday spot. During the winter, visitors come to cross-country ski, snowshoe, ice fish and winter camp. Snowmobiling, like motor-boating is prohibited.