Moose Tracks

Meandering alongside the fabled St. Lawrence River, between Gananoque and Brockville, is one of the prettiest roadways in Ontario.

The Thousand Islands Parkway is framed on the north side by a majestic outcropping of pink granite topped with Eastern Red cedar, pine and juniper, and on the south side by the peninsulas, coves, and many islands of the St. Lawrence.

This winding two-lane roadway — and the villages and parks around it — sits within the Frontenac Arch Biosphere, a UNESCO World Heritage Reserve. Here, five diverse forest regions — the Lawrence, Boreal, Appalachian, Atlantic Coastal and Carolinian forests — converge like no where else on Earth.

It is also one of the last remaining intact forest and wetland linkages in eastern North America.

Alice was a 700 lb moose who wandered into an upstate New York town in 1998. She was electronically tagged by the local conservation authority and driven back to the interior of the Adirondack Park.

Alice, however, felt the call of every traveller with wanderlust. Instead of staying put in the lushness of the Adirondacks, she headed north to the Canada/U.S. border. Reaching the St. Lawrence River, Alice swam across using many of the islands as respite, and a place to get dinner and drink for the night.

Alice came ashore in Canada just east of the Thousand Islands International Bridge at Ivy Lea. She then made her way across the Thousand Islands Parkway, over the granite to Highway 401.

Remarkably, Alice made it across the 401 — one of the world’s widest and busiest highways.

Over the course of a year, Alice trekked 570 km from Adirondack Park in New York State to Algonquin Park in Ontario, where she lived out her days.

Her trek was remarkable because it was trackable — this intrepid moose showed scientists that not only was it possible for animals to travel such long distances, but that it was vital to preserve the corridors that help them do so.

Thousands of animals do not successfully make this journey, and are killed, particularly on Highway 401, but also on other roadways, and many times due to lack of food, water and rest, where habitat loss is a problem.

Born of the need to preserve this corridor, a Canadian, American, and Indigenous partnership called A2A Collaborative (Adirondack to Algonquin) was established.

Safeguarding this critical corridor for the migration of birds and animals is A2A’s goal.

Not only are they active conservationists, but they are also focused on road ecology and on the development of safe wildlife pathways over highways. They are working to raise awareness and motivate action for a strategy that restores connectivity, reduces wildlife mortality and improves driver safety. 

A2A has forged a hiking trail between the Adirondack and Algonquin Parks. Mirroring Alice’s path, the A2A Trail is the monumental completion of a series of existing trails to create one journey.

It is forged and mapped, and you can hike it or bike it — and in some cases even drive parts of it. You can download the A2A Trail Guide App and follow in Alice’s footsteps.

We’re not saying that Alice stopped for a coffee at the Painted Turtle, or played a round of golf at Smuggler’s Glen, but we imagine that her adventurous spirit lives on in this area. The Thousand Island Parkway will lead you east and west through a rich ecological landscape steeped in Indigenous, explorer, and magical history.