Santa's Village

The morning started with a drive out towards Lake Muskoka north of Toronto for a small park called "Santa's Village". The skies were grey and gloomy, not a good sign considering we were visiting a coaster that was powered, and which never usually runs in the rain.

Getting close to the park I guess.

I think this was the right place. 

Visible from the car park was a go-kart track. This wasn't running but did have staff out by the karts.

On the hill side we could see the coaster, no sign of it running at all. This was a fairly rare coaster despite it being here since 1985. Somehow it had avoided the coaster hunters' radars and not many people had been here.

Through the trees we could see a pretty cool aerial assault course. This was open.

At the ticket booth it was made clear that the rides were down. The really friendly park staff couldn't tell us if the coaster would open or not. In hindsight it was a bit unreasonable of us to expect them to know the weather, but in our defence Wild Wheels managed it superbly. We thought we'd go back to the car and wait it out.

I took a walk down to the Muskoka River and found Santa's boat; a little bit of artistic licence there but I'm sure the intended audience (little kids) would lap it up. See what I did there with that vague lapland pun. 

After around an hour we conceded the skies weren't getting any better so went back to the gate. The wonderful staff kindly let us into the park for free and walked us to the coaster to photograph it after we asked if it could be OK to do that. A little consolation but as not many people had been here getting some evidence was the best we could do.

The ride is well sign-posted and easy to find. Just head right from the entrance and up the hill.

It looked like a pretty decent ride despite it being powered. I like that the track went out into the woods and I think the way it broke out through the trees out over the entrance would be pretty cool.

Tal accepted an offer of going into the middle of the ride to take photos. I was quite happy on the station. 

Yay, we finally get to see a bear. It's just a shame it was fake :)

So a miss for the start of the day but getting out into the forests of Canada was pretty cool and I didn't mind being out in the rain if it meant I could be breathing in all the oxygen that the trees were giving out. It won't beat my morning walks but it's a good way to start the day.

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