In late-July, Canada announced that beginning August 9, 2021, the border would be opened to fully-vaccinated US citizens who could also provide negative COVID test results. We're accustomed to the 1250-mile commute between our NC home and Ely, and were surprised to find that the drive to Kiosk, Ontario, was almost 200 miles shorter. The drive, of course, wasn't the issue with getting to Algonquin—we had to show proof of vaccination and negative COVID tests, and had to use the ArriveCAN app to get into Canada. Fortunately, toothmiester and other frequent contributors to BWCA.com forums began posting their experiences with the new border-crossing requirements. We had completed our vaccinations in March, so no issue there, and were able to schedule ID NOW tests at a nearby Walgreens. With vaccination records and test results uploaded to ArriveCAN, we thought we were ready to start the drive, then learned that even though we wouldn't have to quarantine or have a day-8 test in Ontario, we still had to list a Canadian address for contact purposes to complete ArriveCAN. Fortunately, friends own a cabin in Ontario and let us use that address to complete the application.

We drove from NC to near Buffalo, NY, August 26, then crossed into Ontario around 8:00 am August 27. We got to North Bay, Ontario, early that afternoon, and checked an outfitter for Algonquin maps. Turns out the outfitters in North Bay don't deal with Algonquin much, even though it's only an hour away. We drove to an outfitter near Kiosk, bought two Chrismar maps,. The outfitter laughed and asked why we wanted "his and hers" maps--didn't we trust each other? Well, we have a "trust but verify" map & compass policy. Maps in hand, we went on to Kiosk to see what our parking and put-in would be like. Wow—lotsa people!