Trip Log: Bon Echo Provincial Park - Aug 8-11, 2013

I apologize for the lack of posts the last few weeks.  I was taking a photography course, then Chris had his family reunion, and then we were getting ready for another camping trip...all while handling a new puppy.  Biscuit, the new addition to our family had his first experiences camping, and he did really well.  At the reunion, he slept in a tent and I was completely sure he'd spend most of the time trying to claw his way out.  While everyone was eating dinner, I snuck off and decided to sit with him in it to see how he did...during the day rather than in the dark.

He crawled right onto my sleeping bag and feel asleep.  I know you should let sleeping dogs lie, but I couldn't resist moving him into his own little sleeping bag, and he stayed there for a good half hour.  That night he slept in his bag for a while then crawled into mine.  Since it was a bit of a chilly night, I didn't mind the extra warmth.  Even the storm didn't bother him (though Bubbie was shaking and crying...too soon after the storm at Achray for her to be comfortable camping in bad weather I suppose)

Anyway, onto the Bon Echo trip.  We arrived at our site around 5.  This was a Boler camping trip with our friends who also have a Boler camper.  I'd been bugging Chris for months to do the renovations to the trailer, and he started them the day before we left, so I couldn't get packed up ahead of time.  Some of  the renovations didn't work out as planned, and will require more fiddling, but I'll try and get a post up about the changes we are making.

Our site was in Sawmill Bay again, but this time, we were closer to the comfort station (and there was a path to it so we didn't have to way around)  I was pretty excited about this since I'd have to make all my late night trips to the bathroom solo.  (Oddly enough, in the three nights we were there, I only had to make one trip in the middle of the night...normally it's at least once per night...figures)

Our friends weren't going to arrive until around 8pm so we set up the new screen tent Chris's dad gave him, and had dinner.  I'd frozen left over pulled pork, so heated that up with some extra barbeque sauce, and reheated the barbecue baked black eyed peas I made the day before.  A bag of coleslaw finished the meal.  I'd planned to make cornbread to go with it, but ran out of time.  Everything was really good, and very filling.  Messy though.

We got a fire going and our friends arrived.  We were maybe a little noisy that night...especially the kids.  Two little boys who like to talk don't make for quiet campfires.  Also, their new puppy (only 2 days older than our puppy) was determined to play with Biscuit, who was both terrified and thrilled.

We stayed up later than usual.  Biscuit spent the whole time snuggled on my lap.  When we went to bed, I realized that wearing polar fleece pajama pants when sleeping in a bag with a fleece liner was not conducive to a good night's sleep.  My pants pretty much stuck to the liner and I ended up tangled up.  It was pretty chilly the whole time we were there, except day 2 when we went on our hike.  On the plus side, Chris had taken the memory foam from our old bed and put it on our bed.  It was a lot more comfortable.  Biscuit slept at our feet all night.

The next morning I made spam hash, my first try at this experiment.  It turned out much better than we'd expected, and I've since added a few things to make it even better.  Even Bubbie liked the second version.  We had eggs and maple baked beans with it, all while quoting lines from Monty Python's Spam sketch.

Chris and Shawn worked really hard at learning to ride a unicycle, and made good progress.  Neither of them managed to go more than a half dozen feet, but by the looks of it, 6 feet was quite an accomplishment.

We did a hike that morning, the Tall Pines trail.  It was a nice hike, but with 2 dogs dragging us through it, we didn't get to take in much of the scenery.  There wasn't anything that stood out, no look out or pond, just a nice walk in the woods.  It was hot though, and there were lots of mosquitoes out.  After a quick lunch of hot dogs and Mr. Noodles, we headed for the beach.  While the kids and husbands swam, Andrea and I took the dogs to the dog beach.  Biscuit does not like water...at least not yet.  We'll be working on it.  He was okay until he got to about belly depth, then freaked out and ran to shore.

Dinner that night was a pot luck.  I made barbeque beans and biscuits, Andrea made meatballs and garlic hashbrowns and we both contributed to a really amazing dessert of dutch oven apple pie (which isn't a pie at all, but cinnamon bun pieces with apples, brown sugar and graham crumbs baked together and topped with caramel cream cheese dressing.  Go here for the recipe

I'm not going to go through the rest of the trip. This trip was pretty much about catching up with our friends.  We didn't do much beyond hang out for three nights, and though we did hike a few short trails, it was mostly an excuse to walk the dogs so they'd sleep for a bit.  I didn't get much chance to take pictures because we hadn't brought anything to tie the dog to the table, and his leash is really short...plus he cries like crazy if he's not right next to me.

One thing I will say, you don't realize how messy a seemingly clean campsite is until you have a puppy that tries to eat every tiny piece of plastic, every old tent peg, and every scrap of garbage.  Also...I don't know if it's coincidence, but it seemed like we were surrounded by screaming babies the whole time.  I felt a little out of place because we were the only ones that didn't have three toddlers having a breakdown every five minutes.  All night long at least one baby was crying, and usually we could hear them from several directions.

Wildlife spotted: 1 deer

Menu

Dinner: Pulled Pork, BBQ baked black eyed peas, coleslaw
Breakfast - Spam hash, scrambled eggs, maple baked beans (cereal for the kids)
Lunch - nachos
Dinner - pot luck - BBQ beans and biscuits, meatballs, garlic hash browns, dutch oven apple pie
Breakfast - blueberry pancakes (cereal for the kids)
Lunch - pizza monkey bread
Dinner - spaghetti
Breakfast - Red River Cereal

Trip Log: Bon Echo Provincial Park July1-3, 2013

Canada Day camping! 

We arrived at our site around 2:10.  Mum and Dad had already been there for about 45 minutes and had  the tent trailer mostly set up.  We unloaded the canoe and three kayaks and had a quick lunch of burgers then unloaded the rest of our stuff.  Since we were only allowed to have one car on the site, we had to get everything, because the additional car parking was way back at the gate house...not a distance you want to be walking often, nor did we want to have to drive there every time we needed something.

Then we went over to the visitor's centre and the gift shop.  Unfortunately the Visitor's Centre was almost closing, so we didn't get to spend as much time as we wanted there, but planned to go back the next day.  We did a quick check of the Greystones Gift and Book Shop, then headed to the main beach for a minute.  The water was really rough at the beach near our site, and here it was really calm, but the air was chilly, so we decided to put off swimming or kayaking until the next day.  The kids hadn't tried their little kayaks yet, and we weren't sure how tippy they'd be. (They ended up being really stable...Squatch had to really work to tip his so he could practice getting back in while in deep water.  He also was able to use it as a stand up paddle board for a while.)

We headed back to our site and while mum and I started dinner, Chris took Squatch fishing in Bon Echo Creek.  They got a few nibbles, but didn't catch anything.  Dinner was hawaiian ham and pineapple casserole (in the dutch oven), salad and creamed corn.  It started to rain while we were cooking, so we ate in the trailer and didn't bother with a fire.

It was a bit chilly that night.  I had only brought our flannel sleeping bag/liners and we all had long pants and long sleeve shirts, but we were still a bit cold. That day (July1st) had been pretty cool.  Normally, on Canada Day, we spend the day swimming because it's always so hot.  This year, every single one of us wore our sweat shirts all day.

The next morning, we realized neither of us had packed coffee, so we had tea, and I made spicy eggs in the dutch oven, and we had bagels and english muffins with that.

Mum and dad decided to head into Northbrook for some things we needed (like coffee) while Chris and I took the kids for a canoe along Mazinaw Rock to check out the petroglyphs, and do the cliff top hike.  The cliff is amazing.  From the opposite shore, it's impressive, but when you are right at the edge and looking up?  It's dizzying.  We saw some people climbing the rock, then headed to the dock area to check out the hike.

If you have bad knees...be warned, this hike is strenuous.  204 steps (actual stairs, not including the sections where the rock forms natural steps.)  My legs were so numb I could barely climb back into the canoe afterwards. Just when I'd catch up to Chris and the kids, they'd start off again, having hadd a minute to rest while waiting for me...this meant I didn't get a chance to catch my breath.  It was nice though.  The view from the various lookout platforms is amazing, and it's well worth the effort (pain) to get up there.

Mum and dad were sitting at the bench on the point at the narrows when we paddled back.  We stopped for a quick chat then headed back to camp.  They had taken pictures of the rock climbers and the guy had called down asking if dad would email them copies.  Dad couldn't make out the email address, and the guy said he'd be down soon, so mum and dad were going to wait.  Eventually they gave up though.  It was well past lunch and we were all hungry.

Bubbie looking out at Mazinaw Rock from one of the beaches

Lunch was supposed to be grilled veggie sandwiches, but since it was so late, we went with Grillems and hot dogs which mum had picked up on her shopping trip. (They also stopped at a chip truck and got fries and batter fried mushrooms, and went to a Coffee Time.) Chris set up his hammock, and the kids took turns swinging each other in it.  They spent most of their time in camp playing on it.  Squatch kept falling out (no surprise) and Bubbie just enjoyed lying around in it. I don't think Chris got more than 5 minutes in it. Next stop was to take the Ferry ride over so mum and dad could see the petroglyphs.  The young man acting as guide was funny, and we learned a lot about the history of the area.  We'd seen the petroglyphs that were pointed out on our canoe ride, but it was nice to hear the historian's interpretation of what some of them meant.  The guide also had a lot of interesting information about turkey vultures, which I'm guessing was meant to be mostly of interest to the younger passengers (did you know turkey vultures picked their noses and could projectile vomit up to ten feet?)

Another trip to the gift shop, this time for the patch for the trail we'd done earlier
...then we grabbed the kayaks and headed back to main beach.  The kids had a blast.  It was one of their favourite parts of the trip. They picked it up really quick and at one point we had to call Squatch back or he'd have paddled all the way across the lake.  Chris had one of his white water kayaks and had planned to practice his rolls but he was tired so just paddled around with the kids.  I gotta say, these kayaks were the best $23 I've ever spent.  We got them at Costco, and used executive membership cash-back checks to cover most of the price ($99 each.)

Dinner was  dutch oven lasagna, salad and garlic bread.  We all ate until we were stuffed, then went out and sat around the fire for a while.  Mum had bought some of those magic flames packets, and the kids sang their "Go Aqua-fire Go" song, complete with dance moves.  Chris swears he wasn't dancing along, but he totally was. The night was perfect for light painting, and we had fun with that until almost 11 when we realized we were the only people still up making noise (some of the pictures had us laughing a little louder than was probably polite.)

Departure day, as usual, was beautiful.  We finally got some sun! Mum made an apple puff pancake in the dutch oven for breakfast.  It didn't puff up as much as it was supposed to, but it tasted great. Since Chris had to work that afternoon, we started packing up.  Mum took Squatch down to the beach to play with his kayak some more while we got most of the gear packed up.  It didn't take too long to load up and we were on the road.

The most frustrating part of this trip was not being able to park our car at the campsite.  My plan had been to just have the coolers in the back of the Santa Fe so we didn't have to drag them in and out of the back seat of dad's truck each morning and night.  It would have been easier, but dad was reluctant to leave his brand new truck in a parking area far from the site.  From now on, I'll definitely check the number of cars allowed on site when booking a trip.  Most campgrounds have an extra car parking close to each section of sites, but Bon Echo doesn't.

Other than that, this trip was awesome.  Bon Echo is beautiful, with enough trails and activities to keep people of all ages occupied.  There were evening programs both nights but we didn't go to them (dutch oven dinners take time.)  The campsites were nice (some were pretty hilly, so parking a trailer would be difficult) and fairly private.  We have another trip booked here later this summer and I can't wait to get to some of the other hiking trails, and to canoe Joe Perry Lake so we can check out the canoe in sites.