Trip Log: Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park: August 21-23-2017

It's scary how fast summer can fly by.  At the end of June, when I'd get a shift that fell in the middle of our "weekend" (you don't generally get normal weekends off when you work in a restaurant) I didn't get too upset.  We still had two months worth of time to go camping, biking on trails, exploring in canoes and kayaks etc.

And here we are, almost the end of August and I look back and see just how little of that stuff we actually did, because those shifts come up often, and because car repairs always end up cropping up at the start of a week off, and because other obligations happen.

It's kind of sad because our adventuring is pretty much over for the year.  Since Chris and I work  weekends and the kids can't just skip school like they did when they were younger, we won't get much opportunity until the next long holiday.

I'm thankful though, that when we look back on the summer, the camping trips we did, were all in places we had never been before.  We saw a new Provincial park, saw parts of Algonquin we hadn't been to before, and finally got to explore a bit of the Haliburton Water Trails system, something I've been wanting to do for...well about 20 years.

This trip was kind of two trips back to back.  We had five days off, and after spending our last week of vacation fixing car issues so we could drive our "adventuring car" long distances again, we could actually go camping...the problem was, where to go?  Everywhere I looked, there would be one or two sites left, and they were pretty much all the tiny little site next to an outhouse that never gets booked except maybe on a long weekend.

Our Boler at Samuel de Champlain Park

I was getting bummed, and kind of pissed off.  Keep in mind, this was day one of our five days and we still had no idea where to go. The kids didn't want to go canoe camping, and instead wanted to relax in the Boler, Chris wasn't interested in anything along Highway 60 in Algonquin, and I wasn't keen on going a really long distance because fixed or not, the car is old and unpredictable.

We finally settled on two nights at Samuel de Champlain, then two nights at Kiosk at the North end of Algonquin.

We didn't leave the house until almost 5.  We had nothing ready, no idea what food we were taking.  Chris and I went shopping but I kind of ended up just throwing random cans of things from the pantry at home and hoped it took care of all the meals we would need.

We arrived at the park at 9:07pm and got our permit.  Then we had the fun task of navigating an unknown park in the dark, but we found our site with only one wrong turn.  The site was a pull through, or pull around I guess?  It had a U shaped entry so Chris didn't have to try backing in.  The problem was there was a stump in the entry was that was just high enough to scrape the underside of the Boler.  This wouldn't be a problem for most other trailers but the Boler sits pretty low to the ground and doesn't have a lot of clearance.  We actually broke a little chunk of the fibreglass body off...oops. Once into place though, we set up (moved food from the Boler into the trunk of the car) ate a quick dinner of wraps, then went to bed.

It was humid in the trailer that night, and Biscuit made a nuisance of himself, jumping up and down off our bed.  He was too hot when he was with us, but not comfortable on the floor.  It also started to rain, and continued to rain until just after lunch.

I woke up the next morning to take him out, and got my first look around the campsite.  It was actually quite nice.  We could see the lake, and there was a little spot across the road we could have used to launch a canoe if we'd brought them, but we hadn't since we were in such a rush to leave.  Not that it mattered, since it rained for half the day anyway, and we also didn't bother to bring rain jackets.

Once Chris got up, we set up the screen tent so we could have a dry place to cook and sit.  Rather than making potato, pepper and onion hash like I had planned, we ate dry cereal right out of the box and some other snacks. After cleaning up, we went to check out the visitor's centre.

So many neat mushrooms around our campsite

It's pretty small, but contains some interesting information on the history of the Mattawa River, the fur trade and a replica courier de bois canoe.  Next we headed to the store, hoping to get a patch for the park to add to the kids collection but they either don't sell them or they weren't available at the time, so the kids got popsicles and we headed back to our site.

Lunch was supposed to be wraps made with fresh veggies but since it was still rainy and everything was still wet under the bug shelter, we ended up making Mr. Noodles cups for the kids, and Chris and I shared a carton of green lentil curry soup I'd thrown in the food box at the last minute, with some of the garlic bread.  The soup was surprisingly good, but the carton only holds 500ml which wasn't enough really for two hungry people.

The rest of the day was spent walking around, checking out the park.  The beach in the Jingwakoki campground area was small, but looked pretty decent for swimming.  There were some swings and a few teeter-totters there as well.  You can see the other beach across the lake and it looked very nice, but unfortunately we didn't get a chance to go and check it out.

The kids finally had a chance to pull out the hammocks and the picnic table ping pong set we had bought them for Christmas, then lost before I could wrap it.  (I found it on Boxing Day, which is pretty typical I suppose.)  Bubbie and I also spent some time photographing the last few blueberries on the bushes behind our site, as well as the various interesting fungi nearby.

Sometime in the afternoon, Chris took Biscuit for a little drive out to the park store to get some ice, at which point the catalytic converter fell off the car.  He picked it up and threw it into the trunk, and we spent the whole rest of the trip laughing about it since we were pretty sure something was going to happen to the car.  Any time we attempt to go more than an hour away from home for a camping trip, we have car issues.  Thankfully, this time, it wasn't anything that could potentially strand us somewhere.

Dinner that night was spaghetti and garlic bread.  It's pretty much a camping staple for us, but the clean up always sucks.

The next morning I finally made the potato, onion and pepper hash I'd promised the kids.  It looked like it was going to be a nice day.  As we were cleaning up, we saw a group go by in a replica voyager canoe.  I wish we had been able to try it out.  It would have been a neat experience.  Next time.  The kids really liked this park and we will definitely be back.

Since it was a nice day and we wouldn't be travelling far to get to our next camping spot, we figured there was no point in rushing to pack up.  If there were people on our Kiosk site, they didn't have to leave until 2, so we decided to do a hike.  The Kag hike wasn't too far away, and was only 2.5km long.  The estimated time to do the trail was an hour and 15 minutes but we figured we could do it in less.

one of many steep sections on the Kag Trail

The trail is rated as difficult with some steep climbs on most of the information posted, but the one we happened to look at said it was moderate.  This is not a moderate level trail!  #Legday And those steep climbs?  They really are climbs.  There are sections where you are climbing what is practically a cliff, going back and forth like a goat trail.  Other times, you have to pick your way up almost with whatever tree root or rock you can find.  Chris got dragged up and down these hills, Squatch had nothing to slow him down but Bubbie and I had our cameras and it made it much more awkward to grab little trees for support.  This trip report took a while to get published, and because of that, when I was looking through the pictures, I kept going "why did I take a picture of that cliff face?" Then I realized, that was there trail...

The kids were good natured about it, but didn't hold back complaining about the trail.  Chris kept saying it was a lovely trail and they had nothing to complain about...until Biscuit dragged him down a hill and he ran into a fallen log in a very painful way.

You can barely tell it's a trail...just looks like a cliff

All of our legs were like jelly when we made it back to camp, and we were a little embarrassed that the trail took us a fair bit longer than the hour and 15 minutes estimated.  We had to rush to hook up the trailer so we could be off the site by 2.

This section of the trip was wonderful (not that Kiosk wasn't great too) and we all really liked Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park.  Our site was great, it was relatively quiet and there were enough things to do so none of us would have been bored had we been there longer than 2 nights.  It rained a fair bit that second day, and the roads were pretty muddy.  The intersection just behind our site had a huge puddle (or more accurately, a pond?) that many drivers had fun playing in as they went past.

All in all, a great trip.

Trip Log: Oastler Lake Provincial Park - August 22-24, 2016

Sunday night before our vacation started, we still hadn't decided what we were going to do.  I wanted to do a longer back country trip, the kids suddenly decided they were afraid of canoe camping, and wanted to just relax in the Boler, and Chris seemed to have no opinion on the subject at all.

After scoping out all the possible trips we could do in Algonquin where we could stay on an access lake, or only one portage in, we quickly realized there weren't a lot of sites available that met those requirements, or the portage would be a long one, at which the kids again put their foot down.

Finally we decided to do two nights of Boler camping, then leave the kids to visit my parents, and Chris and I would do two nights of canoe camping...again, not having an actual destination in mind.  At about midnight, we decided to check out Oastler Lake Provincial Park, since there was one waterfront site available and it wasn't ridiculously far to drive (read previous trip logs to hear more about our misadventures towing the Boler over longer distances.)

Packing for two trips, with radically different needs was a bit of a struggle but we were out of the driveway by about 1:30pm, surprisingly in good spirits.  This whole last minute packing for a trip always makes me crabby but I managed to stay up beat this time.  We weren't in a big rush, we had a site booked, and we would be exploring a new park.  All good things.

There was a few minutes of concern as we went through Bala.  There is a place where you turn left and immediately go over some railroad tracks.  In the gap between the tracks, the road has sunk and the trailer hitch bottomed out and sounded like it might have been damaged.  Chris got out and checked it out and all was fine.  This, coincidently, is where the whole hitch ripped off the frame on one side on our aborted trip to Grundy Lake last year.  Once we made it past the little park by the police station, where we'd stopped before and realized the state of the hitch, we all relaxed a little bit.

table with a view: Oastler Lake Provincial Park

We arrived at the site just before dinner time.  Our first impression was that the site was very small and not very private, but what it lacked in those areas, it made up for in scenic views.  We parked the Boler just at the edge of a meter high cliff where a picnic table was perched.  Down the hill was our own little slice of waterfront, where we could launch a canoe or go swimming.  Unfortunately, the whole time we were there it was extremely windy, so we didn't even take the canoe off the roof of the car.

Dinner that night was veggie burgers and salad, which we ate on our table with a view.  The sunset wasn't spectacular, but the stars were bright and many.  After the kids went to bed, Chris and I went down and just enjoyed the peace...I saw a shooting star.

Unfortunately, peace at Oastler Lake is a fleeting thing.  While the campground was surprisingly quiet given how close together the sites were, the trains going by all day and night was anything but tranquil.  For Chris, who had lived for a few months in a town where trains went by that frequently, it was extremely annoying.  For me and the kids, it was kind of a novelty...that made it hard to get a good night's sleep.

Oastler lake has no hiking trails, and with the wind up, we didn't feel like canoeing so we pretty much just relaxed all the next day.  Chris took a nap, played ukulele, and the kids read and drew.  I woke up that morning with a doozy of a cold, so I was quite content to lay in a chair with my feet up and just do nothing.  That worked for a while, but we somehow are down to only two chairs...and guess who also really likes to sit in them and relax...

Can you tell who has pull in this family?

We did walk around the campground and checked out the park.  I took Squatch to the beach, then shortly after we got back, Chris took both kids down for a swim. We saw a water snake sunning itself on the rocks at our site.  I tried to take a picture but it got into the water and then kept poking it's head up at us before swimming away.  It was just one of those trips where you don't do anything...and it was awesome.  In fact, we were so lazy, we ended up driving into Parry Sound for dinner rather than cook.  Okay, part of the reason for this was that in our frenzy of packing, I didn't realized I'd brought pasta for both lunch and dinner.

water snake just off shore at our site

 We actually contemplated staying for another day, but in the end, Chris and I decided we did want to go canoe camping, and so the next morning, after coffee and bagels, we packed up and headed to my parents house to drop off the kids and the Boler.

Our feelings on this trip were a bit mixed.  The park itself was nice, though the sites were small and lacking in privacy.  The trains kept everyone from sleeping, but then again, so did Biscuit.  The comfort stations were great, and there really isn't anywhere that you aren't close to them (maybe the river side lots?)

Some of the river side lots were better for privacy, but calling the little creek a river was stretching it a bit.

I think, over all it was a good trip.  And I think I could convince Chris to go back again, provided he got some ear plugs.

Trip Log: Six Mile Lake Provincial Park, August 12-14, 2015

I can't believe I didn't write up this trip log when we first got back!  This was a doozy, not because the actual trip was memorable, but because of the chaos that led to us going here rather than to Grundy Lake as we had planned.

As I recall now (a year later) we had planned to spend 3 nights at Grundy Lake.  We loaded up the boler and headed out.  Just past Bala, we noticed the Boler was bouncing a little more than usual so we pulled into a little park (right beside a police station) and Chris looked under the car.  The passenger side of the trailer hitch had snapped off of the frame.  There was no way we could continue like this, so we called my parents, and got them to meet us in Gravenhurst.  Chris tied the hitch to the frame with an extra tie down strap.  He was convinced it was good to go and we could keep going.

We made it to the Canadian Tire in Gravenhurst with no problems.  Mum and dad were going to lend us their tent.  We took the extra foam mattress that we put on our bed, then picked up a few pool floats that are full length for the kids to sleep on.  After an hour or so, Mum and Dad showed up, and we ended up having to pick up an adaptor or something so the trailer could be hooked up to the truck's electrical (I think his maybe wasn't long enough?)

And out we go, expecting to get there late but still planning to head to Grundy Lake.

At EXACTLY the same spot where we pulled over to check out the problem, the phone rang.  The Boler had blown a tire and Mum and Dad were stranded on the side of the road (between Bracebridge and Carnarvon...not exactly anywhere with help nearby.) so we turned back around, stopped in Gravenhurst again to pick up a spare tire as well as a pump incase the spare could be used...then we could take the new tire back.  I called Grundy Lake and cancelled the reservation (losing 90% of the fee I think)

We find them and begin the task of changing the tire.  We got the old spare from the back of the Boler on, and everyone is sure it's ok (except me, cause I can hear it hissing) and we head out, stopping 2 more times to put more air in the tire.  We ended up camping that night in the driveway at Mum and Dad's house.  The next morning, we headed to Six Mile Lake.  (BTW, the trip ended up costing us about $1000 between new tires (both tires were really bad and had to be replaced) a new trailer hitch, lost fees, and the fees for the two nights at Six Mile.  And that doesn't include gas and groceries.

It should also be noted that had we kept going with the hitch tied to the frame, the tire likely would have blown when we were on Highway 69 and going at much higher speeds than Dad would have been driving down a dark country road.

After all that, the two nights at Six Mile Lake seemed pretty tame.  We went out for a paddle on the lake, checked out some cool cottages and just relaxed.  There are a few nice beaches as Six Mile Lake.  At the day use area we saw a very large garter snake at the waters edge as we were landing the canoe.  We left it alone but there were two boys who were determined to catch it in a bucket and take it back to camp.  They managed to catch it, much to their parents horror, and were made to release it right away.

Trip Log: Algonquin Park: Rock Lake, May 4-6, 2015

May the Force Be With You!  I guess the Force was with us, because things fell into place for us on this trip.  We thought we were going to be delayed on departure day (May 4th) because Bubbie's school concert band was supposed to have an event all day and she couldn't miss it.  Luckily for us, something got messed up and at the last minute, it got delayed 2 weeks!  Yay!

We'd planned to eat lunch at the campsite but we were all hungry, so when we stopped at Two Rivers Store for drinks, we handed out the sandwiches/pizza buns and ate on the way.  The weather was a bit grim looking, with grey skies and the odd sprinkle of rain but we were hopeful we'd get set up before it got really wet.

We managed to get up to our campsite at around 1pm, and it was just starting to spit rain.  We put the tent trailer up by throwing a tarp over it so we could then stay dry while we raised the roof and pulled out the ends.  At one point after everything was raised, Dad realized he couldn't find the keys so he could get into the little storage area so he could get the two support bars he'd forgotten to get out at the start.  We searched everywhere and eventually started to wonder if they'd been on the roof of the trailer before we cranked it up.  Turned out they were in his back pocket the whole time.

We retreated inside to play Star Wars games to celebrate.  Mum had bought the kids Star War's Day gifts…Bubbie made a comment about not understanding the big deal, because it wasn't like Christmas.  I nearly kicked her out into the rain.

Biscuit was so excited to be there, he was driving us nuts with his need to get out and explore.  We ended up walking him around in the rain (a steady moderately heavy rain now) so we could see how many other sites were in use.  There weren't many, maybe a dozen, if that, at least in the electrical section.  Everyone was spread out, so even though Rock Lake doesn't offer the best privacy, we didn't feel crowded at all.

Mum and I started supper around 4:30.  In honour of this special day we had Bobba Fett-agetti, Endor Salad (caesar salad,) Sarlacc Bread (garlic bread) and Yoda Soda (Mountain Dew.)  For dessert we had Wookie Cookies,  and Exploding Deathstar Cookies.  Mum and Dad offered to do the dishes while Chris and I took the kids out for a paddle.

Now, this is our first time really paddling so early after the ice is out.  The lake was mostly calm, and the wind was minimal, but I still had horrible thoughts of us tipping, and kept trying to get Chris to take us closer to shore.  Chris kept us going straight down the middle of the lake.  And here's where Chris and I have our only canoe difference.  We work really well together in the canoe.  He prefers to paddle on the left, I prefer the right.  We share the load pretty evenly on portages.  We just canoe well together, but he is very much about getting to the end destination and therefore it's straight down the middle of the lake, every time.  Where as I like to go fairly close to the shore.  Not only can we maybe see wildlife, but you actually feel like you're moving, where as out in the middle of the lake it can often feel like you're expending a lot of effort for very little reward.  When we were coming back from High Falls, trying to get back to our site at Achray, paddling into the wind, it might have felt less like we were standing still if we were twenty feet closer to shore.  Just saying.    I know there are times when you are trying to make your distances, or there's a limited amount of time, but when there isn't (like this time) why can't we just explore?  Ugh!

Anyway, when we turned around, we realized the wind had picked up a bit and was now in our faces.  Not bad, but the waves were just at the point where the tops collapse, not quite white caps though.  We made it home without incident and then decided to drive West on Highway 60 and look for moose.  It was about 7:30.  We saw 2 before we even got off Rock Lake Road, and a total of 8 more that night (for a total of 10 that day.  We saw 2 just before we got to the West gate on our way into the park)  After a quick stop at Fisherman's Point for pictures, we headed back to camp.

Since the campground office closed at 4:30 we didn't get any wood, but everyone was pretty tired anyway so we just went to bed.  Our only fairly close neighbours stayed up late talking but it was pretty quiet.  Lots of spring peepers could be heard as well as the odd loon call.  Just a relaxing night in Algonquin Park.

Day 2

Breakfast time at Rock Lake

I was up pretty early, but I didn't check my phone to see the actual time.  I'd been up to go to the bathroom at around 4 and the moon was brilliant, shining on the water.  By the time it got light out, there was lots of fog on the lake.  Biscuit and I walked…a lot.  All around the camp ground, to the boat launch (a quick detour to the garbages to dispose of his morning business) then down to the non-electrical sites.  There were hardly any people there, maybe 3 sites in use?  We got back and still nobody was up, so we walked some more.  I don't think the others got up until 9:30.

Coffee was the first priority, then breakfast.  One-Eyed Buffalos, bacon, potato and pepper hash and maple baked beans (we forgot to cook the beans…again.  That can has been in my mum's camp food bin for like 3 years now.)  After cleaning up, we headed to the East gate looking for moose.  We only saw one.  Chris and I had planned to hike the portage trail into Pinetree Lake but he also wanted to do the Booth's Rock Trail again, and we wanted to go canoeing.  We opted to wait on the portage trail.  Actually we were all originally supposed to hike to Pinetree, but mum had hurt her ankle and was having enough trouble walking around the campground.

Chris and Biscuit on top of Booth's Rock

While the kids went with my parents looking for more moose, Chris and I headed back to Rock Lake to hike Booth's Rock.  There was a tour bus at the office and we thought we should get on the trail quick before a load of people headed out on it too.  Biscuit is a little unpredictable in his desire to protect us, and having to stay ahead of a bunch of people when there's that much tough up hill would have killed me.  As it was, I thought I was going to have a stroke trying to keep up with Chris.  I finally let him carry my camera bag (which he later claimed to barely notice he was carrying…it weighs like 30lbs!  Jerk.)

Time for a rest - Booth's Rock Trail

As it turned out, we only saw 2 other people on the trail, two men at the very top.  We explored the remains of the estate, and ventured a little further along the shore to check out the back country canoe campsite near the ruins.  It doesn't look like a bad site, a big fairly level spot near the fire pit, but the landing looked quite rocky.  That being said, it would probably be a good site for those very late season trips where you might wake up to an iced over lake and have to hike out.

Very glad we were going down these

Biscuit was pretty good about not dragging Chris along, until we got within sight of the car then he nearly decapitated himself pulling so hard on the leash.  He loves the car, if you couldn't guess.

We got back to camp, had a quick lunch of crackers, cheese, meat, apples, a fruit tray and leftover cookies. Mum offered to take the kids out for a little paddle, to check out the river.  While Chris was helping push them off, Biscuit, who hates water, ran right in trying to get into the canoe!  I guess he likes canoeing more than he hates being wet.

I walked the garbage down, taking Biscuit with me, and we detoured to the boat launch.  I figured we could wait for mum and the kids then drop off the bag.  When they pulled up to the little dock, Biscuit again tried to get in the boat, and when I kept him back, he retaliated by peeing on the garbage bag.  I almost got caught with it too but I managed to jump up quickly.

When we got back to camp, we relaxed while waiting for mum to return.  They'd headed out with Squatch in the middle, mum in stern and Bubbie in the bow.  I kind a figured the kids would tire easily and mum would be left paddling alone, but when they came into view we realized Bubbie was in the stern, Squatch was in the bow and Mum was in the middle getting a free ride!

Mum getting a free ride

After that we didn't leave camp until it was time to go home.  The kids pretty much just paddled on their own.  Mum had showed them how to j-stroke and do some other things.  They stayed close to shore but they were out there almost all night except for a break for dinner  and to let Chris take biscuit for a little paddle.

Dinner tonight was in honour of Cinqo de Mayo.  Tacos, quesadillas, southwest salad, and two types of tex-mex rice.  We were all stuffed afterward…okay, the kids still had room in their dessert stomach (kids have a second stomach like cows do…but kids use theirs for desserts)  We had a fire going so they toasted marshmallows, and tried toasting strawberries dipped in marshmallow fluff.  It worked out okay, not as pretty as the pictures online, but they tasted good.

As we made dinner, we kept seeing this odd group of canoes.  Two people would paddle from the non-electrical section, to the river and then return a few minutes later with 2 canoes each pulling another canoe, so four in total.  This happened 3 or 4 times.  We finally realized that when Chris and I came back from our hike earlier and saw lots and lots of tents in the non-electrical section, it was probably a school group and they would likely be departing from there for a canoe trip, hence bringing the canoes to the campground rather than hauling all the group with their gear (and no cars) to the boat launch.  They were a bit rowdy, but not bad.  We heard a few excited shouts as we sat around the fire that night but if it was a school group, I'm actually glad to know they were so excited to be there.  And I admit, I was really jealous.  Why didn't our high school have an outers club or wilderness skills class when I was a teen?  My mum did in high school, and the school our kids will be going to has things like that.  Ugh!

Mum had brought the game Ultimate Werewolf: One Night.  The kids love this game, and were really excited to play, so after the fire was put out, everyone else played while I lay down with Biscuit.  He was pretty wiped out from all the hiking and walking around the camp ground he'd done.  Squatch had also run around the campground roads with him quite a bit, and while we'd gone looking for moose, he ran from side to side in the back seat, popping his head out the window on each side for a minute. (As I'm typing this, he's passed out on the couch.)

While mum and the kids were waiting for us to go in to play Werewolf, mum gave the kids each a scratch ticket.  We always play a "how many moose do you think we'll see" game when we go to Algonquin, and Bubbie won the first day's game. The ticket was her prize.  She won $75!  While Chris and I had been hiking, they'd stopped at Tea Lake Dam for snacks, and a bird had pooped on her hand…you know how people say that's supposed to be good luck?  Apparently it's true.  Squatch was not impressed.

We all slept better the second night, and yet again I got up before everyone else.  Biscuit and I walked some more, but this time, he put is paw down after an hour or so and just sat in the middle of the road, so we headed back to camp and sat for a while.  He desperately wanted back in the trailer to sleep but I didn't want to wake everyone up.  Mum got up shortly after that so I let Biscuit have his way, and mum and I took the canoe out for a paddle.  We checked out some of the cottages on Rock Lake, went up the river but detoured off to where the river passed right by the campground near the outhouses.  We tried to go further but there was a beaver dam and neither of us felt like getting our feet wet when the water was so cold, so we headed back.

Dad had the coffee on by then, and Chris, Biscuit and the kids had walked down to the boat launch hoping to see us but we hadn't gone that far.  We kept breakfast simple, just bagels and coffee/hot chocolate.

While me and mum and dad were packing up, The kids took Biscuit for a little paddle, then brought him back and went out alone again.  Chris took the GoPro and filmed them, when they explored the river section mum and I had gone to earlier.

Nobody wanted to leave.  Other than a bit of rain the first day, we'd had a great trip, but as always it was far too short.

Trip Log: Algonquin Park - Canisbay Campground, October 10-13, 2014

Thanksgiving Dinner in the Dutch Oven

Thanksgiving in Algonquin!  This was our second time so in my mind that means a precedent has been set, and from now on that's how we celebrate Thanksgiving.

We had been undecided on if we'd be going or not, but after our trip two weeks ago, Mum and I and the kids had pretty much decided yes, we'd be going.  Dad wasn't so sure, but the promise of turkey lured him in.  So since we didn't decide until late, there were no sites available.  I kept my eye out a few times a day for cancellations and we lucked out and got a decent one at Canisbay.  On the map, it looked like it backed onto the area with the comfort station.  In reality, we had to follow a trail through the back of the site then go down the road a bit, but it was still pretty close incase of a late night trip.

We arrived fairly early, at least Dad and I did.  Mum and the kids arrived a little later in her car since they had to pick up a few last minute groceries.  We got our permit and were mostly done setting the trailer up before the others arrived (Chris wouldn't be arriving until Saturday.)

It was a bit chilly and we were a little worried we wouldn't be warm at night but we had lots of blankets.  Supper was spaghetti with ceaser salad.  We'd made the sauce at home and just had to heat it up.  The dogs, especially my parent's dog, Lucky, love spaghetti and they mooched like crazy while we ate.  There was only enough left over for Lucky which was fine.  He always gets a bit when mum and dad make it at home, and Biscuit doesn't really so he wasn't going to be too upset.

After dinner, I was on the way back from the comfort station when I saw a guy walk into the site beside us.  I didn't recognize him as one of the people there, but he said hi as if he knew them so I didn't think much of it.  He walked to the back of the trailer went behind it and then cut through to our site and walked right through it too.  It was really weird.  At first  I thought maybe he was lost or drunk or something, trying to find his own site in the dark, but I also wondered if maybe he was just one of those people that don't get that you don't walk through someone else's site as a short cut.  This has happened a lot, but never had we seen someone cut through multiple sites like that.

A few minutes later I went to the comfort station laundry room to fill up the wash basin (not doing dishes there, just getting hot water.) and there was someone standing halfway down the little trail into our site.  I asked if I could help him and he politely asked to borrow a lighter.  I gave him mine, not at all convinced I'd get it back but we had lots and it was just a dollar store one anyway.

Evening on Canisbay Lake

Dad and I did up the dishes then decided to go down to the beach and see if we could get any decent night shots.  The moon behind the clouds gave us some interesting shots, but it was pretty cold, and when a bit of a breeze kicked up, it got too chilly to be messing around with metal tripods, so we headed back to camp.

Sleep was surprisingly comfortable.  We had the trailer's furnace set fairly low, and left a small electric space heater going all night.  The furnace only cut in occasionally, and the electric heater kept the temperature from dropping too rapidly. The kids and I each had our regular summer sleeping bags with polar fleece liners, then they had a comforter and I had Chris's sleeping bag open like a blanket. Before we went to the beach, I had sent a text to Chris to bring more blankets when he came up, but we didn't really need them.  At one point I was too hot and had to kick off the extra sleeping bag.  Biscuit helped keep us warm too.

The young man who had borrowed my lighter gave it back that morning.  Then I heard him asking people if they had jumper cables because his battery had died.  We are pretty sure they slept in their car that night because it was cold.  They got their boost and headed out pretty quickly, and not long after, another group of young people showed up.  Two guys got out and set up the tents while the girls (their girl friends?) sat in the car.

And here's where I have to have a mini-rant.  What's up with people carrying make up bags to camp that are bigger and heavier than a day pack?  Every time we went to the bathroom there'd be five or six young women touching up their make up, washing their faces (and doing some weird cheek slapping thing for a minute at a time)  One girl loaded on a bunch of creams and berry scented perfume at about 10pm and we kept thinking a bear would smell them and come running.  Trying to brush our teeth at night was a lengthy and sort of embarrassing procedure.  Lengthy because we had to wait forever for a sink to become available (cause God forbid your mascara not be perfect for hanging out with your boyfriend in the pitch dark) and embarrassing because there we were with Ziploc freezer bags holding nothing but a toothbrush and toothpaste.  Anyway, I don't get it, but I'm not in my twenties trying to impress a guy, so what do I know.  I sort of figured it would be more impressive to a guy to be unafraid of getting dirty and back to nature, but then I didn't grow up in a city either.

Rant over!

Dad had forgotten to bring his pills, so he and Mum did a quick run home.  The kids and I had a quick breakfast and then spent the morning walking around with the dog.  Biscuit is pretty high energy (make that super high energy) and a lot of walking means he's not a spaz in the trailer.

When mum and dad got back, we had some wraps and tortellini soup (forgot to add the beans) for lunch, then mum stayed with the dogs while the rest of us went out to see if we could find some good photo ops.  In all honesty, there wasn't much.  The sky was a dull grey, the trails were really busy, and it was colder than the day before with a bit of a breeze as well.  We drove to Opeongo, then went out to Whitney to buy some dry(ish) wood.  On the way back we stopped at Two River's Store for ice cream.  It was packed!  Considering the store closes as of Thanksgiving Monday, we were worried there wouldn't be much ice cream flavours to choose from, but there was lots.

Since Chris was supposed to be arriving today, but we had no idea what time, we held off on making dinner.  I figured he'd get there around 9pm, but it ended up being closer to ten.  We ended up eating at around 7.  Dinner that night was tex mex tortilla lasagna.  I forgot to add the baby chard and kale to the beans and peppers when I was making the sauce, but it was yummy.  We had Chipotle BBQ Chop Chop salad with it then pumpkin pie for dessert.

Despite the cold, we sat around the fire a bit that night.  We hadn't bothered with a fire the night before, since Dad and I had gone to take pictures and when we got back squatch was asleep.  He hadn't brushed his teeth and it was all we could do to get him to move out of my mum's bed to his own sleeping bag.  This night, he couldn't find his toothbrush.  (I later found it at the bottom of my sleeping bag.)

Sunday morning was a bit warmer (my nostrils didn't freeze together) when I got up and took Biscuit for a walk.  When I got back, we started breakfast.  The plan for the day was to have a big breakfast so we could skip lunch because it was Turkey Dinner Day!  We had potato and pepper hash, pea meal bacon and french toast.  Mum and dad got to try out the griddle we got them for their Coleman BBQ and it worked really well, especially for the french toast.  It doesn't have much of a lip around the edge so it was a little touch and go when trying to stir up the hash, but all in all, it worked great.

Waterfall on the Madawaska River

After dishes were done, we thought we'd go do the Whiskey Rapids trail.  It was apparently open, and we'd been dying to find out how much the trail had changed after last spring's high water.  Unfortunately, the trail was really packed and with Biscuit being a bit unpredictable around people lately, we decided not to risk it.  Instead, we drove to Mew Lake and walked to the water fall.  No people on the trail and only a few at the falls themselves made for a much less stressful hike.  We took some pictures, saw lots and lots of wolf scat, and then headed to the Two River's Store for ice cream.

Mum and dad had gone for a drive to the Visitor's Centre so mum could email work.  We ended up getting back to the campground at the exact same time.  Now it was time to start cooking dinner.  It was about 1pm and we had a turkey to roast.

The turkey was still a little frozen inside, and unfortunately wouldn't fit perfectly even in our biggest (14") dutch oven so we covered it in foil then squished the lid on as best as we could.  Once the bird was cooking, we got started on the sides.  Foil wrapped carrots, foil wrapped parsnip, foil wrapped brussels sprouts (yum!) as well as potatoes and turnip.

After an hour we started to think maybe the briquets would take too long.  Dad had a fire going and for once it was a decent fire (yay for good wood) so we piled all the briquets on top of the lid then put the dutch oven onto the fire.

Now there was nothing left to do but wait.  The kids buried Chris in leaves, Biscuit caught his tail on fire (well, it singed the tip of the hair...it wasn't on fire I guess) and we got to sit and enjoy the decent weather.

Eventually, the turkey was done.  The top got burned where it had been smooshed against the lid, but then again, we'd put about 30 briquets on the top so it's not surprising.  But the insides were nice and juicy.  We got ready to take everything inside and then realized Chris hadn't brought the two boxes of Stove Top Stuffing from the counter.  To save space in the car, we left all the thanksgiving dinner stuff at home for him to bring up, and I'd left him a list...it only had like 5 things on it but I guess in his rush to get going, he forgot.  We made fun of him all night for ruining thanksgiving.  We also had coleslaw and cranberry sauce and gravy.  Awesome dinner and there was even dessert...apple spice dump cake.

While we ate, we talked about how we sort of felt guilty for skipping out on the big dinners we'd been invited to, but all agreed that it was worth it to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner in a place we all loved so much.

After dinner, we cleaned up.  There wasn't much in the way of dishes since a lot had been cooked in foil and we'd used paper plates.  We sat around the fire for a while then went to bed.

For our last morning, we had one eyed buffalos as well as fried potatoes made from the left over potatoes from dinner.  We didn't hang around long mostly because the camp ground closed  at 2 and we'd been told it would be appreciated by the staff if all the campers left by then.  Mum took the kids home with her, while dad, Chris and I took the trailer down.  Dad drove home with his dog, while Chris and I had Biscuit with us.

Such a great weekend.  A lot of people left on Sunday probably so as to be home for family dinners, so it was really quiet for our last night.  We ended up with a lot of left over turkey.  Last year, we simply took a breast and 2 drumsticks and it was enough for all of us, but I had 3 frozen turkeys in my freezer that I wanted out of there.

It was also interesting to note the number of people who simply weren't prepared for the weather.  The young man who borrowed the lighter, the group of four who set up on the same site next, and at least 2 other groups of people in their early twenties all seemed to have trouble.  Most of them seemed to have their cars running all night, possibly they all slept in their cars.  I felt really bad for them all.  On one hand it was a learning experience, and maybe next time they'll have more of an idea of what to expect when fall camping, on the other hand, the experience might have soured them toward camping all together.

Trip Log: Balsam Lake Provincial Park: June 29-30, 2015

Before I start I want to apologize.  I didn't even take the camera out of the car for this trip.  We were only there for a night, and I spent most of my time cooking, doing dishes, or tidying up.  I never really left the campsite except to walk the dog or go to the comfort station…except for once to walk to the Park Store to get burger buns.

So, before we left, I'd checked online and there were a lot of sites available so I didn't bother to book one.  I made a short list of potential sites and figured we'd be fine.  When we arrived, the girl who first started to help me get my permit asked what equipment we had, I answered a 13 foot trailer.  Then she showed me 3 sites that were all that were available.  I started to panic, but took the map out to the car to ask Chris and the kids what they wanted to do.  We chose site 18, in the Lakeshore North section.  It wasn't a bad site.  Not much for privacy but a decent size and it was a corner lot so we figured if there were lots of people there, at least we could park the Boler and car so that we'd block the view of the two sites next to us.

I'm not sure if the girl was mistaken about the availability or what, but in the entire section of 28 sites, less than half of them were in use, and almost all the empty ones could have accommodated a big trailer, let alone our little 13" one.

Not that it mattered.  Our site was fine and we only had 2 other sites anywhere near us so it was quiet except for people walking by to the path heading to the beach.  And for some reason when we got our permit they gave us a free little can of baked beans…not sure what that was about.

When we arrived, we quickly got set up and then made some burgers.  Bubbie and I had to walk to the Park Store to get buns and grabbed some chips and a Mr. Noodles cup for her.  We'd brought an organic, brown rice and millet ramen packet but she was worried she wouldn't like it.  The weather was great, not sickeningly hot and with a bit of a breeze.  Chris tried to take Biscuit to the lake to cool him off because he gets so worked up in the car, he was panting like crazy.  He got within a foot of the shore then dragged Chris back to camp.

After lunch, Chris took the kids swimming and I took Biscuit into the trailer so he wouldn't bark when Chris walked away.  I read for a bit, then came out when it got too hot to be inside. A few minutes after that, Chris and the kids came back.

Dinner was spaghetti with italian seasoned bannock.  I cooked while everyone else goofed off with the ukulele's or rode around on their bikes.  We ate inside, then while I cleaned up, Chris and the kids played Viking Chess.  After a few minutes, a father and daughter biked up and the man said his daughter had begged him to come check out this cool game and to ask about it.  This was the first time on the short trip people asked us about Viking Chess.  One of our camp neighbours came over and asked, and even played a few rounds with Chris, then a little while later, some people walking by asked about it.  We've played it many times while camping and never had anyone say a word.

After dinner, the kids biked to the Park Store to get some treats.  They had these peanut butter cups with toppings, like chocolate chip cookie, oreo and M&m's.  They were a bit expensive, $3.59 for a pack of three, but the kids thought they were cool.

Once all the dishes were clean and put away, I took Biscuit for a walk.  He'd had some left over spaghetti and seemed a little desperate to walk around.  When we got back, Squatch was using Chris's new hatchet to make kindling from the bag of firewood.  I nearly had a heart attack.

A miracle happened.  The wood was actually dry!  I almost had another heart attack!  We got a good fire going and then Chris and Squatch played catch until it got too dark to see properly.

It was a comfortable night for sleeping.  Not too hot, and just a bit of cool breeze blowing in so we weren't in and out of the sleeping bag all night.  Biscuit made it uncomfortable though.  Every time one of us moved, he'd climb up our backs and bunt us with his nose or lick a bit of exposed skin. Nothing like getting a wet kiss on the back or on the bottom of your foot to wake you up.

I was up early, thanks to Biscuit.  He was still regretting eating the spaghetti I think because he ran through several doggy-do sacks on our little walk around.  I managed to get him back to bed for a while but a while later he was bugging to go back out.  Figuring it was late enough to get up I started the coffee and not long after, Chris and Squatch got up.  Bubbie slept in the latest this time.  Usually it's Chris.  Breakfast was fried potatoes, pancakes and some oatmeal for Squatch.

By the time we finished and had another game of Viking Chess, it was starting to cloud up and get dark.  We knew it was supposed to storm so Chris took the kids back to the beach while I cleaned up and started packing.  When they got back it only took a few minutes to finish up and we were on the road.  It started sprinkling five minutes after we left, but never stormed.

All in all, it was a short but fun trip.  I don't know that I'll rely on sites being available again.  While our site was pretty good, it was on the opposite corner of the section from the comfort stations.  There were vault toilets nearby but they were tucked into the bushes and I was leery of going there in the middle of the night by myself.

Trip Log: Algonquin Park: Rock Lake, August 28-30, 2011

Still trying to catch up on old trip logs.  As my actual notes on this trip weren't very detailed, it's not a very extensive report, and I don't know where the pictures are…

Mum had so much fun on our trip earlier in this year, but her only issue had been with the tent. Her and dad had slept in a tent they'd gotten from my brother, a little 3 man just barely big enough for their air mattress.  We'd found a good deal on an 8 person tent and picked it up only to realize later that there was a spot on the seam where the floor and tent wall meet where the stitching had come undone.  It was easy for mum to fix up though but we didn't actually notice it until we set up at Rock Lake on this trip.

We arrived around 6:30 and quickly got the tent set up and had dinner. BBQ ribs, corn on the cob, chicken and some minute rice.  There was a beautiful sunset that night.  The kids and I were able to get some good shots of the fading light hitting the face of Booth's Rock. 

Getting a fire going that night was difficult.  I think we bought 2 bags of wood and the first one must have been a bit wet (as per usual) but eventually we got it going and the kids toasted marshmallows.

It was pretty cold in the night. I remember I spent most of the time making sure the kids were covered up (they weren't cold apparently but I was worried they were and so didn't sleep)  Bubbie and I got up and went for a walk before everyone else got up.  Breakfast was eggs, bacon, toast and baked beans for the adults…the kids had Cap'n Crunch.

After breakfast, the kids and I attended a kids nature presentation at the Visitor's centre about Algonquin in winter then we went back to camp for lunch, then back to the visitor's centre for a presentation about how to cook over a camp fire.  After that hiked part of the Booth's Rock Trail.  We went backwards, and spent a lot of time exploring the shoreline of Rock Lake where we could get off the trail.  We found a really nice little beach and rocky area that would be perfect for picnics.

We found walking the trail backwards was tough.  At that point, I hadn't done it the proper way, and now that I have, I think doing it backwards was a huge mistake.  Going the proper way, you climb hills (steep, rocky ones) but it's in fairly short bursts.  Going backwards, you basically climb about 200 steps which was really hard on the knees.  We didn't realize it at the time, but we didn't even make it to the top.  We got to a spot where you could see out over the lake (actually close to the top…another minute would have gotten us there) and had our granola bar and water.

When we got back the kids played at the beach and we got a good fire going.  It must have been the only bag of fire wood we've ever bought in a park that was dry.  It was the camp fire we always mention as the best ever.  Awesome bed of coals that would have been perfect for cooking over, never had to fan it with a lid from one of the food bins.  It was pretty damn epic.

This was the trip I'd bought the Jiffy Pop holder on, and it worked really well.  I was so excited about it.

We got some new neighbours that night.  A family arrived at the site behind and one over from us.They had a trailer full of gear and the first thing they did was steal a picnic table from an empty site.  They had 3 or 4 kids, I can't remember how many, but everyone was loud and running around like crazy.  The thing that drove us crazy though was that after they got set up (they'd arrived pretty late, like 8pm) they piled into their van and drove to the comfort station for showers (this was at about 11pm now) with the trailer still hitched up.  It rattled like crazy all around the campground, and down the road.  Then half an hour later they came rattling back to camp, and left their van lights shining into our tent for half an hour as they got everyone ready for bed.  The kids still refuse to go back to the non-electrical section of Rock Lake because of these people.  I mean seriously, they'd been there 2 hours, did they really all need to shower?  And couldn't they have been a little more careful about not disturbing other campers?  The kids were yelling and fighting, the adults were yelling at the kids…it was super annoying.

We got up fairly early and packed up.  It was raining but thankfully dad had put a tarp over the tent the night before.  This actually helped with the night chill as the tent didn't feel as damp even with the rain. We had breakfast, did the Peck Lake trail, then went to the Tea Lake dam for lunch.  Dad hauled out the BBQ and we had hot dogs.  

You know how on a camping trip, there will be a memory that stands out?  On this trip, the rude campers was one memory, the other one happened as we ate lunch.  As we were sitting down at a picnic table to eat, I asked if the bun bag was empty so we could put garbage in it.  Mum says "Fun bag?" and I started laughing so hard I nearly choked on my hot dog.  Every time I tried to explain what was so funny, I'd start laughing again.  A few weeks before, Chris and I had gone to a wedding and there was an older woman in a very revealing dress.  Chris's brother made a comment about Granny fun bags which at the time I hadn't found funny, but for some reason now it seemed hilarious.  Now we always have a "fun bag" on a camping trip.  It started out being a name we called the bag designated for garbage, but eventually became the bag my mum carries with her full of prizes and little treats for the kids.   

Looking back on this trip now, it's kind of funny.  The loud campers have become something we talk about at almost every camping trip when you hear someone being loud at night.  "Yeah, but at least they aren't as bad as those people from our first trip to Rock Lake."  And they weren't the only campers who still stick in our minds.  The people directly behind us was a couple, maybe in their forties.  Every meal they would bring out a checkered table cloth, a candle and at dinner, a bottle of wine.  It looked very romantic and sweet.

It was also the first trip where Chris wasn't there for even part of it.  It kind of forced me to do some of the things I'd always relied on him to do before.

I'm going to apologize now for the lack of pictures.  I have pictures of this trip I just can't find them so I'm posting the log as is, and will add them in a few days…I hope!

Trip Log: Algonquin Park: Lake of Two Rivers, August 1-3, 2011

This was my parents first camping trip in years, probably since I was 6 or 7.  We'd been so excited after our first trip to Algonquin a few weeks previous that my mum, who has always loved camping, decided we should go again. We went online and booked one of the last sites available for the dates we wanted to go. Chris was helping his parents move north of Huntsville, so we planned for him to join us for the second night. 

We arrived at 2 and got our permit, then went straight to the Visitor's centre for lunch.  I guess that was kind of a cheat, but mum loves going to the cafe there.  It's gotten now, so that the ladies that work there will take a break and chat, but that's not part of this trip.

Once we got back to our site we set up and immediately realized we'd forgotten some things.  Mum and the kids biked to the Two River's Store to get a foot pump so we could blow up the air mattresses while dad and I set up the tents and screen tent.  Our site wasn't great, but we weren't expecting it to be.  It was the monday of a holiday weekend and there wasn't much available.  It was at the point where two roads meet up, so it had little privacy.  

Pumping up the mattresses didn't take long, so we biked down to the lake and had a swim, then came back and made dinner.  The kids had chicken drumsticks, while dad and I had foil wrapped chicken with potatoes, carrots, and mum used ground beef instead of chicken.  We also made brussels sprouts with butter in foil and caesar salad.  The little BBQ mum had bought didn't work very well, and burned through a lot of propane making just that meal.

Usually, up until now, Chris had done all the cooking because I didn't know how to hook up the stove, but on this trip, I did most of it.  It was kind of an aha moment for me, knowing I could take the kids camping myself and handle all the stuff that needs to be done.  Of course, looking back, it was the beginning of me doing ALL the cooking when it's just the four of us, and I haven't managed to convince anyone that the cook shouldn't  have to do the dishes.

We biked to the store for ice cream, then mum, dad and the kids played crazy eights.   Once it got dark we had a fire, toasted some marshmallows and went to bed.

It was cold sleeping on the air mattress.  To save space I had brought my backpacking sleeping bag and I wasn't warm at all.  Bubbie and I got up at 7 and went for a walk.  When we got up, the others were starting to stir.  

Breakfast was bacon, eggs and maple baked beans for the adults and chocolate Cheerios for the kids.  After cleaning up, we headed out on our bikes and did about 3km of the Old Rail Trail.  The blueberries in the old air field were plentiful and people were everywhere filling little bowls with them.

After we got back to camp, we had a snack then went for a swim, then had lunch of hot dogs.  Dad had a bit of a headache so we let him sleep and walked down to the Two River's Interpretive Trail.  There were hardly any bugs but after all our biking our legs were pretty sore.  It was also pretty hot so as soon as we got back we went for another swim.

We had spaghetti for dinner.  Chris got there just before nine, having gotten a little lost in the campground trying to find the site in the dark.  Immediately, the kids asked him to make Jiffy Pop.  We got a good fire going, with wood that was actually dry (if you've camped in an Ontario Park you'll know that's practically a miracle.)  Everyone else went to bed shortly after that.  Squatch actually fell asleep on the picnic table and had to be carried to bed.  Chris and I stayed up and talked for a bit.  It was pretty noisy both nights.  Lots of radios, guys playing horseshoes until 11pm, dogs barking.  At one point the first day, someone's dog almost peed on our tent before the guy came and grabbed it.

We woke to light rain so we just headed to the Two River's store for coffee and hot chocolate.  Bubbie ended up puking hers up when we later went to the visitor's centre for lunch.  The kids got to do the children's program for the first time, which was a lecture on bear safety.

Despite a few issues (like making multiple runs to the store for things we forgot - air pump, washing bin, soap etc) the experience was good.  Mum and Dad had a great time, and if you've read any of the newer trip logs on this site, you'll see we go camping with them often.  Mum gets just as giddy as me about booking a trip.

As you can see, I'm trying to write up old trip logs.  Some I have notes for, some I can't remember more than the basics so I might not bother writing anything for them.  I'll have to see.  Unfortunately, I can't seem to find pictures from these older trips.  I'll publish the write up and then add in pictures later when I figure out which computer/cd/thumbdrive they are hiding on.

Trip Log: Algonquin Park - Canisbay Lake - September 25-28, 2014

With the fall colours being so spectacular this year, we made a last minute decision to go camping for the weekend.  Of course, everyone else had the same idea and all the campgrounds were full so we planned to leave early and hope to get a non-reservable site.  Then, luckily, I checked online the night before to see if there were even any of those left and saw a green circle!  Yay!  Someone had cancelled and I quickly booked the site.

We ended up getting a late start.  Dad was supposed to be helping a cousin on a job, and hadn't been told all the details so instead of being done around noon, he didn't get home until closer to four.  We were mostly packed by then so we headed up and got our permits by 5:30pm.

The people in line ahead of us didn't have reservations and ended up getting the last non-reservable site available (so it's good we got to book one!) and they were told section 1 would be opening the next day if Coon Lake filled up.  I guess both Coon lake and Canisbay section 1 are usually closed by now, and with the high demand, they decided to open them up.

Canisbay was beautiful.  The leaves were all gold and orange, and all the campground roads were like something out of a commercial for Vermont or something.  It was wonderful just being in the campground.

We had dinner as soon as we got the trailer set up.  Right away we had a problem.  The propane line for Mum and Dad's trailer wouldn't work so we had no stove.  We did have a little portable BBQ but one of the burners was acting up.  We managed to make do with it, and heated up ribs, as well as roasting brussels sprouts and cooking carrots.

After it got dark, dad and the kids and I headed down to the beach to try our hand at shooting star trails.  The night sky was absolutely amazing.  We didn't end up shooting star trails, but did get just some nice night sky pictures.  It was our first time trying this and so we took a lot of bad ones too.  The kids were getting cold, so we headed back to the site and they went to bed while Dad and I sat up and took more shots through the canopy of trees.  Dad's remote shutter release wasn't working so we had to share mine but it all worked out well.  We had tons of fun with it.

The next morning, I got up at 6:30 with Biscuit and walked down to the beach.  The reflection was wonderful and with just a touch of fog on the lake it made me hurry back to the trailer to get the camera.  Dad didn't get up, so I took the kids down.  Unfortunately we had to take Biscuit.  He's learned how to open the trailer door and I didn't know where dad had put the keys so I could lock in from the outside.  After that, we went back and mum and dad still weren't up!  It was nine and I fully expected dad to be up making coffee.  So we went exploring more.  We checked out the site we'd stayed at two summer's ago, then we followed a trail down to a little tiny beach where a bunch of canoes were cached.

It was ten by the time mum and dad got up, and we finally got to make breakfast.  Peameal bacon, potato, pepper and onion hash and bagels.  We'd planned to make pancakes and maple baked beans to go with them but with only two elements, it just would have taken too long and we were already wasting the day.  Then we realized we hadn't packed dish soap.  It's the one thing I ALWAYS forget!  Dad and I drove to the Two River's Store and picked some up, as well as some brownies...I couldn't help myself!

After cleaning up, we headed out to take in all the colours.  We did the last little bit of the Beaver Pond trail, went to the Opeongo Algonqiun Outfitters, spent a grand total of 3 minutes at the Visitor's Centre, then went down to Rock Lake to check out the colours there.

When we got back to camp, having skipped lunch, we got right to work making dinner.  Tonights meal was an experiment, tex mex peppers and black eyed peas over rice with chipotle Chop Chop salad.  We went back to the beach for more star gazing/picture taking, and then headed to bed.

The next morning I made my super healthy oatmeal for mum, dad and I while the kids had instant oatmeal.  One of these days I'll get them to eat the better stuff.  We also had bagels.  While I cleaned up the dishes, mum and Bubbie went down to see if we could get a non-reservable site for one night.  We got the last one!  The site was empty, but we held off moving our trailer over there because the people who had been on the site had an RV and it was possible they had simply gone out for breakfast.  We figured we'd go out and take more pictures then come back around one and move.

Our first stop was the Cache Lake access, then we were going to hike the Lookout Trail, backwards just to the actual lookout.  The parking area was packed with lots and lots of cars parked on the side of the road so we turned around, headed to the two rivers store for ice cream, then returned to Canisbay to move the trailer to our new site.

After the move, dad, Bubbie and I went into Huntsville to see if we could get a replacement for the propane line section.  We also needed groceries since we were staying an extra night.   As we passed the west gate on our way out of the park, we saw a huge line of cars waiting to go passed.  Police were there and as we kept going we were stuffed by just how long the line was.  On the way back, we hit the "trip" tracker in the car and it was 5.2km from where the last car had been stopped to the gate.    Crazy!

Our first stop was Henrietta's Pine Bakery in Dwight but they were sold out of all the things we wanted (no surprise) so we stopped at Tim Horton's then went to Arrowhead for a quick photo detour of Stubb's Falls.  Groceries and a replacement battery for Dad's remote shutter release were easy to get, the propane accessory, not so much.  We'd have to stick with the BBQ for all our cooking. (yes we could have had a fire, and we did, but as usual the wood sold in the parks was so wet we mostly had smoke...I did make corn bread to go with the peppers the night before but it just tasted like really strong smoke...really gross)

Dinner was hot dogs.  The kids really wanted to roast theirs, but as I said, the fire was pathetic so we just did them on the BBQ.  We also had salad and rice.

Deciding to skip the beach that night in favour of roasting marshmallows, we spent a lazy evening at camp...and the kids roasted a total of 1 marshmallow each for a s'more, then went to bed.  Dad and I sat up around the fire.

The next morning, mum left early as she had to work.  The rest of us had a quick breakfast of bagels, coffee (not for the kids) and Squatch had a hot dog, then we got the trailer mostly packed up inside and went out for a while to take pictures.  This gave the tent parts of the trailer time to dry out before we folded it all down.

We ended up stopping at the side of the road twice, once on a hill that had rows of fog and trees in the distance, and once at one of the areas near the end of Lake of Two Rivers where a fog bank was slowly receding.  Next we tried again to do the Lookout Trail but again changed our minds because of the number of cars already there (and tour busses!)  Instead, we hiked the first few kilometers of the Centennial Ridges trail, just to get to the first look out, then headed back.  Biscuit decided to get snarly and tried to bite a few people which made the return trip a bit of a nerve wracking experience.

Back at the site, we began final preparations to leave when someone pulled up on the side of the road near by and walked over.  Our first thought was it was the next person to book the site and they wondered when we'd be gone.  It turned out, the man had seen Biscuit and wanted to ask about him, as he too has a blue heeler.  After talking and sharing stories on our dog's quirks, we realized we'd gotten our dogs from the same farm, only from different litters!  How crazy was that?

Trip Log: Six Mile Lake Provincial Park - Aug 25-26, 2014

Well it's our last "weekend" of the summer, since our weekends fall on Monday and Tuesday.  We'd hoped to do another interior trip, but Chris and his friends at work start playing hockey early so we only had one night.  Bummer.

Chris and I had stayed a night at Six Mile a few years ago and thought the kids would enjoy it.  It's a pretty little park, and somewhere they've never been.

We arrived around 1pm and immediately remembered why car camping with Biscuit isn't that fun.  He barks unless he's right with us, so while we were setting up the tent, he was not a happy puppy.  But Squatch was.  He'd gotten a hammock for his birthday (which is in winter) and had been eager to try it out all summer.  We kept forgetting to take it along, so he made sure to remind us (repeatedly) this time.

We hadn't booked a site, so we went in, found out what was available, then drove around...looking for a perfect hammock site.  Squatch wasn't happy with the site we picked, which was in the Maple Campground overlooking the pond.  It turned out it had a great spot to hang a hammock right at the pond edge so he could lay back and watch the heron, turtles, ducks and frogs to his hearts content.  The site was fairly large but with a tent pad tucked out of full sight, and when we went to check it out we could see a heron in the pond.  The kids named him Bill.

While the boys got the hammock set up, Bubbie and I started lunch.  The kids had "gourmet Mr. Noodles" while Chris and I had left over soup from dinner the previous night.

After lunch, Chris and Squatch went for a swim (really nice sandy beach according to them) while Bubbie and I took Biscuit for a walk.  It was really hot, and humid, so we weren't really in the mood for hiking.  We checked out some empty sites, made notes on what ones we'd like to stay at another time, then headed back.

We hadn't brought a rope to tie Biscuit up with, and the leash was too short to tie to the picnic table, being only long enough to give him about 3 feet of run.  Chris and Squatch went to an empty site down the road and found a long piece of rope someone had left hanging in a tree.  Squatch got on Chris's shoulders and cut it down.  He was pretty proud of himself.  He's really loving the fact he's got a little pocket knife (also a birthday gift) and spends a lot of time making his own marshmallow stick whenever we camp now.

Supper that night was spaghetti and spice cake I'd made the night before.  After that I tried making popcorn in a pot on the stove.  It sounds simple but I've always had an air popper or we've gotten Jiffy Pop for camping.  This worked out well though, and the kids loved it. While Bubbie and I cleaned up, Squatch and Chris went to fish for a while...can you see a pattern here? To be fair, Squatch had just bought a bunch of lures from the discontinued bin at Sail and wanted to try them out. They didn't have much luck.  Once they got back we had a fire but the wood was kind of wet.  It burned long enough for a few marshmallows,  then we headed to bed.

It kind of figured that the first time we had room to take full sized sleeping bags, it ended up being the only night of camping this summer where we could have used the lighter ones.  It was HOT in the tent all night and so humid.  We opened the windows to get a bit of a breeze and that helped a bit.  We'd also all brought extra sleep clothes.  Long underwear and normal sleep pants, and extra layers of shirts which we didn't need at all.  Figures, right?

Also, it didn't help that Biscuit was wired like crazy.  He started out by chewing on the sleeping bags, then started running back and forth along the length of the tent at full speed, sliding over sleeping bags and crashing into the wall.  The only thing which saved the tent poles from getting broken was the fact there was only a few inches of soil over bedrock, so the pegs popped out, easing the slack on the poles. Crazy dog!  Holy cow.  We got him calmed down and Chris went out and fixed the pegs since without them, the outer sections sag into the middle.

Now if I could get him to leave the etoys at home!

I was so tired, and not at all worried about wildlife after our recent backcountry trips.  The highway noise was like white noise and I was sure I would fall asleep pretty quick.  We could vaguely hear people talking at other sites but there wasn't anyone close by.  Then suddenly I was wide awake and I don't think I slept all night...and for no reason.  I wasn't jumping at every rustle in the bush, I wasn't imagining bears and wolves creeping in close.  I was comfortable, not freezing...I was hot but the breeze was nice.  Very frustrating.

I got up around 4:30am to go to the bathroom then around 6 I could hear thunder and saw the odd flash of lightening.  I ended up going out to bring in the clothes off the drying line and a few minutes later it started to sprinkle.  Chris ran out and brought the hammock in because it would have taken ages to dry if it got soaked.  It ended up pouring like crazy.  There was no wind, and I don't know if there was more thunder because we couldn't hear anything over the sound of rain hitting the tent.  Chris reached down and touched the floor by his head and he was sleeping on a puddle. Thankfully it didn't leak through the floor.  If you patted the floor it felt like patting a waterbed.  We shuffled further towards the other end just incase.

The rain didn't last long.  Bubbie and I got up and took Biscuit for a walk since he was wandering around the tent now, licking everyone.

When we got back, Squatch came out and we made breakfast (well, they got theirs, I drank copious amounts of tea and waited for Chris to wake up.)  Breakfast was oatmeal, the packet variety for the kids and a more healthified version for Chris and I that I swear one day I will get the kids to eat.

The weather report said more storms were coming, so we decided to pack up and not do the hikes.  Bubbie wasn't feeling up to it, having a bit of a sinus headache, and the rising heat, coupled with the humidity made it feel like we were in a sauna.  It was hard to breathe.

Though it was a short trip, I'm glad we got to go out for one more night before the kids start school.  And I'm kind of glad it rained.   Both kids have been afraid to camp if bad weather might be a problem, because of the bad storm we had last year at Achray.  I'm glad they had this, which seemed scary because it was so loud, but in the end wasn't bad, to help them get over their fears.

Wildlife seen:
Blue Heron
Three turtles (can't be sure what kind, they were out in the pond)
hummingbird
bats
ducks (again, they were in the pond and I couldn't see too well to identify what kind)
bull frogs