A Grave Discovery In The Woods

What a beautiful morning!  Despite the cold autumn temperatures during the night, I was warm and cozy.  I didn't even want to get out of bed. The trick to keeping warm was to wear my winter slipper socks, thick warm leggings, and a hoodie to bed. Since it is usually my back and shoulders that get cold, I wrapped my Sherpa blanket around my shoulders and tucked it inside my sleeping bag. I was like a caterpillar in a cocoon.  

When I finally did get up and out of the tent, I had a quick breakfast and then took a walk down to the nearby beach. 

Naturally with the autumn temperatures, there were not a whole lot of people at the beach. But that was just fine by me. 

The beach itself was nice and sandy and was a decent size. There was a grassy areas nearby with a bunch of picnic tables and some shade trees. 

There was also a really small dock. Perhaps for people who want to get into their canoe. Or perhaps for those who want to fish.

Off to one side, I spotted the usual marshy area that you usually find beside the beach.  I wandered on over there to see if there was anything interesting.

I peered into the water and saw a group of snails hanging out in the mud. 

There were also a couple of Leopard frogs trying to blend in with the scenery so as not to be seen. 

Out a little ways from shore I could see what I thought at first was a part of a log sticking up out of the water.

But it wasn't a stick. It was a tiny little Painted Turtle. It was small. Just the diameter of the top of a pop can. 

There were bunches of purple New England Asters growing along the shore line. 

All sorts of insects were busying themselves among the leaves. There was  a Spotted Pink Ladybeetle getting a sunbath. 

Wasps and other insects were busy gathering up nutrients from the lily pads that were floating in the water. 

After exploring Maple Beach I walked up the road to explore more of the park.  Along the side of the road there were some thistles wearing their purple hats.  

Just a quick walk up the road and I reached the comfort station. It had showers and it had solar panels on the roof. 

It also had an indoor laundry facility. 

Directly across from the comfort station was a barrier free campsite.  It had a picnic table that was wheel chair accessible. 

The thing that surprised me most was that there was a charging station for electric cars right cross from the comfort station.  Now that is a park with great service!  It is rare to see these inside a provincial park. I hope to start seeing more of them in other parks in the future. 

Just up the road from the charging station was a  walking path that connected one end of the Maple campground to the other. It was a beautiful tail to take a walk down. 

I emerged from the path right across from site 163.  I noticed that this part of the campground seemed to be closed down for the season. The washrooms were locked up and the sites were all empty.  I love it when I can find nice quiet spots like this!  So I climbed up a hill and into the walk-in site #  165. The picnic table was leaned up against a tree in preparation for winter. So, instead I found a big boulder to sit on. I sat there for about a half hour just enjoying the peace and quiet. Once in awhile other campers would walk down the road with their dogs. It was a great spot for dog walking. 

I had to be off of my campsite by 2 pm and it was already about noon. So I decided I had better head back so that I could start packing up.  I took the same path back as I had coming up.  Along the way I noticed the bright white berries and bright red stems of the  White Baneberry plant. It's colours were beautiful and vibrant against the green leaves all around it. 

The colours on an Autumn Meadowhawk dragonfly were just the opposite. I could barely see it when it landed on  dried up brown leaf that was on the ground. 

Same for a little earthworm trying to cross the path. If it wasn't for the movement, I probably wouldn't have seen it at all.  He had better be more careful if he wants to escape the notice of any birds in the area. 

I got back to the campsite and had a quick lunch and then got to work tearing down my tent and packing up. While I was doing that I happened to notice some odd looking balls attached to the underside of an oak leaf that was on the ground.  I had no idea what these were.  I had never seen them before. 

A few days later, when I got home, I did some research and found out that these were a type of Oak Gall Wasp.  It would seem this park has many different kinds of  gall wasps. 

I was all packed up and ready to go at about 2 pm. However, I didn't have to meet my sister and my brother-in-law until about 4:30 pm.  The hotel in Orillia that we would be staying at was only about 45 minutes away. I had plenty of time to kill before meeting up with them.

So I started looking on Google Maps for other nearby Provincial Parks or hiking trails that I might explore to pass the time. I found the perfect one. Waubaushene Beaches Provincial Park was only a half hour away and it was right along the route I would be taking to get to the hotel. 

A half an hour later, I had arrived at the park. The entrance tot he park is on Albin Road. There was a big provincial park sign to let me know that I had arrived at the right place. This is a non-operational park so there is no facilities or campgrounds here. Nor do you have to pay to get in. There was no parking lot so I had to park along the side of the road. 

At the entrance to the trail into the park was a Public Notice sign warning you not to drink the water in this area. (I never saw any body of water in any part of the park that I was in, but then again I did not explore the entire park so perhaps there was some somewhere). 

It was a rather grey day and I didn't know how much time I had before it would start to rain on me. But I figured that I would just make the best of it. Even if it did rain, I would be going to a hotel after this anyways, so I would be able to get dry and warm again easily enough. 

The dirt trail went through a canopy of trees and then opened up into a fairly large open area. 

One of the first things I noticed was how many sumac trees there were all over the place. They were in the process of turning their leaves from green to a bright red. It was quite pretty. 

From where I stood, I could go in three different directions; left, right, or straight.  I chose the right side because there was a well used sandy path that seemed interesting.  I followed the path to a big sand pit where I found evidence of hand made fire pits (even though no fires were allowed in this park). If I had to guess,  this is probably where many of the local teens come to party and hang out.  If this were true, it was still pretty clean and well kept. There was no garbage and no broken bottles or cans lying around. 

A  Blue Jay came to see what I was up to. He never got real close but he did follow me for a bit until he got bored and flew off. 

There were so many purple New England Asters growing everywhere. 

The trail led from the sandy area, through the Sumacs and into the woods.

I could hear the sound of a chainsaw being used somewhere in the distance on some neighbours property. But other than that, the forest was very peaceful. 

I came across another fire pit in a park where there should be none.  

After that the trail became more overgrown and you could tell that not a lot of foot traffic came this way. 

Eventually the trail became so overgrown that it was difficult to make out where to go anymore. So despite there being some red markers to indicate a trail,, I decided it would be best if I just turned around and headed back the way I had come. I didn't want to risk getting lost. 

When I made it back out to the clearing I noticed that the area was filled with the leaves of Mouse-eared Hawkweed and some puff ball mushrooms.  I hadn't noticed it on the way in. I thought they were kind of pretty and unique looking. 

I stopped to watch a Turkey Vulture fly by overhead. 

When I got back to the entrance I realized that I still had quite a bit of time on my hands. So rather than go back to the car, I decided to journey down another leg of the trail.  This time I chose to go down the middle trail

Unlike the other leg of the trail, this one took me up a hill. 

It wasn't too steep of a climb and I just took my time enjoying all the flowers everywhere. 

Just when I thought I was almost at the top of the hill I realized that I was only about half way up. The hill was bigger than I first thought. 

This trail was much more well used than the last one.  I even found a golf ball at one point. 

When I reached the top of the hill I once again had a choice in which direction to go in. Should I go left or right? 

I chose to go left . As I made my way through the Sumac lined trail I was greeted with a scenic landscape of reds, greens, purples and whites. It was just gorgeous!

The trail led me to a grove of gnarly looking old trees that formed somewhat of a canopy over the trail.  It was starting to look a little mysterious; like something out of a mystery book. 

As I exited the grove of gnarly trees, I entered a wooded area. 

Then I came to a fence with some large cinder blocks along side of it. 

There was a large  open entrance way in the fence and I could see a nicely mowed lawn on the other side. At first I thought that maybe this was someone's backyard or something.  But upon closer inspection I realized that it wasn't. 

It was a graveyard!  

I had completely forgotten that when I had looked up this park that it seemed to have a bunch of local cemeteries right in the park itself.  To be honest I didn't really think they were part of the park but that it was some sort of google map error.  But no, the cemetery is actually a part of  Waubaushene Beaches Provincial Park. 

I spent a little bit of time going from grave site to grave site and reading what was written on the headstones. I pondered what their lives might have been like and how they may have died. 

There was still quite a bit of open area in this cemetery with no grave stones yet. Lots of room for future graves. 

It was getting closer tot he time that I had to leave so I decided to head back through the Sumac.

Along the way I was saddened to see a dead shrew on the side of the trail. Probably the unfortunate remains of a local cats play thing. 

I noticed some Riverbank Grape leaves in the process of changing colours for the autumn season. Their stripes were quite eye catching.

By the time I got back down to the bottom of the hill and back to the trail head, it was time to go and meet up with my sister and my brother-in-law.  I had really enjoyed my quiet walk in the woods and the cemetery. 

Before leaving the town of Waubaushene I stopped for gas at the local Esso station.  It had a bunch of other stores and food outlets attached to it. So after getting gas I decided to go inside and take a look around. 

I parked my car beside a giant fiberglass moose that was dressed in an RCMP uniform. 

In particular I was interested in Mark's Candy Emporium. I was a bit confused at first because the sign said "Open" but the doors were blocked by a giant Polar Bear bench.  

Then I realized that there was another way in. Some of the stores were all linked together on the inside and the door to the souvenir shop was also the door to the candy emporium. 

I headed over to the candy and there was so much to choose from. I saw a display of salt water taffy that I knew that my sister liked so I decided to get some. There were so many weird and wonderful flavours. I got three bags; one for each of us. I filled the bags up with one of every flavour so that we could try them all out and compare notes on which ones were best.  I was the most curious to find out what the Pickle flavour one would taste like. (It's my sister's favourite, but only ranked about 3rd in my favourites list). 

With my bags of candy in hand, I headed out and met up with my sister in Orillia. We had a great time at Casino Rama and at The Price Is Right Live the next day. We didn't win anything but the whole trip was fun just the same.