Amazing Race Around The Kettle Lakes

We slept well and we were warm and cozy. There were no mice to be seen when we woke up. 
It was a bit of an over cast day, but there was no rain. 
After eating breakfast, we began our "Amazing Race" all over the park starting at where yesterday's last clue took us, which was the Kettle Trail. 

We did not see our next clue at the trail head so we figured maybe it was at the half way point.  It was a good excuse to go for a hike. 

The trail is a big circle. We decided to start on the right leg of the trail. It led us down to one of the small kettle lakes called Pine Lake.

Down one of the embankments we noticed a rather large hole that looked like the den of some medium sized animal. It was too big for a chipmunk or snake, It looked more like the size of something that could house a rabbit or a groundhog. There was no scat around or other signs pointing to whose homeit was, so we never did find out. 

The bunch berries that earlier in the year had white flowers were now sporting red berries in their place. 

Not many trees were changing the colours of their leaves just yet, but those that were changing, were quite beautiful. 

Off in the distance, we could see a beaver lodge. 

The trail led us closer to it so that we could get a better view, but we didn't see any beavers. 

Way out in the long marsh grasses we could see some pitcher plants growing. 

The Kettle Trail, after leaving the marsh area, turns into a wide open space on either side of the trail. It looked as though there was a carpet of green. We had gone more than half way around the trail and we still had not found the next clue yet. 

We may not have seen much in the way of animals, but we did find some interesting looking mushrooms.  

And these caterpillars were also in abundance. 

Near the end of the trail there was a little bench to sit on and take a rest. We didn't rest though. We were on a mission. We had to find that clue. 

We were almost at the very end of the trail. We could see our parked car at the side of the road. And then we found it. The clue was located right at the exist. We laughed because if we had taken the left leg of the trail instead of the right leg then we would have found it right away.  But that's ok because then we wouldn't have gone on a nice hike. 

Our next clue led us to Hughes Lake. 

This lake is one of the biggest lakes in the park. 

We figured that this one would be worth taking a canoe out to see more of it. But we were too busy with our clues right now for that.  We quickly and easily spotted our clue and didn't stay long before we were in the car and on our way again. 

The next clue had us drive down a long winding road to the opposite end of the park where we came to  us to Point Lake. 

Point Lake had a large picnic area and a beach. 

It had a firepit with the initials of the park engraved on it. Actually, that was part of our clue; to look for this particular fire pit. 

There were beautiful Mallows flowers in both white and pink growing all over the place at this section of the park. 

Point Lake was not as large as Hughes Lake, but it was still one of the larger lakes in the park. It would probably be fun to take a canoe out in this lake too. 

It had a set of bathrooms up a ways away from the lake.  

The were just your regular non-flushing vault toilets.  Nothing fancy. 

We grabbed our next clue which took us down another lonely dirt road to our next destination. The only people we saw down this road was an older couple who had stopped to pick blueberries  and a ministry truck that passed us by. Other than that, it was nothing but trees.

This road led us to the Oh-Say-Yah-Wah-Kaw  Trail. 

It would have been nice to hike another trail but we had already done one and the sky was getting grey and looking like it might rain. So we decided not to hike this one today. Besides, it would give us something to do the next time we came to the park. And we are definitely planning on coming back.  Instead we found our next clue, which was not hard to find, and we continued on to our next stop. 

The next clue brought us to a horseshoe pit.  This is a nice set up for horseshoes that they have here. there are 4 pits and some benches so that people can sit and watch the games. 

The horseshoe pits are located in the part of the park where the regular campsites are.  There were a few more roads in here instead of just one straight one, so we got a little bit turned around.  But eventually we found our clue and continued on tot he next stop. 

Our next stop was Island Lake. This lake has one of the main beaches on it. It is walking distance from many of the campsites. 

To get down to the beach you go down a set of stairs. 

This beach isn't very big but it has a couple picnic tables and a bouyed area for swimming. 

To the left there was a rack of rental canoes and one of the paddle boats that you can also rent. 

One of the clues sent us to Slab Lake which was the same place that we had gone for the presentation on loons the evening before.  This lake had the main day-use beach with a huge picnic area, a playground for the kids, and a comfort station. 

I got Anika and Julie to make a quick pit stop at the comfort station.  It was very clean and had flush toilets. 

I did not get a chance to check out the showers. I didn't want to keep Anika and Julie waiting too long for me. We had clues to find!

Not too far away from the comfort station, just up on top of a hill, was the amphitheater.  It was close to the comfort station so I did take a moment to take a quick peek at it.  It was cute and with the benches being on a hill, the audience would easily be able to see the stage below. 

I went back tot he car and we headed down the dirt road towards our next clue. 

This brought us to the Bike Trail. Julie and I got out of the car to look for the clue while Anika parked the car. 

Julie found it first. It was attached to the post of the big trail head sign.  This was our last clue and now we had all the letters we needed to finish our puzzle and find out what the secret message was. 
While she was reading, I took a look around. This trail looked wide and open. It had a red gate across the entrance that kept cars out but left enough room for bikes and hikers to get by. 

The trail consists of 3 connecting loops . The smallest loop is 2 km, the medium loop is 5.5 km and the largest loop is 8 km. We didn't have bikes with us but perhaps one day when we come back we will bring some bikes with us.  Or perhaps, one day we will just walk it on foot. 

Near the trail head sign was a picnic table. The forest floor was a carpet of green. 

Upon closer look we realizes that this carpet of green was actually all blueberry bushes!  So many blueberry bushes!  The older couple that we drove by on the road earlier would be in heaven if they had come here to pick their blueberries. They could have had sooo many! And a picnic table to sit down at when they got tired. 
Now that we know where this treasure trove of blueberries is, we will have to make a point of coming here to pick some next year. We could have blueberry pancakes for breakfast. 

While we were exploring the area nearby, we came across a strange little building.. We had no idea what it was for.  A note on the door said it was the "Assistant Superintendent And Resource Steward's Office" .  That is quite a mouthful of a title. Try saying  that 5 times fast!  

Outside the ​Assistant Superintendent And Resource Steward's Office was a phone booth.  You rarely see those anymore!

We were curious to see if it still had a working phone in it. So, we went to take a peek inside. It did! 

With our puzzle figured out and our secret message in hand, we headed over to the Visitor Center. That is where the puzzle directed us to go. 

On the wall outside the Visitor Center there was a big bulletin board made of plexiglass. 

This was the final stop for our Amazing Race. We had a great time finding the clues and we thought that this was a fabulous way to get people to see most of the park. Especially when many people probably wouldn't normally explore much past their own campsites. We thought it was a very creative and fun way to get people out there and moving around a bit. 

Since we were already there, we decided to go inside the Visitor Centre to see what it was like. There were all sorts of tables set up with different nature displays. And there was Sarah, the staff member who had done the presentation on loons the night before. Today she was telling all the kids and visitors about the different displays. She had a wealth of knowledge to share. I stopped to talk to her for a few moments. I had noticed that there was a collection of old birds nest in a display in a corner. I remembered the empty birds nest we had found near the bathroom up at the cabin. So, I asked Sarah if she would like us to bring it to the Visitor Centre to add to the collection. She said no and that it would be best to just put it in the bush so that the other animals and birds could take it apart and recycle its materials to make new nests of their own. So I did that once we got back to the cabin. 

While Sarah talked to some of the other visitors, we wandered around and checked thigs out.  I liked the "Touch Table". It was filled with thigs like animal furs, and deer antlers, and feathers and many other things that could be picked up and examined up close. 

There was a display of various animal bones. There were also some taxidermy birds. It was interesting to see just how big a loon is in comparison to a duck or a Canada Goose. Loons are surprisingly big. 

There were also displays about insects and plants. There were bookshelves full of books on various nature topics. There were also brochures and kids coloring books that you could take home for free. I took a couple of the activity books and a couple of business card sized magnifying glasses to give to some kids that I would be camping with in just a few days from now. It is something that I knew the kids would love. 

Even the ceiling inside the Visitor Centre had something you could learn about!  There were paintings of the constellations all over the ceiling. 

Now that our Amazing Race was over and we had seen all there was to see inside the Visitor Centre, we headed back to the cabin. We were getting hungry and it was past time for our lunch.

We ate our lunch out on the desk and relaxed in our chairs and soaked up some sun for a bit. But the canoe was calling to us and we finally decided to go for a canoe ride. 

There were life jackets in the corner of the cabin, however, they were a bit old and didn't fit the best. Plus there were only 2 of them and 3 of us. We will have to remember to bring our own life jackets the next time we come.  As an alternative to one of the life jackets, we decided to inflate one of the tubes that we had brought with us. We knew it wasn't a great substitute for a life jacket but it was certainly better than nothing. So we went with it. 

The lake itself was pretty small. It took hardly any time at all to get to the other side. We were surprised to find that what we had thought was a log on the other shore, was actually a dock. There was also a cabin over there too. We had been under the impression that we were the only ones on this lake but it turns out that we were actually sharing the lake. We had heard a guitar the previous night and had seen a light from this direction. Now we knew where it was coming from. We don't know if this is someone's private property or if it is where the staff go when they are not working. Either way, we had no intention of pulling up to the dock. Instead we just paddled on by. 

That was when we noticed the mama loon and her two babies. We made sure to keep our distance so that we didn't spook them or stress them out. As we paddled around we found a few wooden boxes that were submerged under water. We thought that it was a bit strange and wondered what they were for. Later on, we did some research and found out that the submerged boxes used to to be old nesting boxes for the loons. They were no longer needed by the loons so they were abandoned and eventually they got water logged and sunk. 

After reaching shore, we decided to go for a walk to the ed of our road way and see if we could see the beaver at Heart Lake. We didn't see any beaver today but we were not ready to go back yet so instead we walked to the next lake, which was Spring Lake. 

From the road we could see what looked to be a wooden wall. We were curious to see what it was. perhaps it was the foundation of an old boat house or something. 

When we arrived, we found it to be some sort of support wall to keep the dirt from falling into the lake. 

There was a set of stairs that led right down to the waters edge. I am assuming this is some sort of boat or canoe launch. We really didn't know for sure; it was just our best guess. 

Spring Lake is a small lake. It is even smaller than the one our cabin is on. It was very quiet and there was no one else around. 

The only one who seemed to notice that we were there was a little Green Frog. 

We still weren't ready to head back yet, so we continued walking to the next lake, Hughes Lake. We had been here earlier that day on our Amazing Race, but now we were less rushed and had more time to take look around. 

We noticed a bird house out in the middle of the lake. We wondered if anything was living in it. 

​By now we were ready to head back to the cabin. We had been walking quite a bit today and we were starting to get tired. The idea of getting back to the deck and putting our feet up for awhile was seeming rather appealing. 

On the way back we discovered a side trail off to the side of the road.  I was curious, so while Anika waited by the road, Julie and I took a quick walk down the path to see where it led.  Before we got too far, we were startled by the wooshing sound of the flapping of wings as a couple of Ruffed Grouse made a mad dash for the higher branches of the trees.  It made me jump because I wasn't expecting it. 

The path was a short one and it lead to the road outside the boundary of the park. So we turned around and went back to where Anika was. Apparently while we were gone, Anika had the opportunity to see a humming bird fly by. 

When we reached the private road to the cabin, we noticed a path that we had over looked before. Anika and Julie were tired of walking so they headed back to the cabin. However, my curiosity urged me to explore this path despite my energy levels starting to wane.  

Unlike the path that had the grouse on it, this path was much longer. It went through the pine trees and through the ferns. 

Eventually the ferns turned into scrub brush. There were some fallen logs but the path was pretty easy to navigate. There were some foot prints and dog tracks in the dirt and I could tell that this trail was probably used by some local people who most likely lived just outside the park boundary and used this path as a personal dog walking path. I thought about how lucky they were to be able to live so close to a provincial park to be able to do that. 

The trail ended at a road and at the park boundary. there were big blue signs posted tovlet you know where the park begins and that you couldn't hunt or ride ATVs past that point. 

With my curiosity satisfied, I turned around and headed back to the cabin. On the way back I noticed a piece of an old fence off to the side of the trail.  I hadn't noticed it when I passed by the first time. I might not have noticed it this time either because it was so over grown with plants, if it wasn't for a little squirrel that was climbing over it. I thought it strange that this one piece of fence and no other pieces was way out here in the bush with no particular purpose that could immediately be found. It was a bit of an oddity. 

When I arrived back to the cabin, Anika was getting ready to cook us some hotdogs on the BBQ.  Julie made some home made nachos to go with the hotdogs and voila.... we had a quick and easy glamping meal! It was delicious! 

After supper, we spent the rest of the evening playing board games until it was time to get ready for bed. We didn't see our mice friend all evening while we played our board games. 

However, when we went outside to go to the bathroom and to brush our teeth, up in the rafters of the bathroom roof, there was a mouse!  This mouse was bigger and a much more lighter colour grey than the other two had been. We left the mouse to its own devices and headed off to bed to get some sleep.

But the story of the mice does not end there....  We may not have seen the mouse from the night before in the cabin all evening, but he was still there. He made his appearance in the wee hours of the morning after we were all in bed. At about 6 in the morning I was awakened to the sounds of Julie and Anika talking about the mouse. The mouse had been running around inside the cabin for hours and was keeping them awake. Apparently it had run up on the bed and had run right across Anika. In the dim light of the morning I could see it sitting near the door. So I climbed out of the top bunk and grabbed a blanket and tried to catch it and throw it outside like I did with his brother the day before.  The blanket landed right on top of him and I was sure that I had caught him. Unfortunately, when i went to scoop him up he escaped from under the blanket and ran under the bed.  I sat there in the semi darkness for the longest time just waiting for another opportunity to throw the blanket on him. But the opportunity never came. I guess he decided that he was tired and was going to hide in whatever hidey hole he had. He never came out again. When it was almost 8 a.m. I finally gave up waiting for him to show himself. By this time I figured there was no point in going back to bed. We had to be out of the cabin by 10 and we still had to pack up. So, although we were all pretty tired, we decided to just get up and get packed up. Despite the mice, we had an excellent time and we will definitely come back. But next time, we will bring a live trap with us..... just in case.