I woke up in the morning to the sound of woodpeckers knocking on the tree just above our campsite. I grabbed my camera and ever so quietly headed for the tent door.  Just as I reached for the zipper, the neighbouring campsite started making noises and talking and I knew that my opportunity was lost. I was so disappointed. 

So I crawled back into my sleeping bag for a bit and listened to the stirrings of the various campsites beginning to wake up. Luckily though the new campsite neighbours were pretty quiet people and they were actually packing up to leave. They were only making minimal noise and it wasn't long before one of the wood peckers came back.  Once again I grabbed my camera, and I slipped out the tent door  and managed to get a couple of grainy not so good pictures of a female Pileated Woodpecker. 

Once Heather got up and we had our breakfast we had to make the decision on whether we wanted to tackle the Cranberry Bog Trail. We had to tear down the tents, pack up  and be off the site by 2 pm, plus our feet were still aching from hiking the previous day, so we opted to just walk around and see the other side of the park instead of doing the hike. I think we made the right choice. Just walking up the hill to the car was making our feet hurt. 

So once we were pretty much packed up we took a walk down to the main beach to see how it compared to the smaller beach that we had already been to. 

There was a nice winding set of stairs that led to the main beach. 

The exact way to the beach was a little unclear, since there were no signs that said "This Way To The Beach" or anything. But we had the paper map and we just kind of winged it. 

As we descended down the stairs we noticed some informational signs that were encased in plastic that we hadn't noticed before.  As we walked along we spotted more and more of them.  Turns out that these signs belong to some sort of Orienteering Course that you can do while you are there. 

The stairs to the beach led us past the place where the canoe rental storage area is. I have never seen as many canoe racks as they have here. There were rows upon rows of them about 5 racks deep on both sides of the path. Canoeing is clearly a popular activity for this park. 

Kayaking is also popular here. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Killarney also offered the rental of stand up paddle boards  which you could rent from the Killarney Outfitters located about 4 minutes down the road from the park. 

Just before we reached the shore we saw the giant sign saying "No cans or bottles". It is the little things like this that I am sure help to keep this park as clean as this one is. You can tell that they care and take pride in their park. 

The main beach was just as sandy and almost as nice as the smaller one was. However I think that the view from the smaller beach was much nicer. 

The other thing was that this beach had a number of run off drainage pipes buried in the sand all over the place to route the rain waters that come from down the hill into the lake without it washing away the beach sand. All though these are necessary I guess, they do detract from the otherwise beautiful beach. 

We walked the shore line until we came to the dog beach on the other side. It's one of the nicest looking dog beaches I have seen in a provincial park so far. What we didn't know at the time was if we had just gone a little further from this point we could have seen the Yurts that this park has. I guess that will have to be saved for a future visit. 

Right beside the dog beach is the other entrance to the La Cloche Silhouette hiking trail which begins with a boardwalk bridge. 

The edge of the water was lined with beautiful flowers such as this Joe-Pye weed. 

Up in the grass we passed by this Wooly Bear caterpillar.

Close to here was another nice convenience that the park provides. Not only can you rent canoes and kayaks, but if you bring your own then they have a public rack that you can use to to store it on. 

It was getting close to two o'clock and it was time to go home. We went back tot he site and finished with the last of the packing. We said good bye to the chipmunks and then headed for home. 

Despite the rather over cast and chilly weather we had, we still had a really good time. It isn't any wonder why this park is the favourite of almost everyone who comes here. I have a feeling that not only will we come back to do the La Cloche trail, but we will probably be back many more times after that. 

We woke up at the crack of noon this day. Could be because we stayed up so late. Could be because it was cold and over cast and kind of gloomy out. This did not matter to us though. We were excited to soon be hiking up "The Crack" that we had heard so much about from the other campers and park staff. There were even T-shirts in the park office that said something like "I survived The Crack". We didn't buy one though because they were way over priced (something like $34.99 each....ouch!) 

Our campsite neighbours and fellow raccoon battlers were packing up and leaving and a new campsite neighbour was waiting in the wings. I heard him say to his daughters "Make sure that you pick everything up. Remember to always leave the place cleaner than you found it".  I smiled and told him that our family had the exact same motto for when we are camping too. Then we said good bye to our new friends and wished them luck on their future camping adventures. 
 
We cooked breakfast, packed a bit of a lunch, made sure everything was tidied up and secure at the camp site and then jumped in the car. Unfortunately the entrance to the trail is a 7 km drive down the road for the park and we were warned that there was no sign indicating that it was there. You had to already know where it is (we had gotten directions from the park office). 

Finally we arrived and hopped out of the car and went over to examine the trail sign at the foot of the trail. 
The Crack is a 6 km hike over difficult terrain and should take roughly 4 hrs. By this time it was 3 pm and we were going to take it slow so that we could take pictures and enjoy the scenery. I estimated that we would be back around 7 or 7:30 pm. The Crack is the beginning of the 78 km La Cloche trail and there was a warning sign that this trail does not loop around. So if you didn't turn around and come back the way you came once you got to The Crack then you were going to be on your way for the 7 - 10 day hike! 

Hiding up in the top of the sign was another big ole Orb Weaver spider. They seem to be fairly common to this campground (however the Daddy Long Legs were even more plentiful). 

The trail started off very wide and nicely groomed. You could drive an ATV down this trail. We said to each other "If this is how the path is going to be the whole way then this should be easy!" 

Some areas were a bit boggy and others had nice little meadows. There was one real pretty meadow that had a fallen tree stump right in the middle of it which kind of looked like moose antlers or something. 

One plant that we saw and don't often see was some Doll's Eyes. These white berries are poisonous, so if you find some don't eat them. 

Eventually the trail went down a bit of an incline and opened up on to a marshy area that had a great view. 

There was a quaint little winding foot bridge to allow you to cross over the marsh.

Waterlilies were floating in the water. 

The shores were lined with Pearly Everlasting flowers (also known as Anaphalis ). 

As we went along we met more and more people going the opposite direction. We said hello and talked to just about every one of them and asked them what to expect up ahead. Most of them were coming back from the 80 km hike and had been out on the trail for days. 

We passed by a very steep, very rocky portage and we were glad that we were only hiking and not portaging. It looked like an avalanche of rocks had come tumbling down the hill and you were expected to climb it with a canoe on your head. 

We chuckled at the portage sign because it reminded us of of the" Four On The Floor" show we used to watch many years ago with the "Mr. Canoe Head" skits. 

At the bottom of one of the portages, by the side of the lake, we met a nice couple that showed us their detailed map of the La Cloche trial. Their version had all the back country campsites listed on it. So we were able to see how far apart each site was. Our version just gave a rough idea of where the trail went but that was about it. 

Every time we came to a lake or a marshy area I kept hoping to see a turtle or something interesting. But the best I could find was a little frog that was playing "Where's Waldo".

The farther along the trail you went the more increasingly difficult the terrain became. About a little more than half way we came to an incredibly steep hill of rock. We looked up and thought we must be nearing the end because it was starting to look more like a rock climbing expedition. 

And to top it all off, near the very top were massive amounts of tangled roots all over the place. The roots were almost preferable because at least it was something you could hold on to while you made the climb. 

Just as we were saying "Just think ...we are going to have to climb back down this somehow later on" along came two guys not walking, not climbing, but literally running down the side of this very steep hill.  As they zipped on past us I was just picturing a mass of tangled broken bones at the bottom of the hill if they were to at all lose their footing.  We stepped aside and got out of their way. Later on we met up with some other hikers who told us that those two that had been running had actually started the 80 km trail at about 6 a.m. that morning and had finished the entire trail in one day. Actually we calculated that they finished the entire 80 km trail in about 12 hrs!!  They were the talk of the park. Even the next day you could hear other campers still talking about them. 

As we got near the top of the steep hill with the tangled mass of roots we stopped to take a quick break and sat down. Along came another family of 3 and one of the women in that group said "I am so glad to see that I am not the only one that needs a break on this trail once in awhile!" (Most other people seemed to be taking the trail rather quickly and I wondered if any of them were even taking the time to enjoy themselves and see what interesting things were around them, like this tree that had fallen down but had completely twisted right around before it did; almost like a giant had taken it between it's thumb and forefinger and twirled it around or something). 

The farther along you go the more confusing the trail becomes. Some of the markers are missing and instead they have large piles of rocks to guide you along your way. At one point the red markers disappeared altogether and I thought we had arrived at our destination. But Heather said "nope, we are not there yet". I was tired and ready to turn around by this point. But we persevered and I am glad we did. Eventually we saw "The Crack" in the distance. 

Getting to the top of "The Crack" though.....well, let's just say that it was more like rock climbing than hiking. I was glad we weren't carrying back packs and it made the other climbs we had done on this trail up to this point look like child's play. 

But it was all worth it. The view at the top was absolutely breath taking. I imagine at sunset it is even more gorgeous. You could see for miles and miles around. So far in fact that you could see multiple lakes at one time. 

We sat for a little bit and ate a snack and caught our breath. We laughed and shouted " I'm on Crack!" 
 The bears that Heather wanted to see were no where to be found. The only one to join us up here in this remote little corner of the world was just a little chipmunk. 

By this time it was about 5:45 pm and you could see the rain clouds starting to come in. The wind had picked up quite a bit since we were so high up without a whole lot of trees for shelter and it was starting to feel cold up there. I  had visions of us being stuck on very steep slippery rocks in a down pour and with  night time setting in, getting lost in the woods somewhere.  I did not want to have to be rescued by the park rangers from a crumpled heap at the bottom of the hill somewhere.  

So we made the trek back down the mountain side and we picked up our pace a little for the way back.  We at least wanted to make it to the tree line and into the woods before it started raining. 

Once we got past the rock climb portion of "The Crack" the way down was actually much easier than I thought it would be. It wasn't long before we were back to the wooded part of the trail again. 

Even though we had picked up the pace again we were still able to enjoy the sights around us. Heather pointed out what she calls a "Love Knot" in one of the trees. 

We were making good time and it hadn't even begun to rain yet. We only had a about a half a kilometer left to go and we were talking and laughing and having a great time. All of a sudden Heather stopped dead in her tracks and whispered under her breath "Bear!" . Then she said it quietly again " Bear, bear, bear!"  I looked where she was looking and sure enough there were not one but two bears! They were in a little meadow just off to the side of the trail and were only about  25 or 30 feet away from us. One was only a cub and the other was not much older...maybe a yearling. 

We quickly realized that with bears that young, there is most likely a momma bear around somewhere. So we remembered to make some noise so that we didn't take them by surprise and we began to walk past them. heather had an empty plastic water bottle in her hand so she squeezed it in her hands to make crinkling noises. The little cub stood up on it's back legs to see what it was and when it saw us it started to go farther away from us. The older one just looked up from what ever it was doing (maybe hunting for frogs or berries or something) stared for a second and then went back to what it was doing. It didn't seem to care at all that we were there. 

We did not stick around long to see how long they would tolerate us being in their space. Keeping an eye behind us to make sure they didn't start coming after us, we just kept walking. 

It wasn't long before we made it back to the parking lot and were on or way back to the campsite. 
It was about 7 p.m by the time we got back. It took us about 2 1/2 hrs to go up to The Crack and only about 1 1/2 hrs to come back. 

Once again just as we started supper it began to rain. It got to the point where no whenever Heather and I are together and it starts raining we say "Oh, it must be supper time!"

Once again our friends the raccoons were back. But this time there was nothing for them to eat so their visit was short lived.  We played a game of Settlers Of Catan and then called it a night. Our feet and muscles were very achy from all the exercise we got that day and sleep came quickly and easily. It had been a really great day . 

We actually set a wind up alarm clock to make sure that we got up on time for the Chickanishing hike. Setting an alarm for a camping trip is something we almost never do. Usually it is just sleep in until it either gets too hot or too noisy from our surroundings. But we didn't want to miss this.  

Our campsite neighbours told us that they had seen some Pileated Woodpeckers in the nearby tree that we just missed before we got up. I hoped to see them before we left. I have only seen Pileated Woodpeckers once many years before in Driftwood Provincial Park and I had been amazed by the size of them. They are about the size of a large crow.  Instead, on this morning,  I ended up seeing just a small red headed woodpecker. 

Our campsite neighbours headed out on a day of canoeing and kayaking and we hurried with our breakfast and headed on our way to our hike. You actually have to drive out of Killarney Park and down the road to get to the entrances of a number of the hiking trails for this park. The  Chickanishing trial was one of those, so we drove a kilometer down the road and then down a long winding back road until we got to the parking lot of the trail. We made it just on time. 

The group that gathered there consisted of a family of 5, Howard and his wife and their dog Daisy, another young couple who were spending their vacation going from park to park, a wonderful older lady named Winnie (nick named Windy) who came all the way from Florida (but had been to Killarney many times because it is her favourite park), and of course my sister Heather and myself. Our band of merry men was lead by two guides Rachelle and Ian. 

Before we began we all went around and introduced ourselves in turn and told everyone why we had chosen Killarney as our place to camp.  The common sentiment that we kept hearing from the various people we met on this trip that had visited Killarney before was that this was their favourite park. With this group of people it was no different . Everyone said that they loved it here and had plans to visit again. We weren't sure exactly what to expect on this interpretive hike and was pleasantly surprised by how well we connected to the people in the group and we began to swap stories and get to know each other as we walked. 

The hike was all about connecting with the land. One of the first stops for us on the trail was at a rocky clearing that had some very nice views of the surrounding scenery. 

We were asked to close our eyes and describe what we smelled. Then we were asked to describe what we heard. Finally were were asked to spread out and find something in nature  that symbolized a memory or had some significance to you. 

Someone chose some pine needles because it reminded them of tea from back home. Someone else chose blueberries because it reminded them of summer. I chose a rock because it reminded me of when I used to go rock collecting on the shores of the beach with my grandmother and we would bring them back to her house and put them in her driveway so that she would have a driveway full of beautiful colours instead of boring old grey gravel.  And finally it was Winnie's turn and she reached down and put her hand lovingly on the pink granite rock we were all standing on and said that she had also chosen a rock. But hers was the rock in it's entirety. She said something like "I chose this rock because it is full of cracks and is weathered and shows its beauty and strength  in its age. These cracks are the rocks wrinkles , just like mine."  I thought that what she had said was quite beautiful and profound and I felt connected to her from that moment on.  

You could tell that she just loved the beauty of the granite we were walking on and that she just loved this park. She would often point out the various colours of the pinks and the white quartz as well as the  beautiful changes in the formations of the stone as we went along. 

At one stop along the way you could look down the side of the rock face and see a little river or waterway below which connected with George Lake.  

It was the perfect place for canoeing and kayaking. It was protected from the wind and the waves from the lake (and it was pretty windy that day) and I am sure there was lots to see. I think on a future trip to Killarney I might like to do some canoeing there myself.

Every stop we made along the trail was nicer than the previous one. Rachelle was even nice enough to take pictures for each of us with our various cameras. Killarney Park is one of the main places that The Group of Seven used to do there artwork. Looking at the landscape around us you can definitely picture in your head where they may have sat and sketched and painted. 

So when we got closer to George Lake Rachelle and Ian had each of us sit quietly for awhile and either draw something that we saw, or write a poem or do something artistic. I saw this beautiful blue damsel fly and decided to draw a quick sketch of it.  Heather wrote a poem about the different colours around her. But the most unique was the song that Howard made about his dog Daisy. It was to the tune of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"  but the words were "Daisy on the Bay with Lichen". Soon we were all singing the chorus together and swaying back and forth tot he song. Other hikers going by probably thought we were crazy but we were having a good time. 

Soon we continued on and along the way we came across a plant that looked like cotton balls on the end of a stalk of grass. We asked each other what it was but no one seemed to know (I had to Google it when I got home). Turns out it was  some Tussock Cottongrass; also known as Hare's Tail.

At the half way point of  the trail we crossed over a little foot bridge and reached the shore of George Lake where we all stopped for lunch. It was the end of the guided part of the trail but we were welcome to stay for lunch and continue back with Rachelle and Ian.  Almost everyone else left but Heather and I stayed with Winnie and ate together. Winnie shared her stories as well as some wonderful Brie and Sweet Potato Triscuts with us. Sweet potato I am usually only 50/50 on but those Triscuts were delicious! I highly recommend them. 

When we were done eating we joined up with Rachelle and Ian and the 5 of us finished off the trail together.

We had an excellent time on the trail and were glad that we had gone. I don't know which I liked better, the hiking or the people we were with. We heard some interesting tales about a place called Topaz Lake which is a dead lake that is named after the colour of the water. When you swim it the water is so blue with nothing in it that you can't tell how deep it is. Could be 10 feet or it could be 200 feet. I don't kow where this place is but I want to look it up and check it out. We also heard about Acid lake which is another dead lake that you can actually get to from the La Cloche trail in Killarney Park. And we heard more about hiking "The Crack". Heather asked Rachelle where the best place to see bears would be and she said that most sightings are either on the side of the highway when you are coming in to the park or at the very top of The Crack which is like a big rocky mountain side. Once Heather heard that she might be able see bears up there, that sealed the deal. Tomorrow she wanted to hike The Crack. So we put that on our list of things to do for the next day. 
For now though we headed back to our camp site. 

After the long hike we thought we might want to take a nap, but instead we got a second wind and decided to look around the park a little. There are two beaches at Killarney and we headed over towards the secondary one because it was closer to us. Along the way we found the entrance to the Cranberry Bog Trail and thought we might hike that on the Wednesday just before leaving the park. 

The first thing that we noticed when we got to the beach was the sign that said "Radio Free". Actually there was no excessive noise allowed anywhere in the park in the first place but this whole end of the park was designated as Radio Free. So the entire trip was very peaceful and enjoyable. 

The other sign we noticed was one that said "Caution Uneven Lake Bottom".  I thought that was a bit peculiar since I have never known any lake bottoms to be very even in the first place. But I guess there must be some extreme drop offs in the swimming area for them to have to post signs for it. I am not really sure how the bottom was because we never went in. It was way too cold for the entire trip to want to go swimming. The weather felt more like autumn weather than summer weather.

The sandy part of the beach was a little bit narrow, but the water was clear and clean and  the view across the lake was quite beautiful. It was definitely a nice little beach. 

At the far end of the beach was a little foot path. Not a hiking trail by any means, just a little path that lead up to the top of the rock cliff where there was a look out that gave you a yet another gorgeous view. We remembered that as kids we had come to this very spot on a couple of evenings to watch the sunset. It would be nice to do that again while we were here, but the weather was not really co-operating with us for that to happen. 

After sitting for a bit and enjoying the view we continued down the path and past a couple of empty campsites which were only about 2 sites away from ours. We had come full circle. I did a quick comparison of the other sites to ours and found that they were nice and big too and would make an excellent choice for future trips. Number 79 would not be the best though because although it looked big, the roots on the ground would make it difficult to put a large sized tent on the site without having difficulties pegging it into the ground. But sites 76, 77 and 78 were prime pickings.  

Soon enough we were getting hungry and it was close to supper time. Once again the sky became over cast and it started to rain a bit and the temperature took a dive.  I saw a single red maple leaf lying on the wet ground and thought "No! Not yet! It can't be that cold out ....Come on, it's only August!"  

Inside our dining tent even this big ole Orb Weaver spider was taking refuge from the rain. 

We weren't going to let any rain stand in the way of our supper though. Tonight we were having hot dogs and sausages and the part we were both looking forward to..... bannock! 

We started up the fire and found a couple of roasting sticks. I had pre-mixed all the dry ingredients for the bannock before we cane so all we had to do was mix in the water and a bit of melted butter. 

If you have never heard of or made bannock before, it is a type of bread that originated in North America with the First Nations (there was a European version that came from Scotland and used oatmeal, but this is not what we used). The bannock of The First Nations people was made of corn and nut meal, and flour made from ground plant bulbs. There were many variations of bannock depending on what region they were from that included different types of flour, and the addition of dried or fresh fruit. There are different ways to cook bannock. Many people just use a frying pan, but we like to wrap the dough around a green, hardwood stick and toasted it over an open fire. We had to throw a couple of flat rocks over the grill to try to keep the rain from dousing out our fire before we were done cooking. 

In case you are interested in trying this yourself, here is the recipe for it:

Bannock

3 cups  flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups water

Cook until it is a golden brown and not doughy in the middle.


It's that simple. The trick is to not to put the dough on the stick too thick or it won't cook all the way through. When it is done you take it off the stick and add some butter and eat it. Or you can do like Heather did and use it as a bun for your hot dog or sausage. It tastes very much like a tea biscuit. 

Next was dessert. We had decided to have the traditional campfire treat of S'mores.  We had bought the perfect cookies for this and in fact had two different kinds. They are Leclerc's Celebration cookies and come with the chocolate already on the cookie. One kind was plain chocolate and another kind had caramel. I was looking forward to trying out the caramel because it would be a bit of a twist from your normal everyday S'more. 

But first, knowing that it was almost time for the raccoons to appear, we decided to clean up the food and wash the dishes. 

We had just finished the last of the dishes when it was starting to get dark. It was also starting to get pretty cold. Cold enough that you could see your breathe. We sat around the camp fire for a bit in the light rain drinking a hot chocolate and trying to keep warm. Sure enough, it wasn't long before we heard the raccoons. I am pretty sure there were two or three of them. Since we put the food in the trunk of the car already, we thought nothing much of them when we noticed one of them in the dining tent just behind us.

Then it hit me....wait a minute! We didn't put ALL the food away! We had left the marshmallows and cookies out for the S'mores! Oh No!!

I jumped out of the chair, flashlight in hand,  and raced over to the dining tent yelling "The marshmallows! The marshmallows!" Heather realized our mistake at about the exact same moment as I did and she jumped up with her flash light too. 

But it was too late and the raccoon already had the entire bag of marshmallows in hand. When he realized we were making a bee line right for him he grabbed the bag and dashed under the wall of the tent and straight into the woods. We ran after him in hot pursuit shining our lights this way and that.  Finally our lights landed on him and there he was calmly eating one of the marshmallows. We ran after him again yelling at him "Come back here with our marshmallows you evil raccoon!". He saw us coming and grabbed the bag and ran off with it even further into the woods. Once again we found him and he was once again just calmly eating one marshmallow at a time waiting for us to catch up before he took off again with the whole bag. By this time I am sure we were the talk of the campground. The neighbouring campers were all laughing and it looked like a scene out of a comedy movie. The chase finally came to an end when the raccoon disappeared over the edge of the ravine and we could no longer find him anymore. 
 

We made our way back to the site, a little disappointed that we no longer had any marshmallows for the S'mores. That's when our neighbours from the next campsite over came to our rescue. They showed up at our site with a bag of their marshmallows to share with us. We laughed with them about what had just happened and thanked them and took a few marshmallows. We were all set for making the S'mores! 

So Heather and I each made one regular one and one caramel one and put them over the fire to cook. We were just finished eating our first one when we heard the raccoon in the dining tent again.  Oh No! The Cookies!!!  We had figured that the bag of marshmallows would take him awhile and that us yelling at him would have kept him away for a bit. But either he was back or one of his friends was. Either way, the chase was on again. This time for the box of the caramel cookies. The raccoon took off with the whole box dropping a trail of cookies behind him as he ran. Our chase was only half hearted this time because we knew from experience that we would never catch him. And even if we did, what were we going to do? Take them from his hands? .... Not likely. That would be a really bad idea.  The main purpose of this was to try to keep him from wanting to return by making a big fuss and maybe, just maybe rescuing a cookie or two as the dropped. But the cookies that fell were a lost cause so we gave up this chase pretty quickly and instead focused on protecting the last remaining box of cookies just in case there were more raccoons waiting for us to leave some goodies unattended. 

We made sure that our last box of cookies was put safely in the car and doubly sure there was nothing else lying around. By this time it was pretty dark and we were busying ourselves with setting up the light in the dining tent and setting up a game of Dominoes. We had just sat down to play when we heard the raccoons were back again. Perhaps to see if they could find any of the cookies they had dropped on our last chase. But we had nothing left for them to find. That didn't stop them from looking though and they weren't shy about it. At one point Heather was sitting at the picnic table and looked down to see one of them sitting beside her right at her feet. 

Eventually they gave up and continued on to the next campsite. We could hear them trying to get into things but our neighbours had learned a lesson from us and there was nothing available from them either. 

So we played dominoes in the freezing cold (I heard that it actually snowed on the other side of Sudbury that night.... not sure how true that was but I certainly could believe it) until about 3 in the morning. As we crawled into our sleeping bags we talked about our plans to hike up to "The Crack" the next day.  We were looking forward to another day of hiking. 

I had a late start for the camping season this year. But that is OK because I prefer late August camping since it is still warm and there are fewer bugs usually. Well that's the theory anyways. Someone didn't let the weatherman in on this little secret though because the warm weather was pretty scarce this trip. But more on the weather later. 

For this trip I partnered up with my sister, Heather. We packed up the car on this sunny Sunday morning and headed out to our intended destination of Killarney Provincial Park.  We had been here before, but it was when we were kids, many decades ago. Our memories were that of it being one of our favourite parks. We were curious if it would live up to our memories of it or if we had painted the picture prettier in our heads. You know how it is; when you have a wonderful so called memory of a babbling brook in your head and you get there and find out it was only just a ditch with dirty old water running out in it and your childhood memory is ruined. My fingers were crossed that the memories we had  painted were real. 

Along the way we stopped to top up the car with gas and popped into the store to pick up last minute snacks. That's when Heather found a Coke bottle with my name on it. No really, I literally mean with my name on it!  This is the second summer that Coke has manufactured bottles with all sorts of names on them. I had been looking since they started last year and had never found one. I had sifted through countless coolers and display boxes looking for my name and today was finally the day we found it.  I was a happy camper! (Pun intended). So it was, that even from the get go we had a feeling that this would be a fantastic trip. 

It is a bit of a drive off the highway to get to the park but the scenery is nice and the fact that it is so far away from any major thoroughfare means that you can't hear the traffic from the park and it is very peaceful.

We arrived at the park office and  went in to register for a site. There were more people in the office than we had expected, but since the office doubles as a store I figured that most of the people were just shopping around. We waited in line for our turn to registered. There was one other lady in front of us and she clearly was not an experienced camper. It wasn't her attire that gave it away. It was the question she asked the park staff...."What do I do if I see a bear?"  My sister and I tried to stifle our giggles because we knew she was serious and in all honesty it was a very good question for an inexperienced camper to ask. So kudos to you new girl for asking and sorry for the giggles. Not even sure why we found it amusing. I think it is just because we have grown up around campers and just assume that if  you are at a provincial park you know what you are doing. We forget sometimes that this is obviously not the case for everyone and that it is better to ask before hand than to find yourself in a a situation where you wished you would have asked.  So we waited while the girl at the desk explained that if you come across a bear in this area that you should make a bunch of noise because the bears would rather avoid you than confront you and you don't want to take them by surprise. Also to make sure all your food is put away in the trunk of your car and never have it in your tent. If you have any food on you at the time of the encounter, to drop it and walk (not run) away making sure that you don't turn your back on it until you are sure that you are clear of it. And that running or climbing a tree is of no use because they can out run and out climb you any day of the week.  (As an aside note, what the girl at the desk did not mention that Grizzly bears, out west are a different breed of bear entirely and can behave differently than black bears in certain situations.  More on that can be found here: http://www.bearsmart.com/play/bear-encounters/ ) . Of course all this talk of bears made Heather want to see one while we were there. 

Soon it was our turn and got up to the girl at the desk and explained that we wanted to stay for 3 nights. Normally we would let the office know that we had arrived and then we would go and pick a site and then register it. However, the girl explained that there were only 16 sites left in the park at that moment (and there were people in line behind us. So she started circling the available sites and recommended number 81 to us. She pointed out that to be on the safe side we might consider registering that site right now and if we didn't like it then we could always choose something else and come back to the office to change it. So that is what we did. 

Before we left the office we asked about the various hiking trails because that was something we intended to do while we were there. We were given the lo-down on a few but the one that stuck out most for Heather was the 80 km trail, called La Cloche Silhouette Trail that usually takes about 7 - 10 days to complete. We didn't have that kind of time this time around so we decided that maybe next year we would try it. Her second favourite was "The Crack" (which is actually part of the La Cloche) which is a trail that goes up  a four meter wide divide that was created when the rock face cracked into two parts thousands of years ago. It sounded interesting enough to me, but I was just eager to get to our site and get set up. So off we went to find site number 81.

The way the park is laid out it is pretty much just a long road with little areas that branched off of it with about 5 or 6 sites on each branch. Each branch was given an animal name. Ours was called "Ground Hog"  (but by the time we left we figured that they should rename our section to "Raccoon" and I am sure that you can imagine why). 

When we arrived we were very surprised to see that our site was at the bottom of a hill and that there was a wall of rock cliff along one side on top of which was a huge fallen tree with it's whole root system uprooted. We couldn't even drive our car down to our site and our first thought was "what if it rains? We are going to be camping in a swimming pool!"  We wondered if the girl at the desk was crazy and just what was she thinking? 

 But then on further inspection we realized that it really was in a nice quiet and very pretty spot and that the rock facing was actually protecting us from the rain to some degree. And we didn't mind the trek up the hill to the car.  As Heather looked around she said "I think that this is actually the very campsite we stayed at when we were kids! I remember this place!" And so the deal was sealed and we decided to stay and we began to set up camp.  (Any of the sites in "Ground Hog" are recommended but if you choose site # 79 then you may want to make sure that you only have a small tent because the rocks and roots make for a difficult time in finding a nice surface to set up a tent). 

At first we thought that we were in a nice private site with no neighbours. Part of the plan was to come camping after the weekend was over to miss that weekend rush of people you often get. So when our campsite neighbours showed up on site number 80 about an hour later we were a little disappointed at first. It was a man and his two teen aged daughters and we thought "oh no, now it's going to get loud and rowdy". But to our surprise we couldn't have had better campsite neighbours if we had hand picked them ourselves.

Once we were all set up the next order of business was to locate the restrooms. So off we went down the road to look for them. It was wee bit of a walk but finally we found them and they were quite impressive as far as camping bathroom standards go.  

It consisted of a skylight over head, flush toilet, two sets of grab bars, mats outside the door, running water (cold) to wash your hands, nice clean, shiny, white plastic walls like those you find in a shower, and even a baby change table. 

The only thing it seemed to be missing was a place to dry your hands (neither paper towels or an air blower) and a mirror.  Instead of a mirror was a notice posted up that talked about keeping the bathroom clean. I suppose if something has to take the place of a mirror then this is just as good of a replacement as anything. At least it is helping to educate the camping public. 

It took us about a day and a half before we figured out that this was actually the wheel chair accessible washroom and that was why it was so nice. The other washrooms in the park were more like your typical park out houses with no flush toilet and smelling the way the outhouses usually do.  However, they did have a mirror and, unlike any other park I have ever seen, they had the added convenience of an extra roll of toilet paper situated on the top of the wall between the two stalls.

Needless to say we continued to use the wheelchair accessible one for the remainder of our stay, despite having to wait in line much of the time to use it. It was closer and was just generally cleaner.

Just outside the bathroom we discovered a bulletin board with some interesting postings on it. 
The first was an ad letting you know that they had hot coffee available for sale at the park office. I guess that is for those who can't get their fire started fast enough in the morning or have perhaps run out of butane or something. At any rate, I thought it was a nice convenience for those that drink coffee. There was also a posting for something I have not seen any other park do before (at least not yet).  It suggested that you bring your camera or phone to the park office where they had a dock station where you could contribute your photos that of wildlife that you have taken in the park and add to their collection. This helps them to keep track of all the plants and animals in the park as well as helping  them to study their numbers and and other things about them. I thought this was a pretty great idea since campers can help cover such a large area. 

But the posting we were the most interested in was the one for the upcoming events in the park. We found out that the next day there would be a "Connecting With The Land Guided Hike" at 10 a.m. at the Chickanishing Trail.  We are not usually ones for guided hikes and generally prefer to do self guided trails, but this one sounded different and we put it on our list of things to do for the next day. 

Next step was to go back up to the office to get some wood for our campfire. While we were up there we saw this beautiful black butterfly. As far as I know, this is a White Admiral butterfly. 

Before getting supper started we decided to do a little exploring of the landscape around us. There were many different croppings of rock faces. 

Of course the one rock face in particular we wanted to climb was the one directly above our campsite. Our tents looked very small down below us. 

At around 6:00 pm it started to rain. Not a down pour, just enough to make cooking over a campfire more difficult than you really want it to be . But we started the fire just the same and cooked ourselves some pork chops and baked potatoes for supper. 

We had just finished cleaning up and putting all the food away when we heard a rustling in the woods. It was only about 7 pm and there was plenty of daylight left so we were very surprised to see a raccoon pop in to visit at such an early hour.  We didn't have any food available to him so he didn't stay very long. 

We spent the rest of the evening playing Yahtzee before turning in a bit earlier than we normally would have. We wanted to be sure to be up  in the morning to get to our guided hike on time.