I woke up to heavy rain at 8:30 a.m. and decided to stay in the tent until it slowed down a bit.  The rain started to pool in the center of the roof and then started leaking everywhere. Even pushing the water off the roof did not help. At 9:45 I got tired of waiting for the rain to stop and I got dressed, put on my clear plastic rain poncho, and went outside. Balto didn't want to leave the tent so I let him stay there while I made myself some breakfast. 

When I went back to check on Balto a little later there were puddles everywhere inside the tent. So I threw most of my stuff in the car. If I was going to stay another night I at least wanted my bedding to be dry. Inside the screen tent was fairly dry so I took an extra sleeping bag and I made a bed for Balto to sleep on under the picnic table while we waited for the rain to stop. It took some coaxing but I eventually convinced him that he would be happier there than in the wet tent. 

I figured Jayson and the rest of my friends would be here later this afternoon, about 4 p.m. or so, and so I had better do something about my wet tent before they got here.  I found some extra plastic rain ponchos and lined them between the fly and the roof of the tent. I also found the wall that belongs on the screen tent and used it as a second fly on the tent. But water was trapped in between these layers so it was still leaking for a little bit. I used a third sleeping bag and a sheet that I had with me to mop up the floor like they were giant towels. That was the best I could do with what I had. Now I just had to pass the time for a few hours and wait out the rain. So I went back to the screen tent and played Sudoku and my Game Boy for a few hours. 

The rain never stopped. At about 3 p.m. I noticed the water starting to seep in under the table. Balto was still sleeping and still dry but I didn't know for how much  longer. I looked outside and there was a lake of water all around the screen tent. It was like we were an island and the water was rising. 

The water completely surrounded the fire place too. 

I was half expecting the water to rise high enough to float the charred pieces of wood in the fire place away at any minute. 

I woke Balto up and put him in the car. I picked up his sleeping bag and put it on the table bench and then I got into the car too. I figured that since we were in the car waiting for the rain to stop we may as well drive by Jayson's campsite to see if they had arrived yet. But they hadn't. So I drove back to our site and sat in the car for awhile longer. I texted my daughter to ask about what the weather was supposed to be like. She said that the rain was expected to stop around 5 pm. It was about 4 pm now so I figured that I didn't have much longer to wait. 

Eventually it got to the point where I began to wonder where everyone was. I can see why Jayson and his family may not have wanted to stay the extra days but surely at least some of our friends should be arriving by now. So I started texting a couple of my friends to ask where they were and how much longer they may be. 

It took some time before I got a response but eventually I got my answer. Everyone who I texted told me that there had been a change of plan. Apparently it was on facebook that they were going to a restaurant instead since the weather was not good for the beach. I had missed the facebook messages because I do not have facebook on my phone. 

This left me in a no win situation. I was wet, and dirty and in no way presentable to be going to a restaurant. Plus I had the dog with me and did not want to leave him in the car while I went into a restaurant. So if no one was coming and I could not go to them, then I had to decide if I wanted to stay another night like I had originally planned or go back home. 

It took me all of 30 seconds to decide. I couldn't see myself spending another night in a wet tent at a provincial park that I really didn't care for very much. I was going home. I broke camp in record time. I shoved all my stuff that was in the screen tent into the back seat of the car. I took down the sleeping tent and shoved it still dripping wet into the trunk. I didn't even bother to pack it up nicely. Next I took the screen tent down and shoved that dripping wet into the trunk too. I got into the car with wet pants up to my shins and with my rain poncho still on. 

​Balto was more than ready to get home by this point. 

​
As I drove through the park to get to the front gate, all  around me were the other campsites with signs that they too had experienced some flooding during the rain. No wonder the ducks are so fond of this park!

I reached the park gate and put my permit into the box shaped like a little wooden cabin. I might have been able to get my money back for the extra night that I was not going to stay, but it was after 2 pm which is usually the cut off time so I figured I wasn't going to try to argue my case. I was just going to cut my losses and go home. 

As I am leaving the park I notice signs for a trail head that was not immediately visible when you first come in since it is across the road from the park. I couldn't tell you which trail it is because as usual in this park there were no signs telling you which one it was. 

As I traveled away from the park and towards the town of South River to reach the highway I noticed that there were also no signs to help you find your way back to the highway either. I happened to know where I was going since I grew up in the area and was somewhat familiar with the territory. But anyone not from the area would have a difficult time of it and would possibly need a map or GPS. 

As I headed home I thought....McDonald's for supper sounds great right about now. So with warm thoughts of Big Macs and fries in my head I left Mikisew Park behind me. 

I woke up at 6 a.m. to the sound of rain gently beating on the tent. I could hear some birds too but the gentle peaceful sound that I am accustomed to on camping trips was completely ruined by the motor noise coming from the comfort station. I decided to go back to sleep for a few more hours. 

At about 10 a.m. it stopped raining and I got up for breakfast. The tent had held up pretty good in the rain with only a couple leaks here and there. I will have to get some water proofing spray when I get home and give the tent a once over. After a quick breakfast of cold  cereal I headed over to the bathroom. Along the way, in the empty campsite next to me, I noticed the remains of what looked like someone's lean-to project. 

 The bathroom was decently clean and today I noticed something that I hadn't noticed the day before. The sink closest to the wall had a motion detector on the wall. When it is activated it turns the water on. All the other sinks were just regular taps. I had seen motion detector taps before but usually they were located under the faucet and not on the wall. 

Outside the bathroom was an event bulletin board but unlike most parks I have been to there was no calendar of events posted. No guided tours, no children's programs, no special guests. The only event at all was for one that was a musical group called the "Whiskey Jacks" and I don't think even that was taking place in the park. 

So in light of there being no events in the park I took a look at the site map for hiking or walking trails near by. There poorly photocopied map showed a short one that was only 0.5 km long that I felt Balto might be able to handle. And I liked that it was named "Old Dog Trail". 

I decided that rather than wear Balto out by walking to the trail head, I would just put him in the car, drive him there and then begin the walk. The drive took us past the beaches again. Since today was over cast and threatening to rain some more, there were no people on the beach at the moment. 

But there were still plenty of ducks around. Most of them were curled up sleeping. 

The beaches were lined with all different kinds of boats. Most of them were motor boats. It is a fairly busy lake for boats actually. 

I drove to where I thought the Old Dog trail should be. There was a trail there, but I was not 100 % sure if it was Old Dog trail or if it were Beaver Meadow trail. The map was not clear and there were no signs indication which trail it was; only one that just said it was a hiking trail of some sort. 

The trail started out with a cute little foot bridge. 

But the view from the foot bridge was one of muck and old logs. There weren't even any frogs of turtles or birds of interest.

And the view on the other side of the bridge was even worse. Just dirty water and an old rusty culvert. 

From the footbridge the trail goes back into the bush. The trail was marked with either yellow paint on a post or yellow arrows painted on the trees. 

Since it was a wet dreary day, Balto and I were the only ones on the trail. Balto tended to lay down and rest more than he walked so that meant I could take some time to see the birds and the chipmunks. 

As well as the pretty colours of the plant life all around me. 

We stayed for quite sometime enjoying the peacefulness of it all. We eventually came to a fork in the path. One leg went out to the road and the other went further into the bush. By this point I could hear some kids coming so I decided that it was a good cue to turn around and head back rather than have a noisy interuption. 

Once we were done our walk I loaded Balto back into the car and drove around for a bit just checking out more of the park. We were at the end of the park where the group campsites were and it looked pretty nice.The bathrooms here were big and nice looking on the outside. 

But on the inside they were very rundown looking and could have used at least a fresh coat of paint or something. 

At least at this end of the park the bathrooms had a little more to offer for park programs and events (but it still wasn't much). 

On the way back to the campsite I stopped by the beach and told off a couple kids who were chasing the ducks. 

It was about 4 p.m. when I got back to the campsite and I figured that Jayson and his family would be here soon. I wanted to keep an eye out for them so I stuck around the site for the rest of the day. ​Balto was pretty tired from the walk so he spent the rest of the day napping in the tent. 

Across the way in an empty campsite was a huge flock of Grackles. They were busy eating something off the ground that someone had left behind. 

One Grackle in particular came to see me and check out what I was doing. 

I built a fire to cook supper on. Amongst other things I had brought some bannock mix. I had way too much bannock dough so I tried cooking some on a stick and a large portion in the bottom of a pan. It was harder to cook in a pan and it just didn't seem to taste the same. I think from now on I will just use a stick. 

By 8:30 p.m. Jayson and his family still had not arrived and it was starting to rain pretty hard now. So Balto and I crawled into the tent and I spent the evening reading and doing Sudoku puzzles. I guess Jayson and his family did not want to risk putting the tent up in the rain. So I suppose they decided to wait until Saturday to arrive with everyone else who was  going to be there instead. I could already hear the rain starting up and I knew I was in for a night of dampness and a leaky roof. Worst case scenario, I figured that I could always go and sleep in my car if need be. 

No sooner had I come back from Killarney than I turned around and went back out camping again. This time it was to Mikisew Provincial Park. I was supposed to meet some friends for a reunion on Saturday so I decided to go a couple days early and enjoy some quiet time with my dog who just turned 15 this year. I figured that he doesn't have too many years left so why not get him out of the city and let him enjoy some time in the bush. 

The drive to Mikisew was pretty easy going except for one spot when you get in past the town of South River. At one point you will see that you have an option to go right up a giant hill or go left around a bit of a bend. There is no clear signage telling you which way to go. The answer is to stay to the left and do not go up the big hill. 

Once you reach Mikisew Provincial Park you are greeted by a gorgeous sign with an eagle painted on it. This sign is one of only two things that I found to be exceptional about this park. Everything else about this park was mediocre at best.

Once you get past the sign you come to a small parking lot and a small gatehouse. I left my dog, Balto, in the car and went in to register. I told the lady at the desk that I was expecting my friend Jayson and his family to arrive the next day (they were coming a day early too) and they had reserved site 422. I told her that I was looking for a site somewhat close to theirs, but not necessarily right beside. I asked if I could go in and choose a site and come back and tell her which one I wanted (which is standard practice for most parks in Ontario). She said that unfortunately she was not allowed to let me in unless I had paid for a site, but that I could come back and switch sites if I didn't want the one she had assigned me. 

So she assigned my site # 262 which she thought I would like because it was right across from the beach. The she took out a poorly photocopied map of the park and highlighted a bunch of other empty sites around the park. I thanked her and took the map and went on my quest for the "perfect site".  On the way out the door I noticed a sign that reminded people that the Peledes Meteor Shower was at it's peak tonight. I was looking forward to seeing it. 

I figured that since there were going to be quite a few kids with us this weekend that it would be likely that everyone will want to be relatively close to the comfort station. I tend to avoid the comfort station normally because there is usually too much foot traffic near there. But I was willing to make an exception this time especially since one or two of my friends had said before I left that there was a chance that they may want to share a site with me. 

Looking at the map, it seemed that site 262 was quite a bit farther away from Jayson's site than I would like but I figured that I would go there and check it out just the same; so I headed there first. 

As I approached site 262 I was surprised to see a mallard duck crossing the road. But the site was close to the beach so it wasn't a complete surprise. I was more surprised by the lack of fear it had. 

As I looked around I saw more ducks sitting on the beach amongst the beach goers and people were feeding them. Then I was no longer surprised in the least. These ducks were one of three reasons I decided not to take site 262. It was a lovely site if you wanted to be near the beach and had kids with you. But with hand fed ducks around it meant that there would be people following these ducks around to feed them and that meant an increase of people marching past your campsite to do this. The site was also on a corner so that meant that there would be an increase in vehicle traffic. And finally, it was directly across the road from the beach with no trees and only a road in between so that meant having to watch people going to and from the beach all day. That was not what I came to see. And so my hunt for the "perfect site" continued. 

I drove around for about a half an hour looking for a good site. The layout of the park looks pretty simple on paper, but when you are driving or walking it the roads start looking all the same and it is very easy to get turned around. More than once during my stay I heard people saying things like "no I am pretty sure our campsite was over this way... or was it that way?" 

One of the things that made it difficult to find the "perfect site" was that aside form the beach area, there were little to no deciduous trees. Almost everything were pines and they were planted like tree farms with all the trees planted in neat little rows. 

To top it all off, most of the pine trees had no lower growth left on them. So it was nothing but bare tree trunks all around you which meant hardly any privacy from all the neighbouring campers. It really wasn't a very pretty park at all. 

Finally after what seemed like forever, I chose site 386. It would not have been my first choice but it was close to Jayson's site, it was very large in case I had company, and it was also close to the comfort station. It would have to do.  So I went back to the gatehouse and re-registered my site. I ended up getting a little bit of a  refund because apparently site 262 is a "premium site" and site 386 is not. 

Once I got back to site 386 I went about setting up camp. One thing I can say in the favour of Mikisew, is that the campsites are very large. There was room for my two big tents, 2 picnic tables and I could have probably fit another 2 tents and a car on the site very easily. 

It had taken me about an hour to set up the site by myself and it was a very hot day. Luckily it was pretty shady under the pines, but it was still too hot for the dog so I decided that I would go and find someplace for him to swim. I had noticed that the beaches were all signed with "Pets prohibited in swimming and/or beach areas" which meant I would have to find somewhere else for Balto to swim. I was not very impressed by this because in most parks dogs are allowed on the beach as long as they are leashed. But not this one. This means that if you are travelling alone with a dog, you will never be allowed to go swimming yourself because there would be no one to watch your dog while you do. So needless to say, I did not go swimming while I was here. 

While I was down looking at site 262 I had noticed a sign that marked a trail head called " Lake View Trail". I figured that if Balto was not allowed on the beach, them maybe we could find access to the water in a secluded place off of the trail somewhere. So we went for a walk down Lake View Trail. Balto is very old and can't walk very far without stopping to lie down for a rest here and there. This trail is only 0.5 km long and I figured that wouldn't be too bad. 

Lake View Trail is actually quite a nice little trail for the most part. If my dog had been younger there would have been 3 or 4 places where he could have reached the water and had a little swim. However, the water's edge was always at the bottom of a steep slope. And no matter how small the slope was I knew that if Balto had gone down to the water, there would be no way that I would be able to get him back up again. So we kept walking and hoping that the next stop would be the one we were looking for. 

This trail would have been absolutely beautiful if it weren't for the fact that it was not taken care of properly. The rocks had been painted with things like " R.L + C.K." or "Kyle was here 2015".

One rock even had the message "I pissed on this rock" written on it. 

And there was a place where someone had taken the time to bag their dog doo-doo, but did not have the decency to take the bag back with them and dispose of it. They just left it there right in the middle of the path. 

You could tell that there was absolutely no respect for the park, for other campers, or for nature here what so ever. I was not impressed by what I was seeing at all. 

The trail ended at a clearing with a bunch of picnic tables. 

On the other side of the clearing was a volleyball net and another beach where there appeared to be hardly any people (but not zero people so I could not let Balto swim there). This side of the park was nice and quiet and nicely treed. 

There was a basketball net.

And even a horse shoe pit. 

And then I saw it....just the place I had been looking for but hadn't known was there (because the map was so bad that you couldn't read it). It was a dog park! And it was a nice one too. 

It had things for dogs to climb up and over and through. (Although some of these things I could never picture my dog ever using, but I am sure other people's dogs could).

But most importantly it had a place for Balto to swim. And boy was he happy to be able to get in the water and just lie there and cool off. 

The water was shallow here so it was perfect for dogs like mine who are too old to swim out far anymore. 

There was a picnic table to sit at and look at the view across the lake while your dog takes a swim or plays. 

We spent a good hour or so at the dog park and made our way slowly back to the campsite. We had to get some water so we took the platypus water filter that I had borrowed from my mom (the water is drinkable in the park, but it just tastes better when you run it through the platypus) and walked over to the water taps. The water taps were the strangest looking things I have ever seen, but they worked well and I liked the way they were set up.  

I decided to hang the platypus inside the screen tent since there really were no low branches available on the pine trees to hang it from. 

By the time we got back to camp Balto was all tuckered out from so much walking and he went directly to the tent for a nap while I mad myself some hot dogs for supper. 

After supper I did some Sudoku puzzles for awhile and waited to see if the stars were going to come out. However, it was too overcast so I never did get to see the meteor shower at it's peak. But that was OK, I had seen it a few days earlier.

Before bed I headed over to the comfort station. I had to tie Balto up to a bench outside the door so that I could go inside. It was a typical comfort station with nothing remarkable about it. Little did I know that this comfort station was going to become a pet peeve of mine. 

I went back to the campsite and went to sleep just after 11 p.m. I could still hear the other campers talking and laughing all around me but I was tired enough to fall asleep despite the noise. I stayed asleep until about 1 a.m. when Balto woke me up because he had to go out to go pee. And that was when I noticed it. The loud humming noise of a generator or a motor of some sort that was running the electricity for the comfort station. During the day you don't notice it with all the hub bub of people around you. But at night when you are expecting to hear crickets and frogs all you hear is the maddening hum of that motor. I could faintly make out the call of a loon in the distance but it was pretty much drowned out by this noise pollution. heck, it is quieter at home in the city than it was here. This was not what I went camping for. But it was too late now. It was the middle of the night and I would just have to put up with it. Maybe I will consider moving to a different site in the morning. 

On our way to Killarney Provincial Park we had spotted a sign for another Provincial Park that we were curious about. We had never heard of Mashkinonje Provincial Park before and we wondered if it was a tenting camp or a day use camp. So we decided that on our way home from Killarney that we would stop in to take a look.

We had left Killarney Park around 11 a.m. and had spent some time in the town of Killarney. After about an hour and a half drive down Hwy 64, near the town of Monetville, we came to a little side of the road picnic area. We knew we were close but we didn't want to miss it so we pulled over into the picnic area to check our map. Sure enough, we were a mere minute and a half away. So although the picnic area was beautiful we didn't stay long. 

Just up the road we saw the sign for Mashkinonje Provincial Park on the right hand side of the road. 

According to the map there were hiking trails on the left hand side of the road too but we hadn't seen any signs for that side indicating an entrance anywhere, so I am not sure how to access those trails exactly. But that was OK because Heather was anxious to get home and didn't want to stay long anyways. We were just there for a quick peek, not for the whole day. 

Turns out that Mashkinonje is a day use park. So there were no rangers and no fees to pay. This little park is one of those gems that are a well kept secret. The further I went into this park the more and more impressed I was with it. If you are ever in the area it is well worth a visit. 

The parking lot is just a tiny one with maybe enough room for about 3 cars, despite the fact that there is a sign indicating a section for bus parking (it would have to be either one of those small buses or it would be one bus and no room for any cars). 

There is one small washroom with a mes side and a ladies side. There is a place for garbage and recycling and there is the first of many benches that you will see along the paths.

The bathrooms are wheel chair accessible but are not flush toilets. 

When you first arrive you think to yourself, "it's nice enough but it doesn't look like much". But if you were to stop there then you would miss out on all the beauty that is just around the corner.  The park can be used year round and there are multiple look out points to visit. 

The Loudon Peatland Trail is 2.9 km of very easy to use wheelchair accessible paths. I read on the sign that there were boardwalks and marshes up ahead. Those are one of my favourite types of trails since there is usually plenty of wildlife to see on those kinds of trails. 

All the paths were extremely wide and very well maintained. You can tell that a lot of care goes into this park. 

Heather and my mom were too tired to do much walking and Heather still had some nasty blisters on her heels so I left them both to sit on a bench in the shade while I went on ahead on my own. I was not going to walk the entire trail but I did want to see a little bit more than just a bench or two. And I am glad I did or I would not have known just how beautiful it gets the further in you go. 

Near the bench that I left Heather and my mom at were some informational signs about the various trees in the park. So at least they had something to read while they waited for me. 

Not far up ahead the trees opened up and there in front of me was a gorgeous little board walk. Most boardwalks are a dull grey colour and some don't have any railings. This one had recently had the boardwalk planks with brown pressure treated wood and it still had the old grey railings. The colour combination made this particular board walk a very picturesque one. 

At the start of the board walk was a sign and a couple more benches. 

Even the sign had some very nice artwork of various animals that you had the potential to spot while you were on the trail. 

On the board walk from either side you could see a vast expanse of marsh grasses with what looked like trails of water or a creek or something.

At specific points on the boardwalk there were educational signs about the plants and wild life that you see before you. 

Since I was by myself it was very quiet and I just stood there in the peacefulness enjoying the view. I looked down into the water trail below me and tried to see if I could see any fish or turtles. I didn't see any turtles but there were a few small fish swimming around. 

And then to my surprise, something rather large came very slowly and silently out from under the bridge I was standing on. 

It was a beaver! I was so close to it that if there was no bridge between us I would have practically been standing on it. It was pretty exciting to be that close to it. I barely moved and I barely breathed to that I wouldn't scare it away. 

​It didn't pay any attention to me and it continued slowly and silently down the water path towards it's lodge or food pile in the distance. 

From the boardwalk I could see one of the look outs from where I was standing so I decided to go at least as far as that before turning back. So I continued to the other side of the boardwalk and found myself on the nice, well maintained path again. The path forked in two directions and I took the left path. The paths were very well signed. 

I didn't have far to go at all before I saw ramp and platform of the look out. 

From the look out I could see the boardwalk I had just been on in the distance.

From the look out you can also see the bird house that was put in the marsh to attract some birds. 

 I would have loved to have had a chair and a cold drink and just sit here in the shade for a long while. But I knew that Heather and my mom were waiting for me and I had to get back. On the way back I spotted a large dragonfly sitting on the bark of a pine tree. 

And there was this curious hole in the ground on one side of the path. Looks like some little critter was making itself at home there. 

As I walked back across the boardwalk I wondered what the rest of the trail would have been like. I would have liked to have done the whole trail.

On the way out we signed the guest book. The last person to sign before us had been two days previous. But there were quite a few other signatures and I am sure that not everyone signs the book. So from that I could tell that this park was used often enough, but at the same time did not have crowds of people. It was so peaceful and enjoyable here. ​ The next time I am in this area I will have to make plans to come back here and perhaps also do the trails on the other side of the road too. 

We woke up at about 9 a.m.  The sky was overcast but it was still nice out. Saw this pretty coloured Painted Lichen Moth hitching a ride on the tent.

Another insect that wanted to hitch a ride was a little Assasin Bug nymph. It looks like a little green stick bug or something at this stage of its life. 

It didn't take us long to pack up since aside from the screen tent a a few other things that had been in the back of my trunk, most of what we had to pack was light weight back pack stuff. We were all ready to go at about 11 a.m.  Since I needed to gas up the car we figured why not go back into the town of Killarney for another meal of Herbert's fish and chips.  Yes, they are that good! 

Herbert's is located on a little marina where there are plenty of boats docked and a few others coming and going. One of the boats is actually a ferry that takes people over to the other side where there is another long set of hiking/backpacking trails. Maybe we will come back and hike those ones one day. 

Boats aren't the only things you will find in the water. There are plenty of Canadian Geese to be found. 

And there are seagulls and cormorants as well. 

And along the shores there are some interesting old buildings. 

We also went next door to Farquhar's  store to see if there was anything we wanted to buy. The signs on the outside are strange enough to make you curious about what is inside. 

The inside was not what I had expected at all. I had expected it to be a typical convenience store, but this place has all sorts of interesting wares, including a whole wall of Hawberry Jelly. 

There were also camping supplies. In a corner of one shelf was something that caught our eye. It was a Mosquito Pyramid Net. It was small and very light weight. This would make an excellent tent for a backpacking trip on those hot summer nights. All you would have to do is bring a light weight fly to go over it in case of rain and you would be all set. After some debate as to whether to buy it or not, Heather and I finally decided to buy it for my mom for her birthday since it was only a few days away. We are going to have to go on a new backpacking trip soon, just so she can test this out!

Our last stop in the town of  Killarney was the "gas station". Killarney doesn't actually have a gas station per se. The convenience store down the road does sell gas though. When I went into the store to ask about it the lady at the counter said to just drive around back to pump my own gas. And she said "just don't park on the dock".  Park on the dock? Why would I do that? So I drove around back and then I saw why she might say that. The gas pump is located right on the dock and is probably use to fill up boats as well as cars. The hose on the pump was extremely long so that you didn't have to drive onto the dock. 

The gas was a good 60 cents a liter more expensive than anywhere else. But I guess if you are the  only "gas station" in town then you can get away with higher prices. 

Once we filled up the car we were ready to head back. We had a plan to make a stop at Mashkinonje Provincial Park that was along the way just to see what it was like. We made one more stop at a roadside picnic ground before making our way to Mashkinonje. It was a nice day and a great way to wrap up our Killarney trip. 

When I woke up Heather and my mom were already up. Heather's chipmunk friend had gotten less shy and would now climb up your leg and eat out of your hand. It would also sniff around your plate of food while you were eating, but it would not take food from your plate. It was a polite little chipmunk. 

Today was the first day where every single step did not ache. Heather's blisters were still healing and so was my finger. Considering that we were not so achey we decided that today would be a good day to ....you guessed it....go on a hike! We made plans to do the Granite Ridge Trail a little later on in the day. To top it all off, we had seen a posting on the event board that there was going to be a Guided walk called "Learning About Night Time Creatures"at the Nature Center tonight and I planned to do that walk too. 

After breakfast Heather headed down to the showers and my mom and I could see a couple small holes in the screen tent so we were patching them. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something black and the size of a large dog coming towards us. It was a bear!

It was only just a very young bear so I made sure to scan the area to see if momma bear was behind it. There was no momma bear in sight. The bear was just passing through our site and was headed to the road. I grabbed my camera and started following it at a fair distance behind. 

It was headed up the hill to the next campsite over. I watched as it started poking through their fire pit and
around the picnic table.  (Note: My camera has a decent zoom on it so I am not nearly as close to the bear as these pictures may make it appear. I was sure to keep a good distance away). 

As I was watching the bear I saw, from my left side, the couple that were camping on this site. They had taken a stroll up one of the trails and were just returning at that moment. I called to them in a low, quiet voice "there's a bear in your campsite". They were completely surprised by this and later thanked me because they said that if I hadn't said anything then they would not have seen it until they were way too close. They did not even realize it was there at first. We stood quietly for a few brief moments just watching the bear.

​ It didn't find anything it was interested in and it was aware that we were watching him so he did not stay long at all. Soon he sauntered off into the bush heading away from all the other campsites and away from people. 

I had the opportuntiy to talk to our neighbours for a bit. They were from down south around the Turkey Point area. He worked for a program called "Nature's Calling" which is an environmental education group. They work with the provincial parks down south doing events and activities with kids because the parks down south do not have guided tours and other events like the ones provided here at Killarney. He was considering going on the "Learning About Night Time Creatures" walk tonight just to get some new ideas for his programs. We talked for awhile and shared some pictures until finally it was time I headed back. 

Granite Ridge trail head is located directly across the road from the park's gate house,We drove up to the parking area at the gate and parked car. The park offers free to use hiking kits that you can sign out at the gate. The kit comes with a little pack sack, a pair of binoculars, a first aid kit, compass and a couple other things. It also includes a trail guide book. In the back of the book is a checklist of all the different birds you may come across. 

​We walked across the road to the trail head only to find that there is a parking lot there for hikers. Oh well, it was not like we had walked far to get here. We started the trail at about 1:50 pm.

There is also a place where you can park your bike if you have one. The trail begins through a thicket of what looks to be dead pine trees. You can tell that they were hand planted because they were all in neat little rows. A few hundred meters in there is a sign saying that they are clearing some of these trees in order to let the new trees and plants grow back in naturally. 

This trail was pretty interesting if you had the trail guide book with you, The trail winds through an area that used to once be the farm of one of the first families in the area; the Tyson family. They managed to clear 6 acres of land by hand and plant crops and even had some cows and live stock. You would never know it to look at the forest that stand there now. But there are still some tell tale signs of what once was if you looked hard enough. 

One of the signs we saw was the remains of two rusting old cars. Apparently these were the first cars ever to drive in Killlarney and were owned by the Tyson's sons. 

After you get past the old Tyson farm the path turns into a loop. Since we had the guide book we followed the numbers and took the right fork. But you could just as easily take the left. 

We got to the point at about 3:10 pm. At the furthest part of the loop you are rewarded with a beautiful view of Georgian Bay from the top of an open spot on the rocks. From up here we could see birds flying above the trees and the cool wind was nice after a hot hike. We sat here for about half an hour and took a nice long break. 

Behind us you couldn't see Georgian Bay, but it was still a pretty view too. 

By this point the blisters on Heather's heels were bothering her again. We took a look at the map and it was difficult to tell if it was faster to go back the way we came or to go forward. Heather decided to go back the way we came and my mom and I decided to continue on to finish the loop. 

Along the way we saw an unusual coloured grasshopper. It was pale, pale green with large black spots and the back legs were red. It was not one of your everyday, run of the mill, looking grasshoppers. I believe it was a "Northern Marbled Grasshopper".

We also saw a cute little red squirrel on the way back. Almost didn't get a picture because a couple of noisy young people cane barreling up behind us and scared it away. 

Once we got back to where the loop had begun we wondered if Heather was ahead of us or behind us. We felt like the way back was much quicker going for us than the way there and we suspected that she was still behind us. Mom decided to wait here awhile just in case and I went up on ahead. 

It was a very quiet walk back to the parking lot. Quiet enough that I happened upon two Grouse. I practically stepped on them and didn't see them until they started to run/fly away from me. One took off in one direction and the second in another direction. 

Turns out Heather made it back before we did and she was waiting in the parking lot for us. We didn't have to wait very long before mom showed up too. 

Once we got back to the campsite I decided to go for a swim before supper. The trail had been hot and besides that the wasps were annoying me again. So I drove down to the beach and parked the car. This was the smaller of the two beaches and the buoy lines did not go out very far. 

I assumed this was because of what the signs posted say; that there is an uneven lake bottom. I imagined that there was a sudden drop off somewhere. The buoy lines only came up to my waist. There were 3 other people out past the buoy lines when I went in so I went past them too. If I had been alone on the beach I probably wouldn't have, just in case.  I quickly realized that the water didn't get deep until about double the distance that the buoy lines are set at.  ​I didn't really have anything to worry about . I had my Ronald McDonald shoes on and I was glad because the bottom was a bit mucky. But the water was clear, clean and refreshing.  As I dried off I watched some people in the distance jumping off the cliffs and into the water. That looked like fun. 

I got back to the campsite just in time for supper. We had dehydrated manwhiches and potatoes. For desser t we had dehydrated fruit cocktail. The fruit cocktail looks a little gross once it's rehydrated but it tasted pretty good. This time we made sure to eat all of our dessert before any coons showed up. 

Sure enough, Willimena showed up again while we were playing cards. This time we didn't accidentally leave any food out at all. We knew Wilimena was coming before she arrived. This was because we could hear a couple of kids in a campsite across the way yell out "A raccoon! Look! A raccoon!"  They were so excited.

She had only been at our tent for a moment or two when we could hear the kids, two boys about age 9 or 10, coming up the road looking for Willimena. We called out to them and asked "Are you looking for the raccoon"?  "Yes, have you seen it?" they replied.  Heather said "Yes, it is over here. You can come and see her if you would like".  So we invited the boys to sit at the picnic table with us while we played cards because we knew they would get a kick out of Willimena climbing up the table.  We told them that they had to sit quietly and that they couldn't feed her. We explained that she would probably touch them but they can't pet her just in case she bites them. They didn't have long to wait and Willimena did not disappoint them. Soon enough she was searching their pockets and climbing up onto the bench beside them. The boys were delighted by this. One of them said in a hushed voice so as not to scare Willimena away "This is so cool!" The boys stayed for about 5 minutes before Willimena was sure that there was no food for her and she moved on to the next campsite. The boys said thank you and then went back to their own site and we continued with our card game..  Now the boys had a story to tell all their friends at home.   

We only played cards until about 9:30 because I wanted to go on the "Learning about Night Time Creatures" walk. Heather and mom didn't want to go so I walked to the Nature Center by myself. I decided to walk to the Nature Center in the dark. I had a flashlight with me but I didn't turn it on. Someone had pointed out that if you are walking down the road in the dark, just look up at the sky and you will see the way to go because there are no trees to block the view. Sure enough, it works! 

I arrived at the Nature Center 10 minutes early. There were 2 tour guides already there waiting in the dark with no lights on. I was the first to arrive and I said hello to them. Right away, I heard a familiar voice say "I know you! You were here last year. You are the one who writes the blog on camping" . Without her even telling me who she was I knew right away that it was Rochelle who had been our guide on the trail last year.  I was impressed that we both recognized each other without really being able to see each other in the darkness. 

Soon other people started arriving and I learned that the other guide's name was Bethany. As people showed up with their flashlights they were asked to turn them off because it takes about 45 minutes for your eyes to fully adjust to the dark. 

They began by doing a couple of interesting activities to test out how well you can see and smell in the dark. We were all given a different coloured popsicle stick and you had to find the group of people who had the same colour of pospsicle stick that you had.  Then they passed around little containers of scent and you had to identify what it was you were smelling. Ours group had cinnamon, but one lady beside me thought it was mint. The other group had Maple syrup but some people thought it was vanilla and some thought it was chocolate. 

Next we walked up to the gatehouse in the dark to see if we could find any fireflies. We didn't find any because it was a little late in the season for them. While we were looking for fireflies we heard some howling coming from the Granite Ridge trail area. At first we thought it was wolves but then we realized it was just people doing wolf calls. 

Next stop was the wall of the gate house where we looked at moths and discussed the differences between moths and butterflies. 

Then we walked back to the Nature Center and listened for bats on a little machine they had. We talked a bit about bats and the white nose disease that is affecting them. At this point someone drove up in a vehicle and parked with their headlights shining directly at us. We thought it would only be a couple seconds and then they would turn them off but they just kept sitting there with their lights in our eyes.  Bethany finally had to go over to the car and ask them to turn off the lights. But it was too late; they had completely ruined our night vision. The worst part was that our next stop was to take a wooded, rocky, root filled path down to the beach. It wouldn't have been much of a problem if our eyes were adjusted to the dark. But now that we had been blinded by the light, it became almost a safety hazard to try to walk this path. Rochelle had to turn on her flashlight at one point just so we wouldn't trip. 

It was a gorgeous night on the beach and the stares were bright and clear. We were lucky enough to see the International Space Station go by (twice in two nights for me!). At the beach we talked about owls. There are 6 types of owls found in Killarney Park.  Rochelle and Bethany passed around the skull and the talon of an owl for everyone to see. Rochelle said that owls are known as the "silent killers" because their wings are completely silent when they beat. Owls have ears on the side of their head and one ear is lower than the other ear. They can also turn their head 270 degrees. These things allow the owl to know exactly where a sound is coming from. 

Next, Bethany played the sound that a Barred Owl makes on her phone so that we could hear it. The Barred Owl makes a call that sounds like it is saying "Who Cooks For You? Who Cooks For You All?" 
Then we took turns making the owl call and trying to get an owl to respond. Apparently they have had success doing this on other occasions. We thought perhaps we may have heard one very faintly way off in
the distance but we were not completely sure.

When our Night Time Creature walk was done I headed back to my site in the dark. This side of the park was noisy, smoke filled and crowded and I was happy that even though we had got the last available site in the park, it was a quiet and peaceful one. There were plenty of coons down at this end of the park too. I could hear a couple of them snarling at each other as I walked by. 

I got back to the site at about 11:30 and played cards with Heather and mom for a short while longer. Tonight was much cooler than all the other nights had been so this was the first night where there were finally no wasps following us into the tent at night.

I finally fell asleep at about 12:15 a.m. but I was awakened at about 3 a.m. by the sound of none other than....a Barred Owl! It was really close and quite loud.  If I hadn't have gone on the Night Time Creature walk earlier in the evening I would not have been able to identify what kind of owl it was. I went back to sleep with a smile. 

I woke up to hear Heather outside the tent talking to someone. At first I thought she may be talking to my mom, but I quickly realized that she wasn't. Apparently we had some morning visitors. Heather was talking to a momma raccoon and four baby raccoons. I guess momma was teaching them how to make the campsite rounds. Can't start too young, you know. 

I went back to bed and just lay there listening to the sounds of the birds, and chipmunks for another hour or so. When I finally got up, Heather was by herself feeding peanuts to her new friend the chipmunk. And of course our ever present wasps were still hanging around despite the fact that there was no food for them anywhere in sight. 

My mom got up about a half an hour later and we wondered what we were going to do today. Call us crazy, but we decided to go on a hike. Yes, after 3 days of being sore and exhausted to the point where we could barely lift our feet, we still had the hiking bug. Heather wasn't going to hike one of the trails, but she was going to walk down to the gatehouse and buy a present for her grand kids. I decided to hike the Cranberry Bog Trail. My mom also chose the Cranberry Bog trail, however, we began the trail at different times so we each ended up going it alone. I left to go to the Cranberry Bog Trail at 12:45 p.m.  and my mom left at
​2 p.m.

I don't mind doing hikes alone because I can walk at my own pace and I can go quietly enough to sometimes be able to catch birds and animals with my camera that I probably wouldn't otherwise be able to photograph.  ​At the Cranberry Bog trail head is a place to lock up your bikes. That's another nice feature of Killarney Park; it is very bike friendly.

The trail starts out as a path that runs along some of the campsites. For the first little bit I could see other campers at their sites and hear them laughing and talking to each other. It looked peaceful but it was too noisy. 

Finally after you get further in, the voices start to fade away and you can finally hear the birds and the crickets. Not too far in I came across a rather rocky section of the path. At this point I was worried that this trail was going to become like the LaCloche trail with difficult and steep rock cuts to climb. I wasn't sure I was up to that the very day after coming out of the bush from the LaCloche trail. 

But soon my worries were abated when I came across a nice little rock bench.  I thought to myself "wouldn't it have been nice if there had been a bunch of these rock benches on the LaCloche trail.  I think there should be more of these on all the trails. These are a great idea! 

I was beginning to wonder if there were any boggy patches to this hike at all. Finally I came to some open grassy and kind of boggy areas. Well at least that was a start. The first real signs of bog was the small patch of Joe Pye Weed Flowers. They are a pretty flower in a faded pastel purple colour and they like to grow on the edges of open water, near the edges of lakes or rivers and require moist living conditions. 

Another sign that I was getting close to the bog was the occasional dragonfly spotted along the path. 

I came across an old tree that looks like the woodpeckers have frequented quite a bit. I was hoping to get a picture of one but there were no woodpeckers to be found. 

A nice little song sparrow did stop and pose for me though. 

It was an interesting old pine tree because it looked like it had a runny nose or something. The pine sap was oozing in long drippy strings down the side of the tree. 

Finally I could see Cranberry Bog through an opening in the trees. 

The very first part of the bog as a little bridge that borders the edge of a beaver dam.  When you are standing on the bridge you can see that the bog is broken up into 3 different water levels and the bridge is on level two. 

The bog is surrounded by orange Spotted Jewel Weed and purple Pickerel Weed.

And what would a bog be without some water lilies.

In a shallow spot near the rocks there was a whole bunch of water lily leaves that overlapped one another to form a giant floating floor where a bunch of ants were busy milking their farm of aphids. 

I found a nice spot to sit and eat lunch. I must have spent about an hour here. It was so quiet and so peaceful and so beautiful. 

Even the rocks were a beautiful shade of red and were smooth and worn by the winds and the rain over the years. 

Way across the bog I could make out two large black birds in the water. One was beating the water with it's wings. It looked as though it were fishing or something. The other was just sitting on a rock and watching. They were too sar away to tell what kind of birds they were. If I had to guess I would say cormorants. 

Eventually I could hear some people coming from behind me in the distance. I took that as my cue to leave. I had only come across one other set of hikers on the trail so far and they had passed me by going in the opposite direction near the very beginning of the trail. I had rather enjoyed my solitude up to this point and wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible. I came off the trail at about 4 p.m. The trail did not end where I had expected it to. I had thought that it went around full circle and that I would end up right where I started. So I was surprised when I actually came out down by the beach instead. It meant doing some more uphill walking to get back to the campsite. As I was walking up the hill I heard 3 gun sots off in the distance. I never did find out what that was all about. 

Upon my return to the campsite I found Heather making "wasp traps". They weren't traps so much as they were lures. She had placed about 3 pieces of home made fruit roll-ups on the picnic table and the usual 7 - 8  wasps were hanging out and chowing down on them. They didn't actually catch the wasps, instead they just kept the wasps out of our hair; both literally and figuratively. 

After just having come back from a hike I was fairly thirsty. We hadn't had a true cold drink in about 5 days now. Even the ones we bought at the corner store were kind of cold but not really cold. So I said to Heather "Let's treat ourselves to some ice!" She thought that was a great idea. So we left our mom a note (she was still on the Cranberry Bog trail) to tell her that we were gone to get ice. We went to the gate house and Heather went in to ask if they had any ice there. The guy at the desk said no, but we could get some at the Killarney Outfitters. Before she left she told the guy about the raccoon that had come to the campsite the night before. Then she asked him  "If the raccoon comes back tonight to play cards again, is it alright if I give it a beer? Or is it still considered wild?" We didn't even have any beer, she was just making a joke. The joke worked because it made the guy laugh. He replied "no...it's still considered wild".  Heather had decided to name the raccoon by this point. The raccoon was now known as "Willimena". 

So off we went to Killarney Outfitters to get ice. Along the way we saw a young black bear crossing the road. By the time we got back with the ice, our mom was also back from her hike. We began to make a supper of dehydrated tuna/cheese and broccoli along with some bannock. We also prepared some home made chocolate pudding in a zip-lock bag which we we put on ice along with the bottles of pop so that we could have it nice and cold. It's funny how things like ice you take for granted at home but when you are camping and it is hard to come by it becomes a real treat. 

It was another very good dehydrated meal. We figured it would have tasted even better if we were way out in the bush on the hiking trail, but we were happy to have stayed camping long enough to try it out.  We were too full for the pudding so we left it to chill. After supper we cleared up the food and the dishes and we settled in for another evening of card games. 

​At about 7 p.m. a raccoon came into the campsite. We had expected that Willimena may be back. She seemed like a regular with the attitude she had. She had arrived at about 9 the previous night so we thought that this was a bit early for her. But what did we know. We had only seen her the one time. The raccoon was reaching up in the tree for something and this pose was just too cute. So I took a picture through the screen of the tent.

​ I wanted to get a clearer picture without the screen in the way so I moved outside of the tent to take another one. This raccoon saw me and got a bit nervous about me coming so close. That's when we knew that this was not Willimena. Our Willimena is not shy by any means. This coon didn't stick around long. Soon we were back to playing cards. 

At about 9 p.m. another coon entered the campsite. Soon I had a coon tapping my butt and searching my pockets. Now this was Willimena! Nothing was scaring her off. We were talking loud and we were even playing a card game (Squarrels) that required us to slap the table once in awhile. The banging smacks on the table did not seem to trouble her in the least.

Eventually she got bold enough to get up on the table and join us in a game of cards. Heather would hold out her cards and say "Which one should I play Willimena?" and Willimena would tap one of her cards and Heather would play it. 

However, cards were not what Willimena was interested in. She was on the hunt for food naturally. She was going through every little bag and container we had on the table. She was searching the dice bag, then the card boxes. She tried for my mom's cigarette package but my mom took that away. Then she went for a baggie with some plastic bottles of juice in them that you can add to water to make flavoured water. My mom tried to wrestle that away from her. It was a tug of war battle until I pointed out to my mom that she may as well let Willimena have it because even if she got into the bag, she would not be able to open the plastic containers inside. Sure enough, Willimena gave up on those real quick. 

We thought we had everything under control when we realized that Willimena was going for the ice bucket...."The Pudding!!!!" we all yelled at the same time. We had completely forgotten about the pudding that we had left to chill.  It was to late. Willimena was too quick for us and she grabbed that whole bag of pudding and ran off like a dart with into the night. I gave chase but gave up pretty quick. After all, even if I caught her, how was I going to get her to drop it? Best case scenario I would have had a torn bag of pudding dripping all over me.  So I returned to the tent defeated. We resumed playing our cards and talked about how we had been really looking forward to that pudding. Wouldn't you know it, about a half an hour later the little devil came back to the tent looking for more! The nerve of some coons! This time we didn't ask her to play cards with us. We told her that she was not welcome anymore and that she should go to someone else's campsite instead. We had no more chocolate pudding for her anyways so she didn't stay long. 

We played cards until about 11:30 p.m.  As we were packing up the cards, once more we had a wasp buzzing around us in the dark. I have never seen anything like it. These bees were just always there. 

Heather and I decided to walk down to the beach to do some star gazing because it was such a beautiful night.We lay down on a picnic table, one on each bench and looked up at the stars. The sky was so clear and the stars were so bright and the evening was so warm. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was about the time that the Perseid Meteor Shower was beginning. It wasn't due to  peak until  August 11th; but sure enough we saw quite a number of "falling stars" in a very short period of time. We also were lucky enough to see the International Space Station go by. 

We stayed down by the beach for about an hour. When we came back it looked like the wasps had finally gone to bed. But the coons hadn't. As we lay in our sleeping bags we could still hear them roaming around outside the tent. I lie there thinking how odd it is that humans tend to feel safe even with just so much as a paper thin piece of material between us and the wildlife on the other side. It's silly really. We may as well have nothing between us. But at least the material does have some uses such as privacy from other humans, and protection from rain and bugs. That's about it though. But from what I have seen of the wildlife in this park the past couple days, the terrain seems to be much more wild than the animals are. 

Turns out I had nothing to worry about when it came to needing an alarm clock. By morning the wind was not howling anymore, but you could definitely hear the birds. We were woken up at about 6:30 a.m. by the chorus of Canadian Geese. Then came the sounds of a flock of crows, followed by the sounds of herons and then after that some other unidentified birds. It was a bird alarm clock!  We packed up the campsite and and headed back to Killarney Provincial Park so that we could be first in line to get one of the 5 available campsites. 

We arrived at 7:50 a.m. and when we did there was already a line up in front of us. The ranger had told us the day before that 8 a.m. would be guaranteed to be early enough to get a site. But we should have come to the gate even earlier than we did because it was looking dicey as to whether or not we would be getting a campsite.

At 8 a.m. the doors opened and we all went in single file. While we were waiting in line we started talking to the people we were in line with. There was a young couple behind us who were just there for the day and were going to run the 25 km trail to Silver Peak.

After a few moments a second ranger opened up another cash register and called out "can I help who's next? " The next couple in line went  ahead. There were two other people in line ahead of Heather by this point. No one else moved to go to the second line so Heather did. Just when Heather was about to go next an angry voice from behind us growled "Hey! I was next! There is only one line not two!" He made a big production about how we had cut in line and how he was entitled to be next. We had no problems with him going next and we tried to explain to him what happened but he was not having any of it.  If he had stopped to think about it he would have realized that no matter which line he was standing in he was already next in line because the guy in front of him was finished. So instead of walking up to the counter in the line he was already in, he loudly pushed his way forward to be next in line in our line instead. Then after all that, it turns out that he was only there to claim a site that he had already reserved. So he was already guaranteed a site and had no competition and didn't even have to worry about if he would get a site or not. After the big commotion we figured we had better be extra careful as to who goes next. Some people are apparently not morning people as we had witnessed first hand.

So we made sure that the one other couple that had been in line before us got to go next. By that point there were only 2 sites left in the whole campground. The couple in front of us were super nice people. They did not know what the sites were like so Heather explained the pros and cons to him of both sites and they made their decision.. That meant we got the very last site in the whole campground. It was site number 111 in Red Deer Ridge section. However, the current occupants had until 2 pm to vacate the campsite which meant we had to find something to do until 2 p.m. (or earlier if the current occupants left earlier). 

To pass the time while we waited we drove a few kilometers down the road to the Killarney Outfitters. This place is a campers dream store. They had everything you could possibly want for camping, canoeing and backpacking. This is also the place where you rent canoes and kayaks for the park.  As we were looking around we bumped into and had a nice little chat with the couple that had been in front of us at the gate and had gotten the second last campsite. They were passing time here while they waited for their site to open up too. 

Last year when I was at Killarney with Heather I did not buy a T-shirt because the prices were way too high. But here you can get Killarney Park T-shirts for about half the price they were selling them for at the park. 

At first I had a hard time deciding which T-shirt that I wanted. But then I found the perfect one to represent the hike we just did. It was dark blue with the silhouette of trees making it look like the forest at night. And it had white writing with spots of white that could almost be stars. The words say "Killarney. Into The Wild" and on the back it says "Suck It Up Princess".  I had to have it. I think it has become one of most favourite T-shirts. 

I also had my eye on a pair of Zem Playa Round shoes. They are good for going into the water with and for walking around the campsite with. They claim to be the shoe you want to wear if you prefer to walk barefoot. I hummed and hawed about it and decided not to get them. Besides, they looked like Ronald McDonald feet on me. 

We bought out stuff and a couple almost cold drinks and went and sat outside at the picnic tables. We had a bit of a chuckle when we saw a fire extinguisher that had bold letters saying "Keep Clear" and there sitting on top of it was a fallen down post (It used to be sitting attached to the post but the post had fallen over and on top of it). Looks like the post didn't get the memo. 

Killarney Outfitters had plenty of humming bird feeders and red flowers hanging up all around. We were seeing 3 or 4 humming birds at a time at the feeders. 

After Killarney Outfitters we went back to the park and sat down at the beach playing card games like "Squarrels". The whole while a little chipmunk hung out to keep us company.

By 12:30 our site was finally vacant.  We took no time to setup the tents and get ourselves settled. 

Our site was located at the top of a hill and the bathrooms were at the bottom of the hill. Hills were not our friends at this point. The muscles in our legs and feet hurt every time we ascended or descended the hill.  There wasn't much room for parking a vehicle but we managed. Other than those tiny issue, the site was a very nice site.

There was even a bear box on the site. We usually keep our food in the car but since this was available we decided to use it. You can ask for them at the park office, but I think that someone had asked to use this one and it just never got brought back. 

Next on the list of things to do was showers and laundry. My mom found out that the shirt she bought didn't quite fit and she wanted to exchange it for a different size. So while Heather looked after the laundry I drove my mom back to Killarney Outfitters. Once I was there I broke down and bought my Ronald NcDonald shoes. They were very comfortable and I figured they would come in handy since all I had with me were my heavy hiking boots.

My mom spotted a "Provincial Parks Trail Guide" book and picked that up. That was the start of more serious thoughts on where and when we were going to backpack next. I was eyeing up the trails at the Sleeping Giant Provincial Park.... but we will see. 

After laundry we headed back to camp for an early supper. We prepared one of our freeze dried meals of Beef and Vegetable Noodles. It was our favourite of the freeze dried meals so far. That was bout the time when the bees started showing up. Not the fuzzy little bumble bee type, but the nasty wasp type. 

Normally, a wasp or two around my food is not a big deal and I can co-exist with them. I go with the idea of if you leave them alone they will leave you alone. Not these guys. This was a pack of about 7 or 8 wasps that were into everything and were more curious than a bunch of cats about to lose their nine lives. They weren't angry bees.... they were just very annoying. Annoying enough that I had to escape to the car from time to time because they just wouldn't stay off of me. 

It had looked like rain off an on all day and combine that with the bees we decided to put up a screened dining tent that I had with me in the car. (No, we did not bring this backpacking with us. I happened to still  have it in the trunk of the car from a sales event I had a booth at a week or two previous).  The screen helped to keep most of the bees at bay. So we stayed in there and played cards for the evening. 

It was about 9 p.m. or so and it was getting dark when we heard noises in the bush. I thought nothing of it because I knew it was just a raccoon. If you want to see a raccoon this is definitely the place to see them. They are everywhere here.  We would have continued to ignore the sounds, but the critter making them refused to be ignored. Right into the screen tent, bold as brass tacks waddled this big ole raccoon. She had no fear. In no time she was sniffing around at our feet and then to my surprise I felt her little paws digging through my pockets!  

​When she found nothing there, she climbed up onto the bench beside me and started checking to see what was on the table. 

We had long since put all the food away, but that didn't stop her from checking every bag and container she came across. 

She even got her nose right up to the lens of my camera as I was taking her picture. She was not shy at all. 

When she was satisfied that there was nothing for her to eat here, she eventually moved on to the next campsite and we went back to our card games. As we finished up our game at about 11 pm, from out of nowhere a wasp showed up and was hanging out on the lantern. I was thinking that this was crazy.... wasps should be sleeping somewhere for the night, not buzzing around in the tent. We finally managed to get rid of the wasp and headed down to the bathrooms. A little later we went to get in the tent and there was yet another wasp hanging out on Heather's hoodie. We just couldn't seem to escape these things. We did a wasp check when we got in the tent, just in case,  and definitely made sure to have the tent door closed before going to sleep. 

I woke up at 6 a.m. to the sounds of my mother tearing down her tent. She wanted to get it packed up before the rain started. By 6:30 a.m. there was a light drizzle. Heather heard her too so she got up and went out and had coffee with her. I was so achey that I could barely sit up or roll over. So I took a Robax pill and went back to sleep for awhile.  By 8 a.m. I was awake again. The Robax helped quite a bit and I was hoping that getting out and stretching would also help. It did help a bit. 

Out on the lake a loon came swimming up fairly close to us. Once it noticed us moving around though it put some more distance between us. 

Devin and Kendra had decided to go home today. They had things they could be doing to get ready for college and wanted to use their time to get things done.  My mom, Heather and I figured we would hike out to the main campground and stay a few more nights in Killarney park. Since Devin and Kendra were not staying and would be able to make it out of the bush faster than we would, we transferred some of our now unneeded items to their packs to take home with them. It was nice to lighten our loads a little. But we didn't want to weigh them down too much so we didn't over do it on how much we gave them to take back. 

We were all packed up and ready to go by 10:30 a.m. Just as I was putting on my pack I slipped a little on the wet rocks and cut one of my fingers. I was surprised because the rocks were fairly rounded and not that sharp and they weren't all that wet  yet either. It didn't hurt really but it was bleeding quite a bit.

 I did a quick clean of it but there was so much blood that it was hard to tell how deep it was. It looked more like a paper cut that anything else. It wasn't until later when it stopped bleeding and I was changing the bandage that I saw how bad and deep the gash really was. That's gonna leave a scar I bet. I just thought "if I can cut my finger that badly on rocks that are not even that sharp, imagine if any of us had made a serious slip on the really sharp rocks (especially since it's starting to rain now) and sliced open a leg or a foot or something."  Could quite easily be a bad scene when you are way out in the bush. We were fortunate that these injuries were the extent of what we sustained on this hike. 

 I told Devin and Kendra that it only took us about 2 hours on the way into do this leg of the journey so it should only take them that time or less to get back to the campground. That made then happy and they left at a much faster pace than we were travelling at. Once again mom, Heather and I took it slow. We had no need to hurry and mom was feeling more achey today than the past couple days. I was able to look around more and take in the scenes more. I came across plenty of little tiny brown toads along the way. It was hard enough trying not to trip on roots, rocks and your own two feet. Then there is me trying not to step on the toads as well. 

At around noon the rain had stopped. Guess the weatherman was right this time. We came to a pretty little bridge. Coming across this bridge on the way in was a breeze. But on the way back we faced a pretty steep rock face that required either helping each other to climb it or taking your pack off. Heather somehow managed to get up it without any help and she helped to pull me up and I turned around and helped to pull my mom up. 

Once we got to the top we just sat for a bit. There was a nice breeze from up here and it felt good to cool off a bit. 

From up here, off in the distance over Heather's shoulder,  you could see a beaver pond.

After a bit of a rest we continued on. Some parts of the path would take us over dried up or partially dried up creek beds. 

We stopped just outside campsite H1 for lunch at about 12:30. While we were sitting there waiting for the coffee water to boil a group of 3 people passed by on their way back out. They were one of the same groups of people that were going in the same direction we were going in the day we came in. They couldn't make it either and had turned back after making it to campsite H7. 

As we ate lunch I could hear a bit of a commotion up above us. I looked up to see a nest of baby birds right above our heads. I am not sure what kind of birds they were but the way the nest was built was pretty neat. It looked to be made of birch bark strands. It was built underneath a branch of leaves so that the leaves were acting like a roof to keep rain off the baby birds and to keep the nest hidden from any hawks or other predators that may be lurking above the nest. 

After lunch we continued on but the path wasn't getting any easier. It wasn't long before another group of people passed us on their way back out. Again, they were a couple that had passed us on the way in the first day. They had made it as far as H21 before his hiking boots had fallen apart. All he had left to walk in was his running shoes so they knew they would never make it full circle and had turned around. 

About 20 minutes later a third couple passed us on the way out and once again they were a group of people that were headed in the same direction as us the day we came in. This couple had only made it to campsite H19. They were just too hot and too tired and, like us, knew their limits and stayed within it.  We thought about it for a few moments and realized that we were one of 4 groups of people that had turned around and came back out of the bush within a couple days and hadn't gone full circle. If there were any feelings of defeat up to this point they were gone by now. We had done better than we thought we had. We talked about it as we walked and started making plans for our next hiking trip already! We discussed the things we would do differently like less weight, less food, and a less strenuous trail. We counted this trail as a learning experience. 

Eventually we began to get pretty tired again. There were more rocky hills ahead of us and that slowed us down some more.  Heather had a bit more energy so she went up ahead of us and for awhile we couldn't see her anymore. But eventually we came across her again. She was standing near a tree singing out loud to herself. I thought "well, she is in a cheerful mood!".  When we got closer to her she called out to us. "I just heard a baby bear calling for it's momma. So I am singing out loud so that the bears know I am here and  we don't take them by surprise. I figured I would wait here for you guys to catch up so that we can stick together just in case". 

So we stopped to listen for a moment or two but we didn't hear anything. We kept together and talked to each other and made some noise as we passed through the area just in case. Sure enough as we started to get some distance from the area, we did hear a faint baby bear call behind us. It was a much quieter and shorter version of the sound you can hear here:  Baby Bear Call  

We also passed what appeared to be some very old and weathered claw marks in a birch tree. 

When we were nearing the end of the hike we came across two young men starting just beginning their hike and on their way into the bush. One of the guys was taking his boyfriend on the hike for his birthday. When we asked them if they had seen anyone resembling Kendra and Devin on their way in, they said yes. They had seen Devin and Kendra just leaving the trail about 40 minutes ago just as they had started the trail.  So we knew that Devin and Kendra were now on their way home and that we only had roughly 40 more minutes to go (probably more like an hour at our pace) and then we would be out of the bush too. 

We kept walking for some time and we were almost at the point where we couldn't go any farther anymore when finally we came to the end of the trail. We were so happy to be back and not have to carry the heavy packs anymore! 

Well, my mom's and Heather's hike was over but not mine. Since we didn't end the hike at the other end of the park like we had originally intended, my car was still  at the other end of the park. I still had to hike across to the other end to get it and drive it back to the trail head so that we could load the packs into it. And to top it all off, part of that walk was up a large hill. At least I didn't have to bring my pack with me for that part of the walk. 

Our plan was to go to the office gate and get a camp site for the next few days. So we headed to the gate only to find that the campground was full and there were no more sites left. One of the rangers suggested that we go into the town of Killarney to a privately owned campsite for the night and then return here by 8 a.m. to get a campsite for the following night. We asked if she was sure there would be one available for us. She assured us that there were 5 unreservable sites that would open up tomorrow and that if we were there by 8 a.m then we would be well in advance of any others looking for a site.  So that is what we did. 

We made the short drive into the town of Killarney that has a population of maybe 500 people at best. There are only about 4 main roads so Rocher Rouge Campground was pretty easy to find. We made our way to the main office which doubled as the owners house and was greeted by a super nice, super friendly lady who gave us a campsite "on the waterfront". We were given a photocopy of a hand drawn map and told we were on campsite number 42. 

 Now normally I do not like privately owned campgrounds because they are usually like trailer parks and usually don't have much in the way of trees. But this place was designed to take on the over flow of Killarney's Provincial campers and much of the layout and signs bore resemblances to the Provincial Park. The campsite we were on was beautiful. 

The site was huge and had a great view of Georgian Bay. It had a better view than any of the campsites we could have stayed on had we gotten a site int he Provincial Park. True to her word, the site was "on the waterfront", however, waterfront does not equal beach.  There were large open areas of rock that went up to the water, but there were weeds and cat tails all around with no real place to swim. 

We probably wouldn't have swam that day anyways because we were way to tired. The other thing we noticed was that it was extremely windy on our site. It was windy enough that it was hard to hear each other talking. There was no real wind break since we were so close to the water and the waves were crashing against the rocks. 

Despite the high winds we were really enjoying this campsite. We quickly went about setting up the tents. We had no close neigbours  next to us (40, 41 and 39 were empty)  so we had a huge amount of space. There was no toilet paper in the washrooms, but that's OK because we had our own. And the water was municipal water but it tasted pretty bad. Luckily we had the platypus with us so we were able to filter out the municipal water and make it taste a whole lot better. 

The sites even came with free firewood! Unfortunately the town of Killarney had a fire ban on so we were not going to be able to use it. But the thought was nice. 

And there were plenty of picnic tables, including a pretty blue one up on the rocks over looking the waterfront. 

When you looked across the bay you could see one of Killarney's lighthouses on the other side. 

By now it was about 3:30 p.m. and we were starved. It was way to early for supper but we really didn't care. We decided to go to Hebert's World Famous Fish & Chips which was just down the road,.The fish and chips in this place is amazing! The have a windowed section inside where you can watch them filet the fresh caught perch that they are about to cook for you to eat. It tastes so wonderful, especially after being in the bush for the past 3 days. It was heavenly. 

When we were done eating we went down the street to the corner store to buy some much needed essentials that we hadn't brought with us on the hike (like shampoo, fruit, razors, etc)

When our bellies were full we headed back to the camp. We had a whole afternoon of time so we spent it exploring. While Heather found things like "zombie hand prints" in the grass (I guess I could see that if I looked real hard) I was off to find things like birds and plants and animals. 

And I wasn't disappointed. This place was full of things to take pictures of. There were plenty of white breasted sparrows around. 

And frogs were plentiful too. 

I found a little trail with a bit of a board walk to it. 

Which lead to other trails that went right up to the water line. I was hoping to get pictures of some bigger birds. But they are crafty things sometimes and although I did see some larger birds (perhaps a heron or a commorant, not sure). I could not get in close enough to get pictures before they flew off. 

Instead I settled for the easier to capture, ant on white flowers. 

And a plain and simple glistening of reeds in the sunshine on the bay. 

Eventually I went back to the picnic tables where Heather and my mom were just trying to stay awake until 9 p.m.  They didn't want to go to bed too early or they would be up all night. And if they went to bed too late we wouldn't get our campsite. So to help pass the time we played dice games (it was too windy for card games)  until the sun started to go down. 

At first the sunset was pretty unremarkable because there was only one cloud in the sky and nothing for the colours to really bounce off of. But soon the sun had sunk really low and the moon came out and that was when the sky turned into a thing of beauty. 

A flock of Canadian Geese flew in and landed on a near by set of rocks and nestled in for the night along the shoreline. All you could make out were their silhouettes against the water. 

We started to crawl into our tents now and get ready for bed. It was going to be an early morning tomorrow. I was not sure how I was going to manage to get up so early since I did not have an alarm clock. 

The wind was still blowing pretty strong and the sound of it created a blanket of white noise that was beautiful to go to sleep to.  Once again we were able to sleep with the door of the tent open (just the screen door was up). There were no bugs because the wind was so strong. I took one more look at the orange moon in the sky before going to sleep for the night. 

We woke up the next morning and finally got to see our campsite in the daylight. It was actually a very pretty site. It was a shame we wouldn't be able to spend more time on it. Site H6 is situated on Cave Lake. It is up on some rocks and over looks the lake. 

Down closer to the shore a gaggle of geese joined us for breakfast. 

We got Kendra to climb back up the tree to take down our food packs that she had put up in the dark for us the night before. 

Squished muffins for breakfast (and a bee to help me eat it)!  That's OK, the muffins still taste good even when they are squished. From here on out the rest of our food is dehydrated food. 

There had been some talk the night before about what to do next. We barely made it to the first campsite which was only 8 km and now today we were expected to do another 20 km with Heather having blistered heels. There was no way we would make it. Our options were to continue as far forward as we wanted and camp any ole where along the way, or hike all the way back to the beginning in one day, or the third option of hiking back the way we came and stay over night at the nice little unofficial campsite that was right near H3 and H4.  Over breakfast this morning we decided that option 3 was the best.

So after breakfast we started to break camp. I noticed that Kendra's and my mom's tents were pitched in a little area of sand kind of like a horseshoe pit. Our tent was pitched right beside the sandy area. 

This was also the first time I had gotten a look at Devin's tent. Now this guy had the right idea! All it comprised of was one of those emergency shelters with some netting at either end to keep the bugs out and some rope. Definitely did not weigh very much at all. Smart thinking!  

And the rope doubled as a clothes line to hang his socks on. I was impressed, but at the same time it reminded me of a giant baked potato. 

Before leaving camp we made sure to go to the bathroom first. It took awhile for us to find the bathroom but once we spotted the sign we knew it wasn't far off. 

The bathrooms in the back country sites are called "boom boxes". Just a simple little box with a hole cut out to sit on. 

Maybe they are named "boom boxes" because you go there to make a "boom" but when the lid closes it makes a very loud "boom" noise. So perhaps that had something to do with the name as well. 

We also made sure to refill our water before we left. We discovered that we were drinking a whole lot more water than we had expected to. There were not a whole lot of other water sources between here and our next campsite so we took the opportunity to fill up the Platypus while we could. 

The clean water we got from the Platypus we transferred into water bottles, canteens and a couple of handy little water bladders that Devin had picked up from the dollar store. With the water bladders you can either drink straight from the bladder or pour it into other containers. It was a great way to carry extra water with you while you walked. Especially since there can be long periods of time where you may not be near any lakes, streams or other water sources. 

So at about 11:30 a.m. we started on our journey back. We were all so sore and achey. Heather had to wrap her feet before she left. Every step was difficult and slow going because our muscles were so sore that we didn't want to lift our feet very high. Uphills were particularly difficult and there were a lot of uphills.To make the hills more bearable I would go up about 6 feet and then stop for a minute. Then I would set a new goal of about another six feet (pick out a rock or a stump or something that was roughly 6 feet away)  and then stop for another minute or so when I reached my goal. Once I reached the top of the hill I would reward myself with a drink of water. The water was warm and I don't even like water but it was still a reward! My mom had a different approach. She would reward herself with a drink of water every time she reached one of the blue trail markers on the tree. It was very hot out; even in the shade and we were drenched in sweat. Of course since we went down the avalanche of boulders the day before, we had to climb back up them again today. I just thought to myself "wow...and I did this in the dark!...twice!" 

Since we were only going half way back today we took our time and stopped to rest more often. Our breaks were also longer breaks. We stopped for lunch right in the middle of the path in a nice shady area under the trees. My mom boiled water for coffee and while Kendra took a nap right in the middle of the path. I had a bit of a nap myself on Heather's sleeping bag on the side of the path. My mom added water to the dehydrated pizza sauce and let it sit for a few minutes. She explained that she should have thought to add the water before we left so that it would be re-hydrated once we got here, but it just meant waiting for a bit longer and we didn't mind that at all. Once the sauce was ready we put it on some tortilla bread and cut up some beef jerky (pepperoni sticks), added some sliced cheese and voila.... pizza wraps!  Once we were fed and rested we carried on at our slow pace. 

Eventually we reached the rock I had dubbed "Turtle Rock". It was right around the bend from our intended destination so on the one hand I was happy to see it but I also dreaded having to climb back up this thing again. Luckily it was so much easier climbing up it on the way back than it is on the way there. There are more foot holds when you come at it from the opposite direction. 

By 5 pm we reached our destination. It was a beautiful spot between two sections of Acid Lake. On one side was crystal clear waters and on the other side (the beaver dam was between the two sections) was a marshy area. There is no fishing allowed on this lake because they are trying to rebuild the ecosystem here. You can tell by it's crystal clear waters that there is not a whole lot of things living in the water. But there were some signs of it slowly coming back around.  Heather saw a turtle on the marshy side.

​The first thing I did before anything else was to go in for a swim. The water was the perfect temperature and it felt good on the achey muscles. I couldn't stay in too long though because I was just too tired. As I was in swimming a group of 5 young guys hiked past us on their way to H4. This was their last night of their trip. They had come full circle from the opposite direction. One of them looked a little more worse for wear than the others. You could tell that it was a difficult trip for them. 

For supper we cooked spaghetti (with bow tie noodles instead of spaghetti noodles) in a pot made from a light weight coffee can that Heather brought with her. It had a clothes hanger for a handle. It worked surprisingly well. We had left over sauce from the pizza earlier today and we mixed that with the noodles and made a nice meal. 

Our heat source was a small tin of "Cook'n Heat" by World Famous. These neat little cans of fuel are a gel fuel (not liquid) so they do not pose a big spill risk. They are light weight and they last about 6 hours. We each carried a can with us so we had plenty of it. They work great with a little fold up stove we had. So we never had to worry about having an open flame during fire ban season. (There was no fire ban in the park while we were there, but there were fire bans in the surrounding areas. So it doesn't hurt to be too careful). Besides, if it rained then we wouldn't have to worry about wet wood or anything like that either. 

It was so nice to sit and relax and have supper by the side of the lake....in the daylight. 

Heather was particularly grateful to get out of her hiking boots and into a pair of crocs. Her feet looked pretty painful but she never complained even once. Half the time I kept forgetting that her feet were so bad off because she never complained. She also had huge bruises on her shoulder and arm from putting the pack on and off. I couldn't imagine how she would have made it all the way around the 78 km loop with her heels like that. It was a good thing we had turned back. 

After dinner Devin set up his tent to one side of the path. Heather and I had our tent on the other side of the path and my mom's tent was on the same side as Devin. 

Kendra, however, set up her tent away from the rest of us. It was nestled in a pretty little corner by the lake.  

We sat around relaxing and waiting for the sun to set. We all wanted to get a picture of the sunset on this pretty little lake.
   As we sat there talking the campers from H3 came to pay us a visit. It was a gentleman named Brandon and his 11 year old son from the Hamilton area. We explained  why we were camping here for the night and not on a numbered site and he completely understood. He told us that this was his 4th time on this hiking trail but that he only ever did the whole 78 km loop once. He went on to say that he and a buddy did the loop but by the time they made it out they were in really really rough shape. Both he and his friend had hurt themselves (hurt their leg) when they were about half way through the loop. At that point it was a decision to turn back or go on. So they figured at half way, they may as well finish the loop. He said that ther further you go back there, the worse the trail gets. In some places the trail is not marked well and they ended up going off the path and on some game trails (deer/moose trails) instead before they realized what they had done and had to back track. He said that happened more than once. He also said that there are places where you have no choice but to cross over beaver dams and the mud after a rain can sometimes be 4 feet deep. At one point they had come to one of their reserved sites only to find someone else on it. But they had felt sorry for the guy because the bottoms of his feet were blistered and wrapped in shoes made of duct tape. The guy who was squatting on Brandon's site had his wife with him who had made him bring things you would never bring on this type of hike, such as a giant bag of gummie bears and a huge bowie knife and a full roll of duct tape, etc. So Brandon and his buddy let the guy and his wife have the site and they just camped nearby. By the time they were done the loop Brandon and his buddy said "Never again!" But, he laughed, despite all he went through, about 3 months later they were planning another hiking trip. He says that now he usually only goes as far as H19 as a group with his buddy and his buddy's son, and his own son. He then said something that completely surprised me. He said that this trail is the second most difficult trail in all of Canada.  After his story and that statement we all felt a whole lot better about having only made it as far as we did. 
   Brandon seemed pretty impressed with Devin's tent, But he had to chuckle because he said it reminded him of a giant Jiffy Pop bag. That made me chuckle and I told him I thought it was like a giant baked potato. 
   We also gleaned a few good tips from talking to Brandon. We learned that 25 lbs is the max you should be carrying (no wonder we were tired...we were carrying about 40 lbs each). We learned that you should always have a second pair of shoes (even if they are not hiking boots and are just something light weight). And we learned that it is easiest to hike in a bathing suit because then you don't have to carry as many clothes and you can just jump in the water to cool off and that will clean off what you are wearing too. 
   

Brandon said that he and his son were heading to H6 tomorrow and that they had never been there before. They had always gone to number H7 or further. We told them that H6 was nice and they would like it there.  Eventually they went back to their own campsite and we were just in time to see the sunset. 

Since we were in a fairly open area and not deep in the trees, when the sun went down there was still some daylight left. It was light enough that we were able to do a little more exploring of the area before bedtime. I went over to the boggy side of the lake to see what was over there. 

I was hoping to see the turtle that Heather saw earlier, but it was a no show. 

I did see plenty of Spatulate-leaved Sundew (also known as Spoonleaf Sundew). These pretty red plants are only found in bogs and are similar to Venus Fly Traps in that they eat insects. Each of the hairs on their leaves are covered in a sticky substance which looks like dew that traps an insect if one lands on it. When the insect can't get away the plant will begin to eat it. 

The long stalks have buds on the end where little white flowers will open up. This particular plant didn't have the flowers in bloom quite yet. The flowers only bloom in the sunlight so it could be that they were just closed up for the evening. ​

Soon enough it got too dark to see very well. That was OK because we were pretty exhausted and wanted to go to sleep anyways. Before we did we once again hung our food in the trees. It was a beautiful night and we would have liked to have slept with the tent door open again, however, we were expecting a 60% chance of rain the next day from about 6 a.m. to about noon with a chance of a thunderstorm, so we had to sleep with the door closed. 

It was about 1 a.m. when I woke up to the sound of a clawing noise in the food tree. I knew it was a raccoon trying to get at our food. I was so achey that I could barely roll over or even move. I worried that it would still manage to get into our food despite it hanging in the tree (I have witnessed a crafty coon get into a locked cooler hanging from a rope in a tree many many years ago so I knew anything was possible). At the same time though, I knew we were going to be out of the bush the next day and I almost wished that it would get into the food so that we didn't have so much weight to carry out with us. He didn't stay in the tree long and he seemed to give up pretty easily. 

It wasn't long before I heard it back on the ground. This time it was going through Devin's tent! That's when I knew I couldn't just lie there and ignore it. I jumped up and turned on the light, opened the tent door and yelled at it to scare it away. It worked and the coon ran off. Of course the commotion woke Heather up and I told her that the coon was in Devin's tent. She said "That's OK. Devin decided to stay in Kendra's tent tonight because it was too hot in his and because Kendra's tent was so far away from everyone else's that they thought it would be safer."  That explained why we didn't hear any yelling coming from Devin when the coon was in his tent. I lay back down to go to sleep and in my over tiredness I started giggling to myself. All I could think of was the description of Devin's tent as "Jiffy Pop" and "Baked Potato". No wonder the raccoon was rummaging through Devin's tent. He probably thought that he had found the biggest dinner of his life! I fell back to sleep giggling and quietly muttering the words "Baked Potato".