I woke up to a bright, sunny morning. The kids were still asleep so I got up and went outside the tent. Dylan and Victoria were also still sleeping. The whole campground was pretty quiet actually.  

I walked down to the lake to see if there was anything interesting down there. I saw a Merganser duck swim by.  I am always amused by the Merganser duck because it always looks like he has Bed-Head, the way his feathers stick out the way they do.

Red-eyed Vireos were singing in the trees. 

When I got back to the campsite, everyone was up and ready for another day at the beach. When it got close to lunch time, Victoria and I went back to the dining tent to whip up some food for everyone. That's when we first saw the little brown rabbit. 

It was just hanging out near the edge of the campsite, chewing on some leaves and grass.  The kids were still down at the beach so they didn't get to see it. 

While we were watching the rabbit a Banded-wing Fly landed near by.  They are harmless. I just like the unusual pattern on the wings. 

Later in the afternoon I decided to take a drive around the park to see what the dog beach was like and to check out some of the other areas. 

The  dog beach is also a boat launch. I would say it is more of a boat launch than anything else. There was nothing special here for dogs. No benches or picnic tables to sit at while your dog swims. It was a bit lacking really. 

The group campsite was near the dog beach so I stopped to check it out. It is situated on site number 89. 

The group campsite was very large and very open. There is plenty of space for many tents on this site. It was a very nice area. 

There was a cute spot under some cedar trees where there were a couple of picnic tables. 

The fire pit here was an unusual shape. 

I drove over the bridge and noticed that there was some green fencing running along the side. 

On the other side of the fence was an area for playing horse shoes. 

By the time I got back from exploring the park, Victoria had supper cooking on the grill of the fire pit. 

We had hamburgers with cheese melted on top. They were delicious! We all gathered in the dining tent to eat our supper. 

While we were eating our supper, we noticed that the little brown bunny was back.  He was hanging out underneath my car. 

This time the kids saw it too. It was all we could do to keep the kids sitting still enough so that they wouldn't scare it away.  

I had to leave to go home later that evening, but Dylan, Victoria and the kids stayed an extra night. I waved good bye to them as I drove away and I saw the bunny still quietly eating grass near the edge of the campsite. Maybe if we come back again next year, the bunny might come back to visit us again. 

After a night of rain, I woke up to a bright sunny morning. The park was quiet and peaceful and I ate my breakfast while watching the squirrels play in the trees near by.  I was enjoying the peace now, because in a few hours I knew that my nephew's kids would be arriving and the quietness would quickly disappear after that. But that is the nature of kids, and I was excited to see their happy, eager faces. 

It would be a few hours before they arrived so, I decided to go on a nice quiet hike all by myself. I figured it was early enough in the day that the trails wouldn't be full of people yet. I walked to the trail head that was not too far away from my campsite. The map that was posted there showed one large trail called the Transition Trail and two smaller loops on the same route. The largest loop is about 5 km long and goes to the edge of Marten Lake. I decided to take that one. 

At the bottom corner of the map there was a sign that said "Please report fallen trees and branches" . I was happy to see this sign. It meant that the staff in this park cared about the condition of the trails and were ready to fix them if need be. Vastly different from the backpacking trail at Halfway Lake we had hiked earlier this year. 

There was a registration box at the beginning of the trail. I am sure that there used to be some brochures and possibly a guest book inside at one point in the past. However, they had long since run out of paper. That didn't stop people from signing in though. Inside the box were scraps of paper and even some pieces of tree bark that people had written their names on nd where they were from. When people want to leave their mark, they will come up with a way to do it. I guess it's not all that strange considering paper comes from trees in the first place. 

The trail started off narrow and with a bit of roots and rocks under foot. But it wasn't in bad shape at all. 

It wasn't long before the trail opened up a bit and the first boardwalk came into view. There was no one else on the trail so far and I was enjoying the serenity of it all. 

In the damp soil from yesterday's rain I spotted some bright red mushrooms. I am not the most familiar with mushrooms, but I believe these are Waxcaps.

The sun was spilling through the trees and over the pine needle covered trail. You could smell that earthy smell in the air. 

At one spot, where the trial splits off onto another loop, there was a cleared area with very large felled tree logs that you could sit on to take a rest if you wanted to. 

There was an educational sign posted at this site, with a little "You Are Here" map in the bottom corner. I had the option to take the shorter trail loop (red trail) from here, but I was happy to continue on the longer trail (blue trail). 

I came to more boardwalks that were bordered with lovely green bushes. 

The next section was a narrow foot path. It was at about this point that I started to notice that my ankles were starting to become itchy.  I had only worn light weight leggings, but they did cover my ankles and legs pretty good so I figured that it couldn't have been from poison ivy or some such plants. 

I looked around for what could be the cause. It didn't take long to figure it out. I could see the tiniest mosquitoes I had ever seen before flying around my legs. Up until this point I thought that there were no biting bugs at all. It was late in the season and most biting bugs are almost gone by now.  But there they were; about 10 of them. Not only were they small enough that they were easy to miss, but they also never flew up any higher than my knees.  That is probably part of the reason I hadn't noticed them. Since they never flew higher than my knees it meant they never came up close enough to my ears for me to hear them. And so they had gone undetected until now.  I pulled my socks up as high as they would go under my leggings which gave me a double layer of cloth between me and the mosquitoes. It was all that was really needed. But the damage had been done. When I checked my legs later on, they were absolutely covered in mosquito bites. But only below the knees. 

With the mosquito attack taken care of, I was free to continue on and enjoy more pleasant insects to be found in the woods. A beautiful Autumn Meadowhawk dragonfly landed on a maple leaf near by. It's amber  colour looked like shiny gold in the sunshine. 

From time to time I would come across an old placard that had worn away. I presume that there used to be some sort of educational sign on them. But now they were just blank pieces of wood that looked like a preachers pulpit out in the middle of the woods. 

There was one tree that had some leafy looking lichen growing on it. It looked like someone had stuck some lettuce to the tree. 

This lichen is called Tree Lungwort. 

When I was just about halfway through the trail and almost to the lake, I could hear a group of people coming up the trail behind me. There were 3 of them and they were talking loudly and were barely paying attention to the beauty of their surroundings. 

 Since I wanted to be left alone in peace, I let them pass by me.  However, they didn't get far before they stopped for a rest at the lake up ahead. It was where I had wanted to stop. But I didn't want to hang out with them. Besides, they were talking very loud and what were they talking about?.....Covid!  I couldn't believe it!  Here I am in the middle of the woods and I couldn't even escape the topic out here!  Of all the topics in the whole world, why that one?!?  I was actually upset by this. This was no place for any conversation of Covid to be on anyone's lips. 

I couldn't hack it and I turned around and went back to a tree with an over hanging branch that I had passed, and waited there on the side of the trail for about 5 minutes, hoping that they wouldn't stay too long. 

I walked far enough back where I could no longer hear them. But they had ruined my mood. A little brown sparrow came along and landed on a branch near by. That helped to lighten my mood a little. 

After a few minutes that seemed like forever, I started to go forward again. I could see them in the distance starting to leave the area that they had stopped at. I slowed my walk down so that they could get way ahead of me. I didn't want to catch up to them. 

Finally I came to the spot where they had been sitting. It was a perfect spot to take a break and enjoy the view. So I decided to stop here too. Besides, it would put more distance between us. 

I sat on the rock under the shade of a big tree and looked out at the beautiful marsh that lay in front of me. I took out my snack and sat and ate. 

The white fluffy clouds matched the white fluffy puffs on the Tawny Grass in the marsh grasses. It was a beautiful day and I was alone in the peace and quiet once more. 

When I was ready, I got up off the rock and continued on my way. There was a bridge to take me across the water and over to dry land on the other side. 

From the bridge I could see white water lilies floating in the water. 

There was another rock under a shade tree on the other side of the bridge too! So no matter what end of the loop you started from on the trail, you would always have a rock to sit on about half way through. 

Some parts of the trail were twisted with intertwined roots from nearby trees. At least I assumed they were from near by trees. But who knows. Perhaps the roots were also from trees that were much further away.  I guess there is no way to really know. 

I was nearing the end of the trail now. Another "You Are Here" sign showed me where I was and all my options. I was almost at the end of the trail so I just followed the "Exit" markers. 

Someone had fashioned a chair out of an old tree stump. I thought it was kind of neat. 

It wasn't long before I could see the cars in the parking lot through the trees. I had come to the end of the hike. 

I checked the time and found that I had just enough time to make a bathroom trip before heading up to the office to meet my nephew and his family. 

​While I was in the bathroom I noticed a pretty Maple Spanworm moth just hanging out on the wall. 

I headed to the parking lot outside the park office and waited. I watched cars come and go but none of them were the one I was waiting for. Finally, I got a text saying that they were just leaving town and they were on their way. This meant that I had a full half hour before they arrived. 

I didn't feel like going back to the campsite. So, instead I decided to explore the Day Use beach which was very close by. 

The Day Use beach had a very large parking lot, but there were only 2 or 3 cars there. The beach was not very busy at all. 

Only one family was in the water swimming. The beach was decent enough here but it wasn't anything to write home about. As a matter of fact, I think the beach right across from our campsite was much nicer than this one. 

At first glance it looked like this beach had a playground. The swings were available to swing on. 

However, the jungle gym was closed off to the public. 

At first I thought the jungle gym was closed off due to Covid. But then I saw a sign saying that the playground area was actually open. So I guess that there must have been something that needed repair on the jungle gym or something. 

While I was at the beach I noticed  a path that led into the woods. Since I had time to explore, I decided to follow it. The path led me to a field with log cabins in the middle of it. 

A large sign let me know that this was the replica of an old historical Logging Camp. There was a map showing where all the different buildings and sites were. 

I started to look around. I headed to the first log cabin. 

I wanted to go inside and see what was in it, but there was a sign on the door that said all the buildings were closed and that there would be no tours. Sure enough, I checked the door and it was locked. 

The cabins may have been locked but I was still able to peek in the windows. The first cabin looked like it may have been a kitchen of some kind. 

The next cabin was fairly short compared to the other ones. But the chimney was very tall. 

Peeking in the windows, I could see all sorts of tools and an open fire pit. I assume that this was the blacksmith.

The back of the building had blacksmithing tools hanging from the wall. 

The next cabin had a bunch of plates all set up on a long table. I figure this was probably the dining hall. 

All around the area were displays of various types of machines. I liked this one because it was called the "Crazy Wheel" . Apparently they used to run a steel cable through all of these wheels. By doing so, they were able to control the loads of lumber on steep hills. 

There were many other old machines and things on display, like this water tanker.

And this roller. 

But the display I found most amusing was the bathroom.  There was a sign that had a quote on it that let you know how valuable toilet paper was at the time. 

And the bathroom itself? Well, it looked like this. It was a trench dug out of the dirt and a long log placed over the trench and secured by trees at both ends. It was something a kin to what we use on our backpacking trips when there are no thunder boxes. 

One of the last things to see on the Old Logging Camp tour is the left over ruins of an old boat. It had a very Viking feel to it, if you ask me. 

It was at about this time that I got a text saying that the gang was waiting for me at the office. So I hurried over there to meet them. A little chickadee landed on a branch nearby and watched me go. 

The girls were excited to have a campsite right by the beach and the swing set. Right away they got into their bathing suits and went down to the lake. Mila got busy catching frogs with a net. 

And Addy got busy making sand castles in the sand. 

Almost right away the girls made some new friends. The nice thing about camping is everyone looks out for one another. Especially families with kids. In no time at all we had an extra child at the dinner table and drinking hot chocolate with us. And Mila and Addy would run next door to the other child's campsite to play with the toys there. Parents would come by and ask "Are our kids bothering you?" to which the reply was always "Oh no. Not at all."   It reminds me of the Shakespeare line "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin". 

While the girls and their dad were spending time at the beach, Victoria and I set about getting things tucked away into the tents and getting the food ready. 

The girls were bunking in with me in the big red tent while Dylan and Victoria were in the medium sized orange tent. 

As I helped Victoria to unpack everything from the car, I couldn't help but notice that they had brought cabinet with them to store some of their camping gear. It took up quite a bit of room in the vehicle but it sure made everything organized. Apparently this set of drawers is dedicated to camping stuff. They store it in the shed and then just throw it in the car when they are packing for the camping trip. 

After everything was unpacked and we were just relaxing at the picnic table, Mila came up to us and said "I think I hear a bat!" It was the middle of the day time and and there shouldn't be any bats out at that time of day. So I went with Mila to see if we could find this bat. I remember as a child I encountered a bat on a tree in the middle of the day. So, I knew it was not entirely impossible for there to be a bat around. 

Mila and I headed towards the area where we could hear the squeaking noises that did sound like a bat. They were coming from the area of the near by boat launch. 

We were just about at the campsite when Dylan, Victoria and Addy pulled up beside us in the car. Dylan said that they were on the way to the park store to get some fire wood. They didn't knw when we were coming back so they had left us a note on the chair. And then he chuckled. I wondered what he thought was so funny so I went to find the note that he had left. Once I saw it I knew why he had been chuckling.  It said "We took the girl " (meaning Addy) "Meet at the beach at noon tomorrow with 100 million dollars. Muahaha....Just kidding. Brb." 

I laughed. I kept that note. It hangs on my fridge now. :)

There were a lot of different moths to be found around the campsite. Aside form the Maple Spanworm moths I had seen around, there were also some False Hemlock Looper moths like this one. 

And there were Bronzed Cutworm moths. I liked the rusty colours on these ones. 

The rest of the day was filled with playing at the beach and relaxing at the campsite. But the fun didn't stop there.. Eventually it got dark and we brought out the flashlights. 

We headed on down tot he beach to see if we could find any frogs. 

And we found plenty of frogs. Finding frogs at night is a tradition with the kids. This one was the biggest one we found that night. 
Frog hunting is always a catch and release program with us. The kids can catch them, hold them for a minute, then let them go. Then it is off a little further down the beach to find a new frog. That way it teaches the kids to respect nature and not over handle the frogs which could stress the frogs out and cause them to die. 

We had nets with us, so frogs were not the only things we caught that night. We caught a couple minnows too. Dylan wanted to use them to go fishing so we transferred them into a big plastic tote box filled with water later on. However, he never did go fishing with them so later on they got released too. 

After the kids had chocolate and went to bed, the adults sat around the fire talking and relaxing until the fire was nothing but burning embers. We couldn't have asked for a better way to finish off a wonderful day.

Marten River Provincial Park is a beauty!  Despite it being only about a half an hour away from my home, I have only been here just a few times before this trip. I had been saving a trip to this park for a time when I wanted a great park to stay in, but needed to be close to home for family reasons, and the time had come. 

I would be spending the night by myself the first night but would be joined by my nephew, his 2 daughters, and his girlfriend the next day. 

I was informed by my mom before I left that there were tornado warnings in effect for our area. I only paused to think about it for maybe half a minute. The sky was clear and sunny and there was no wind. I really wasn't too concerned. Tornados are not that common in our area. So, I finished packing up the rest of my stuff and I headed out. 

Since I wasn't that far away, I left late in the afternoon and arrived at the park at about 5 p.m.  I entered the office, where they also sell souvenirs, ice, and wood,  and I checked into the site that I had reserved. I was disappointed to find out that they were all sold out of both the stickers and the crests with the park emblem on them. I guess I will have to stop in another time next summer to try to get those. The staff here were polite enough but they seemed a little reserved. 

The site I had reserved was site # 147. I chose it because I knew I would have the kids with me and this site was almost directly across from the beach. When I reserved it, I actually couldn't believe it was still available and that no one had snatched it up yet. 

The site itself was quite large. I had been worried that since it was right across from the beach, that it wouldn't have enough privacy. But it actually wasn't too bad. 

I went about setting up my big red tent for sleeping and my screen dining tent. I chose the big tent because although it was going to be just me the first night, I figured that I would have the kids with me the next night. And even though there were no mosquitoes, the dining tent afforded some shelter from the rain and the sun.

It really was the perfect site if you have kids with you. I could literally sit at the picnic table and see the beach. That meant that we could see the kids from the campsite when they were at the beach.  As I was setting up, a lady came walking down the road with her dog named Prince. She said to me "Oh you have the perfect site!"

And I had to agree with her. It even had a set of swings directly across from us. 

At the back of the site there were two paths leading up a hill. The hill was a bit steep but not too bad.

And the climb was worth it because at the top of the hill was a small bathroom with flush toilets and showers!

The hand dryer in the bathroom looked like it had seen better days. But it worked and everything else in the bathroom was pretty decent and pretty clean too. 

By the time 7 o'clock rolled around the sunny skies started turning cloudy, and then the clouds to rain. The rain came down hard and I tucked myself away in the dining tent and ate my supper while I watched the water trickle down the screen. But I stayed dry.  I thought about the tornado warning and I realized that there were still no high winds. Just a lot of rain. All the same I thought about a safety plan just in case. I decided that worst case scenario, I could always seek shelter in the washroom at the top of the hill since it was made of cement and would be the strongest thing around against high winds. But in the end, it never came to that. 

The sky did take on a faint green tint to it, which is a sign of a tornado. But it was only ever so slight. Within about a half an hour, the rain slowed down to a dribble and the sun actually came out while it was still raining. 

And you know what that means....a rainbow!  And this rainbow was not just any rainbow, it was a perfect rainbow!  Put a unicorn near it and it would look like something straight out of a poster that I had in my room when I was 9. It was bold, and bright and there were fluffy clouds floating around at the bottom of it. 

The rain stopped and the sun started to shine brighter. I walked to the beach where I could see the rainbow even better. That's when I noticed that it wasn't just one rainbow... it was two! The second one was fainter, but it was definitely there. 

I  stood alone on the beach and just marveled at the beauty that God created and shared with me. 
He never ceases to amaze me and I was looking forward to what He would show me tomorrow. 

Genesis 9:13
"I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth."
​

We had thunderstorms during the night but when we got up in the morning the rain had stopped. It had stayed mostly dry inside the tipi. However, it was dark and very musty smelling. It was so musty smelling that I could hardly breathe and I decided that I would stay in the big red tent tonight instead of the tipi. When I met the others for breakfast, I found that Anika had decided to sleep in the dining tent for the night because she couldn't handle sleeping in the tipi either. 

  The sun was starting to come out and the temperature was beginning to get pretty warm. I wanted to go on a hike at Misery Bay Provincial Park. I asked everyone else if they wanted to go but when they found out that it was an hour and a half drive away, most of them declined. Julie was the only one who wanted to go with me. It was too bad that the rest of them didn't want to come along because they certainly missed out on a wonderful experience! 

The weather forecast had called for rain but we were fortunate that it was actually a beautiful sunny day. It didn't seem like such a long drive because we were talking and enjoying each others company and site seeing along the way. We used both the Waze app and Lady Google to help us find the way.  Both apps brought us to a road that was actually the entrance to some private property. There was a big sign there saying something like  "Entrance to Misery Bay is back on Misery Bay Road".  They must have quite a number of people coming here looking for the entrance that were misdirected like we were. 

So, we back tracked a little bit (only about 2 kilometers) and sure enough we quickly and easily found the sign for the park. We arrived at about 12:55 pm. We got to the parking lot and went to get a parking permit for the car at the ticket dispenser. We were a bit taken aback by the steep prices of the parking permits.  It was $12.75 regular price, $9.75 for seniors, and $6.75 for disabled parking.  Luckily I kept spare change in my car and had just enough (barely) to get a parking permit. 

But once we got on the trails, we found that the parking fees were totally worth it. It was honestly worth every penny!

The first stop was the Visitor Center, which unfortunately was closed. However, all the information we needed was on the outside of the building anyways.

Everyone had been asking me why the park was called Misery Bay. I didn't know and had been unable to tell them. So, I was happy to see the answer on a poster outside the Visitor center.  It states: "In the blazing heat of summer - as the story goes - one person asks of another the name of this place. The reply is: "I'm in misery!" 

This day was actually a fairly hot day, so I was hoping that we wouldn't be finding out that Misery Bay was going to live up to its name. 

Attached to the wall outside the Visitor Center is a mailbox where you can pick up a copy of the trail maps.

Unfortunately it was empty. 

​However, we did find some postcard sized maps in a brochure display nearby , so we took one of those with us. 

When I was doing my research online before the trip, I had decided that I wanted to hike the Misery bay Trail (the blue trail). However, a sign posted at the Visitor Center stated that the blue trail was closed due to high levels of water and flooding.  I was a bit disappointed by this but we chose an alternate route instead.  we decided that doing the entire red trail was probably too long, but we also wanted to walk the trail that was close to the lake. So, we opted to do a bit of both the red and the yellow trail. We decided to walk down the yellow trail to the shore and then switch to the red and head back up (to the left) on the red trail. 

To get to the trail head you have to go around to the back of the Visitor Center. There was a balcony and picnic tables where you could sit and relax.  

The support beams under the building each had an educational sign on them with information about the rock formations and glacier evidence in the area. 

We went down some stone stairs and came to the beginning of the trail head for the Coastal Alvar Trail (the red trail). All the trails start from this trail and then branch out. 

The trail was wide and flat and bordered by beautiful trees. We had hardly begun and already I was thinking how lovely the trail was. 

The trail marker was a block of wood painted red. It was different from any other trail marker I had seen before. 

We hadn't gone far when we came to a cross road. there was a post with different coloured markers indicating which way to go. 

There was also a "You Are Here" sign. Julie and I studied the map and found the yellow marker and went in that direction.

We were assured that we were going in the right direction when we came to the yellow sign indicating that we were on the Inland Alvar Trail. 

Some parts of the trail were mossy and open, with low growing shrubs.

Other parts went through treed areas. No matter where we went, the trail was flat and open and easy to travel on. The sun shone through the trees and dappled the ground with shadows. It was beautiful and peaceful.  If it wasn't for all the cars in the parking lot that we had seen, it could almost seem as though we were the only ones in the park. 

From time to time we would come across some yellow markers that had the distance that we had traveled written on them in black sharpie. 

There was plenty to see. Even the mushrooms seemed beautiful to me. And best of all, there were zero mosquitoes or deerflies. 

After trekking through the wooded trails, the landscape started to change. We could see a big clearing coming up in front of us. 

But we were not expecting this! It was a massively huge flat area of nothing but rock. It was amazing! It reminded me of something out of a movie . It was like we were at the cross roads in the netherworld between heaven and the underworld. I had never seen anything quite like it before. 

Right in the center of this big expanse was another directional post and another You Are Here sign. 

We figured out which way to go and continued on our way.  A long, flat, stone path stretched out in front of us. I was amazed that the whole trail so far had been made up almost entirely of this flat stone. It was like God had decided to pave this little heavenly roadway. 

In the pine trees some Northern Crescent butterflies were flitting from branch to branch.  

The ground was so flat everywhere that there were some places that caused optical illusions. I could have sworn that just as the trail was curving to the right, the spot in front of me was a marsh land with water. This could be in part because I thought I could hear what sounded like a waterfall up ahead. 

But as we got closer we found that the marsh was just a mirage. It was nothing but more flat rock. This happened more than once. 

We were just about to pass by an area that looked like another mirage when we notice something a little different about this area. There seemed to be a lot of stones gathered here all in one area. We decided to go and take a closer look. 

Once again this trail had something to amaze us. People had taken a bunch of rocks and had arranged them to spell out words. We tried to read the first one but we didn't know what it said. 

The more we looked the more of these stone formations we saw.  They were everywhere!  It was a huge area just filled with these stones. 

As we looked closer we realized that it wasn't just words spelled out with the stones, but it was symbols too. And in some places, there were white marks on the ground where it looked like there once was more stones but they had been removed at some point. 

i spotted a Crackling Forest Grasshopper trying to blend in with the pattern of the rock around him. 

A White-faced Meadowhawk dragonfly also made an appearance. 

As we walked along, we could hear the waterfall getting louder and louder. The stone beneath our feet started to change. 

It was still flat, but now it was also pock marked. 

Soon we came to another open area. But this time the open area was the shores of Lake Huron.

The sounds we heard were not the sounds of a waterfall. They were the sounds of the constant rush of waves crashing on the shore. 

And oh what a shore it was! Instead of beach sand as one might expect, the whole shoreline was one big, continuous slab of stone as far as the eye could see. It was fantastic!

And right in the middle of it all was a bench. It was the perfect place for a bench. Who wouldn't want to sit down and drink all of this in? 

Even here on the shoreline of the beach we found a post with a You Are Here sign on it. 

We followed the yellow trail some more, which led us down a sandy path. We were still near the lake, but we weren't as close to it as we were before. 

The trail led us back towards the tree line again. 

I spotted a Hemlock Looper Moth resting on the ground. 

We passed through a wide open area full of large boulders. It was like a boulder garden. 

But there were flowers in this boulder garden too. Namely these yellow Sulphur Cinquefoil flowers. 

Oddly there was the remains of an old vehicle rotting away in the woods at the side of the trail. I wonder how it got there, because there were no roads in the area. Perhaps there was at one point. It looked very out of place sitting here amongst the beauty of the surrounding nature. 

Soon we came back to the beach and we spotted a gazebo. This would be a great place for a picnic! 

The gazebo was called "Shelter At Saunder's Cove".  By now the sun was high in the sky and it was very hot out. We were grateful for the shade that it afforded us. 

And the view of Lake Huron from the gazebo was just beautiful! 

The waves were crashing up onto the shore. I couldn't get over how the shore line was made up of flat rock that just continued on and on into the water and who knows how far into the middle of the lake. 

The waves were crashing and the sun was hot. It was the perfect time and place for a swim. 

We had no bathing suits with us, so I decided to just go in with my clothes on. Julie just rolled up her pant legs and waded in up to her knees. But not me! I went all the way in. The flat rock beneath my feet was a bit slippery, but not slimy.  The waves were strong enough to knock me over sometimes. At one point I fell over and water got up my nose. I laughed and I laughed. I kept slipping  and had a hard time getting up again because I was laughing so much. And Julie was laughing at me too! 

I got out of the water with my clothes dripping wet and no towel. But it was so hot out that I didn't really need a towel. My clothes dried pretty quickly as we started back on our hike again. I told Julie that the whole thing brought back some wonderful childhood memories of swimming with my siblings in the waves of Lake Ontario when our family would go to Presqu'ile Provincial Park in the summers.  

We were past the half way mark now and we were headed back on the red "Coastal Alvar Trail".  This part of the trail was basically a walk along the shoreline for the most part. 

But with the unusual terrain, it was unlike any shoreline I had ever walked along before. The pock marked stone had water filled basins where the waves had eroded the stone, making it smooth and unique in shape. 

Some places were round, while others looked like someone had taken a giant knife and cut the stone into squares and rectangles. 

The shoreline was practically barren, and yet it was beautiful. 

A couple of lonely trees  were adamant that they were going to live here. And so, they stood out on the rocks away from the comfort of the rest of the trees. These two trees were resilient. 

We came across another bench where you could sit and look at the lake. The shoreline was quite long so the strategically placed benches were a nice touch for those that may have needed a rest. 

Eventually the flat rock surface turned into more of a boulder covered one. 

​The landscape was ever changing as we passed by one rock formation and then another.

Along the boulder strewn path, we came to a section that actually had some beach sand. 

There were pairs of Aphrodite Fritillary butterflies, chasing each other around and feeding off of the white flowering plants growing near by. 

Julie and I found a spotted bug. At first we thought that it may be a lady bug. Turns out that it is a Spotted Cucumber Beetle. We had a hard time getting a picture of this little guy because he did not want to sit still for us., 

The flat stone stretched out in front of us and it almost took on the shape of a road.

There was one place where we weren't sure if we were on the trail anymore. We kind of lost sight of it and it wasn't well marked at that part. We decided to continue to hug the shoreline. There were some spots where there wasn't a lot of room for us to walk, and we had to carefully pick our way around the trees and hope not to fall into the lake. 

Water from the waves splashed in the large cracks between the rocks.

Up ahead, in the distance, we could see people wading out in the water. We could see the sandy beach behind them that was marked on the postcard sized map we were carrying. We knew that we were getting closer to the end of the trail. But we weren't finished yet. 

When we got to where the people were, we found that there was another gazebo there. I think it is marked as a "Look out" on the map though. 

From the point of the gazebo, the trail starts to turn back into the tree line again and back towards the visitor center. 

Again we found ourselves at the the great crossroads on the plains of nowhere land.  (yeah, I made that name up! Lol!)

The cedar trees turned into pine trees and the forest got a little thicker. But the trail was still nice and flat and easy going, right to the very end. 

We passed on last bench on our way back to the Visitor Center. It was situated just off a little ways on a side trail, under a big pine tree. 

And with that, we were done our hike. It was 4:15 pm and we could hear thunder in the distance and the sky was starting to turn grey. We had finished just in time. 

Now for the hour and a half drive back. Since we were not familiar with the area, we used Google Maps to get us back to camp. Strangely though, Lady Google sent us on a different route home than on the one we took to get there. That was ok though. We didn't mind. If we hadn't have gone in a different direction, we wouldn't have passed by a farmer's field and saw hundreds of birds all over the place.

The field was filled with Sandhill Cranes! So many of them!  I had never seen so many in one place before.

When we got back the rest of the gang told us about their day and we told them about ours and shared our pictures with them.  They mentioned that there was a place in the park to get your picture taken with your face in a hole where a wolfs face goes. So we walked over there and I got Dean to take my picture. 

Dean also told me that while we were gone they had discovered some flush bathrooms! And they were pretty close to our campsite and there was more than one of them.  They were very nice ones too. They had artwork hanging inside, and a light mounted to the wall for when it got dark. And they were super clean, and did not smell bad. For the rest of our stay we only used these bathrooms. 

Right beside the flush toilet bathrooms were a couple of showers as well. 

And in two different places there were outdoor sinks where you could wash up. 

There was a swimming pool on site as well, but due to Covid restrictions it was closed to the public. That was disappointing. I am sure that if it had been open we would have spent a lot of time in there. 

Another thing that they had discovered while we were gone was that the park had a summer kitchen. It was equipped with a BBQ, a table, an electric grill and other things. And it was all free to use by anyone who was staying at the park. 

A picnic shelter was also provided for the guests of the park.

If you wanted to, you could play a game of horse shoes in the horse shoe pit. 

However, we were much more interested in playing a game of mini-putt.  The sky was grey and it looked like we were going to get some rain. But the mini-putt course was under a bunch of trees, so we decided that even if it did rain we weren't going to let that stop us. 

The mini-putt course is located in the same area as the children's playground area. So, while I waited for my turn, I went to check out all the playground toys. They had what looked to be a handmade horse swing. 

​Most of the course was your typical mini-putt course.  But there were some unusual ones and there were some very tricky ones. As with most mini-putt courses,  one of the things that made it fun was how it was decorated. 

About half way through our game it did start to rain. We just took our score sheets and stayed close to the base of a tree to try to keep them dry as we watched the other players take their turns. 

Despite the rain, the sun was still trying to peek through. So, when we were done our game of mini-putt, we emerged from the trees to find a big rainbow in the sky. 

Since it was raining off and on, we didn't make a fire that night. Instead, we made supper in the dining tent using a cook stove. We spent the rest of the evening playing board games in the tent until it was time for bed. Anika and Dean slept in the dining tent again. They even weathered a thunderstorm during the night in nothing but the screen tent. But it was still preferable to staying in the tipi. 

Despite the disappointment of the tipis, the trip was still very enjoyable. If we had known some things ahead of time we probably would have done things a little differently. But when all is said and done....It's hard to be miserable when you have been to Misery Bay!

It had been really cold during the night. A complete 180 from the extreme heat we had been having the past few days previous.  I woke up at about 8:30 a.m. and the sky was grey. I almost wished that we didn't have to leave today, despite the grey sky. But, we had to meet up with our friends at another park called "Gordon's Park" (also known as Manitoulin Eco Park) today.

My goal was to do a hike at Misery Bay Provincial Park. However, Misery Bay is a day use only park and it is pretty far away from other provincial parks (2 - 3 hours away). It isn't easy to camp at one provincial park, travel over 2 hours, hike, and then travel over 2 hours back again. So, I opted for a better plan. I did some research online to find a closer campground that was interesting. I came up with Gordon's Park where they have the option to sleep in bunkies, tipis, a yurt (bell tent), and it has a dark sky preserve.  Gordon's Park is not a provincial park, but the idea of sleeping in a tipi intrigued me. So I called up some friends and we planned to stay 2 nights in a tipi.  Gordon's Park is still over an hour away from Misery Bay, but it is much closer than the provincial parks are. 

We got packed up and ready to go. As we were tearing down the tent, I noticed an interesting orb weaver spider curled up and blending in with some dead pine needles on a tree. 

We left Fairbank Park at about 10:30 a.m. and stopped for breakfast at a restaurant along the way.  We  arrived at Gordon's Park at about 2 p.m. where we met my sister, Anika, my brother-in-law, Dean, and our friend, Julie.  My brother, Carsten, and sister-in-law, Penny, would be joining us later in the evening. 

When you arrive, the place looks like someone's house at  first glance. But then you walk down behind the house to where the office is located.

Inside the office is a lovely little store where you can buy crafts, souvenirs, and things like that.

The decor in the shop/office had a woodsy feel to it. I thought it was quite nice and unique. The staff was ok, but did not feel overly warm and welcoming.  
We checked in and then went back out to join our friends. 

The rest  of the gang were busy checking out the playground near by.  It was a nice little playground under the full shade of the trees. From where I stood I could see that there was a toddler slide, a bunch of toys, and a teeter totter.

There was also a set of tire swings and a second slide for older kids. This playground was well stocked with everything a kid could want.  Apparently the mini-putt course was down there too.

But I didn't have time to go take a close look at the playground. I was too busy going to find our site.  We actually booked two sites.  We were on site 7 and site 9.  

Both sites had a tipi on it. There is only room for 4 people per tipi, so we split up into two groups. We were pretty excited to have the opportunity to sleep in a tipi. 

But, when we got to our sites and saw the tipis our excitement turned to disappointment.  

The door had a black plastic garbage bag hanging from it in order to keep out the rain and moisture. The tipis looked like they had been there a long time and were starting to fall apart.  You had to literally crawl on your hands and knees to get inside. 

This is the picture of the tipi that was on their website at the time we had booked our trip. 

This is what the tipis were actually like inside. Nothing like the picture at all. 

The picture on the website made the tipis look light and airy and comfortable. Instead, they were dark and dreary. And worst of all was the smell. They smelled musty like a wet basement. They did have vinyl covered foam mattresses, like the website said, but there was not a lot of room for them. 

It was dark enough inside that a lantern was needed. But they did provide the lantern. 

I am pretty sure that the picture they had on their website was that of the inside of the Bell Tent (Yurt) and not a tipi. In fact, when I went and looked at their website now, some weeks after our trip, the old picture has been taken down and a new one (below) is in it's place that specifically says it's the Bell tent.  If we had known in advance, we would have booked the Bell Tent instead.

Rod explained to us that a real tipi is much larger than these and that you would never have to crawl on your hands and knees to get into one. He was not impressed with them and he decided that he would rather sleep in the big red tent than in the tipi. Luckily we had the tent with us from the previous night at Fairbank Park. So, we set that up and he settled in there. I wanted to say that I had experienced at least one night in a tipi so, I  opted to spend the night in the tipi. 

Other than the state of the tipis, the rest of the park was actually pretty nice. I think that if I were to come again, I would either choose to stay in the Dark Sky Preserve or the Bell Tent though.  Our site was furnished with 4 Adirondack chairs, a very nice picnic table, a little wooden table that you could use to put a water jug or lantern or something on, and a solar light hanging in the tree. 

There are also several bunkies to choose from for accommodations. However, these bunkies are very small inside. Too small.

​Each one is painted with beautiful murals on the outside. One had the Northern Lights on the side. 

Another had the Milky Way with the phases of the moon on the outside. 

The one that we peeked into had cute little animal tracks painted on the floor.

On the left was one double bed. 

On the right were two bunks. And that was it. There was no room for anything else. No kitchen, no place to sit. Barely any room for luggage. We actually met the family that was staying in this bunkie. They had put up a tarp outside between some trees so that they had a sheltered place to sit. A dining tent would have been ideal on this site. 

While we were waiting for Carsten and Penny to arrive, we decided to explore the park. The best way to do this was to walk one of the hiking trails. 

The trail we were on was marked with wooden signs in the shape of a hand pointing the way. I thought these were kinda neat.

The trail also provided us with a bit of humour.

We crossed over a wooden bridge and enjoyed a relaxing walk through some beautiful wooded areas. 

Eventually the trail led us to an open space with a pond in the middle of it. 

In the pond were frogs and minnows.

Near the pond was the Bell Tent. 

We took a quick peek inside. It looked more like the picture that was on their website.  This is what we had expected the tipis to be like. 

There were pretty Chickory flowers growing around the area.

And purple thistles were also in bloom.

As we headed back to our campsite, we noticed more and more interesting things around the park. Everywhere we went there was something new to see that we hadn't noticed before.  There were educational information spots all over the place. 

We had fun at the Fossil Rock trying to find as many fossils as we could.

We did find some, but I am sure there were many more that we didn't identify.  So many fossils all on one rock!

There was one place where  pulley system was rigged up. We weren't sure what it was for but we think it was another educational spot where kids could see how you could lift rocks with the pulley and cranks. 

There were some interesting looking rocks with a letter from the University of Waterloo saying that the boulders were 2 billion years old and were brought here with the glacier that came through here about
15000 years ago. 

The whole park was filled with interesting signs. I thought the sign for the butterfly garden was pretty.

Another interesting thing about the park was that they had a huge vat of potable water on site. I had never seen a container like this for water before. 

It started to get windy with a little bit of rain. But not enough rain that we couldn't start a fire and cook supper.
The fire pits are made of round metal but there were no grates on top.
​ 
It was around that time that Carsten and Penny came to join us. 

We all sat around the fire and talked until it was time for us to go to bed. It was a good day, but we were looking forward to an even better day tomorrow. For now, it was time to see what it was like to sleep in a tipi. 

Fairbank Park is just as lovely as its name implies. It's not a large park but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in simplistic beauty.  Even the office was a tiny  little building.

We weren't staying long. Just one night.  I brought my friend, Rod, with me and we were going to meet up with more friends the next day at a different park. 

We got site number 28.  It was perfect!  We arrived at about 4 pm and began to set up camp. 

The site was very large. There was room for my large 10 man tent and a car.

There was also room for my screened dining tent with tons of space in between everything.  We could easily have gotten another 3 or 4 tents on this site if we had to. The only downfalls were that the pegs were difficult to get into the ground, and the picnic table was not in very good condition. But it was still usable. 

A nice feature to this site was a set of stairs leading down to our own private water access.  The site to the left of us also had direct access to the lake. 

We had a beautiful view of the lake and the water was clear, clean, and looked inviting. 

While we were setting up, I spotted a little American Toad.  He blended in pretty good with his surroundings. 

But he didn't want to stick around for long and soon he hopped away. 

Another nice thing about our site was that it wasn't too far away from the bathrooms. 

Unfortunately, the water taps were not usable though. The water was not good for drinking.

There must have been some problem with the bathrooms because most of them were locked.  Out of 4 there were 2 that were not locked. 

But they had brought in a port-a-potty and positioned it beside the other bathrooms. So, there was never a line up for the bathroom. 

The toilets were flush toilets and were wheelchair accessible. However, they could use a bit of an update. They looked a bit old and worn. 

Site 57 is a barrier free campsite and was situated right across from the bathrooms.

We finished setting up camp by about 5:15 pm and decided to go on a hike on the Wa-Shai-Ga-Mog trail. 

The Wa-Shai-Ga-Mog hiking trail is just a half a kilometer long and is an easy hike. It is the only hiking trail in the park. It has some numbered points of interest, but there were no brochures available to give any details about those points of interest.

The sun was shining bright through the trees as we began the hike.  There were no bugs to bother us. 

​Right from the start there was an upwards climb. But it was nothing too strenuous.

The trail was marked with yellow markers. Some were spray painted arrows on the ground. I joked to Rod that "wouldn't it be fun if the arrows glowed in the dark?".

After climbing the hill, the ground started to level out and there were fewer trees. 

There was a nice lookout spot with a bench to sit on so that you can enjoy the view.

And the view was beautiful. You could see clear across the lake and the sky was blue with little puffs of white clouds passing by. 

Rod and I wandered around the hilltop; exploring the area. 

We noticed some holes in the rock that were painted yellow. On the map this was called "Drill Holes". Since we didn't have a brochure with details we just assumed that these yellow holes were the drill holes and that there was a story of some sort behind them. 

A little red squirrel watched us from a fallen log as he munched on some acorns. There were a whole lot of acorns in this area. 

The trail was well groomed and lovely. It had sections that were bordered by pine trees, mosses, and grasses.

When we reached another open area that over looked the lake, we could see many dragonflies soaring over head. No wonder we didn't have any bugs bothering us! 

We took note of each of the yellow numbers as we passed them. Number ten was "the pit". It looked more like a bunch of dead leaves in a crevasse in the rocks. But again, I am sure there is some sort of story behind it. 

Of course, what goes up, must come down. It was at about this point where we started our decent down the hill. It was a bit steep ands we had to be careful as we watched our step and tried to keep our balance. 

At the bottom of the hill the trail became rough with rocks and boulders. 

But we got to walk next to the lake for the last part of the trail. 

The trail ended at the boat launch and we had to walk up the road just a little bit to where we had parked our car.

I was disappointed to see that someone had left a tire sitting in the shallow water along the shoreline. 

The hike only took us about a half an hour, maybe 45 minutes tops. So we had plenty of time to explore the rest of the park. We decided to go and check out the main beach. 

As you enter the parking lot for the main beach , there is a pet exercise area off to the right.  

It  doesn't have anything special, but it does have a place for pets to go into the water and for their human companions to sit down and rest. 

The main beach is fairly large and you can only see part of it from the parking lot entrance. The long sandy beach goes to a point, but if you walk to the point you will find that there is even more beach on the other side. 

The water was crystal clear and the beach was made up of soft, clean beach sand. 

The buoy lines were quite far out, which meant that there was plenty of space to swim in. The view across the lake was also nice. 

On the other side of the buoys I saw a green and red marker. I believe these are to warn boats of rocks beneath the surface of the water. 

On the other side of the point, the beach continues on. There are also more picnic tables there too.

At this end of the beach there is a jungle gym with slides for kids to play on.

And there is a volley ball net too. 

There is a small bathroom/ change house with the sinks in the outside of the building. 

Rod and I started walking back towards the car. Before we got there, we noticed a hill with a large concrete pad on top of it. I am not sure what this is for. I speculate that it may have once been a picnic shelter. Or perhaps it is in preparation for one to be built at a future date.

As we were driving back to our campsite, I spotted the sign for the group campsite. Out of curiosity, I thought I would stop and check it out. 

As with most group sites, the campsite was very large with a whole lot of picnic tables on it. 

But these picnic tables were in terrible shape. It was like this was the picnic table graveyard where all the picnic tables came to die.  When I stopped to think about  it, I realized that most of the picnic tables that I had seen throughout the park were in bad condition and needed to be either repaired or replaced.

At the far end of the group site I noticed that they had their very own bathroom and water faucet that was separate from the rest of the park. 

There was also a mysterious trail that led away from the site. Naturally I was curious. So I followed it to see where it would lead.

It led me right to the back of the comfort station and to the showers.

We peeked in the showers to see if they were any good. They weren't the best but they weren't the worst either. 

However, the brick work around the building was in need of repair. Rod actually tripped over a section of the path where there were some bricks missing. And you could see where more were starting to come loose. It was a bit of a safety hazard. 

We walked around to the front of the building and I noticed that there was a port-a-potty outside this bathroom too. I am not sure why though because these bathrooms seemed to be in working order. 

There was a laundry room in between the doors of the men's side and the women's side. 

I went in to use the washroom and noticed right away that the building felt old and dingy. It was time for this building to get a facelift. You could tell that they had tried to spruce it up a bit in the past with a coat of paint. But they did a really bad job of it. there was over paint on the frames of the window and and doors. The walls were dirty and although it looked like a relatively new hand dryer had been installed, they did not pre-paint where the old one used to be. Older colours of paint were still visible. 

Inside the stalls were no better. The walls needed painting, the toilets were dirty and so were the floors. 

The mirrors were old and the countertop had seen better days. 

On the way out it was very noticeable that the door needed some paint and that the last time they painted the walls, they did not bother to use painters tape to mask off the door frame. Even the kick plate had something splashed across it that reminded me of a scene from a horror movie. Despite the poor shape of the comfort station and the picnic tables, the rest of the park was quite nice. Nice enough that I could almost forgive the state of those things and just felt more sorry that they didn't seem to have the money or the man power to remedy it. If those things were tended to, then this park would be a little gem. 

I stepped outside the door to find another American Toad at my feet. They seem to be plentiful here. Later that night, the kids next to our site spent most of the evening with flashlights and buckets catching toads. We could hear them calling out to one another things like "I just found a super tiny toad!" They were having a grand ole time. 

It was a very hot day. By the time we got back to camp, I was ready for a swim.  I noticed a female Mallard duck swimming near the steps that led down to the lake. 

I sat and watched her for a bit and I hesitated to go in the water because I didn't want to scare her off. I figured that I would just wait until she swam away. But she wouldn't leave. 

Eventually I got in the water anyways, figuring that once I got in the lake she would get scared and swim away. But she didn't. Instead she just swam around while I swam around.  I didn't make any fast or wild movements and she felt comfortable just swimming nearby about 10 to 15 feet away from me.

The water wasn't too cold and it was so clear that  it was wonderful to swim there. I could see why the duck wouldn't want to leave. 

​When I was done swimming and got out of the water, she was still hanging out and swimming near by.  I had never swam with a duck before. It was a very peaceful experience.

When it was starting to get dark, we made a fire and cooked up some hotdogs for supper. While we sat and drank hot chocolate, we looked out over the lake and watched the boats coming in for the night.

One boat in particular caught our attention because it had many different colour changing lights on it. It was very pretty as it went by in the twilight. (My camera did a horrible job of capturing the lights on the boat.... but it makes for an interesting design). 

Not long after that, the moon came out. It was a beautiful bright orange and it reflected an orange light off of the surface of the lake. It was quite beautiful and serene. 

After awhile, the wind started to pick up and we decided to call it a night and headed on into the tent. I wished that we had more time to stay even longer. One night hardly seemed long enough. But we were off on another adventure in the morning so I guess I will have to come back here again one day.