Away We Go To Ivanhoe

How do you get to see Polar Bears when you are supposed to be camping at a campground for a few days one might ask? 

Well, it is (and was) possible just by making a wrong turn on the drive to Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park.  Or more accurately, not making a turn when we should have. On the map it looked like a relatively straight shot down the highway to Timmins and then continue on to Ivanhoe Lake Park.  But apparently there is a turn at Matheson that we were supposed to take and I missed it.  I got too confident in my memory of the map and didn't use the GPS. 

Instead we ended up about an hour off course and found ourselves in the town of Cochrane. I had heard of the Polar Bear Habitat being located here since I had done some research on Tidewater Park in the past. So we figured that since we were here, we may as well make the best of it and go and see the Polar bears. My sister-in-law, Penny, loved the idea. 

We took a quick peek at their website and discovered that there were "no dogs allowed". This made sense but unfortunately I had my dog, "Sylvie" with us. But we were happy to find out that they did have kennels. So, problem solved! 

We parked in front of a large red building. We left Sylvie in the car for a few minutes while we went in to pay the entrance fee and find out where the kennels were. 

The admission fee was not overly expensive. Only $17.60 per person. 

As we entered the glass doors we saw a sign posted.  What!?  You can camp here for only $25 per night?  That sounded amazing! Sleeping with the Polar Bears!  But we already had a site reserved at Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park, so we wouldn't be staying here tonight. 

We got inside and we were impressed by how cute it was and by how much wonderful art work of polar bears were hanging on the walls. 

​There were large stuffed bears that were almost as tall as Penny guarding some of the doors. 

The gentleman at the desk was fantastic. We paid for the admission of two adults and then he took us to see the kennel. Apparently my idea of a kennel and their idea of a kennel were two different things. I had pictured a kennel such as you would see in the humane society. Maybe a big room with a cement floor and an opening to a fenced in area outside. Their idea of a kennel was a room with 2 dog crates in it.  I was not sure this was going to work out. The crates did not look big enough. But we had already paid the entrance fee and the gentleman was so nice that we decided to give it a try. I went to the car and got Sylvie and we put her in the crate. Sylvie is a medium sized dog and she just fit. Bigger dogs would not have fit. 

Sylvie tends to have attachment issues and I was concerned that once I left she would whine and howl and drive this poor man crazy. However, he seemed unconcerned and told me that he would turn out the lights to help keep her calm and that he would check on her once in awhile. I figured that we wouldn't be gone for a crazy amount of time so I trusted everything would be ok. And it was.  

The gentleman told us the Polar Bear Habitat was not a zoo but a sanctuary. So, the bears had 24 acres to roam and that we were not guaranteed to see one. But he said there was an old heritage village past the bear enclosures that we could go and see. 

We went out the back door and right away we noticed that there was an entire lake that the Polar Bears had for swimming in. 

As we approached the fist viewing pavilion we noticed that there was a little fenced in playground area on the outside of it. 

Actually, it appeared to be a wading pool area. But it seems it was closed. 

Which was too bad because if the wading pool had been open, you would be able to sit in the pool while looking through the glass in the wall at the polar bears swimming right beside you (well potentially). How cool would that be? 

We entered the building and found a small crowd of people gathered near the windows where you could see into the Polar Bear's swimming pool. 

They were all gathered there because there was a Polar Bear at the edge of the pool. Penny and I were excited that we actually got to see one after being told that there was a possibility that we might not.  This made the accidental trip to Cochrane and the Polar Bear Habitat even more special. 

The reason why the Polar Bear happened to be in this particular place at this particular time was because it was busy eating a watermelon. 

We learned that each bear got to eat one full watermelon every single day. All the local grocery stores will donate to the Polar Bear Habitat all the watermelons (and corn) that are bruised and will not likely be sold so that the bears can have a watermelon each day. 

Inside the pavilion were information boards telling a bit about the Polar Bears.

There were also kiosks where you could test your knowledge by taking quizzes. 

We left the viewing pavilion and started to walk towards the heritage village. As we followed the fence, we spotted another Polar bear coming out of a different enclosure. 

We had now seen two Polar Bears where some people don't get to see them at all. We felt lucky! 

It wasn't a long walk to the heritage village.  We thought it was a good idea to have this village here because if you were unfortunate enough to not see a Polar bear then at least you wouldn't have paid over $17 for no reason. 

One of the first stops in the village is an actual restaurant with a heritage village front. You could buy snacks and drinks here and the bathrooms were right beside it. 

Across the road from the restaurant was the train station. 

Inside were some seats from actual old trains as well as old uniforms and old luggage. 

There was a display containing various vintage train tickets. Ona T.V. screen a documentary was playing. It happened to mention the name of our hometown in the documentary just as we were entering the building so, it caught our attention right away. 

Next door to the train station was the carriage house where there were some beautiful old cars and tractors being housed. 

Penny and I decided to have a little fun riding some horses while we were there. 

The local clothing store had some vintage dresses and dolls and a parasol in the window. (None of these were for sale. They were for display purposes only). 

And in another window, a couple of bears were sitting down to tea together. 

Outside one of the buildings there was a beautiful engraved bell. I don't know if you can ring it or not. We didn't think to try. 

Another store had some vintage rocking horses all lined up in a row. 

The general store had lots to see in it. 
There were vintage bottles and old sewing machines. There were shelves full of kettles and pitchers and various other kitchen wares. 

You could almost imagine yourself being back in time and shopping here. 

On the counter was a price list for some of the groceries you could buy back in the day. Oh, if only you could buy a dozen eggs for nine cents today. 

Just down the road were the stables. 

We didn't see any horses, but we did see the buggy and carriage that the horses would have pulled. 

Near to last in the village was an old farm house. You were actually able to go inside to see what was there. 

The kitchen was bright and inviting. There was a guest book on the table that we signed. 

Up the stairs there were three bedrooms. There as a little girls bedroom with dolls and toys, an adults bedroom and a little boys bedroom. . 

The little girls room had dolls and teas sets. The little boys bedroom had horses, knights and trains. 

One of the last buildings on the route was the little one room school house. 

It was very small and looked like it could only hold up to about 12 children at a time. 

On the wall outside the school door was an information board. We chuckled at the picture of a dog cart carrying children to school. 

The last building on the route was what looked to be an old hunting or trapping cabin. 

As we came full circle we ended up passing by the Polar Bear enclosure once more. The same bear we had seen on the way to the heritage village was still outside, but now it was much closer and we were bale to get a better look at it. 

But it didn't necessarily want to get a better look at us. (Actually, it was just scratching it's nose.... but it looked pretty cute doing it). 

Back at the entrance and the gift shop we checked in with the gentleman who was looking after Sylvie. He told us that Sylvie hadn't howled at all. He had been in to check on her a couple of times and had given her some water. He was super good with her. He said that he enjoyed being able to visit with the dogs when people brought them. We left Sylvie with him for just a few minutes longer while we looked around the gift shop and the ski-doo museum which also happened to be in the same building. 

Between the gift shop and the ski-doo museum was a display showing the three common bears we have in Canada and what their sizes are when they are standing up. 

The Polar Bear was twice Penny's size. 

I am not a snowmobile enthusiast by any means, but this collection at the snowmobile museum was pretty impressive. 

And it was interesting to see all the different shapes and sizes of the various snow machines throughout the years. 

We bought a couple T-shirts and a hoodie from the gift shop and then went to get Sylvie.  We were happy that we had stopped here and had gotten the opportunity to see the Polar Bears. 

On the way out I noticed some yellow signs with numbers on them. I wondered what they were for. 

It dawned on me that these might potentially be the campsites that you stay at for $25 per night. But I didn't know for sure. 

There was plenty of open space and a picnic table but I didn't see any fire pits. So, it was hard to tell if these were campsites or just picnic areas. 

Before leaving Cochrane, we stopped for groceries and gas. It was a good thing that we filled up since there were signs indicating that there was no gas available for the next 104 km.

We noticed on the map that there was a provincial park along the way called 

We plugged the destination into the GPS and kept an eye out for the turn off to Dana Jowsey Lakes Provincial Park.  When the GPS indicated that it was time to exit off the highway, there was no park sign; only a boat launch sign. 

The road we were now on was a gravel road and was bumpy. But it was decent enough for driving. 

​First we passed by Jowsey Lake on our right. 

On our left it was a bit marshy, but it had its own beauty. 

We drove for about another 7 or 8 km and from time to time we would pass by some bodies of water but none of the were Dana Lake. 

We were almost ready to give up and turn around when we finally found it.  There was a truck with a boat rack attached to the back of it sitting down by the water but there were no people around. 

I pulled into the spot and could hear the car go over a curbside bump as we left the gravel road. ​The next thing we knew we found ourselves trying to drive in soft beach sand. The car started sinking in it and a feeling of dread started rising up in us. We were getting stuck in the beach sand! 

I tried not to panic as I tried to turn the car around by making a loop to the left. We were now facing away from the lake but the exit was on a bit of an incline so as I tried to drive forward up a hill, the wheels started to just spin and the loose sand was flying everywhere from beneath my tires. It was like getting stuck in a snow drift, only worse. 

​I could get the car to go backwards but I could not get it to go forwards. The problem with that is if we went too far backwards we would end up in the lake. 

Thoughts went through our minds as Penny and I talked about our situation in stressed out voices. We pictured ourselves stranded here 8 km from the highway, only a couple of hours from sunset in a place where absolutely no one knew where we were and we weren't sure if we would have cell signal out here. Who knows if the people who owned the truck would be coming back today, tomorrow, or next week. Even if they did come back would they be able to pull us out? We did have a tent with us and a cooler full of food so we would be ok but the situation was far from ideal. 

I wasn't ready to give up just yet. I managed to drive backwards enough to begin to turn the car more to the left and was able to go forward a bit in that direction. It was by no means an easy thing to do though. I noticed that there was n edge where the sand met the beginning of the forest and that the ground appeared to be more stable there so I headed for that. 

We reached the edge and while my right tires were still in the beach sand, my left ones seemed to be on relatively solid ground. From here, I out the pedal to the metal and gunned it.  We started moving forward. There as a point where the car started to slow down and I thought we weren't going to make it. I started to say a prayer to God. Then,  at the last second the car gave it her all and we made it out of the bech sand and back up onto the road! 

Our hearts were pounding and we chattered excitedly about how happy we were to make it out of there. A wave of relief washed over us. 

Now that our car was safely back on the gravel road, we parked it and got out. You didn't think after all that ordeal we weren't going to get out and go see the lake, now did you?  We had to claim our reward for our efforts after all.

​We got Sylvie out of the car and started walking back to inspect the deep tire marks we had left in the sand. 

We looked around for a bit. I noticed there were signs on a tree that indicated "no camping". However, if we had gotten stuck there, we would have ignored that sign and camped there anyways. We wouldn't have had much choice. 

We went down to the waters edge and took in the beauty of the lake. It really was a beautiful spot.  Was it worth all the effort to get here? I don't know, but it was an adventure that we wouldn't soon forget. 

And so here I am. Dana standing in front of Dana Lake. 

On our way out of Dana Jowsey Lakes Park, Penny and I talked about how we didn't want to see another  Boat Launch for  very long time. It would probably always remind us of this crazy adventure we just had where we almost got stuck on the beach. 

We drove for about another hour to get to our true destination of Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park.  Just before you enter the park you come to a bridge.  We crossed the bridge and then stopped for a quick break. 

On the other side of the bridge is  a cute little picnic area. 

Here there is an information sign telling you a little bit about the lake and its history. 

A little further up the road and we finally came to the signs for Ivanhoe Lake Park. It was about 7:15pm by this point. We were a few hours off schedule but we had made it! 

At the gatehouse we went inside to register and to buy our park sticker for our Park Passport souvenir books. 

Once we were registered we headed over to our site. We had site number 98 in the Bae campground section. 

It was a nice big site and it had two picnic tables. There was nobody on either side of us, which was nice.  The site on our right had some lattice fence between them and us at one end. You could tell that the site on the right was a seasonal site, but they weren't there at the moment. Nor were they there the whole time we were there. Which is one of the reasons why I disagree with seasonal sites in provincial parks. All that wasted time where someone else could be camping in that spot. 

The nice thing about our site and the sites in this section is that it is directly on the lake. We shared a tiny sandy entrance to the lake with the campsite on the right. It wasn't really big enough to make it into a beach going experience. 

​But it was nice enough to stand or maybe get one or two chairs in there to sit and watch the sunset if you wanted to. 

But we didn't have time to watch the sunset today. We had to get our tent up and get stuff set up before we no longer had any daylight to see in.

As we got around to setting up, Sylvie got around to digging herself a hole in the ground right in fron of one of our picnic tables. 

She had made herself a little nest and took no time to make herself at home in it. 

Right across the road from our site was the washrooms. 

Each bathroom had a couple of solar lights at the corners so that you could see where they were and where the door is. 

Instead, you could get potable water by taking a short walk down the road to a little place that looked like a pump house. 

It was set up with a hose where you could get safe water to drink. I took a bucket and filled it up with water for Sylvie to drink and took it back to the campsite. 

Along the way back I noticed some ant hills in the sand. They were very tall and looked like super ants lived here. 

I got back to the campsite just in time to eat supper while watching a beautiful sunset. 

There was one stray cloud that caught my attention because it was a bright orange where all the other clouds were mostly grey or white. 

After supper we took the dog for a walk and then came back and played board games for awhile until it was time for bed. 

It was a bit chilly and windy on this evening, but the stars were out. The sky was beautiful and the haunting cry of the loons reminded us why we loved camping so much.  We had a busy day full of adventure and now we were ready to sleep so that we could see what adventures awaited us the next day.