Backpacking Killarney - Day 3

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.