I have never once spent a night in a cabin in any of the provincial parks. So, when my sister, Heather, suggested that I join her and my brother-in-law, and nephew for a couple of nights in one at Arrowhead Park, I figured "why not?". 

   They arrived a day earlier than I did and were all settled in by the time I got there. I didn't get there until I was done work and by that time it was already dark.  Normally we have snow on the ground by this time of year, but we were fortunate enough to have a relatively warm November and no snow so far. So when I arrived, they had the fire going and chairs all around.  The cabin comes with a couple of Adirondack chairs, but we didn't know that at the time so we brought some folding camping chairs with us too. 

The campfire was warm and cozy and the coals were burning bright. After throwing all my luggage into the cabin we spent the next few hours just sitting by the fire, talking and laughing. 

​Eventually the fire burnt down and we decided to go in.

 Our cabin was number 206. For $125 a night you get a nice little cabin. With a 5 person maximum occupancy, it works out to $25 per person per night. So, you can't go wrong on the price. The only downfall is that you can't get the cabin until 5 pm and on the day you leave you have to be out by 10 am. It used to be noon but ever since Covid-19 they changed the time. Not sure why because it sure does not take 7 hours to clean all the cabins. Heather watched them cleaning one day and it only took them 20 minutes per cabin and there are only about 8 cabins. So, having to get up early to pack up on the day we leave will be a bit disappointing. 

   Regardless, we were happy with the place now and I took a moment to survey my surroundings. To the right was a bunk bed with a double on the bottom and a single on the top. All the walls and furniture were a beautiful pine. There was a chest at the foot of the bed to put things in.   

On the left was another double bed and an end table between the two sets of beds.

The cabin is one big open space so, the dining table was situated just in front of the beds. It wasn't a huge table but it was big enough to do the trick. 

On the left was a little bar fridge, a microwave, some shelves, some cabinets and a small garbage can. 

To the right was a mirror, some coat hooks and a little wood stove. We didn't use the wood stove. the place has electric base board heaters so we used those to keep the place warm instead. 

There was a ceiling fan overhead ad the pine board ceiling was stained in a white wash stain which made a nice contrast to the walls. Just over the door was a print of a painting done by Tom Thompson who was one of the Group of Seven. It was fitting considering that the Group of Seven used to paint in these provincial parks. We actually have the same print in the living room of our house. 

Right outside the door is a little porch. The porch had an Adirondack on either side and big wide windows so that you can sit in there and drink a coffee or hot chocolate on a cold or rainy day if you wanted to. We didn't use this area much. ​ It was a useful space though. There wasn't enough room for all of our food in the fridge and since it was cold outside but not freezing yet, I was able to store my bags of food in the corner and not worry about anything going bad. 

There are no bathrooms in the cabins. You have your choice of two places for that. One choice is the vault toilets that are closer by but have no heat,no electricity, and no running water. However, we opted to walk a little further away for our bathroom needs to get to the ones with flush toilets, heat, running water, electric lights, warm air hand dryer, and a mirror. We may be at a campground but since we weren't truly roughing it this time we decided to take the perks where we could get them. Heather did mention to me before I got there that the toilet paper here was very thin. The see through kind of thin. She suggested that I bring some of my own, which I did. So, we used the toilet paper that I brought for the rest of our stay. 

The next morning we got up late and went outside to a nice sunny day. It was nice and quiet in the park. There were only a few other people in the park, staying at a couple of the cabins. There was even one camper who was tough enough to stay in a tent down the road. That must have been chilly! 

  Heather and my nephew, Devin, had the campfire going again in no time.  We had discussed the night before which trail that we were going to hike today. We decided on doing a 5 km hike on the Arrowhead Lake Trail. Steve was still in bed and had indicated that he didn't want to go on a hike with us today so we let him sleep in some more and didn't  wake him up.

But before we went, Heather made us a delicious breakfast of French Toast and syrup which we ate outside. 

The chickadees decided breakfast was a good idea too when they discovered a piece of bread that we had left behind on the table. 

That is until a Blue Jay decided that he deserved breakfast more than the Chickadees did and he chased them all away. 

It was probably around noon or 1 pm when we finally got started on our hike. We could have drove to the trail head but we decided that it wasn't too far of a walk to get there, so we just walked down the road to get there instead. 

To get to the trail, we had to walk around back of the Visitor Center. 

I had never been around to the back of the Visitor Center before so I had never noticed that there is a patio with picnic tables back there. We will have to go check that out one of these days. 

Across the road, in behind the Visitor Center is a post with direction signs and a map. 

The Arrowhead Lake Trail is actually a cycling trail as well as a hiking trail. It joins up with the Beaver Meadow Trail part way through, but we figured that would be a bit too long for us. So, we would be just following the trail around the lake in a big circle back to where we started. We would start at the bottom of the lake and travel to the right and all the way back around. 

Although there are trail signs to mark the way, there are quite a few side trails that are not marked very well and it did get confusing from time to time; especially at the beginning. But we managed to figure it out. 

Since the trail was a cycling trail too, it was always wide and well packed. It wasn't without some roots sometimes though. So, cyclists would have to watch out for those. 

   We came to a hill at one point that was steep enough for Devin and Heather to try out a trick they had learned. Instead of going straight down the hill, they zig-zagged  down it to keep themselves steady. They had fun and were laughing as they tried not to bump into each other since they were zigging and zagging in opposite directions. 
   When I caught up with them again, Heather mentioned that this section of the trail reminded her of the roads where our grandmother (Farmor) used to live. I told her that I had just been thinking the exact same thing! 

We picked a beautiful day for a hike! The sun was shining, it wasn't too cold and the view across the lake was beautiful. 

To see the trees without any leaves made it look like they were covered in frost, even though they weren't . 

There wasn't much to see in the way of wildlife. However, one little squirrel did start yelling at us from a nearby tree. 

Despite there not being any green of summer or red, orange or yellow of fall, there was still beauty to be seen everywhere if you too the time to really look. The sun shining through some old thistle down was a pretty sight. 

We came to a rock at the side of the trail that was perfect for taking a rest on. 

Eventually we came to where Arrowhead Lake Trail meets up with Beaver Meadow Trail. After reading the sign we realized that you could drive to the entrance of Beaver Meadow Trail. We didn't know this before hand and thought that you had to do the two trails combined, which was too long for us. So now we know that we can do Beaver Meadow Trail on its own the next time we come. 

Nearby was another sign with a map on it. Heather and Devin took a moment to study it. 

It wasn't far from the signs that we discovered a little picnic area tucked away to the left of the trail. It was a bit hidden and if we hadn't been paying attention we might have missed it. 

Not only did it have a picnic table, but it also had an old, rectangular fire pit. This looked like a great place to come have lunch sometime. The only thing that seemed to be missing was a place to swim. So I started to look for paths down to the lake. 

At this time of year, with no leaves on the trees or bushes, it was easier to see the some paths. They did not lead right down to the lake though. However, some beaver were still able to use them to get to and from the lake. 

I followed the path that I found as far as I could. Instead of getting to the lake I got to an old party place. There were old cans and bottles all over the place! None of the cans or bottles were new and no one had been down here in years and years. 

The cans and bottles were so old that they don't even make these kinds of cans anymore. They seemed to be circa 1970s or 1980s. None of them were worth anything. They were all too rusted and full of holes. Heather had a backpack with her so we carried out a bunch of them to throw in the garbage. But we couldn't clean up all of them. There were way too many. Maybe one day we will go back with a garbage bag and clean it up better. But at least we did what we could. 

We left the picnic area and continued on down the trail. At the next bend we found a side trail that went off to the right. Devin and I decided to follow it for a bit to see where it went. Heather decided to stay behind on the main trail and wait for us. As we separated, Heather called out "This is how horror movies begin, you know!" 

The side trail led to a big open area with a couple of stacks of lumber sitting in the middle of it. In behind that was another trail. Then Devin figured it out. The other trail was the Beaver Meadow Trail and the side trail that we were on was just a link between the two trails. 

I knew he was right when we came to an informational sign that described the area. The sign explained that there used to be an old farm here and that cows used to graze here, which was why the area was so flat. 

So we turned around and headed back to Heather across the wide open area that used to be a farm. 

The sign had also explained that not a lot of certain types of plants can grow here but that milk weed can. We noticed a number of milkweed pods everywhere. This would be a great place for the Monarch butterflies in the summer. 

By this point it was getting later in the day and the sun would be going down in a couple of hours. The air was already starting to get a bit chillier. We were about half way now so we picked up our pace a little. 

This part of the trail became a little more woodsy. The trees felt closer and the trail felt a bit narrower. 

And then all of a sudden, it opened up onto a river with a bridge across it. 

We stopped to look over the rails. There were no fish, birds or frogs to see. Just the water winding its way around the bend. 

The other side was much the same. 

Once again, I noticed the beauty of the sun shining down through the thistle down in the nearby branches. The photos don't do it justice at all. 

We came to a fork in the road. I think to the right leads to the road and parking lot where you can start the Beaver Meadow Trail if you were to drive to it. But we were headed to the left. 

As we were walking I noticed a little side trail down a hill that led to the shore of the lake. I was curious if it would be a good place to swim in the summer so I went down the hill. On my way down I came to a muddy patch and started to slide. I didn't slide as badly as Heather did on our backpacking trail in Pukaskwa Park, but we both laughed about it just the same. 

After regaining my balance and my composure, I reached the bottom of the hill. There actually was a place that would probably be good for swimming at the bottom of the hill. And the view of the lake here was pretty nice too. 

I climbed back up the hill and Heather and I went to catch up with Devin. We found him near a place where the trail seemed to cross over through some campsites. We came to the conclusion that we would never camp on these sites. Who wants a bunch of hikers to go trekking along through your site all the time? 

All the picnic tables in the area were leaned up against the trees in preparation for the winter snow that will inevitably come. 

We began to see little creeks running through this area. We had seen some earlier but they were more plentiful here. 

The water was cold enough that the edges of the streams and creaks were beginning to for ice crystals along the edges, 

And one large puddle was frozen over completely. The ice rings made interesting designs around the trees. It looked like a little ice maze. 

We knew our hike was nearing the end when we crossed over a road and the trail took us towards the beach.

The lake was still and the bare birch trees reflected in the water. 

Up ahead, in the distance, we could see both the red foot bridge and the cement car bridge that leads from the office to the campgrounds. 

I thought the reflection of the bridges in the water also made for a pretty picture. 

Heather pointed out to me that the beach we had just walked along was actually the dog beach. Half of the beach is people only and the other half is for pets. Looks like the dogs have a nice little area to play in. 

By this time Devin had gone up ahead and went back tot he cabin. Heather and I took it a bit slower and crossed the foot bridge together. 

By the time we got back to the cabin it was dusk and we were ready for a rest. I went in to the cabin and took a nap while Heather, Devin, and Steve sat around the campfire outside. 

Later on that night, when it got dark out, Steve cooked us burgers and hot dogs on the BBQ.  (The BBQ is provided with the cabin, which it great). 

The campfire was burning hot and the wood was dry. So dry in fact that there were a whole lot of sparks jumping out at us. Every once in awhile it would shower us with sparks and we would have to put them out when they landed on our clothes. And these sparks would travel quite far when they exploded with a pop.

Unfortunately, one spark landed on one of our fold up chairs. It ignited the chair on fire and there was nothing we could do but watch it burn. It burnt up really fast!  We were more concerned with the pine needles and old dried leaves on the ground burning than we were the chair.  Heather and Devin set about stomping on the sparks and flames to put out the tiny fires erupting beneath the chair. Luckily the ground was fairly wet so it did not travel and they were able to put it out pretty quickly.  But wow.... it was totally unexpected and for a brief moment, gave us some cause for concern!  We have had sparks burn holes in clothes before, but never have we had them set a chair on fire, until now. Luckily no one was sitting in it at the time. 

A few hours later, after the excitement was over, we went inside to play board games. Then it was time to get ready for bed. As I walked down the trail towards the bathrooms, I noticed the moon was glowing a bright orange through the trees. 

I stood in the moonlight and looked up at the starry sky. Such a beautiful, peaceful night. Spending a few quiet nights in a cabin, in the woods is great for the soul. 

When I woke up in the morning, Carsten and Penny were already up and had breakfast waiting for me. As we sat and ate, a little red squirrel went running by with his own breakfast in his mouth. He had been gathering  mushrooms for breakfast. 

​We had seen a trail on the map that was called the Big Bend Trail. It was supposed to be a fairly short trail so we decided to pack a lunch and hike the trail and then head over to one of the beaches to eat. 

We figured we would drop our garbage off at the waste management site along the way. We had to laugh and shake our heads when we got to the waste management site because there were "bear proof" garbage bins, but they were so full that people had taken to just leaving their garbage outside the bins. That kind of defeats the purpose of having bear proof bins!

​Big Bend Trail was not what I consider to be a hiking trail. It is more of a walkway to a landmark. The map says that this is a 15 minute trail but it took us all of two minutes to walk the "trail".  However, the destination made you forget that you were tricked out of a hike. 

In front of us was where the river made a huge bend in its travels so that it almost looked more like a moat than a river. This oxbow encircles an area of trees and shrubs that looked small from the height we were standing at. 

The area is all fenced in for good reason. 

As far as you can see, along all the edges are cliffs of beach sand. Big Bend erodes one foot every year. By having a platform for people to view this, it keeps the erosion from accelerating. 

All down the sides of the beach sand cliffs you can see trees that have fallen over and slid down the hill due to this erosion. I imagine that anyone who was at the bottom and wanted to climb up would have a pretty tough time of it. 

As we stood there taking in the view we noticed something swimming in the water. At first we thought it was a muskrat. But then all of a sudden it jumped out of the water, landed about two feet from on shore and started scampering straight up the sandy cliffs. 

As it got closer, to our surprise, we realized that it was a squirrel!  I'm not sure if I was more amazed to find out that squirrels could swim or to see this little guy climb these hills with sand rolling out from beneath it's feet the whole way.  It was not an easy task at all and it took him a fair amount of time to do it. He never stopped even for a second. I don't know if this is because he knew that if he stopped he was going to slide back down and would never make it to the top, or if something had chased him from one side of the river to the other and was fearing for his life. At any rate, he was the focus of attention for us and all the other people at the Big Bend as we cheered the little guy on. Finally he made it to the top and scampered away. 

The Big Bend trail does wind its way around the edge for a bit and then heads into the forest towards the campground. We chose to walk the trail a little to see where it led. 

This trail turned out to be just another winter trail. But it did eventually lead us past the cabins that you can rent in the park. So we got to check those out. 

There were plenty of damselflies flitting around on the trail.

After awhile we headed off to one of the 3 beaches for lunch. We went to Beach 2 since it was the closest. But it was crowded and there were no picnic tables or picnic shelters. Since it was supposed to rain soon we were really hoping for a picnic shelter. 

So we tried going to Beach 3 which is named Roe Beach. It was difficult to get to because it was on long winding, narrow, rough,  roads and wasn't easy to find. Once we got there we found it to be small and cute with a nice view but  there was no picnic shelter there as well. This beach was worse than the last one though because there was doggie doo all over the place on this beach. And I mean everywhere! Not just a little spot here and there.  I am pretty sure it is not the dog beach, but clearly people were bringing their dogs here and not thinking about how their dogs would have an impact on other people's enjoyment of the beach. I bet the dog beach was probably cleaner than this one was. So we left that beach too. 

Instead of going to Beach 1 we decided to instead head back to camp for lunch. We ended up toasting english muffins over the camp stove since the fire ban was still on. That made for a bit of fun because english muffins do not like to stay put on hot dog sticks. And they get a bit crumbly when they are heated. 

After lunch Penny and I went Geocaching. There is only one real cache in the area and it is situated just outside the park entrance. According to the posts of the other geocachers who were there in the past, the geocache was no longer there and had been "geotrashed".  So Penny and I came up with the idea to revive the dead geocache. We got a plastic container, a little notebook, a couple of pens, and some little treasures. We packed them up and headed off to replace the missing cache. 

The spot wasn't too difficult to find. I did have a problem syncing my phone to the location on the app, However, Penny had her phone too so between us I think we stashed the cache in the right place. Then we headed back to camp with a feeling of a job well done. 
The rest of the day and evening was spent relaxing and playing board games.
Another Dobson Fly showed up in the dining tent again. But this one was smaller and wasn't upset. So we were able to play our board games until bedtime which for us was around 11 pm that night.

 
It rained during the night . The tent held up well and did not leak. But then, it wasn't all that much rain. At least not enough to lift the fire ban. 

I heard something around my tent during the night. Whatever it was, it was only small and left some tiny little footprints in the dirt. It was probably that little jumping mouse again. 

And that is where this camping trip ends. We packed up and drove home before lunch. We had a good time at Arrowhead and will definitely come back again; perhaps in the winter to skate down one of the trails. 

Arrowhead Park is a wonderful little park that is open year round. We were here before when we were kids and I have always remembered it fondly. It's a big park with lots of trees for privacy and it's very quiet. Even the kids on the next campsite over were barely heard through the thick trees. 
   Unfortunately at this point there was a total fire ban in effect so no camp fires for us. Our meals were cooked on a Coleman stove the whole time we were here. Considering in the city we live in we could smell  and see the smoke in the air from the many forest fires all around us, we could understand the cautiousness and being careful about not starting any new forest fires. 

We were on site 330. It was quite large and private with lots of shade. The first night we were here we went to bed relatively early. As a die hard night-hawk that meant I was awake pretty early in the morning. Six a.m. is way too early for me so I tried to go back to sleep. Finally at 7:45 I gave up and decided to get up.  

Everyone else was still asleep, so instead of making a lot of noise and waking them up I walked down to the Stubbs Falls Trail which was quite close to our campsite. In a matter of minutes I was at the trail. 

​The trail is wide, nicely groomed, and easy to walk down. It was so quiet and peaceful that it was easy to feel like you were the only one in the park. It was a bit chilly since the sun was not high in the sky yet and there was a lot of shade. But as the day wore on it got warmer. 

Soon I was climbing down the long winding stair case towards the rushing water. I remembered how, as children, my siblings and I had sat in the shallow parts of the moving water and how fun it was to feel the push of the water  over us as we tried to keep our balance. 

But this sobering sign kind of took the fun out of that idea. We had never been in any area of the water that was dangerous. We had only been in the water that ran off from the main stream. But I guess the sign is a good reminder to those who considered getting into the more powerful part of the rapids. Especially since a lady had died here only weeks before we arrived. 

The view from the bridge was beautiful in the morning sun. 

And equally beautiful on the other side of the bridge. 

I was surprised to see so many people down at the falls this early in the morning. There were about 6 other people there. One by one they all left until it was just me. I was glad for this because I had wanted to spend some time with just me and God and contemplate the beauty of his creation. 

Some of the things that I contemplated were that God is an amazing artist and that his art is alive. He uses living mediums and his art work is always in a constant state of change and movement....this reminded me of the portraits in the Harry Potter movies, geek that I am. We have some amazing artists in this world that can make paintings and sculptures look like they are real, but really they are lifeless. They are only just symbols and copies of the real artwork. It's like someone taking a photo of the Mona Lisa, rather than having the original Mona Lisa in their house. It's just a reminder or a memory of the real thing. These thoughts made me appreciate Gods creations all that much more.

I stayed at the falls for about an hour with my thoughts and watching the water run and the fish trying to swim in the current. Then I went back to the camp but Carsten and Penny still weren't up yet. So I decided to follow some roads that were running along the back of our campsite. We had wondered what the roads were for since they didn't seem to be for any current traffic flow and they were not on the main map. As I walked along them I think I figured out what they were for. I am pretty sure they are part of the winter trails. In the winter the park is still open and they offer trails for skiing, snow shoeing and, to my surprise, even as ice skating trails. That's right... you can ice skate down their trails! I think this may have been one of their ice skating trails. I walked these trails for some distance. Sometimes they ran right through peoples campsites but mostly it ran in behind them. I walked  the trail until the bugs got too bad and then I turned around and went back to camp.

When I got back, Carsten and Penny were getting up. We had breakfast and then Carsten and Penny wanted to go and see Stubbs Falls. So I tagged along with them back to the falls. This time we went off the bridge and down to the rocks and rushing water below. 

As I have mentioned, we have had a really dry summer so the water level was much lower than we had remembered it as kids. 

You could see some places where the water had worn down the rock but was now completely dry. 

On the other side of the bridge there were plenty of places to explore. There were some interesting rock formations. 

And there were some trees that looked like they were ready to get up and walk away on their own accord. We decided to walk the entire trail. We had been told by a passer-by that there was another bridge at the other end of the trail and we wanted to see it. 

It wasn't as scenic as the other bridge but it still had a nice view of the river and of the foot bridge down by one of the beaches. 

On the way back we saw a squirrel and we spotted a Yellow-bellied Sap Sucker.

After the hike we hit the showers. We wanted to know if there was a place to charge our phones at the comfort station, but there wasn't. The water was the perfect temperature and it stayed on long enough without having to press the button multiple times like at some other campgrounds. However, I had a difficult time trying to figure out how to turn the water off again. Turns out that it does eventually shut itself off. 

On the information board was an event that was taking place at 8 p.m. It was about the wolves of Algonquin. I kind of wanted to go to that but the mosquitoes were pretty bad as of late and I had visions of having to sit around uncomfortably in a swarm of mosquitoes. So we ended up not going. 

Next on our list of things to do was to go and check out the park store. It had all sorts of great little things in there at decent prices. I picked up a T-shirt and a new pic coil holder since the last time I lit a pic I managed to melt a hole in the lid of the container that I had it placed on. 

The other thing that we got at the store was a free calendar. It wasn't so much the calendar that I was excited about, but it was more about what was inside of it.

Inside was a big pull out map showing all the provincial parks in Ontario that have services and /or facilities. This was perfect for me and this blog! Now it will be so much easier to plan my trips with this!  If you have a chance to get your hands on one of these I highly suggest doing so.

After leaving the store we went back to camp, had supper, cleaned up and settled into the dining tent for an evening of board games. Eventually it got dark and we were playing by lamplight. 
​   I heard some rustling behind me in the bushes and I thought it was a raccoon. We shone the flashlight through the screen of the tent and laughed when we realized it was only a toad. 

Awhile later Penny had to go to the bathroom so she left the dining tent and almost ran right into a huge spider that was hanging from a tree outside the door. It was making a web that was running from the dining tent to the tree. I guess it thought that it was a good place for a web because the light from the tent seemed to be drawing in an above average amount of bugs this night. 

While Penny was gone we heard another rustling from outside the dining tent. This time it came from the other side of the tent. We shone the flashlight outside again and sure enough we saw something hop. And then there was another hop, only this time it was much higher. It was unusually high for a toad as a matter of fact. What happened next almost made me fall over backwards. The toad started hopping about 3 to 4 feet in the air, and the further it went the faster it went! Soon it was going at rocket speed and at the last second it managed to speed around the corner of my little purple tent without even slowing down or skipping a beat! It ran like a jack rabbit but was way to small to be one. We could hardly believe our eyes and we sat there stunned for a moment.  And then all of a sudden it occurred to me what it was. Earlier in the day we had read the park tabloid and I remembered reading a list of all the commonly seen animals and birds in the park. On that list was the "woodland jumping mouse" and the "meadow jumping mouse". I am pretty sure we had just seen the woodland jumping mouse. 

By the time Penny got back from the bathroom the spider had disappeared from sight. This made us more nervous than having it hanging in front of our faces as we went in and out the door. We imagined it was spinning a giant web from the dining tent to the sleeping tents and no one wanted to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and walk right into it. We discussed a plan to look for it later and move it elsewhere. But for the time being we went back to playing our games. 
   All was well for a time until all of a sudden a giant insect started flying  around inside the tent. It was about 5 to 6 inches long. It was so big and it was flying in such a frantic way that at first I thought it was one of those huge Luna moths. But then I realized that it wasn't green; it was a greyish colour. 
We all jumped up and said "What is that!!" and we moved to one side of the tent for fear that this thing would land on us or get stuck in our hair or something. As we shone the light on it to get a closer look we saw that it resembled a flying ant. But it was the biggest flying ant we had ever seen in our lives. 

We had no idea what it was but it was agitated and flying all over the place. Finally it landed on the ground down near one of the chairs and proceeded to to start biting the metal leg of the chair. Now that it had landed I grabbed a mug and the newspaper and I scooped it up and threw it outside the dining tent and zipped up the zipper so that it wouldn't come back in. I didn't even retrieve the paper and the mug. I decided that I would get those the next morning. 

Since we were already off our seats we decided to deal with the spider. We took the flashlight and started to hunt around the outside of the dining tent for it. It wasn't there. We could see the web though and we looked t see where the strands led to. Finally we found the spider above our heads in one of the lower tree branches. We didn't want to leave it there though because we had visions of it falling on our heads as we walked by. So Carsten grabbed a stick that was long enough to reach the spider and he scooped it out of the tree. I was on one side holding the light so that we knew exactly where it was at all times and Penny had another light and was following close behind. 
     "Where are we taking this?" Carsten asked. "How about across the road" I said. In order to get to the road we first had to cross the campsite, go down the drive way and then cross over to the other side of the road. It wasn't going to be a short trip. So off the three of us went, stick in hand with a large spider at the end. I am sure we would have looked hilarious to anyone who would have been a by-stander.
  The plan was going well until we got about half way to our destination. That's when the spider decided that his end of the stick is not where he wanted to be and he started to crawl up towards Carsten's end of the stick. "Oh oh! Walk faster! Walk faster!"  I shouted. We all started shuffling faster and together in a tight knit ball because if I dropped the light we would not know where the spider would be and then it could end up anywhere (translation... on us!).  Penny says " Why don't you just grab the other end of the stick?" Carsten says "No, because then our hands will get caught up in the web and if it's still attached to the web it will only drag it more towards us".  So we continued to shuffle as quickly as we could, laughing all the way,  towards the other side of the road. We were almost there, but the spider was almost at the end of the stick by now too. So, in one, last, final hoorah, Carsten threw the stick into the woods and with that our spider problem was over. It was a close call but we won the race. 

At this point it was my turn to need to go to the bathroom. Since we were already at the road and we had our flashlights we figured we may as well make a trip to the bathroom. Once I was done, I waited with Carsten while Penny went to the bathroom again. Carsten and I decided to google the large, flying, ant-like bug that had been in the dining tent. Turns out it was a "Dobsonfly" The males of this species have huge, long mandibles about an inch in length, but despite this they do not bite. The females, however, don't have the long scary mandibles but when agitated they do bite! The one we had was definitely female and judging how it was attacking the metal chair leg, I would venture to say that it was definitely agitated. Google went on to say "The adults are  nocturnal, and are seldom seen as they hide under leaves in the canopy during the daytime. However, they do sometimes form aggregations under bridges or other structures along streams. Since the adults live only about a week, they are not known to eat anything. They may be attracted by mercaptan, an indicator additive in natural gas and propane."  Well at least we now know what it was.
  Just as we were finished reading this we heard a shriek come from the bathroom.  It was Penny. Then she started laughing. We were wondering what was going on and finally she explained that she had looked down and a mouse had been sitting on her foot. She isn't afraid of mice, she had just been startled to see anything at all sitting on her foot. 

We returned to the dining tent with the intent of finishing up our game. However, when we returned we were dismayed to find that the Dobsonfly was back in the dining tent. Well that was it for us. We packed up our games and we decided to head for bed. We didn't even attempt to get rid of the Dobsonfly. We figured it would be wiser to attempt extraction during the daylight hours. And on that note we went to our tents and went to bed. (Once we got home and I did more research, I found out that this is not a Dobsonfly, but is a close relative called a "Summer Fishfly").