Category: Bon Echo

Old Walt and the Pictographs

7/11/2019

It rained during the night. My tent was muggy but still dry. It wasn't raining anymore but the sky was still grey. We had set an alarm and got up early in order to get to the boat before all the tickets were sold out.

We arrived at the store at 9:30 but it doesn't open until 10 so we had some time to wait. We were the first ones there and we were first in line. A staff member, named Chris, arrived to open the door at 9:50. By this time there was a line up gathering behind us. As we waited in line, Chris explained that this past winter had been particularly harsh and the ice had damaged 2 docks as well as the larger of the 2 boats (called the Wanderer) which holds 27 people. There was about $20, 000 worth of damage done.

They are in the process of fixing everything and had already rebuilt a section of the dock. Before they can get the larger boat up and running, the Ministry Of Transportation has to come in to inspect it. So, in the meantime, they are only running the smaller boat (named the Mugwump) that only holds 11 passengers (not including the driver(s) and the tour guide). They were using only one small boat to make both the Cliff Top Trail ferry run as well as the Pictograph tours. That is why the tickets were all sold out so fast. However, the larger boat should be back in service later this summer.

We got our tickets for the first Pictograph boat tour which didn't leave the dock until 11 a.m. Since we had about an hour or so to kill while we waited, we did a little more exploring. We noticed a set of stairs going down to the waterfront so we went down them to see where they led to.

At the bottom of the stairs was a trail that was a bit overgrown but still usable. It followed the shore line and I eventually popped out at the North Beach. The North Beach is just a tiny little beach tucked away in a quite little corner of the park. I didn't stay to investigate it much though because it looked like it might start raining and we were supposed to be at the dock 15 minutes early before the tour began and I didn't want to be late. So, I turned around and headed back.

When we got to the dock the little Mugwump had just returned from dropping off a load of people at the Cliff Top Trail across the lake.

The tour boat guide was a a girl named Katie and there were 2 drivers piloting the boat (One named Karen and I didn't quite catch the name of the other gentleman.

The pigment used to create the pictographs was made by grinding up Hematite into a powder and mixed with an organic binder such as blood, animal fat, egg white, fish oil, or plant oil. They last for a remarkably long time.

There are over 263 pictographs on Mazinaw Rock. Many of them are hard to see unless you get up fairly close to them.

The creature depicted on the right of this pictograph is a lake monster called Mishipizheu (an Ojibway word meaning "Great Lynx") who is known as "god of the waters". This creature is thought to guard sacred rock art sites, such as this one. This pictograph symbol is seen only in areas where there is deep water. Mazinaw Lake is a pretty deep lake. The deepest part of Mazinaw Lake is 145 m (476 ft), making it the seventh-deepest lake in Ontario, including the Great Lakes. Mishipizheu can use his power to create storms on the lake by thrashing his tail in order to over turn the canoes of disrespectful travelers. Beneath the lake monster is the symbol for a canoe full of people.

Tally marks are one of the most common symbols found on Mazinaw Rock. It is believed they were put there as counters, but it is not clear what exactly was being counted. They could represent the number of days of fasting on a vision quest or how many times a person went on a vision quest.

The symbol on the far right with what looks like bunny ears is Nanabush. Nanabush was sent to earth by Kitchie Manitou to teach all living things to cooperate and live in peace and harmony. He is a shapeshifter and has the power to change into things like trees, rocks, beavers, birds, etc.

This symbol represents a turtle with a message for the sky spirit.

Of course when we saw the symbol of the turtle with a message for the sky spirit, you have a natural inclination to look up.

It was about this time that the driver of the boat pointed up to an old dead tree way up at the top of the rock. He told us that in the tree were two peregrine falcons perched among the branches. They were difficult to make out from such a distance but when we looked real close we could see them.

This symbol, that looks rather like a picket fence with rays of sun coming from it, has not been seen at any other pictograph site in the world. It is believed to be the the symbol of Mazinaw Rock itself.

One of my favourite symbols is that of the Thunder Bird. It is thought that every time lightning strikes, it leaves a streak of quartz running through the rock. That is why the Thunder Bird is painted with the line of quartz in the grip of one of its talons.

Another one of my favourite symbols is that of Maymaygwayshi. It is represented by what looks like a pair of crossed hockey sticks with a head on top. Maymaygwayshi is a hairy-faced man that stands about 3 feet tall. They feel that they are ugly looking and are ashamed of the way they look. So, they keep themselves hidden and are only seen if they want to be seen. But even then, they will lower their heads and keep their faces hidden.

Maymaygwayshi live in the cracks and the shallow caves of the cliff.

Some of the pictographs were old and fading with newer ones painted on top. So sometimes you didn't know for sure what was painted there. Sometimes there was a repeat of a symbol we had seen previously. I don't know what this one is about in particular but I do recognize the canoe of people.

Katie pointed out a rock formation that juts off the main part of the cliff. This rock is called Turtle Rock because it looks to have the shape of a turtle.

They stopped the boat in front of one of the cliff faces and talked about how Bon Echo Park got its name. Katie asked us to pick a one syllable word and had us all shout it at the same time so that we could hear the echo bounce off the wall of rock. No one made any suggestion at first. They were all too shy. I wanted to choose the word "Vinegar!" thinking that it would be funny to have 11 or so people yelling that after hearing it so many times the previous day. However, it was too many syllables so I suggested the word "Dog" instead and that is what we all yelled.

It is amazing just how hardy plant life can be. Out on the rocks with no real soil there were plants, grasses, flowers and even trees growing, and surviving.

Katie pointed out a particular tree to us that was growing from the side of the cliff. This tree is over 1000 years old and has been named "The Silent Watcher". She explained that usually, old trees will get very thick and have many rings inside. However, since this tree lives in such harsh conditions and does not have the same root system and does not get the same nutrients as other trees, it never gets very big.

One of the last pictographs we were shown was on what is commonly known as "Pizza Rock" (because it is shaped like a slice of pizza). The symbol on this rock is that which represents a medicine man.

At about this point a bird swooped down and circled above us. I was hoping it was one of the pregrine falcons, but it was only a turkey vulture.

One of the last legs of the trip was to get a closer look at the "Old Walt" carving in the stone face. There were many more words carved into the stone than just the words "Old Walt" but they were smaller and harder to see. At one time they were much clearer and painted white. The white paint has since faded away. It only goes to show just how durable the pigment of the pictographs is compared to paint used in the early 1900s.

In the Visitor Center there is a picture of the original Old Walt engraving that was taken at the time it was originally engraved and you can read the words in their entirety.

They are considering repainting the letters of the Old Walt engraving but before they make a concrete decision about it, they are testing some of the various paints that might be used so that they can find one that will stand the test of time and weather. In order to test the paints they have painted stripes of different colours and brands on the rock cliff and have been monitoring which ones are lasting the best over the years.

So why is Walt Whitman's name carved on the rock anyways? Seems like a strange place to find a dedication to the poet. Apparently one of the original owners of Bon Echo (before it became a provincial park), Flora Macdonald Denison, was a huge fan of Walt Whitman, his poetry and his ideals.

The boat tour concluded with Katie pointing out where the old Bon Echo Inn used to stand before it was destroyed by fire.

At the end of the tour the sky was darkening even more, but the rain had held off. But it wasn't going to hold off indefinitely. We were glad that we had been on one of the first boat tours of the day and not the last.

We got back to camp and had lunch. As the clouds rolled in and the rain drops started falling, we grabbed our umbrellas and threw a tarp over the fire pit in an effort to keep it dry so that when it stopped raining later on we wouldn't have too difficult of a time getting a fire started.

At about 3 p.m. a thunderstorm descended upon us and it just started pouring down rain. There was so much rain that the ground under our picnic table inside the dining tent was flooded. The firewood that had been piled up under the picnic table had to be rescued and we picked it up and put it on the bench of the picnic table instead.

We waited out the storm by propping up our feet on a plastic tote to keep them from getting wet and playing a game or two of Qwirkle in the dining tent.

We watched as the water streamed down the sides of the screen netting on the dining tent. After about an hour the storm finally passed.

As the rain ebbed, the birds and animals came back out of their shelters, including a raccoon. I am pretty sure this was one of the raccoons I had heard the night before. The raccoon crossed the road and a guy in a truck stopped and waited for it to go by. He told us that some baby coons in a tree nearby. We went out to see if we could see them, but we never did.

The ground outside our dining tent was so wet that a frog was hanging out when we emerged!

Large puddles were also left behind on the road. A Robin too the opportunity to take a bath in one of these puddles.

The Robin looked to be having a fabulous time in the puddle. It was like watching a little kid play at the beach. Water was being splashed everywhere!

When the rain left, the foggy mist arrived. It was on the roads and through the trees. We heard from neighbouring campers that the storm had brought down a tree branch onto the roof of one of the campers down the road. Luckily the campers were not there at the time and the Park Staff were already there removing it. But in the meantime, the power was off at that end of the park where the comfort station is located.

In a short while the sun emerged from behind the clouds and made its grand entrance. It wasn't going anywhere for the rest of the afternoon. It was here to stay.

A woodpecker came by to enjoy the sunshine.

We had dinner and then cleaned up the dishes. We lit a fire in our dry fire pit (thanks to the tarp) and with dry fire wood (thanks to the rescuing of the wood from the flooded ground). We didn't have a long stick to poke the fire with when the fire was getting low (we call that our "Pokey Stick"). But some previous camper had left a pair of metal tongs behind so we used those as a pokey stick instead.

We sat around the fire until it burned down to coals.

The moon started to rise and it was turning into a beautiful night. We went to bed around 12:30 a.m. Thankfully, it did not rain all night. Tomorrow we would be packing up to leave.

The next morning I woke up to the sounds of Carsten trying to shoo out a bird that had managed to get stuck inside the dining tent. We figure it may have gone in there to eat some of the bugs that were caught inside and then when Carsten came out of his tent the bird panicked and couldn't get out again. At least not quickly. The bird did eventually find it's way back out of the tent on it's own accord. I am guessing it will think twice before going into a dining tent again.

Today is the day we leave Bon Echo. Even though we had to work around some kinks in our plans while we were here, we all had a really good time. It's a great park with lots to see and I would like to come back here again one day.

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Plans Gone Awry

7/10/2019

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There was a gathering of moths during the night and some of them were quite pretty. I guess that is why they are the "butterflies of the night".

We didn't get too fancy with breakfast. I just had some cereal. I remember, as a kid, getting mini boxes of cereal that had perforated lines in on one side that you could pop open to get at the cereal inside. Then you would pour the milk into the box and grab a spoon and presto-change-o you would have a built-in bowl of cereal. I was happy to find these "Fun Packs" of cereal on the shelf of my local grocery store. But I was disappointed to find out that they no longer have the perforated lines in the cardboard. Well, I was not going to be bested by a box with no perforations.I grabbed a pair of scissors and I cut my own door into the box and so it was that I ate my cereal in my make shift bowl as I traveled down memory lane.

We had another visitor this morning too. A Long Horn Pine Beetle made an appearance. Since these little guys bite, I kept my distance.

Before heading over to the boat tour we made a quick bathroom stop. The odd thing about the bathrooms here are that the doors are at the back of the building, not the front. But the bathrooms are not smelly like most. In fact, they had a bit of a perfume smell. And they were pretty clean too.

By 11:30 a.m. we arrived at the Greystones store to buy our tickets for the boat tour to see the pictographs.

We were very surprised to find out when we got there that both the boat tour and the Cliff Top ferry were all sold out for the entire day! We couldn't believe it! The store had only been open for maybe an hour or so.

We weighed our options and decided that we would get up extra early the next morning and try to be first in line for tickets. And if that didn't work, we would try renting a canoe and go see the pictographs by ourselves. Now that we had all this unexpected time on our hands for the next while, we decided to explore the campgrounds a bit, starting with the store itself.

The Greystones store used to be a little school-house in 1921.

Inside the store you can find your usual camping fare such as hats and T-shirts and compasses and maps and things like that. But what I like about this store is the little room at the back that houses a mini art gallery.

You can buy the paintings that are hanging on the wall or, if you only want something smaller, you can buy prints, cards, or notepaper instead.

After looking around the store, we went next door to the Visitor Center. They have all sorts of educational displays there. My favourite is one where you have to guess what bird, animal or insect made the different holes in the pieces of wood.

I discovered the "Dollywood" that was carved into the wall in one of the rooms that one of the staff had mentioned when I was there last year.

In another room was a display of photographs of some of the pictographs that we had wanted to see. There were descriptions of what they represented under each one. I learned from this display that the difference between pictographs and the petroglyphs we had seen at Petroglyph Provincial Park is that petroglyphs are carved into the stone while pictographs are painted onto the stone.

Another display showed some taxidermy lizards called "Five-Lined Skinks". They are Ontario's only lizard. I hadn't known they existed until I saw this display.

After seeing all the displays inside the Visitor Center we set out to explore more of the park outside the Visitor Center. We headed towards the lagoon where the boat rentals were. We passed by the amphitheatre on the way there.

The lagoon had quite a few people milling around. Many were there to rent canoes and kayaks.

I went over to see what the prices were in case we needed to rent one the next day if we couldn't get on the boat tour. That was when I discovered that they also rent pedal boats! So we added that to our list of options for the next day.

We sat on a bench for awhile watching the people and the boats go by. On the other side of the lagoon we could see a picnic shelter.

We even saw a dog with his very own life jacket. I am not sure if that is something they have for rent a the park or if his owners brought it for him. I forgot to ask.

After sitting for a bit we continued our walk and ended up at the main beach. This is the largest of the beaches and is the busiest of the beaches. It was a hot day and there were people everywhere.

At the beach there was also a little hut on wheels.

Apparently it is what they use when they are hosting their charity BBQ down at the beach.

We headed back to the car and drove back to camp. Next on our list of plans was to hike the Bon Echo Creek Trail. The trail head wasn't very far from our campsite. All we had to do was take a short cut through the maintenance yard to get to it. There were workers in the maintenance yard as we passed through but they didn't seem to mind us cutting through.

The flowers that were growing along the path to the trail were pretty pinks and purples, There were some purple Asters.

And some Viper's Bugloss flowers.

It didn't take us long to arrive at the trail head.

Only to find out that the trail was closed! Once again our plans for the day were derailed.

So we turned around and went back the way we came. As we cut through the maintenance yard again, we saw a ground hog hanging out in the grass.

And a robin was looking for a meal in the grass too.

Since we couldn't hike the Bon Echo Creek Trail, we decided to hop in the car and drive to the trail head of the High Pines Trail and try our luck there instead.

This time the trail was open and we were able to go on a hike. It was a pretty little trail too.

It's too bad that the mosquitoes on this trail were pretty bad. But Carsten had some bug spray with him so we used that and we were good to go again. The kind of bug spray that Carsten had was Off Familycare. It was Summer Splash scented and it smelled really nice. Not like the smell of regular fly dope. It smelled more like fruits and berries. I am gonna have to get me some of that.

At one point the trail splits off and goes off to the right. It goes from grassy and open to....

shady and woodsy. It was peaceful and enjoyable.

On the way out of the trail we spotted some vibrant pink Sweet-William flowers. So beautiful! There are quite a few different flowers in this park.

After the High Pines Trail we weren't quite ready to go back to camp yet. So, we drove back down to the main beach and took a walk across the foot bridge to the Pet beach.

We stood on the bridge for awhile and took in the view. We were in no hurry to get anywhere. That's the great part about the lazy days of summer vacation... you can take your time and just relax.

On the other side of the bridge was a warning sign. Can't say we weren't warned (not that we needed warning... we are good with dogs being off leash).

The pet beach was a nice open area with a couple of dogs romping and rolling around. They were having a grand 'ole time! It was entertaining just to watch them play.

Once you pass the pet beach, you are headed towards South Beach. Along the way we passed by a basketball net and an old BBQ.

Another little foot bridge to cross and we were at South Beach.

We had seen a couple of bus loads of people leaving this beach as we were leaving High Pines Trail. But now the beach stood empty with the exception of us. It was a really nice grassy area with plenty of picnic tables. If I had wanted to swim I probably would have chosen this beach over the crowded main beach.

We spotted a Gypsy Moth caterpillar on one of the picnic tables. Apparently this is an invasive species and shouldn't be here. Since they are nonnative, there are few natural enemies to keep them in check. Repeated defoliation can lead to the death of many trees, changing the mix of tree species and affecting dependent wildlife.

We also saw some White Admiral butterflies.

At the end of South Beach is the Pet Exercise Trail.

But we didn't walk that trail. There were some tree branches that were coming down over head and we had already done enough walking by this time. So we turned around and headed back the way we came.

Since the beach was practically empty the animals and birds felt a little more comfortable to make an appearance. We saw a black squirrel...and he saw us.

There were a good many Robins hanging around.

Along with the White Admiral butterflies, there were also Red Admiral butterflies.

The Blue Jays were a little more shy, but they sat still long enough for a quick photo before flying into the denser part of the woods to hide.

There were damsel flies and Chalk-fronted Corporal dragonflies chasing down mosquitoes and other pesky insects.

We went back to camp and made a fire to cook hot dogs on. We had been traveling from park to park for a few days so we needed to do a bit of laundry and get a shower. We decided to do a rotation to get things done. We each took a turn staying at the campsite to look after the fire while the other ones either did laundry or took a shower.

The water was hot enough, although you did have to keep turning it on because it wouldn't stay on long enough. The disappointing part was that even though they had recently cleaned the showers, they weren't that clean. There was gum stuck to the wall, and a muddy foot print. There was a gob of some sort of conditioner or soap on the wall too (which isn't so bad in itself). In one of the showers (not all) there was even some black mold in one of the windows. But I have seen way worse showers than this.

The rest of the evening was spent sitting and relaxing in front of the fire and playing board games in the screened dining tent. We didn't stay up too late because we wanted to get a jump on the line up for the boat tour the next day. We didn't want to miss out on it for a second time.

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"Vinegar!"

7/10/2019

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One of Bon Echo's unforgettable features is the rock cliff with it's pictographs painted on it. I had been here last year to do some backpacking on the Abes and Essens Trail but we did not stay in the main campground that time. This year I was spending some time right in the heart of the park. This year I was looking forward to seeing the pictographs.

We arrived at Bon Echo at about 4:30 and set up camp on site 273 that I had reserved online ahead of time.

We were quite happy with the site considering it was "site unseen" (don't mind the pun!) It was large and private and had plenty of trees all around us. The only downfall to the site was that we were a little close to the maintenance buildings, which made for some excess noise from time to time, but it wasn't too bad.

There were a couple of Tent Caterpillars hanging out but not en-mass like you get every 7 years or so.

And of course, no matter where you go, there are always deer flies flying around you waiting for the right moment to catch you off guard to try to take a bite out of you. It's too bad that they have to be biters because they really do have pretty eyes and wings.

After setting up and eating supper we decided we would take a quick drive down to the Park Store and the Visitor Center (they are not within walking distance of our site). However, when we got there, both were closed.

So we wandered around the outside of the buildings for awhile. There was a schedule posted for the ferry that takes you to the Cliff Top Trail and for the Boat Tour to see the Pictographs. We made note of the times and decided that we would come for the Boat Tour at 11 a.m. the next morning. And if we felt up to it we might just do the Cliff Top Trail too.

We also saw a posting for a Discovery Program on the Five-Lined Skink on Thursday they we thought we might be interested in.

Outside the Visitor center we noticed a View Finder. It was free to look through it so we spent a few minutes toying around with that and looking across the lake at Bon Echo Rock.

Instead of heading back to camp right away, we found a path and decided to follow it. We didn't know where it would lead us but it was going in the direction of Bon Echo Rock and it followed the shoreline.

As we passed by the docked ferry boats we heard a couple of guys yelling "Vinegar!" "Vinegar!" over and over again, as though they were calling their dog or something. We thought that Vinegar was a strange name for a dog. We passed by what appeared to be beach and some people were swimming in the water.

But then we noticed the rather large sign stating that it was, in fact, not a beach and that you probably shouldn't be swimming there. I gave a nod to the somewhat smaller sign under it that told you where the pay phones are located. You know... in case you have to call 911 to send someone out to rescue those people who were not supposed to be swimming there. Clearly this has happened in the past or the smaller sign wouldn't be needed.

We also saw a number of people fishing from the beach. I believe that was allowed. It would be another reason not to swim there though. Who wants to accidentally get caught with a hook while they are swimming?

As we walked past the beach-like area the path became a little more wooded and we started to see a number of little Song Sparrows and other birds hopping from branch to branch. In the distance we could still hear the occasional "Vinegar!" being called out.

And out on the lake a loon watched us guardedly.

The path led us to The Point where the land juts out into the water and almost reaches Bon Echo Rock. There was a bridge that crossed here at one time but it has long since fallen down and was never replaced.

It was here that Carsten pointed out that he could make out some words carved into the side of the rock. It seemed to say "Old Walt".

On the Point was a well worn and weathered plaque describing the heritage of Bon Echo Rock.

There was also a bench so I sat and watched as canoers and kayakers made their way back to shore before the sun went down.

Even the old cedar trees had a lot of character. And in the distance we still heard the occasional "Vinegar!" Although the calls were becoming fewer and fewer, this had been going on for over an hour now. We laughed to each other and debated shouting out "Salt!" or "Pepper!" just to be funny. But we didn't.

I told Carsten and Penny that I would like to stay to watch the sunset. They agreed and so we all sat on a bench and watched as the sky turned colours.

The sun gave us a pillared dance of light over the tree tops through the peaches and cream coloured sky. And as we walked back towards the car and headed back to our campsite, we heard one last call of "Vinegar!"

Back at camp we played board games in the dining tent as we listened to a family of young raccoons make their way from campsite to campsite, snarling at each other and wanting to have what the other had found. At 11:30 p.m. we called it a night. It was a warm night and a big, bright, moon was shining through the trees and a barred owl hooted in the distance.

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Leap Frogs and A Search For Bears

8/1/2018

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I woke up at 6:30 a.m. Way too early for my liking. Heather was awake too. We peeked outside the tent door hoping to see a moose across the lake. But no such luck. Heather got out of the tent and I tried to go back to sleep. But at 7:45 I was still awake so I got up too. It was over cast and looked like it could rain at any time. So, it was probably best that we got the day started.

We had a quick breakfast and then we got packed up. We spent a few extra minutes down by the water\s edge before we had to leave.

Momma loon and her baby were still swimming nearby.

I was sad to have to say good-bye to the loons. It would have been nice to be able to stay a few more days to watch the progress of the baby loons diving and flying lessons. But we had places to go and things to see.

We left the campsite at about 9:40. There was a bit of climbing and a bit of scrambling over rocks and water. But nothing too crazy.

Despite the overcast skies, the flowers were out in full bloom looking for the sunshine.

We got to the bridge at the Clutes loop and stopped for a rest. Once we got this far we knew there wasn't too much further to go.

We stayed here for about 20 minutes and enjoyed the view.

We finished the trail and got out of the bush at about 11:50 a.m. Surprisingly, the last stretch of trail had more roots and stones on it than any other part of the entire trail.

The last thing to do was to cross the road to the parking lot where our car was waiting. We were hoping to make it on time to the boat cruise that takes you to see to see the petroglyphs on the cliffs of Lake Mazinaw but we missed the boat by about 10 minutes. The next one wasn't for another hour and a half and we didn't want to wait. We figured we would come back here to go camping another year and we can do the boat cruise at that time.

So we left the park store where they sell the tickets and we headed back to the car. Along the way we passed the area where the Art Exhibition had taken place a few days earlier before we began our backpacking trip. The space was so big and empty now. I noticed a gentleman sitting at one of the picnic tables beside a yellow thing.

Then I noticed that there was another yellow thing at another picnic table. So I went closer to see what it was. It was an electrical outlet where you can sit and charge your phone or other devices. What a great place to have these! Trying to find a place at the comfort station can be tricky sometimes. These take all the frustration out of it. You can sit and read a book or talk with friends or eat lunch while you wait for your devices to charge.

Once we were in the car we headed off to Bonnechere Provincial Park.

We were tired and hungry so, when we spotted a little restaurant in Palmer Rapids, called Kim's Hometown Restaurant we decided to stop and eat there.

It was a cute, family run, business that was only open until 2 p.m. Monday to Thursday and until 6 p.m. Friday to Sunday.

Kim was the cook and the waitress. There were some regulars there who knew her by name. Every once in awhile her 2 little kids would peek around the counter to see who was there.

The food was good. Especially after eating dehydrated food for the past few days. Heather had the All Day Breakfast and I had a Club Sandwhich. For dessert, I had a home made butter tart. Kim warmed it up before bringing it out to me. I had never had one warmed up before and it was delicious!

After eating we continued on our way. Here is a warning to anyone using the Google Maps app on your phone to go from Bon Echo Park to Bonnechere Park.....Don't trust Lady Google! She told us to turn right down some road but it turned out to be someone's laneway. We actually needed to travel one block further before turning right. (Can't remember where this was exactly but it was near "Old Barry Bay Road" or something like that).

There were about 6 drops of rain on the windshield as we drove, but no real rain all day. Everywhere we looked there were signs that said "Total Fire Ban". But the funniest signs were the ones we passed that said "Firewood for sale $10" and about 5 feet away was a big sign saying "Total Fire Ban". I am guessing the people selling firewood didn't get many sales.

We got to Bonnechere Provincial Park at about 2:30 p.m.

As we drove in we noticed a sign saying "Active Bear in the Park". Heather was happy to see this and was hoping that she could see the bear while we were there. We went inside to check in and Heather asked where the bear had been sighted. The staff said not to worry and that it had only been sited a few times near the waste management site. I guess they misunderstood when Heather asked about it. I think that they thought we were afraid of running into it when it was quite the opposite.

On the outside of the office was a big sign letting everyone know that there was a fire ban in effect. Even though Bon Echo and Bonnechere are only about an hour and 45 minutes away from each other, the Bon Echo ban had been lifted but the Bonnechere ban had not.

Bonnechere had gone so far as to print out forms about the fire ban that you had to read and then you had to sign your campsite permit saying that you had read and agreed to the fire ban rules.

We got site number 94. On the side of the permit post was a sign telling you how to manage waste and recycling.

The site was, large, clean, and private.They even raked the ground around the fire pit.

The only concern I had was that it was situated right next to a bog (many of the sites are). So I figured that the mosquitoes would be bad (I bet they are pretty bad in May and June). But I didn't have to worry because despite the bog being right there, the bugs were not bad at all.

In fact, the bog was kind of pretty.

The first thing we did after setting up the tent was to head to the showers. Now Bonnechere is a beautiful park and has so many wonderful things about it, however, the showers are not one of them. The showers were dingy and wet (not a clean wet but an stale and stagnant wet). The water only lasted about 2 minutes before you had to push the button to get the water to run again. The water started off nice but after the first push of the button, the water became freezing cold. It took about another 7 or 8 pushes of the button to get the water warm again. Heather said that her shower was about the same. The showers definitely need an upgrade.

After taking our showers we went to the park store. I showed Heather the room where Thunder the turtle was staying. he wasn't walking around on the floor this time though; he was in his big metal tub.

Outside the store we saw a white board that indicated we may be in for a thunderstorm that evening.
Inside the store were many souvenirs, treats, camping gear, etc. We found it odd that they sold Mosquito Coils and Citronella candles but not for use in the park. Our guess was that this was because of the fire ban in place.

Heather and I eyed up the display of fudge. Each one had an interesting name such as " Wolf Paw" or "Moose Tracks". The only problem with names like that is you are not quite sure what is in them, so you are not quite sure if you are going to like them. But it's fudge, so really, it should all taste great! :)

I chose the Bear Claw fudge and Heather chose the Milky Way fudge. And yes, they did both taste great.

We took our fudge and went to stroll along the beach. We found a picnic table down by the boat launch and sat and watched a momma duck with her brood of 4 ducklings swimming near by.

Then, a little further off I saw what looked like someone had been skipping a rock across the surface of the water. But no one was around and no one was skipping rocks. No, it wasn't a rock at all. It was a frog! I have seen frogs jump and swim, but I had never seen one skip across the surface of the water like a stone before! I was quite surprised by this. Even more surprising was that I caught it on camera.

I really like this park. It's like they have thought of everything here. They even have a special tap where you can wash the sand from your feet after you come up from the beach!

We went back to the campsite and Heather went for a nap. I tried to take some pictures of birds because there were a whole bunch near by, but all the pictures turned out blurry. It is not easy to take pictures of birds.

When Heather got up from her nap we went to see if there were any bears at the waste management site. There weren't any, but there was a live bear trap. The waste management site was actually pretty busy compared to most other parks I have been to. I think other people also had the same idea to come to look for bears and to check out the bear trap. The bear trap had yellow tape and a mini barricade around it to warn people away from it. We chuckled because it looked more like they were trying to warn the bear to stay away.

Behind the waste management site runs part of a hiking trail. We decided to explore this trail for a bit.

The trail is called the F.I.T. trail. You may think means it's for getting your exercise, (which it also does) but it actually stands for "Footprints In Time".

The trail is a beautiful, wide, pathway that is easy for anyone to travel down. I think that it is even wheelchair accessible.

From time to time you will see information signs that you can stop to read.

But what we thought were really neat were the signs that are hidden inside of logs all along the trail. You just push the wooden sign down on one end and the longer end pops up with information written on bvoth sides of the post. What a unique idea!

Some of them have a little map on the back of them.

With a "you are here" dot indicated on the map.

We got to one section where there were many of these posts all in a row.

At the same section there were also a couple of cabins and some picnic tables to sit at.

Inside one cabin was a display of how an old logging cabin looked like inside. there was a bed and a wooden chest.

And there was a little wood stove and wash basin and some tools.

Outside that cabin we noticed a time capsule in the shape of a rock. I imagine they will be having some sort of opening ceremony in the year 2042. Could be interesting to attend and to see what is inside.

Across the way was a second cabin.

Inside this one it was set up to look like an old school room or something. We didn't tour the whole trail because it was going to be dark soon and it was threatening to rain. We went back to the campsite and made ourselves some supper on the little propane stove that we had.

At 8:50 p.m. it began to rain. We had just finished supper but we were still having coffee and hot chocolate. So undeterred, we grabbed our umbrellas from the car and sat at the picnic table under them in the rain. The rain itself didn't last too long, but the trees got wet enough that water was dripping from the leaves. So even though it had stopped raining we kept the umbrellas up just the same.

One thing about having your campsite near a bog, when it rains all the frogs come out. There were frogs everywhere! And to top it off, it was getting pretty dark so we couldn't see them very well. We had to be careful not to step on them.

After awhile it got dark enough and it was wet enough that we went into the tent to spend the rest of our evening. We heard a few planes go by that sounded like thunder, but we never did get the thunder storm that they were calling for.

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Momma Loon Teaching Baby Loon

7/31/2018

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It didn't rain throughout the night and we were able to leave just the screen door up without getting wet. I love waking up to a view of the trees and the lake.

It was a pretty grey and overcast morning but the sun would shine through the clouds every once in awhile and it wasn't raining so all was good.

At about 9 a.m. the sun came out fully and the clouds disappeared. We were packed up and on the trail by 11 am. This section of the trail was pretty much all woods. You couldn't see the lake for most of it like you can on the other sections of the trail. The trails were rougher and you can tell that not as many people go through this part of the trail as they do the other parts of the trail.

The bugs were so bad on this part of the trail! Probably the worst place for them for the entire hike was this section. It made me remember why I prefer to go backpacking in August and September. Heather stopped to put on bug spray right away. I should have too but I was stubborn and I figured it wouldn't be long before they would go away. I hate putting chemicals such and bug spray on me.
However, after a few more minutes, I finally had to give in and put some on. Once I did that, it really helped. I was finally able to enjoy the hike.

The path eventually led to an open area of marsh.

At one point we were walking through some long marsh grass. I said to Heather, "All this marsh and we don't even see a turtle or a heron to make it worth while."

And literally seconds after I said that, a blue heron flew by over our heads!

It was pretty rough going at times. If it wasn't for the blue trail markers, there were some places where you wouldn't even know the trail was there. The underbrush was very thick.

We were happy to see the White-faced Meadowhawk dragonflies because we knew they were taking care of the mosquito situation.
We stopped for a break when we were tired. Little did we know that, just like on the Pukaskwa trail, we were only about 500 yards away from our campsite.

It had only taken us about 2 hours to go from site 529 to site 530. We got there much faster than we expected. This was probably because we were walking so fast to avoid the bugs.

It's a pretty nice site, but there was very little shade to be found; especially by the picnic table.

And over by the fire pit wasn't much better either.

So, instead of setting up the tent right away, we both rested for awhile. I took out my sleeping bag and put it in the shade and took a nap for about a half an hour.

Meanwhile, Heather went and sat with her feet in the water.

She told me later how some little fish came up and hung around at her feet. They would bump into her and gently nibble at her feet to check her out and to see if she might be food. They were mostly sunfish and minnows.

There were a lot of large tadpoles in the lake too.

At one point, two hikers came up to our site. The minute they saw us they turned around and went back to the trail without saying anything to us. I felt bad because I am sure that they had wanted to stop and stay for awhile on our site. I knew that it would be at least 2 hours before they would get to the next campsite and find a decent place to rest,

Out in the middle of the lake we noticed a baby loon and it's mother. Momma was teaching baby how to fish.

Baby doesn't really know how to dive yet. He sticks his head in the water but doesn't go right under. Momma would dive and swim a little ways away and then pop up again. Baby would see her and then swim towards her and follow her around the lake.

I noticed that any time momma got too far away, the baby would start to make faint whistling sounds. Every once in awhile momma would head back to baby and snuggle up with him for a bit to reassure him that she was still there. But one time, I watched with interest when baby couldn't find momma after she made a dive. She popped up behind him but he didn't notice. So he swam around practically the whole lake calling and looking for her. It's a pretty small lake so he didn't travel all that far. Instead of going to reassure him, she just followed behind him, keeping an eye on him. Finally he made a U-turn and noticed that she was right there. I guess that is part of her training him to become comfortable being on his own.

We set up the tent facing an area of the lake where we thought we might have a chance to see moose in the morning or in the evening of we were really lucky. But we never did see any moose.

We did a lot of sitting and relaxing on this day. Heather spent time down with the fish and I went exploring in the rockier area at the other end of the site.

It was a nice place to just sit quietly and wait for things to come to me, like this Slaty Skimmer dragonfly.

And this female, Common Yellowthroat Warbler.

I also saw another Blue Heron fly by. As I walked back towards Heather a garter snake crossed my path. It quickly made a dash for the underbrush in an effort to hide which made it tricky to get any sort of picture of it.

Just before we were about to have supper, Momma loon made some very loud calls and then she flew away and left the baby loon all alone. Baby stayed out in the middle of the lake, quietly, by himself. He only called for Momma about 3 times and he seemed to be just fishing and waiting . After about an hour Momma flew by over head. We thought she was going to land, but she didn't. She just kept on going.

Heather and I had supper around 6 p.m. We had re-hydrated Sloppy Joes. They were good but they gave me heart burn. As we ate supper we could hear a chorus of frogs starting to croak to one another across the whole lake. It was not the usual low "ribbit" sound, nor did it sound like Spring Peepers. It was more of a higher "pip pip" sound.

About an hour after supper, Momma loon finally came back. She had been gone for about 3 hours by that point. I am assuming that she was probably visiting Poppa loon on one of the other lakes we had seen him on, or she may have been fishing in a lake that had bigger fish. This lake might not have enough food for her since the lake is so small. Or maybe she just needed to stretch her wings. I don't really know for sure.

She called loudly and came splashing into the lake like a float plane coming in for a landing. When the baby loon got close to her, he made an adorable whistling sound. Almost like a "coo".

Now that Momma was back she had a new lesson for baby to learn. She began to teach him how to taxi across the water. He couldn't fly yet, so he couldn't lift off. Momma would propel herself across the lake, flapping her wings hard as though she were going to take off, but then she would stop. She waited and watched while the baby loon mimicked what Momma had just done. However, he was not nearly as proficient at it as she was. He flapped his wings as fast as he could and propelled himself across the water, but it was ungraceful and very awkward looking. But he was trying, and I am sure that it will only be a few more days before he gets it right. He was already diving better than he was earlier in the day. "Practice makes perfect", as they say.

As we were looking for a place to hang our food in the tree, Heather discovered the bones of an animal. Looks like it may have been something form the weasel family. Not sure what happened to it. My first thought was that maybe an owl got it. But Heather thought that maybe this weasel got too close to the loon's babies and the loon attacked and killed it. Could be why the loon has only one baby instead of a full brood. But then loons only lay 1 to 3 eggs. So who knows really.

For the rest of the evening we played Quirkle at the picnic table.

From there we could see the sunset across the lake.

We played until it got to dark to play anymore.

Then we packed it up and moved into the tent and played Quirkle some more in there.
We went to sleep at about 10 p.m. to the sounds of crickets, frogs, the occasional loon call, and even the hooting of an owl once or twice.

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Beaver Dam And Fire In The Middle of the Trail

7/30/2018

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What a gorgeous morning! The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day.

We ate breakfast and started to pack up. A little Red-breasted Nuthatch came to watch our progress.
As we packed up, a gentleman came by and asked if he was on the right trail (because it went right through our campsite so he seemed hesitant to go through). I assured him that it was and welcomed him through.
At some point the girl from the next campsite over went by. She was so quiet that I didn't notice her until she was already past us. So I never got to say good morning to her.

We left camp at about 11:30 a.m. The bugs were pretty bad for the first 20 minutes or so.

But that was because we were in a marshy area again, and well, it was July so the bugs were to be expected I guess. After awhile the bugs became less and less.

We followed the edges of lakes and streams for pretty much the whole trail.

When we had been hiking for about 45 minutes we met up with a woman who had just come from site 530 (the campsite we will be staying on the night after this one). We stopped to talk with her for a good long time. She told us how she was backpacking alone and that she was testing out her new walking sticks that she had just bought.

We must have talked for at least 20 minutes or more, swapping stories and exchanging backpacking tips. She recommended the walking sticks and the tent hammock, which is what she used. We told her about the platypus that we use to filter water. We told her about our adventures on the La Cloche trail in Killarney and she recommended Frontenac Park. So we will have to check out Frontenac Park one of these days soon.

We never did get her name, but I told her about this blog. (So if you are reading this, a shout out to you! We really enjoyed meeting you and talking to you!) We eventually parted ways and continued on towards our destination, site 529.

The section from site 527 to site 529 is probably the most beautiful section of the entire trail. We passed many beautiful streams.

It was so beautiful in fact, that we passed a couple that we had passed the day before. They told us that this was their second time hiking the trail in two days.

There were many places along the water's edge where Cardinal Flowers were growing in a rich and vibrant red colour.

We stopped for lunch just past the loop that branches off of the Essens loop (where the Abes loop starts).
It was a nice enough spot but if we had known, we would have gone just a little bit farther where there was an even nicer spot up ahead that would have been a great picnic area.

There wasn't a good spot to set up our little stove so we ended up setting it up right in the middle of the trail. We could see if people were coming and we were close to the water. So we figured it was better to set up there than on a slanted hill close to the trees. It turned out to be a wise call.

As we waited for the water to boil for our soup and noodles, the hiker that had passed through our campsite this morning came back down the trail towards us on his way back out again. We chatted with him for awhile. He told us how he wasn't going around the whole loop and that he just went as far as site 529 (our destination site) and was now on his way back. He explained that he was not a backpacker, only a hiker. We told him all about the pros and cons of of backpacking and gave him lots of tips in case he ever wanted to try it. By the time we finished chatting and he was ready to head off, he said that we had him convinced that backpacking was the way to go. So who knows, maybe one day we will meet up with him again on one of our backpacking trips.

Our little stove is made of metal and folds out so that you can put a can of jellied cooking fuel under it as a heat source. You just open the can of jelly and light it with a match. When you are done you put the lid on and the fire goes out. It's a safe way to carry fuel in your backpack.

However, you still have to be careful with them. Once we were done boiling the water, Heather went to put the fire out by putting the lid on the can. But, she accidentally knocked the can over while it was still on fire! Some of the burning jelly spilled out onto the path.

Her first reaction was to do what you normally do when a small fire is by your feet; you stomp on it to put it out. In this scenario that was a bad idea. The reason was because, since it was a jelly, it just squished out from under her shoe and now she had fire coming out from under her foot! Little bits of burning jelly had splatted in multiple places and now the fire was in 3 or 4 places instead of just one! She stomped and stomped but her shoe just continued to shoot flames out from under it. It was almost like watching a Road Runner cartoon.

So, instinct number two was to douse it with water. This was a much better idea. We had an extra container of water sitting near by just in case something like this were to happen. So we grabbed it and threw it on all the little burning areas. Out the fire went and all was well. We were so happy we were not the cause of a forest fire. Especially in light of all the troubles there have been in them province with forest fores this summer.

We normally use the cans that have the wicks in them instead of the jelly. This was the first time trying the cans of jelly. We will probably go back to using the ones with the wick because after this, we believe the cans with the wicks are somewhat safer.

So it was a good lesson not to take the fuel cans for granted. Be careful with anything that could potentially start a fire and always have some extra water on hand just in case. You just never know.

We ate a quick lunch and rested up for a bit before we carried on. After only travelling for a very short time we came across the spot that would have been perfect for a picnic lunch. If you ever hike this trail you will know it when you see it. There is a spot with a little mini water fall (not very big at all, but it is cute).

There are lots of rocks to sit on and the view is quite nice.

There were Ebony Jewelwing damselflies hanging out among the Cardinal Flowers.

Actually, the Ebony Jewelwings were very plentiful here.

There were also a number of Variable Dancer damselflies (also known as a Violet Dancer).

Our journey took us to another little waterfall.

And then we came to a place where the trail became tricky to navigate. The trail markers were not as clear here. There was a big beaver pond to our left.

And on the right was a huge grassy marsh. Can't go right and can't go left, so all you could do was go straight ahead.

And what do you do when there is a large beaver dam in the middle of the trail, right in front of you?

Well, you just climb over it of course. Yep, that's right. The beaver dam is part of the trail.

On the other side of the beaver dam we stopped to watch a blue heron fly by overhead. The vegetation all around us was up to our shoulders. I was almost beginning to think we should have brought a machete.

But we pushed our way through. There are no boardwalks here. One false move and you are going to be wearing wet hiking boots for the rest of the day. We managed to make it to the other side without getting too wet though, and once again we were in among the trees.

It seemed like no time before we were passing the sign for site number 528. There were people already on that site so we didn't go down to take a good look at it.

But we could tell, even from a distance, that it seemed to be a pretty nice site out on the point.

Finally our campsite came into view. Site 529. It was only 3:35 pm. Hiking "51 dots " only took us about 3 hours (not including stops for lunch and breaks).

Our site was pretty nice. There is a great view of the lake. The sound of a loon greeted us as we arrived.

The rocks go right down to the water. The lake bottom doesn't seem to be gooey and muddy, but since a cool wind was up and we were too tired, we didn't go in for a swim to test that theory out. It looked like a good place to swim though.

The only down side to this campsite is that you can see the neighbours on the other campsite across the water from you. They were far enough away I guess, but you could still see them there most of the time. It was a little disappointing. But we did have privacy for the bathroom this time!

For one thing, there was a huge boulder acting as a wall between the campsite and the thunder box. Plus, the thunder box was off the beaten path a little.

We got water and then we put up our tent. We chose a location that was not in direct view of our neighbours.

As I was unpacking I came across a little hitchhiker. It was what I know as a shield bug. What I didn't know at the time is that this is also known as the "Green Burgundy Stink Bug" and if disturbed it could let off a foul smell. But I guess I didn't disturb it because I did not experience any foul odors from it.

Once we were set up, we did a little exploring of the area. We were pleasantly surprised when Heather found 2 folding chairs stashed beside a bush near the fire pit. When you are backpacking, you don't bring chairs with you, so we felt spoiled to be able to sit in these ones for the evening.

We saw a rather large toad. There have been quite a few toads on this hike. Mostly tiny, baby ones. You had to be very careful not to step on them while you were hiking. This one was much bigger in comparison.

Supper tonight was re-hydrated Kraft Dinner. Every day we have a different hydrated food in a container attached to our backpacks. We just add water in the morning and carry it around all day. By the time it is supper time the water has soaked in to the food and we are able to cook it and eat it. It's a simple way to carry in meals that are light weight.

We also dehydrate foods that we don't need to cook or add water to, like these dehydrated raspberries. Sometimes we make beef jerky or fruit roll-ups using real fruits.

We dumped our Kraft Dinner into a cooking pot made from a coffee can and some wire. We cut up some beef jerky to mix in with it and give it more flavour. It may not have been high end cuisine, but it hits the spot when you have been hiking for hours.

The previous campers not only left us some chairs, but they left us some wood too. So we used it to cook our supper. We didn't burn it all. We left some for the next campers too. We sat around the fire and watched the fish jump in the lake. There were a whole lot of fish jumping at this spot. One would jump probably every minute or so; and that isn't even an exaggeration!

The loon that had called to us when we first arrived swam closer to us so we could watch it while we ate our meal.

Then a beaver slapped it's tail on the water not too far away from us. It sounded like a loud crack. Not long after that it it swam right by us.

Then sun was going down and the bugs were coming out. We put our food up in the tree just as the bugs were getting really bad. We had to escape into the tent to avoid them.

Inside the tent we played Quirkle for awhile. But we had to put our game on hold while Heather made a trip to the bathroom. When she stepped out of the tent, she called out to me "Dana! You have to see this!" In the sky the moon was big and orange. The reflection of the moon on the lake made it look almost like there were two moons. It was very beautiful. We both grabbed our cameras and hoped that the pictures would turn out ok in the dark. The cameras did capture the image but didn't do it justice.

We weren't expecting rain so we decided to leave the solid door of the tent open and sleep with just the screen door up so we could see the moon. It was such a lovely night.

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Art in the Park and Counting The Dots

7/29/2018

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The morning was beautiful and quiet. We couldn't hear any of the sounds you usually hear in a campground setting. There were no kids yelling, no loud talking or sounds of nearby campers moving about. There wasn't even the sounds of the noisy flocks of crows and other birds that you hear in a campground. It was so quiet that it almost seemed as though we were already on the trail. It is so peaceful here.
We ate breakfast and got ready to go to the art exhibition. We decided we would come back to the campsite to get our backpacks later. We made a quick stop to the bathroom before we went. Outside the bathroom was a little girl and her parents and they were looking up at the green roof of the bathroom. Tucked in under a ledge was a little nest with two baby birds quietly waiting for their mom and dad to come back and feed them. They were so quiet that if the little girl hadn't been pointing them out to her parents, I never would have known they were there.

By 10:30 a.m. we were off to the art exhibition and sale. The show was much bigger than I had expected. Apparently they host this show annually and if you happen to be around one year while it is on I highly recommend that you stop in to take a look. And bring some money because I am sure there are things you will want to buy. I certainly wished I had more money on me at the time, that's for sure!

This section of the park was filled with rows and rows of tents filled with fantastic works of art.

One of my favourite booths was that of Ted & Sheri Oosterlaken who made gorgeous concrete furniture. I bought a couple of cement coasters from them. One day I hope to buy a bigger commissioned piece from them. I will leave their website address right here so that I ( or you) can find them again. :)
http://www.tuscanyconcrete.com/index.html

Heather and I instantly fell in love with an oil painting of some storm clouds over the mountains done by Rick Phieffer. Heather is going to save up so that she can buy it from him.

I spoke for awhile to David Dossett who paints on the screen of screen doors. He has a little shop in the town of Kingston which is hidden down a little alley.

Heather bought a couple of prints of a moose from the artist Gerry Wright. (Sorry my photo is pretty blurry and does not represent his work very well at all... but you get the idea. For better pictures of his work, click on the link below)
https://galleryraymond.com/artists/gerry-wright/

Every one of the artists here were very talented. If you are interested in art, then here is a list of the artists that attended the exhibition and their websites.
https://www.bonechofriends.ca/art-exhibition-and-sale-2018

Since we were in the middle of the park, there were no ATMs or debit machines. So to purchase something with a card, the artist would write down on a slip of paper, the piece of artwork that you wanted and the price. Then you take the paper down to the park's gift shop (which is a cute little cabin in the woods) and pay for it there. Once you have paid for it, you take the receipt back to the artist and then you can get your art. We did this for Heather's moose prints.

On the wall inside the gift shop was a wall decoration of "Mazzie" the local lake monster. I didn't even know they had a lake monster until I saw this.

More art was for sale inside the gift shop. I don't think any of it was from the same artists in the exhibition.

This print caught our attention. There are a number of hidden animals in it that you have to find, Where's Waldo style. This piece is called "Spirit Path" and is done by Blake Richardson. You can find more of his Earthprints as well as his Earthen Sculptures on his EarthArt website:
https://blakerichardson.com

I bought a new compass and a nifty grey and blue Bon Echo T-shirt. The prices of the T-shirts were pretty reasonable here. Heather was going to buy a hat for the trip because she forgot hers at home, but the ones she was looking at either only came in children's sizes, she didn't like the looks of them or they were a bit too pricey. So she didn't buy one.

The gift shop is also where you can buy tickets for the boat that takes you to see the pictographs on the cliffs and to the cliff top trail on the other side of the lake. But we didn't have time for the boat. that will have to be another day.

Directly across from the gift shop is the Visitor's Center. There used to be an Inn in the park before it burnt down decades ago. The Visitor center is a cabin from the original inn.

They had a diorama of the original inn inside. It looked like it was a pretty grandiose building at one time.

There was a young lady on staff there who told us a bit about the place. She said that somewhere in the cabin the previous owner had carved "Dollywood" into the boards somewhere. She was going to show us but she got side tracked by other people before she had a chance. But, not before she gave us a map for our backpacking trail. Up until this point we were having difficulties finding a map. All the brochures and such had information on the trails but no map. We were thrilled to get a map and were even happier to find that it was made of water resistant paper. But even this map did not have the distances from site to site in it. We know that the whole trail is about 19 km, but we didn't know the breakdown of those distances.

After picking up Heather's moose prints from Gary Wright, we went back to our campsite and packed up. We had to be off the site by 2 p.m. and we made it by a hair. We were off the site at 1:50 pm and headed to the park office to register for the Abes and Essens hiking trail.

The guy at the office asked us the usual questions "What colour is your tent? What is your license plate number?" etc. Then when he had us all registered he gave us two permits; one for the car and "one for the post on your site"......We said thanks and then left. On our way out the door, Heather and I said to each other "There are posts at each back country campsite? That's different." There actually isn't any posts in the back country campsites. I think the guy just has a little blurb rehearsed and he says it so often that he didn't click in that we wouldn't have a post to put it on.

We had to drive back a fair distance the way we had come to get got to the parking lot at the trail head. We finally got there at about 2:25 pm. Since the first site that we had reserved is closest to the end of the trail instead of the beginning, we were going to be doing the trail backwards. This meant that we had to walk a little ways up the road with our backpacks on before we even got to the trail. But it also meant that when we came out of the bush on the last day, we would come out just across the road from our car.

We stopped to check out the trail head sign and map and then we began our hike. The Abes and Essens Trail has 3 loops. The shortest loop is Clutes Lake loop, followed by the Essens loop and then the Abes loop. So the first part of our journey is hiking the Clutes trail. We were happy to finally begin.

The trail itself was extremely well kept, wide, and easy to maneuver. In my opinion, this is a perfect trail for beginner backpackers. It's not very strenuous with the exception of a few uphill climbs from time to time.

We were only in the bush for a minute or so when we were swarmed by mosquitoes. And I mean swarmed. I counted about 15 on Heather as she walked and a whole bunch more flying around her. It was bad enough that we actually had to stop and put on long sleeves and spray some bug spray (and I rarely use bug spray).
I was already thinking that if the bugs were going to be this bad then I was probably going to be miserable for the whole trip. What had I gotten myself into? We realized that the reason for so many mosquitoes was because we were passing right by a marshy area on our left.

Fortunately, the further into the woods we went and the further away from the marshy area, the fewer the mosquitoes. After about 5 to 10 minutes there were no mosquitoes at all. And the wind picked up a bit so that also helped.

One of the things I like best about this trail is that, for about 3 quarters of it, you have some sort of view of a lake as you are walking.

Where the Clutes meets up with the Essens trail there is a cute little boardwalk bridge. It is the perfect place for a picnic lunch because there are plenty of open spaces to put a picnic blanket down or sit on some rocks and it is very scenic.

There is a little pond on one side with a whole lot of water lillies.

As well as a bunch of white Buttonbush flowers. Buttonbush is a swamp/marsh shrub. It likes to grow where there is water all or most of the year. Most people don't get to see this shrub because of this.

The area near the bridge was so nice that a little garter snake was enjoying it too.

After a short break we started down the second loop of the trail; the Essens Lake loop.

When you weren't looking at a lake, you were often times looking at a marsh of some sort.

It wasn't too long before we got to site # 526.

It is a beautiful site. But as nice as it was, it wasn't our site. Ours was number 527. According to the map it wasn't too much farther ahead, but we stopped here momentarily anyways so that Heather could use the bathroom. It was not very easy to find on this site. Despite this, I think that this site was one of the nicest ones on the trail. If I were to reserve again in the future, I would try to get this site.

Someone left a frying pan behind at site 526. I can only imagine that either they forgot it or that it was too heavy to carry. A frying pan on a backpacking trip is not something that seasoned backpackers usually bring. Could be a day tripper who left it behind though.

And someone also left a green, plastic, water bottle behind, hanging above the fire pit, instead of taking their garbage out with them.

Our site was just over the ridge. The signs for the sites here are bright orange easy to see. There is no confusing which site is which, like the problem we had at Pukaskwa.

And the campsites all have picnic tables! Now that's glamping for backpackers!

Our site was pretty nice too. It was big and it had plenty of shade. There were really only two downfalls to it. The first was that it was up on the top of a hill. That meant going down a large hill to get to the water.

It was definitely an incline but not so steep that we feared we would roll down the hill or anything like that. There were some nice big boulders to sit on at the bottom.

And once you were down the hill there was a beautiful view of Lake Essens.

The second problem with the site was the thunder box. As difficult as the bathroom was to find at site 526, we had the opposite problem with ours. Our thunder box was in full view of anyone who happened to be walking down the trail. The trail runs right through site 527. You had to just cross your fingers and hope that no one was hiking past when you needed to go pee.

When we got to our campsite, we didn't even set up camp right away. We took off our packs and went into the lake for a swim. The water churned up little bits of debris when you stepped into the shallow end of it, but the water was warm and it was nice.

After a swim, we set about setting up camp. As we were doing this a guy and a girl hiked by from the opposite direction that we had been travelling in, and each was carrying a grocery bag. They told us that they had gathered up a grocery bag each of garbage from the campsite they had passed through awhile back and they were taking the garbage out with them. We were all disappointed that anyone would leave garbage out there like that. We thanked them for cleaning up because it was where we were headed tomorrow and it would have been us trying to carry the garbage out with us from site to site.

While we continued to set up a new girl came by. She didn't say anything but headed straight over to use the thunder box. As, I mentioned, the thunder box is in full view of everyone near by. So we saw her reach the box and then stand there and look at it for a moment or two deciding if she wanted to use it. Heather and I looked away out of politeness, but it didn't matter because she changed her mind and came back up towards us to the main trail.
We asked her if she was staying on site 526 and she said yes and that she was staying there by herself. I told her that there was actually another bathroom close to her site, but she would just have to search a little for it. We also told her that it had way more privacy than ours did. She seemed pretty happy to hear this and she went back to find her own thunder box.

After we were all settled in and set up, Heather pulled out the map to see if we could figure out how many kilometers we had to travel tomorrow. There were no kilometers listed on any of the maps we had found so far and this one was no different. We knew the entire trail was about 17 kilometers, but we didn't know the breakdown of the kilometers from campsite to campsite. Looking at the map we figured we did about 2 km today. So Heather counted all the dots on the map. She said "We traveled 22 dots today and we will travel 51 dots tomorrow". I chuckled at our newly found form of measurement. From what she gathered, every 8 dots seemed to be a kilometer. So tomorrow we would be travelling just over 6 kilometers to site 529.

For supper we had stew that we had been re-hydrating in plastic containers we had been carrying on the side of our packs all day. We would need more water for tomorrow so we got out Heather's brand new Platypus that she got for her birthday and we cleaned some water. I think I will invest in one of these myself one day.

We explored the area a bit and noticed that the bases of almost all the trees were charred black.
It looks like there was a forest fire here at one point. I don't think it was this year, there is too much green under brush here.

Perhaps it was a controlled burn. Whatever the case, this little toad didn't seem to mind that he was sitting on a charcoal tree base.

The evening was fantastic. It wasn't too cold and it wasn't too hot. The site has a good amount of shade but still enough sun. It looks even prettier in the evening than it does in the daytime.

We gathered wood for a fire and we hung our food in the tree. There are no bear bins on any of the sites on this trail.

We started a fire after dusk (around 9 pm). We didn't make a very large fire because we didn't want to stay up all night to tend to it. It was just enough of a fire to say we had one.

It was a gorgeous evening. The moon was out and Venus was big and bright and setting in the sky. We sat and enjoyed the peacefulness of the evening. Eventually we headed into the tent and played a game of Quirkle or two until we were too tired. It had been a good day and we were looking forward to seeing what tomorrow would bring.

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Forest Fires Force A Change In Plans

7/28/2018

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It was a very bad year for forest fires in Ontario this year. We have come to expect them in the western provinces every summer, but this year Ontario was hit so bad that they called in back up fire fighters from other provinces, the USA, and Mexico. Much of the province was on fire all at the same time. As a result, there were fire bans, and in our case the backpacking trail we were supposed to hike in Algonquin Park (Achray Campground) was closed to the public. This meant a last minute change in plans for our trip. So we scrambled to find any last minute places to go backpacking that weren't already reserved and were not in the burn areas. As you can see from the map below, this was no easy task. (Screen Capture of the fires from the Ontario website was taken a week or two after the trip. The grey areas are fires that are no longer burning. Yellow is new fires and orange is active fires. At the time of the trip, most of the grey areas were yellow or orange).

After a couple days of searching the internet, my sister, Heather, and I decided upon the Abes and Essens Trail in Bon Echo Provincial Park. Southern Ontario, where Bon Echo is located, did not get hit with the fires. At least not to the degree that northern Ontario has. There were still fire restrictions but at least the forest wouldn't be burning all around us. It was one of the few places left to go backpacking without having to drive crazy amounts of hours to get there. So, we phoned and cancelled at Algonquin and reserved our sites on the Abes and Essens Trail. We planned to stay the first night in the campground at Bon Echo Provincial Park and then head out on the trail the next day.
We left home at 12:30 pm with all of our gear packed into the car. We knew the general direction to go for the most part and Heather had written down the directions using a pen and paper. But once we got off the main highway and headed south we decided to use the GPS on our phones, or as Heather likes to call it "Lady Google".
Fair warning to all, DO NOT TRUST LADY GOOGLE! Every time we turned around Lady Google was trying to lead us off the main highways and down all the back roads. If we had relied solely on her instead of using her as just a bit of a reference, we would have added an extra hour or two to our trip. And for some reason she does not want you to travel down highway 41. So Heather was the navigator and I just drove and let her and Lady Google battle it out.
For the most part it was sunny but at one point there was a rain storm with a down pour so heavy that we had to pull off to the side of the road and wait for a bit until it passed. We were the first to pull off the road but we weren't the only ones to do this. About 3 or 4 other cars ahead and behind us did the same.
Soon enough we were driving in the sunshine again and we eventually made it to Bon Echo at about 5:30 pm.

When we got to the office we were happy to hear that the fire ban had just been lifted! I guess that down pour of rain we had did the trick!
While we were at the office checking in, we noticed a sign for an Art event being held July 27, 28, and 29 from 10 am to 4 pm. We decided that before we start backpacking the next day, we would go and check that out. We knew that we only had to go about 2 km the first day so we had plenty of time to see the art work before we went.

There are two campground areas in the park. There is the Mazinaw campground and the Hardwood Hills section. We got site 499 in the Hardwood Hills section. It was one of the only sites left when we had reserved it. The road leading to Hardwood Hills is nice and wide but it is also fairly long and it feels like you are driving forever to get there. The park has a very "woodsy" feel to it. By that I mean that the underbrush is thicker than at many of the parks I have been to. This makes for great privacy in your campsite.

We were amazed to see how big our campsite was. It was huge! We could have had an army of tents on this site! And we had a bathroom just in front of our site. Of course there are pros and cons to this. On the one hand its nice to have a bathroom close by, but on the other hand the bathroom is just an outhouse and when the wind shifted, you could smell it. Luckily the site was so huge and our tent was at the far end of it so we didn't smell it over where our tent was.

Once the tent was set up and we had our packs sorted and ready to go for the next day, we ate supper. It is our usual tradition to buy a small pre-cooked chicken to eat for supper on the first night since from then on after we would only be eating dehydrated food. So we had chicken and macaroni salad.
After supper we took a walk to explore what we could of the campground before it got dark. This park has a number of walk-in sites. We didn't get to see them up close because we didn't want to go traipsing through other people's sites, but we did get a sneak peak as we walked through the designated parking area for those sites. From what little we could see, they didn't seem all that impressive.

We located the comfort station . It could use a bit of updating on the inside but it was OK. At least it had a pop machine outside the door. Heather wanted to come back here later in the evening to take a shower and so that we could get a cold drink form the pop machine.

So we walked back to our campsite and relaxed for a bit and had coffee and hot chocolate. A little later we drove the car back up to the comfort station. The bathroom was very muggy so someone had propped the outer door open. As I waited for Heather to take her shower, I saw a little mouse pop it's head in the door way and take a look at me real quick before it scurried away into the woods.

Heather said that the showers were hot....too hot! To the point where she that if she had any children with her she would not let them shower there in case they got scalded. . She said that it got even hotter when anyone flushed the toilets.

On the way to the car we stopped for a drink at the pop machine. There was one button that we called the "mystery drink". The label on top looked like it could be Brisk Iced Tea. But underneath you could see another label for some sort of Dole fruit juice. Heather took a chance and put her money in and bought the mystery drink.

And it was a Dole Apple Juice! I never would have guessed. I thought for sure it would be the Brisk Iced Tea.

Back at the campsite we played Quirkle for a couple of hours. The night was a bit chilly. We could see our breath. So the mosquitoes were not out, but we were joined by a few other insects like a teeny tiny shad fly.

And a Robber fly (also known as an Assassin fly). Of course at the time I hadn't read up on this fly and I thought nothing of it hanging out on my hand. Once I got home and looked it up I found out that " Robber flies deliver a painful bite, so be careful with them. They don’t “go after” humans, but if you mishandle them, they might bite. Their bite, adapted for their predatory lifestyle, injects digestive enzymes and a painful venom. If one lands on you, don’t slap it — instead, brush it lightly away". Had I known I would probably have been a little more panicky about it being on me. But it never bit me or Heather so all was well.

It was lights out around 11:30 pm. That's a pretty early night for me, but we were wanting to get a good nights sleep because we were anxious to get started the next morning on the Abes and Essens Trail.

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Old Walt and the Pictographs

Plans Gone Awry

"Vinegar!"

Leap Frogs and A Search For Bears

Momma Loon Teaching Baby Loon

Beaver Dam And Fire In The Middle of the Trail

Art in the Park and Counting The Dots

Forest Fires Force A Change In Plans

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