It was the sound of the crows that woke me up on this chilly September morning. It was 6:15 a.m. and I wasn't wanting to be awake yet. Eventually they moved further down to some other part of the park and things got quiet again. I fell back to sleep for a bit. When I awoke the second time I could see the outlines of leaves that had fallen on my tent. Then I realized that one of those outlines was not a leaf. It was moving. I was pretty sure it was the outline of our little (or should I say big) friend the European Hornet. I got dressed and went outside to take a better look. Sure enough, there was our "Gentle Giant" back again. I watched it for a bit. It was in no hurry to go anywhere, It was probably too cold. Every time I came close with the camera it would rear the front half of it's body up. When I stepped back it would sit back down again. I did this a couple of times and it repeated the motion each time. I couldn't leave it on my tent though because we were leaving today and the tent will be taken down and packed up. So I took a long stick and scooped it up and moved it over to an out of the way place on a fallen log. 

Carsten and Penny weren't awake yet so I decided to go for a walk down at the picnic area. It was quiet and empty with only the sounds of a White-breasted Nuthatch breaking the peaceful silence. 

There were purple asters dotting the edge of the woods. 

And there were " Butter-And-Eggs" flowers lining the edge of the rocks. 

Floating in the water was some strange sort of plant matter. I fished it out to have a better look at it. I still don't know what it is. I threw it back into the water to let the current take it where it may. 

Out on the lake I could hear the Canadian Geese calling out to each other. Then I witnessed something I had never seen before. A flock of geese was heading south in the usual V shape when a smaller group of about 6 or 7 Canadian Geese came towards them from the other side of the lake going in the opposite direction. 

I watched as they met up with each other and then seemed to almost suspend their motion as hover in mid-air as the smaller group rearranged themselves and fell into formation alongside the larger group. Soon they were one big flock and they continued on together; migrating south for the winter. 

I heard some more commotion out on the lake and saw 3 Cormorants come in for a landing. Many birds were here for a rest on their journey south. 

When I got back to the camp, Carsten and Penny were up and eating breakfast. I joined them in a quick bite to eat and then we got to work tearing down the tents. I was completely taken by surprise when I started rolling up my tent only to find that a frog had been hiding out underneath it! I hope that I hadn't squished him while I was sleeping. He didn't seem hurt or troubled in any way so I guess he was all right. 

Frogs were not the only friends we found while packing up. I came across a small spider with pretty off white colouring to it on the outside of  dining tent. I am used to seeing boring old brown spiders all the time so I was surprised by the off white colour of this one. I don't know what kind of spider it is. Looks to be some type of Sac Spider. (The picture makes it look to be much bigger than it actually is...it wasn't a really big spider. Maybe the size of my pinky finger nail). 

Once the cars were all packed up and we were ready to go, we decided to make one last stop at the outdoor amphitheater to see it in the day time. When we got to the top of the stone steps and stood quietly enjoying the peacefulness of the place, I could hear a faint sound that I couldn't quite figure out what it was. It sounded almost like drops of water falling into a cistern or something. I asked Carsten and Penny "Do you hear that?" I moved very slowly and very quietly in the direction it was coming from. I was moving quietly  because the sound was so quiet that even the sound of my foot steps would drown it out. When I discovered what it was I was glad that I had been walking so slowly and quietly. 

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted some movement. Then I realized it was a partridge!  I was happy to get the opportunity to get this close and get a picture because usually the only time you see them is as they are flying away because they spotted you first and you got too close. 

As I was watching the grouse, I noticed more movement slightly off to the left and was surprised to see a second partridge! I could hear it cooing to the other one and realized that this was the sound I had heard. The partridge were not concerned that we were there at all. They were preening themselves and just hanging out. 

As Carsten tip toed towards where I was he whispered "There's another one!"  The closer we looked around the more we saw. There was a fourth ...and then a fifth...and then a sixth! There was a whole flock of them! My sister, Heather, likes to call them "Forest Chickens" and here we were with a whole flock of Forest Chickens so close to us that we could have almost reached out and touched them. It was amazing! 

After watching them for a bit we moved away towards the amphitheater and to have a look around. We figured that we would give the partridge their space. 

But the partridge decided that if we were going to move away then they were too. And they headed towards the amphitheater as well. Now they were no longer hidden in the leaves and under brush. They were walking around right out in the open. 

Even out in the open, I couldn't get over how well camouflaged they were. They are experts at blending in to their surroundings! 

This little chipmunk did a pretty good job of blending into his surroundings too. Not as good as the partridge, but still pretty good. 

Eventually we left the area and went to take a look around children's playground that is just down the road from the amphitheater. 

We adored the little chipmunks on springs that were there. We used to play on toys similar to these when we were kids. 

So we couldn't resist taking a ride on the chipmunks for old times sake. 

​Feeling very lucky to experience a flock of partridge, we were in high spirits as we left the park. It had been a fantastic weekend and we really enjoyed our stay here. Even the cloud in the sky were putting on a show for us today. As I drove the long trip back home I was already thinking about all the places I want to go camping next year. Maybe a second trip back to Charleston Lake Park will be on the agenda. If not next year, then definitely sometime in the near future. 

Music coming from the neighbouring campsite at 7:30 in the morning is not how we like to be woken up in the morning. But there it was, pulling us out of our foggy dream state into the harsh reality of the chilly morning air. Not long enough that I couldn't go back to sleep though. And not nearly as loud as the car alarm that went off at 10:00 in the morning.The music was bearable but the car alarm was not. I panicked at first thinking it was my car alarm because mine had been giving me a hard time as of late. But as I grabbed my key fob and clicked the button over and over I soon came to realize that it wasn't my car alarm going off. I almost wish it was because at least then I could turn the never ending assault on our ears off. After a full 2 minutes or so of this incessant noise, someone finally came and turned it off. Well, I am awake now. No going back to sleep. Probably for the best. There was a lot we wanted to do today and it was time to get the day started. 

Even site 323 and 325 looked nice. But we were already settled in where we were and we were not about to pick up and move. 

Behind the bathroom was a little path that led from the road to the beach. 

The beach had a nice little change house. You don't always have a change house available in provincial parks so this was nice to see. 

The beach was sandy, clean, and looked like a good place to swim. Of curse it was too cold at this time of year to do so. 

As we strolled along the waters edge we could see a hawk flying quietly above our head.

At the opposite end of the beach (the end that our campsite was closest to) was the entrance to the pet beach and picnic area. 

It is a nice open area with plenty of room for dogs and people. 

The various picnic tables had little BBQs near by. 

It was a cozy little spot near the edge of the water and shaded by the cedar trees. There were no other people around which made it a pretty peaceful place to sit and do some bird watching. 

The water was very clear and clean and you could see right down to the bottom of the lake. 

There were three trails that I wanted to hike while we were here. One had unique rock formations and a rock shelter, one had a board walk, and one had a very long wooden bridge across an expanse of water. There are many other hiking trails in the park but those were the three that interested me most. Of course we wouldn't have time to hike them all so we chose the Sandstone Island Trail to start with and figured we would figure out the rest from there. 

At the trail head there is a place to pick up an informational brochure and map of the trail. You can borrow the map for the hike and replace it when you are done or you can pay 50 cents to keep it. 

We chose this trail as the first one to hike because it promised to have some interesting rock formations to see. Also, we had read that the park was home to a rare pine tree called a "Pitch Pine". After hiking many hikes through various parks sometimes you feel like one hike is the same as the next. So before we set off I said a little prayer asking God to let us see some interesting wildlife. To please let me see something I had not taken a photo of yet, like maybe a porcupine (which I had wanted to see in the provincial parks for a few years now.... that and a moose). He did not disappoint! The hike was fantastic and almost right away we started seeing the unusual rock formations. This was just the beginning. In particular I was looking forward to the rock shelter that was to come. 

We were amazed to see a tenacious tree growing out of the sides of the rock with no soil to bury it's roots under. Instead, it's roots climbed upwards and reached inside the cracks and crevasses of the rock. 

There were a number of these trees growing from the sides of the rock. At first it looked like the trees were dead and had been blown over by the wind, but with further inspection we noticed that they were very much alive with green leaves growing from their branches. 

We traveled a nicely groomed path under the cedars. We were on the look out for the Pitch Pine the whole way. ​ We were hoping to spot one on this trail, however, we really weren't sure what we were looking for exactly. 

A section of the trail opens up so that you can see the lake and the docks of the boat launch area. 

There were signs that a beaver had been here a long time ago.

Some of the trees had bark that was raised in a braided pattern. We wondered if these might be Pitch Pines. But as we found out after some research when we got home that they were not. 

From time to time along the trail we would come to metal posts with numbers on them. These places were where we could stop to read the information provided in the brochure we had picked up at the trail head. 

We read in the brochure that some of the rocks in front of us were about 43 million years old. I went up and touched the rocks and then came back down and said to Carsten with a chuckle, "I just touched something that was 43 million years old!" 

Soon we were climbing some rock steps up to a weathered, carved out section of rock wall, with an over hanging rock ledge.

This is the remains of  Paleozoic Seas.

This carved out section of rock ran for quite some distance. 

Finally it came to where the rock shelter was. This was a place where over the course of history many first nations people, as well as explorers have taken refuge from storms. There have been old artifacts found here such as arrowheads and musket balls. 

There is one place where the rock looks almost like the foundation of a square building perched upon a cliff of boulders. And yet the whole thing is naturally made and not man made. 

Then we came to an area that had a little cave. All around the outside and up inside the mouth of the cave were large amounts of porcupine scat. My excitement mounted as I looked all around and shone a light inside to see if my prayers were answered. Was there a porcupine holed up inside here?  I was disappointed to find that there wasn't. At least not at this time. But it was clear that a porcupine does frequent here quite often. There weren't any porcupines  in the near by trees either. 

A little further on we came across a larger cave. It wasn't big enough to stand up in, but by crouching down I could still go inside. And so I did. 

Inside was plenty more porcupine scat, and a little birds nest built into the side of the rock wall. 

I spent a minute or two inside looking around before I came back out to where Carsten and Penny were waiting for me. 

We continued on and came across a large red and black centipede crossing the path in the morning sunlight. 

Once again we saw trees that were clinging for dear life to the side of the rock face. These trees had no intention of ever giving up. 

The way the trees were growing here was just as interesting as the rock formations. But still we did not see any Pitch Pines. 

It was interesting to see all the different types of layers in the rock walls. 

Next we came to a towering formation of rock that was curved and in the shape of a semi-circle as though a giant pipe had been split in half and left standing. Reading the brochure, we discovered that this formation is all that is left of an ancient waterfalls that has long since dried up. 

In another place we looked way up above us through the branches of the trees to see a large, flat, platform of rock jutting out over the edge of the cliff like someone had taken a stone table top and laid it across two rock structures. 

All around us were beautiful rocks, trees, birds, flowers and insects like this Hickory Tussock Caterpillar. As beautiful as this caterpillar is, you should remember never to touch one. This caterpillar can leave behind venom that can cause a rash similar to that caused by nettles or poison ivy. Symptoms can range from slight reddening of the skin to a burning sensation with swelling and pain. Some people may experience an allergic reaction which could include nausea.

The woods were filled with Goldenrod flowers.

We came to the Lookout where there were two little benches.  The Lookout was a little overgrown but you could still see some of the lake through the trees. We sat in the benches for a rest for a bit. Carsten said that he thought he could hear a porcupine chewing way up in the pine tree above our head, but I never saw one. Nor did we see any Pitch Pines here. 

The brochure talked about the marks that were made in the rock when the glaciers had pushed through this area. The marks reminded me of birch bark.

I managed to get a quick pic of a Hairy Woodpecker flitting from tree to tree in search of an insect meal. 

Nearer to the end of the trail we reached number 12 on the brochure. The interesting rock formations were long behind us and we had walked quite awhile at this point without seeing much to catch our eye so we were happy to stand here and listen while Penny read aloud from the brochure about how this was the remains of the foundation of an old homestead. As we stood there listening I just happened to look up into the trees above us. 

And lo and behold there was a juvenile porcupine sitting in the tree above us!  Prayers answered! 
By now I had given up on seeing a porcupine because we were no where near the rock caves with the porcupine scat. So seeing this little guy hanging out up in the tree made my heart smile. 

The porcupine wasn't the last bit of wildlife we saw before finishing the trail. We came across a Woolly Bear caterpillar. 

And we saw a garter snake dashing off through the leaves to the safety of  a fallen tree. 

We had spent 2 hours on this very enjoyable hike. This was a really good trail and we highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in unique rock formations. 

We headed back to camp and had a quick bite to eat for lunch. While we rested we saw yet another Hickory Tussock Caterpillar crawling across the top of Carsten's car. The insect world is getting ready for winter. 

After lunch we knew we had a few hours left before we were to make the drive to Upper Canada Village to go see Pumpkin Inferno later on that night. We didn't have time to hike the 10 km Tallow Rock Trail with the long bridge. But we did figure we could tackle the Quiddity Lookout Trail which was only 2.5 km. It was a boardwalk trail and I love boardwalk trails so I was eager to go. Besides who wouldn't want to hike a trail with a name like "Quiddity". 

Before starting the Quiddity Trail we decided to make a pit stop at the bathroom so that we didn't have to rush back part way through. Penny went in one side of the outhouse and I went in the other. Looks like Penny got the better of the two sides because mine had a very large wolf spider situated on the wall right beside the toilet seat.  Now I am not completely afraid of spiders. I am usually OK with them as long as they aren't on me. But this one is bigger than what I am usually comfortable with and I know that wolf spiders can jump if they want to. Nevertheless  decided to swallow my uneasiness and take a chance and sit down with that spider right beside me. 

I never took my eyes off of it the whole time. I slowly sat down and had visions of this spider making a sudden move which would cause me to jump up screaming and dribble pee all over the floor. But luckily it never moved. I probably never peed so fast in my life, mind you. I got out of there as quickly as possible and patted myself on the back for facing my fears and living to tell the tale. 

With that out of the way we began our journey down the boardwalk of Quiddity Trail.

The boardwalk itself was nice looking enough but apparently it didn't hold a whole lot of weight. There was a sign posted saying that there was a maximum of 4 people per span. 

By span they mean that they had painted yellow lines on the bridge and that only 4 people could go between the lines at one time. 

For a boardwalk hike I was kind of expecting more. Maybe it was just the time of year but there wasn't all that much to see. There were no birds or nice flowers really. The scenery was nice enough I guess but not spectacular. 

We were lucky enough to catch sight of a Ribbon snake though. 

Ribbon snakes like to be near the water because much of their diet consists of frogs. That was one thing we did see quite a bit of here, was frogs. 

There were a few Meadow Hawk dragonflies flying around as well. 

Quiddity Trail is an off-shoot trail from Tallow Rock Bay Trail. Make a wrong turn here and you will be doing the 10 km hike instead of the 2.5 km hike. 

It's a nice trail; wide and easy going. A partridge came flying out at us from the bush but disappeared before we could get a picture of it. 

After the hiking through the woods for a short bit we came to another bridge but it was only a tiny little foot bridge. 

At the edge of the foot bridge you could see across the lake though. There was quite a bit of green aquatic plants of some sort growing on the surface of the water. 

Way off in the distance you could see a bunch of Canadian Geese searching for fish and things to eat in the weeds. 

We reached the top of the Quiddity Lookout which was the end of the like for this hike. The trail is not a loop so we had to turn around and walk back the way we came. 

We never did find a Pitch Pine anywhere we looked int he park. But we did see some interesting trees, nonetheless.  It's a shame that they mention there is a rare tree in the park but don't state where you can find them. I suppose if we had asked one of the rangers they could have told us, but we didn't think to do that. 

On the way back to the entrance of the trail we stopped again at the boardwalk hoping to see something of interest. 

All we saw were frogs. Lots and lots of frogs. there were noses here and eyes peeking out there. It became a game for us to see how many frogs we could find. We figured it was like playing "Where's Waldo" except we were playing "Where's Frogo".  

We got back to our campsite with just enough time to have a quick supper before we piled into the car and made the one hour drive to Upper Canada Village to see the Pumpkin Inferno. 

The display of all the pumpkins lit up in the darkness in various shapes was a sight to see.  It was really worth the visit and we really enjoyed it. 

We got back tot he campsite at about 11 p.m.  Before heading to bed we took a quick walk down tot he beach to see the stars. The stars were very bright in the sky and it was refreshing to be able to see them with clarity since they are not as beautiful when you are in the city. At one point we saw a shooting star. 

I tried three times to call for a Barred Owl but was met with only a response of the geese calling and the sound of fish jumping, so I gave up. It was getting chilly now and we were starting to be able to see our breath so we called it a night and headed for bed. It had been such a wonderful day and we all went to bed as happy campers. 

This road trip was for the purpose of going to see "Pumpkin Inferno" at Upper Canada Village near Cornwall, Ontario. We decided to make a weekend of it and to do one last year end camping trip. We chose Charleston Lake Provincial Park because it was the closest Provincial Park to Pumpkin Inferno that was still open at this time of year. 

We had scouted out the sites online ahead of time. We were surprised to see that there weren't many left. Usually at this time of year you practically have the whole park to yourself anywhere else. But not here. This place was pretty busy. From the pictures online we thought that site number 310 would be a nice site.  So when we pulled up to the gate after a long 5 hour drive, we asked for site number 310. 
   Unfortunately once we got to the site we didn't like it. There was not much privacy (but then we found out later that it seems most of the sites here do not have much privacy). It was on quite a steep incline and since my car is a manual, I was having difficulties keeping my car from rolling backwards when I went to turn it on. Luckily the lady in the office had said that if we didn't like the site we could change it and go back to let them know (I suspect she said that because she figured we might change our mind). So we scouted around for one that we liked better. 

We decided on site number 317. It is a corner site right across from a bunch of yurts.The yurts had a whole bunch of kids there with their parents. About 8 to 10 kids would be my guess. We were worried about the noise from a bunch of yelling kids.  We figured that we probably wouldn't even be on our site most of the time anyways, so we took the chance.  But in the end we didn't need to worry. They were well behaved and we hardly noticed they were there. 

We began setting up the tents. I had just bought a brand new 6 person tent (which of course means it only holds 4 people) at half price for an end of the season clearance sale. I was surprised to find that the poles come attached to the tent (which I figure would make it difficult to pack back up again, and I am not sure I would have bought it if I had known). For about $65 taxes in I figured it was a pretty good deal since my last big tent that I owned was on it's last legs and leaked pretty badly. This would be my first foray with this tent and I would have tons of room all by myself in it. 

An added bonus feature to this tent is that is has an air vent in the back of it. No more feeling all stuffy and having no air circulation when it rains. I really like this feature. 

All was going well until Carsten and Penny couldn't find one of the poles to their tent. I figured, no problem, I have a huge tent and we can all use mine.  They did eventually find the pole to their tent but since they had an air mattress and I didn't and there were two of them and only one of me, I let them have my big tent for the weekend while I used their smaller one. It only made sense and I still had plenty of room. 

​I finished setting up before Carsten and Penny so I took a quick walk over to the beach (which was directly across the road from us) to see if I could see the sunset. 

The sun was sinking low, but there were no vibrant colours that you usually get with a sunset. I had to settle for some pretty clouds instead. 

​It was getting dark by the time we finished setting up. We didn't feel like starting a fire so we had a quick bite to eat in the dark and discussed going up to the amphitheater. We are Pokemon Go players and apparently there was a number of Poke Stops in the park; the amphitheater being one of them. 
   As we were getting into the car our new neighbours to the left of us were pulling in and setting up camp. They were three french guys who were putting up their tents in the dark with nothing more that a couple of head lamps. I felt bad for them so as we got into the car I tried to help them by shining my headlights over their way for a little bit.  

We parked the car under a street light that was shining in the parking lot of the amphitheater and then climbed our way up a large set of stairs to the top of a hill. 

At the top of the hill we found our Poke Stop and played our game for a bit. The cell signal was a bit spotty but we managed all right. We spent a few minutes exploring the area in the dark but we decided that we would come back another time when it was daylight so that we could really look around. 

When we got back our neighbours were all set up. And to our dismay, they decided to turn on their music for all the world to listen to. 
Here we were worried about the kids being noisy (which they weren't ....their parents had them all tucked in bed quietly by 8 pm) and instead it was these guys disturbing the peace.   But at about this time it started to rain though so the sound of the rain drowned out the noise of the music and we retreated into the dining tent to play board games. 

After about an hour or so we all of a sudden heard a buzzing noise and saw a HUGE wasp flying around inside our tent. 

And I mean this thing was HUGE! I had never seen a wasp as big as this one before. It was about 2 inches long and half an inch wide. It had some red and amber colouring to it and I thought it must be a queen bee or something. We tried opening all the doors and screening on the tent to get it to leave but it did not really want to go. Carsten eventually got a stick and it climbed onto the stick and he carried outside to a tree little ways away. 
We marveled at how this was the second time this year we have had insects of unusual size flying about our dining tent. When I got home a few days later I looked up this bee on the internet. Turns out to be a European Hornet and is also known as the "Gentle Giant". The drones come out at night and unless you disturb their nest or swat at them, you are quite safe around these gentle giants. They are  "amazingly peaceful animals, even shier than honeybees" as some people describe them. 

When we went to bed at about 11:30 p.m. it was still raining. But fortunately, neither of our tents leaked and we had a good first night at Charleston Lake Park.