It's that time of year again where the girls gather for their annual camping get together. This year we were back in Driftwood Provincial Park. 

There were a few of us missing, but the ones that were able to make it were excited to be there. 

I brought gifts in the form of marshmallow roasting sticks that I had put their names on using a wood burning tool that I bought this year. Wasn't the most beautiful work, but it got the job done. 

Melissa was our official Fire Tender. 

We have been gathering once a year for about 6 years or so now. Over the course of that time we have had a couple of T-shirts made as souvenirs. Anika and Julie both wore theirs on this occasion. 

We helped each other put up tents and get their luggage inside. 

Diana brought some decorative lights to give the sites a nice homey feel to them. 

It was nice to catch up after not seeing each other for about a year. 

The sun was shining and it was beautiful weather for the entire weekend. 

However, for the first time that we have ever been here, we were not able to go into the water because there was blue-green algae.  You could see it floating around as the waves rolled up onto the shore. Despite notices being posted at the Park Office warning people to stay out of the water, we could still see some people swimming. 

Not all algal blooms are harmful. However, all naturally occurring blooms of cyanobacteria have the potential to be toxic. Blooms can appear and disappear within days or even hours, and be non-toxic one day and producing toxins the next. At the mild end of the spectrum, some blooms cause skin irritation if you swim in the water. By ingesting these toxins, health concerns may include:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Numbness of mouth and extremities
• Headache
• Dizziness
• Confusion
• Short-term memory deficits and motor weakness
• Respiratory problems
• Paralysis of the muscles of the chest and abdomen possibly leading to death

They had us at "skin irritation". We weren't taking any chances and decided to stay out of the water. 

Besides, the view from shore was a lovely one. 

Not only that but there were Monarch butterflies feeding off of the milkweed plants all along the shoreline to look at. 

And on the same plants we could also see a number of Monarch caterpillars. 

Actually the various types of caterpillars were quite plentiful here this year. 

We saw Pink-Striped Oakworm Moth caterpillars.

And Rosy Maple Moth caterpillars. There were a lot of those. 

And a couple of little green inch worms. 

Every year that we go to Driftwood we always have to go and look for "Our Log".  It floats in the river all year long and over the course of the winter it moves around. Every year we have to go look for it to see where it ended up. Sometimes it floats quite a ways away and other times it is close to where it was the year before.  After a bit of a walk we found it. Of course we couldn't go in the water to go sit on it but it was nice to just see it. It's like greeting an old friend. 

Once the sun started to go down we began to start thinking about what to eat for dinner. 

Melissa had brought with her a pair of blue welding gloves so that she could put food on the grill and take it off without worrying about getting burnt. 

Ingenious!  Now we are all thinking about going out and getting ourselves a pair of welding gloves for camping! 

And for dessert?  One of the girls tried a new take on S'mores. Instead of using graham crackers, they used a waffle cone. It turned out pretty sweet! 

That night we added some colour changing packets to the fire and watched the colours of the flames dance in the darkness. 

The rest of the weekend was spent mostly around the fire talking, laughing and drinking. 

We didn't mind that there was not a whole lot going on. We were still happy. Doing nothing was all that we wanted to be doing. 

By the end of the weekend we were all a bit hung over, and running on only a little bit of sleep. 

Even our Fire Tender was in need of a nap by this time. 

Looks like we will need a vacation from our vacation.  :)  ​

But we wouldn't change a thing. 

We have a full year to rest up so that we can do it all again.  See you girls again next year! 

The thunderstorm that we were expecting in the night missed us. However, there were severe thunderstorm warnings out for later in the day. The grey clouds in the sky warned us that the thunderstorm wouldn't miss the next time around. 

As Penny and I got out of the tent, we looked over at the campsite across from us. We had heard them packing up to go home about an hour earlier. All was quiet and empty over there. And then, to our dismay, we noticed that something was wrong. Yet another family had gone and left their campfire burning! That made two in two days! I couldn't believe it! It wasn't as large a fire as the day before, but it was far from out. Perhaps the family figured that it was going to rain anyways (big mistake!). I don't know for sure, but needless to say it made us angry. At least this time we had water and containers readily available and we set about putting it out properly. 

Since this would be our last day and my last chance to try to find the white squirrel, I decided to take a walk down to the beach by myself for one last look around. I said a prayer asking to see the squirrel as I made my way down the road. Time was running out and God had never let me down before. I had asked Him to see a porcupine a year or two previous and He delivered. Surely He wouldn't let me down now. 

Down in the driftwood by the shoreline a little sparrow was playing hide and seek. He blended so well with his background that he almost went unnoticed.  

A dragonfly was also pretty good at blending in to its environment. 

I stayed in the quiet peacefulness down by the dock, looking at the purple vetch flowers  for awhile. It was so nice to have left the outside world for awhile and I wanted to capture as many moments of peace as I could before I had to go back. 

Eventually I knew I had to go back up to the campsite and get packed up though. I did one last scan around the trees for the white squirrel. But the only thing peering back at me was that little sparrow.  I was a little disappointed that I hadn't seen the elusive squirrel, but I just told myself that I guess some things are just not meant to be. I resigned myself to the fact that this was one of those times. 

I had reached the top of the hill and was just about to turn the corner on the road to my campsite when I spotted it. Across the road on my left was a white object moving in the trees. It was the white squirrel! It was sitting in a tree eating some beech nuts. My disappointment quickly turned to excitement and I whispered a than-you prayer to God (who once again did not let me down) as I walked slowly and quietly over to where it was. 

By this point I was nervous that I was going to scare it off before I could get a picture. It stopped eating for a second or two and eyed me up and down for a moment. 

I guess it decided that I was nothing to be too concerned about because it just went back to eating. I got a few pictures and then it crossed my mind.... I have to get Penny! Quick!
So I tip-toed away until I figured I was far enough away that I wouldn't scare it and then I ran like the wind. 
I ran to the trailer and grabbed open the door and yelled "Penny!! White Squirrel!!"

Penny came bolting out of the trailer, camera in hand and she followed close behind me as I ran back towards where I last saw the white squirrel. I was really hoping it would still be there. When I got close to where I last saw it I stopped running. Then I started tip toeing again and Penny did the same. Sure enough, the white squirrel was still there! I motioned silently to Penny where it was and pointed it out. She was very happy that she got to see it too! We were able to watch it for a little bit but not for too long. I guess one person watching it was one thing, but two was a bit too unnerving for it. So it climbed further into the underbrush until eventually we couldn't see it anymore. 

We would hear a noise from time to time, but instead we would see just a regular red squirrel. I guess this was a popular tree for the squirrels to eat from. 

After the excitement of the white squirrel, we headed back to our campsite to tear down the tents. The tent we slept in did not have many visitors on it, but the dining tent sure did!  In particular it had one very large spider called a "Dark Fishing Spider" on it. 

There was also a stink bug and some sort of colourful worm-like thing (of which I have no idea what it is).

A Robber Fly was having his breakfast which consisted of a little, green, weevil. 

But the cutest visitor of all was a little Spring Peeper Frog. I usually get insects on the dining tent, but I think this was the first time I ever had a frog on my dining tent. 

Over in the campsite next door, Anika, Julie, and Shelli were packing up the trailer. Of course packing up didn't stop us from having fun while we were doing it. 

We got everything tore down and packed up just in time. As we were getting into our cars the rain started coming down. Not a moment too soon! 
​
It had been another great trip for the Chicks In The Stix and we are looking forward to doing it again next year! 

We had the gathering of the Breakfast Cereal Club in Anika's trailer on this beautiful, sunny, morning. We were all lazy and in our pajamas and loving it! 

The very first thing on my list of things to do today was to go and search for the white squirrel. I went for a walk by myself and started to scan all the trees in the area to see if I could see it. I didn't, but I did see a yellow bellied sap sucker pecking away at his breakfast in a near by pine tree. 

Also in the trees was a yellow and black striped caterpillar. But still no white squirrel. 

The sunshine dappled the ground and a Northern Pearly-Eye butterfly flitted around in the warming rays. 

I often find that if I sit quietly in empty campsites and just wait patiently, the wildlife comes to me. At the end of one of the roads was the group campsite. It was empty all season due to the Covid-19 virus. I figured what better place to sit in silence for awhile and see what would come. Unfortunately, it was a futile effort. Not only did I not see the white squirrel, but I didn't see much of anything. Even the birds and chipmunks weren't interested in hanging out here. All I saw was a little brown Crossline Skipper butterfly. 

Eventually I gave up and made my way back to the campsite to sit with the girls and and talk for awhile. We noticed that there were a lot of chipmunks in the area this year. We had about 5 on our site chasing each other all over the place. We decided to name them. There was "Pokey" who had a spot on his back that we figured looked like he was poked with a charcoal stick (not for real, just the colouring of his fur). "Gumby" was named that just because we had to have a Gumby that went with Pokey (right?). Then there was "Stumpy" who had a short tail (looks like he got into a brawl with something). Next was "Gramps" whose fur was lighter in colour, like he was growing older and grey. And last was "New Guy" (seen in photo below) because, well, he was last to show up (hours after everyone else did). 

As we sat, a little inch worm kept following Julie. She would move and it would start moving along the edge of her chair in the direction she moved in. I think it liked her.

Later in the morning, Shelli asked if we could go and see if our log was still floating in the water down by the river. Our log is one that someone painted a picture of a tree on and we carved our group name into a few years ago. Every year it floats somewhere new in the park, but usually stays relatively close to the sites that we normally occupy. We sit on it and hang our feet into the water. This year, since we are on the Brumm side of the park, it meant that we would have to walk all the way over to the other side of the park to look for it. We didn't mind though. Anika suggested that it would be a good opportunity to scout out other sites that we might like on that side of the park for future gatherings. So we got off our lazy butts and put our chairs away and  went for a walk. I moved Julie's inchworm safely into a nearby tree before we left though. 

So there we were, just enjoying our walk and looking at the Grey Comma butterflies on the road when we encountered an empty campsite with a fire still going in the fireplace. When I say empty, I mean no tents, no human belongings. And when I say the fire was going I mean full on flames about 2 feet high and plenty of smoke. The campers had packed up and gone home and left a fire burning in the fire pit! We had no containers with us to put water in so I went to the nearby water tap and started to fill my hands with water in an attempt to put it out. This would have been a long process. Shelli suggested that we ask the people on the site next to this one for a container to put the water in to put the fire out. 

The people on the neighbouring site were a young couple with their 2 kids sitting down to lunch at a picnic table. When I asked if we could borrow a container for water to put the fire out next door they were very hesitant. The lady responded with "The park rangers were just at that site a few minutes ago and cleared the fire pit".  Clearly she didn't really want to do anything about it. I responded with "Maybe so, but the fire is still going. There are flames coming up". She begrudgingly got up and went to get a container and met us at the water tap. We filled it with water, but she would not let us bring it to the fire. She said that she would do it herself.  We were puzzled by her hesitation and the feeling that we got that we were bothering her with this situation. Afterwards we figured that maybe she was just living in fear of contracting Covid-19 from her encounter with us. At least we were hoping it was just that and not someone who didn't care if the park burned down. 

We left the lady to the task of putting out the fire and continued on our way. 
We had a choice in which way to go to get to the other side of the park. We could take the road all the way around which would be easier to walk but would take a lot longer to get there. Or, we could cut through the group site to one of the hiking trails which would be much faster but the terrain was not as good. We chose the hiking trail. Then, when we were half way down the trail, I remembered a short cut that I saw someone take a year or two previous. I told the girls that if we went down a really big hill that we would be right in front of the campsites that we were on last year and that it would cut about another 20 minutes or more off of our trek. When they saw the hill, they hesitate but in the end they opted to go down the very big, pretty steep hill to get there. 

It wasn't the steepness of the hill that had made them hesitate. It was because they weren't exactly wearing hiking shoes. They were wearing sandals and flip-flops. So, not only was it steep, but at any moment their foot wear could betray them and they could go rolling down the hill. ​Especially since the hill was covered in loose leaves and pine needles. 

But one by one, we all made it down the hill and we were now free to roam the other side of the park looking for our log and other future campsites. 

We walked by happy campers all following the camping rules: relax and unwind, drinking a cold one, napping, visiting with friends, making memories, and being grateful for the day. 

Eventually we spotted our log down by the shoreline. 

The painted tree was a little faded but still clearly seen (considering it had been there longer than our carving had been, it was holding up well). And our group name was still easily visible as well. It was too far out for us to go sit on. Maybe next year. 

We checked out the other sites and looked around. When we got to the end of the road that was closest to the Brumm side of the park, we discovered that there was a little path that led straight to the the  beach right by our campsite. We all had a good laugh at that. If we had known, then we wouldn't have had to climb down the very steep hill. Oh well, it was an adventure. 
So, when we got back, we grabbed our chairs and brought them down to the beach to sit and drink and put our feet in the water. 

Eventually it started to rain, so we left the beach and went back up to the campsite to get supper started. As we walked up the road I was still looking in the trees for the white squirrel. But I didn't see it. We did see a white lady bug when we got to the site though. I had to look this one up online when I got home. Apparently it's a "Fifteen-spotted Lady Bug". 

After supper it started to rain harder. So we moved into the dining tent that Anika and I had decorated in twinkle lights to give it a more cheery feel. 

We played board games for the rest of the evening. When it got late and we headed off to bed, we could hear thunder in the distance. We could be in for a thunderstorm in the middle of the night. At least we had pretty good weather all the rest of the day though. Hopefully we won't have to pack up in the rain tomorrow. 

We go to Driftwood every year for our annual, girls only, "Chicks In The Stix", camping trip.  So, I don't write about our trip every year because it would get boring to read about the same place over and over again. This year, however, things were a little different so I thought this trip was worthy to write about. 

The first thing that was different this year was that we were not able to get our regular non-electrical sites (41 and 42) down by the river's edge. We did our usual booking in March but we were a couple days late this year so we missed out on our favourite sites. Not only that but there were no good sites left along the river's shore at all. So, instead we had to opt for the electrical sites in the RV section of the park. I am assuming this inability to get our regular sites was, in part, because of the other thing that was different this year, which was the Covid-19 pandemic. Seems that with nothing else for people to do, camping was high on their list of places to go. This was also the reason why there was no one allowed to go into the Driftwood Park office this year. Instead, we had to wait outside in a line with the required 6 foot social distance between us to await our turn to go up to the office window to announce our arrival. 

It was in this line up that we learned of what was to become our quest of the weekend.... the search for the white squirrel.  While waiting in line, we met a lady who told us that they had seen a white squirrel near their site. The gentleman she was with showed Penny the pictures they had taken of it while I was watching a butterfly in the sand. I didn't want to get too close and form a "group" so I let Penny look at the pictures. 

I guess there are pros to having an electrical site, even though it wasn't really what we had wanted. Anika and Shelli were able to bring and plug in a coffee maker for their trailer in the morning. Yes, we figured that since this year we had electricity, we were going to do some glamping instead of camping. 
In addition to having electricity, Penny and I noticed something else that was different.... there were hardly any horseflies or mosquitoes! We had just come from Algonquin's Brent campground and the bugs were very noticeable there. But not here. We were able to sit in peace without them buzzing around us the whole time we were at Driftwood. It was not like that at the same time last year, that's for sure. 

Once we set up camp and relaxed a bit, we all decided to walk down to the beach that was just down the road from us. Penny and I looked for the white squirrel along the way, but we didn't see it. 
What we did see, was a beautiful, grassy beach with lots of picnic tables and not a lot of people. It was like we had a huge beach all to ourselves!  Take that people who got our usual campsites on the river's edge! We got the better end of the bargain I think. 

When we came back up from the beach, Julie arrived and we cooked hot dogs over the fire for supper. I wanted to try something new for dessert that I found on the internet this year. They are called "Camping Brown Bears". You take a roll of biscuit dough and break it into small pieces and roll it onto a stick and cook it over the fire (a lot like you would with bannock dough.... Maybe you could even use bannock dough, but I just used the Pilsbury dough). 

Then you take the cooked dough off the stick and spread butter on it so that it melts. Then you roll it in a plate full of cinnamon and sugar. Voila! A brown bear. It tasted all right. It wasn't as sweet as I had expected it to be. But it was good enough to eat. 

We sat around the fire for awhile until most of the girls were ready for bed. Penny and I were not tired yet so we took a walk back down to the beach to look at the stars. Penny had a new app on her phone that can tell you what the constellations are and she wanted to try it out. 

We were surprised to discover the Neowise comet shining brightly in the sky. We didn't know what it was until the app on her phone told us. (The picture below is not mine. It is  one that I photoshopped from "isherman" on pixabay [Thanks isherman!].  Although I tried, my camera would not capture the moment and only left me with a black screen). The Neowise moved very slowly so we were able to watch it for a long time. You could see it's reflection in the water along with the reflection of the stars. Combine that with the blinking of some fireflies and the calling of the loons and it made for a magical evening.

Later that night as I lay in my sleeping bag and thinking about how happy I was to be out camping, I heard the call of a whip-poor-will. Of course I could not get a picture because it was too dark, I thought maybe I was hearing things, but the next morning when Shelli asked if we had heard the whip-poor-will, I knew that I was correct in what I had heard. I find that Driftwood Park has all kinds of birds that you don't often see (or hear in this case) in the other parks I had been to.  The call of the whip-poor-will was the cherry on top of an already great evening. ​ It was a warm and beautiful night. It was perfect. 

I didn't expect to be back here so soon. Especially considering I had just been here only a couple of weeks earlier with a bunch of friends. We just left my sister and her husband at their cottage and were originally going to head straight to Bonnechere Provincial Park. However, due to a misunderstanding with some website information, we were under the impression (at the last minute) that Bonnechere Park was only a day camp. So in order to get to our final destination of the Bonnechere Caves we adjusted our plans and decided to camp at Lake St. Peter Provincial Park with Driftwood as a one night stop over along the way. 

We chose site # 47. It was one that my friends and I had considered reserving for our Girls Retreat camping trip next year, so this was the perfect opportunity to try out the site and see how we liked it. It is big and spacious and located almost at the very end of the road so it was quiet too. 

As we were setting up, we noticed a hawk of some sort flying above us. 

And then there were two. And then there were five. And then there were seven. And then there were ten! We couldn't believe it! We had never seen so many hawks circling in one spot before. We have seen Turkey Vultures do that, but not hawks. 

We happened to have a bird book with us and we compared the picture on our camera (which was really not a good picture) to the ones in the book. We still aren't completely sure but our best guess is that they were either red shoulder hawks or ruff legged hawks

After setting up the tents it was supper time. We didn't get too fancy and we didn't make a fire. We just ate some Zoodles and some trail mix. 

It was nice to have a view of the river as we ate. 

The water was clear and the sun was dancing over the stones and pieces of driftwood.

A little wren came down to join us.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset ,

It didn't take long for the sun to go down.

And then the stars came out. They are so bright and clear when you aren't in the city. There were two planets (Mars and Venus) that were exceptionally bright. One was so bright that it looked almost like a tiny moon hanging over the island on the river.  We made it an early night because we didn't want to sleep in too late the next morning. 

The next morning we woke up to a nice sunny day. We also woke up to the sound of what we first thought was a couple of squirrels fighting with each other in the trees. 

The sound was continuous and shrill and I went to investigate because it was going on for so long.  To my surprise I found out that it wasn't a couple of squirrels making the noise. It was a bird. 

It was a different bird than the ones we had seen the day before. Once again we brought out the bird book and we determined that this bird was a Merlin.  

It stuck around pretty close and whenever a camper walked by or if I came to near to it, the Merlin would fly over to a new tree and yell at us. I think there may have been a nest somewhere near by that it was protecting.  We felt pretty fortunate to be able to see a Merlin up this close in the wild. 

We had a quick breakfast and packed up in no time flat. But before we left the park, Penny and I decided to go to the geocache site that is located in the park. Along the way we bumped into a little baby red-bellied snake. 

After our little hike we headed out and began the next leg of our vacation at Lake St. Peter Provincial Park. 

The last day of our weekend we didn't do too much. We packed up and we put out the fire that we had going to cook our breakfast. We had such a good time that we were already making plans for next year. 

We considered reserving sites 47 and 55 for next year. 

These sites are at the very end of the road and therefore we would have no really close neighbours. 

Plus the sites are quite large and could easily hold all of us. However, we noted that they were a bit too far away from the bathrooms and the showers. So we decided that we will try again next year for sites 41 and 42. This time we will reserve in February instead of in March. If we can't get those sites the we will try to get sites 47 and 55 as our back up sites. 

Shortly after that we said our goodbyes and headed home with happy thoughts of meeting up again next year. 

The next day Penny and I drove in to the town of Deep River to get some dry firewood from a guy who was selling some along the roadside, Not only was the wood dry but we got more of it for what we paid for than we did from the park Office. 

​After that Penny, Julie and I decided to go for a hike on The Oak Highland Trails. This is actually two trails rolled into one. The Riverview Loop is 1 km long and the Beaver Pond Loop is 2.5 km, The Riverview Loop starts down by the boat launch.

The bugs were pretty bad and it was threatening to rain, so we donned our hoodies and headed into the woods.

The trails were fairly well groomed and for the most part were not too difficult to travel on. 

The markers for the Riverview trail are yellow and the markers for the Beaver Pond trail are blue. 

Despite the relative ease of the trail there were still a number of rocky out crops and a number of upward climbs. I guess that is part of the reason for naming the trail The Oak Highland Trail.

After awhile the Riverview Loop joins up and turns into the Beaver Pond Loop. That is when, through the trees, we started seeing groves of old dead birch trees standing out in meadows of marshy grasses.

One of the destination points on the trail is the Look Out.  Compared to the look out on the  "Look Out Trail" that we hiked last year in this park,  this one seemed much more like an actual look out. However, I have seen much better look outs than this one (Killarney Park has fantastic views on their trails). 

But all in all, this was still a nice view after going through the bugs in the thick bushes. We appreciated the breeze and the open space as we had a bit of a reprieve from the bugs if only for a few minutes. 

As we continued down the trail we found some very beautiful flowers, like the Sheep Laurel.

And some Blue Flag Iris

And Bunchberry flowers

There were also Wild Roses.

And even Lady Slippers. All of these flowers made the effort of the hike and the pestering of the mosquitoes worthwhile.  

Along the way we also saw a little brown toad in the leaves.

As we exited the trail we realized that we had started the trail at the end and finished it at the beginning. But the trail head was hidden at the back of a parking lot and was not really labeled as a trail head like the end of the trail was. 

We had to walk a little bit down the road to get back to where we parked our cars. 

When we got back Julie said that she wanted to go check out a geocache site that was back up on the trail. Apparently we had passed it on our hike. I had never been on a geocache excursion before but my uncle Willy had told me about it. So I was curious and wanted to go back into the trail to look for it with her. Penny didn't want to go though. We had parked our car near one of the main beaches and there were some picnic tables available so Penny stayed behind and waited for us at the beach.

On the way back up the trail we passed by a hollow tree. Inside, peeking out at us was a little chipmunk. It was hoping that we didn't see him. We let him be and kept going. 

It didn't take too long to find the geocache.

Inside was a trackable item and some other little trinkets. Julie wrote in the log and took the trackable item with her. This little adventure got me thinking that I would like to start doing this regularly. So a few weeks later I down loaded the app and created a profile under the name Wyvernbrew. 

On the way back out we took a different path than the one we had when we were with Penny. This brought us right past an area that told us why the trail is called the Beaver Pond Loop. 

At one spot there was a post with some information about the beaver pond.

We seemed to be standing below water level here. If we were to go and stand in front of the beaver dam the water level would probably be over our heads, or at least shoulder level.

We met back up with Penny and then headed back to camp to hang out with the rest of the girls. Everyone was just relaxing and some were trying to take a nap. All was well until the campsite next to us decided to turn their music up really loud. It was pretty annoying. It got to the point where I asked one of the guys if he could turn it down. That guy was pretty nice about it but when he went to turn it down some of the other people he was with got upset and became pretty rude about it. They didn't turn the music back up but for a long while we could hear them saying nasty things pretty loudly. It made us wish we had gotten site 41 like we  originally wanted. At least that would have put one more campsite between them and us. It wouldn't have made them any quieter though. We tried to ignore them as best we could and tried not to let it ruin the rest of our day. 

The sun was starting to sink lower as we prepared for supper. 

As we prepared supper we discovered a tiny little white fluff of a bug crawling around on the table. A little research told us that this little guy is a Woolly Aphid. 

Another insect we saw a lot of were fireflies. So when we found a number of these ugly little guys I had assumed that they were firefly nymphs. Turns out that they aren't firefly nymphs, although they do look somewhat similar to them. Instead these were ladybug nymphs. So in time Driftwood will have a healthy population of ladybugs.

We were fortunate enough to see a beautiful sunset.

Once the sun went down and supper was over we went into the dining tent and played board games and had a few laughs. 

Board games turned into shenanigans and there was much fun and laughter to be had. 

We ended the evening by sitting around the fire telling stories. 

Back again to Driftwood Provincial Park for our 2nd Annual Girls Only Camping Trip. We have now affectionately named it "Chicks In The Stix"

Eight women, two nights, and a whole lot of laughter. It was a recipe for fun! We all arrived around 2 pm and began setting up the tents. 

After camping at Driftwood last year, we had planned to reserve sites 41 and 42. However, instead of reserving in February like we had planned, we waited a month too long and reserved the sites in March. Unfortunately by that time site # 41 was already taken (yep, the prime sites go that fast) and so we had to settle for sites 42 and 43. 

Although Heather G. couldn't make it this year, she did loan us her tent that we have now named "Goliath" . This tent is so big that it holds 2 queen sized air mattresses, plus two to 3 more single mats, as well as everyone's gear. On top of that, there was a breeze way entry room where we could put our shoes and a few other items. It's the perfect tent when there are so many of us. 

First order of business was to hand out our custom made "Chicks In The Sticks" T-shirts to each of the attendees. 

The second order of business was to get a fire started. We had bought 2 bags of wood from the Park Office but the wood was pretty wet and it was difficult to start the fire. Once we got it going it was not easy to keep it going. We did all right though all in all. But we made plans to get dry wood for the next day. 

And the third order of business was to break out the snacks. 

The day went by quickly and before we knew it the sun was setting over the river. 

We sat around the fire talking and playing "Cards Against Humanity" until we were too tired to play anymore. Then, we went to the tents and fell asleep listening to the loons in the distance. 

Another beautiful morning. We woke up around 9:30  and lazed around with our coffee around the fire pit. The weather sure had been good to us this weekend. We sat and talked about what a good time we had and discussed some plans for next years gathering. One plan was to reserve a different site early on in the year (maybe as early as February). With this in mind we took a little walk around the park to scope out which sites would be on our list for first choice. We are hoping to have more people next year so we wanted a larger site or maybe even two sites side by side.

When we got back it was time to pack up. The birds were particularly busy with their singing this morning. I scanned the trees looking for them while we packed up. 

At first I didn't see any birds; I could only hear them. But then as I looked closer I could see a couple of woodpeckers close by. 

I had a hard time getting their picture at first so I went to the empty campsite across from us (those campers had left earlier in the day) and just sat quietly for awhile, waiting and hoping they would come closer. That worked and I was able to get a couple of close up shots. 

This is a female Downy Woodpecker. The males have a spot of red on the top of their head.  I read that males and females have separate feeding areas in fall and early winter, with pairs forming by late winter. In winter it often joins roving mixed flocks of chickadees, nuthatches, and other birds in the woods.

I spent quite a bit of time watching the woodpeckers but eventually it was time to go. We really enjoyed our stay at Driftwood and we are looking forward to returning next year for another get together with the "Chicks in the Sticks" girls retreat. 

We woke up at 9 a.m. to a bright and sunny day. We enjoyed our morning coffee and a breakfast of muffins and bacon. The Heathers and I decided that we would go on a hike while the other girls stayed behind to play board games. We looked at the map and planned out our route. We decided to do the first loop of Chevrier Creek Trail (in red) as well as the Lookout Trail (in orange). In total it would be about 3 km. 

So we put on our sunscreen, grabbed some snacks and bottles of water and headed over to the Chevriers Creek Trail head. 

There was a warning sign posted stating that bridges on loop 2,3 and 4 were out but that was ok because we weren't going to go that far anyway.

Loop One begins with a hill right away. We were wondering if this was any indication of how hilly the rest of the trail would be. 

The trail was narrow with underbrush encroaching on the path. 

Once you get tot he top of the hill it levels out and the underbrush thins out. There is a stand of pine trees and you can easily see through the trees. 

The pine trees and pine cones seemed very dry despite the wet weather we have been having for most of the summer. My sister Heather and I were noticing that this trail was not all that remarkable. There were no real points of interest. 

I came across a beetle that I have never seen before. I scoured the internet looking to see what kind of beetle this is. After searching over 40 different pages I finally determined that it is a Flower Longhorn Beetle. 

Eventually Loop One comes back out to the road. You have to cross the road to continue the trail and to get to the Lookout Trail. 

There was no trail head sign for the Lookout Trail; only a little lookout symbol on a small sign on a post.

After crossing the road we could see a picnic table up ahead. The picnic table was where the trail split off in two other directions. If you go left then you continue on loop one and if you go right then you are connecting to the Lookout Trail. 

We decided that we would take a bit of a break there since there was a place to rest. 

We hung out for a bit reading the graffiti on the fence posts.

As well as the graffiti that was under the fence posts. 

Once we were rested we continued on our way down the Lookout Trail. This trail was a little more interesting than the Chevrier Creek trail because it had more deciduous trees that the birds seemed to prefer. There didn't seem to be any birds back in the pines. 

There were plenty of these plants with blue berries on them I do not know what kind of plants they are but we did know not to eat them. 

At one point we came to a wooded area where there were many blue jays and other birds that were singing and just ignoring the fact that we were there. I had been trying for a couple of years now to get a good picture of a blue jay. I thought this would be the perfect time to try. However, blue jays seem to not want to get their picture taken by me. 

Most of the time I can't even get a picture of them without branches and leaves in the way. I thought this time for sure that I had a clear shot. They must be laughing and making fun of me. I am sure of it! 

I had to laugh at this picture because it almost seems as though the blue jay has opened up a portal just above his head so that he can jump through to avoid my camera. 

Looks like this is the best I can do at getting a picture of the elusive blue jay. But one day I will get a really good picture. If it takes me 10 years I will get one! 

This butterfly, unlike the blue jay, wanted to be photographed. It would come close and sit nice and still waiting for it's picture to be taken. 

We saw this strange looking plant with a weird bulb on it. I have no idea what it is. 
​We passed by a little side trail and wondered where it went. But we were still looking for the Lookout so we kept going straight. Eventually we came to another road. we were confused because this is where the trail seemed to stop. We looked up and down the road to see if the trail continued someplace else but it didn't. Then a group of people came out of the trail behind us and they were wondering about the look out too. We all came to the conclusion that we were actually at the start of the trail and that the picnic table we had rested at was the lookout at the end of the trail.  It wasn't really a look out at all. It may have been long time ago but the trees were so tall now that you can't see anything but the trees. 

We turned around and headed back in disappointment. On the way back we decided to check out the little side trail to see where it lead. Turns out that it leads to the parks Group Camping (G1) site. It was only about 35 feet away from the trail. It was huge and empty and we sat for a few minutes enjoying the peacefulness of the place. 

We passed by the so called look out and continued back towards the camp on the last leg of Loop One. Oddly this trail led to a huge clearing. It was a well kept lawn that looked like it could be used for a game of baseball or something. On the other side of the clearing was the road that is very near to our campsite. 

We just needed to climb the steps up to the comfort station and then we would be back to our site. Next time maybe we will try the Beaver Pond trail. Hopefully it will be a little more interesting than these ones were. 

When we got back we had some wraps for lunch. Then we sat around talking for a few hours. Later on in the day we decided to take a stroll down to the other beach that was close to us to see what that one was like. We walked down the road looking for the path to the beach. We knew it must be around somewhere because there were signs saying that there were "no lifeguards".

We passed by racks of canoes that you could rent if you wanted to.  But we still couldn't see how to get to the beach. We just kept walking further and further up the road.

Finally I gave up looking for the entrance and I just cut across someones campsite to get to the beach. 

This beach had more sand but it wasn't as pretty as the other beach we were on the day before. 

There were more people here and more of people's belongings scattered everywhere. There were also some interesting pieces of driftwood nailed together for some reason that was not clear to me. 

I had to walk back along the beach to finally find the entrance to the beach. As it turns out the entrance was hidden between the rack of canoes and a rack of kayaks. As least now we will know for next time. 

When I got back to our campsite most of the girls had walked to the smaller beach. Anika and I took this opportunity to head down to the park store to see if there were any T-shirts that we might like to buy. I had wanted one with the name Driftwood Park on it but the only ones that they had that I liked were all too small. So instead I opted for a black T-shirt with a bunch  of zzzzzzz's and a mosquito on it that said "Ontario Parks". The next time I come back I will try to get a Driftwood Park T-shirt. 

When we got back it was time to cook supper. Shelli had pre-made a bunch of "hobo dinners" for us. Inside the tinfoil containers were chicken and vegetables mixed together. All we had to do was put them on the fire and heat them up. No fuss, no muss. It was a great plan of Shelli's and it tasted great too! Anika had seen an idea for cinnamon buns cooked on a stick over the fire. We tried that too but unfortunately it did not go as we had hoped. Part of the cinnamon buns got burnt while the other part was under cooked. It looked yummy in the picture but in reality it was a bit of a flop. Ah well, it was still fun to try. 

After supper we sat around the fire playing "Cards Against Humanity" We played this for almost 4 hours and we had a blast! We laughed so hard that our sides hurt. The funniest part was hearing Anika's imitation of Stephen Hawking saying sexy things. It was hilarious and when it was time for bed we were still laughing about it. It was a great way to end a great evening.