As evening draws near I head off down to the beach to catch one last sunset since this will be my last evening before I head home the next day. 

After another  beautiful display of colours I figure I had better go and make myself some supper before it becomes too dark to see what I am making. What's on the menu  for tonight? A pot of mashed potatoes with grated cheese on top. Nothing else, just that. I had brought with me a box of those instant mashed potatoes and I can eat a whole pot of those to myself almost any day. 

I make my way through the little cedar lined short cut and was just about onto the road when all of a sudden to my left I hear and nasty sounding snarl coming from the trees. I stopped short and tried to peer into the bush to see if I could see what it was, to no avail. I had no idea what it was but my mind was running the gauntlet of what it could be. Perhaps a badger or coyote? Maybe an extremely rare visit by a cougar or Lynx? It didn't really sound like a cat though. I suppose it's not out of the question that it could be a wolverine or a weasel of some sort. Do we even have wolverines around here ? Do weasels snarl? It sounded fairly large, but you can't really judge size by sound. Again, I have grown up in the country and I have seen  bears and wolves and foxes up close so I am not normally afraid of them. However it's different when you can't see it and it's snarling at you. So I am thinking to myself, that once again, here I am alone and I have absolutely no means of defense. There wasn't even a near by stick on the ground that was worth grabbing for. I am not panicking yet but these sorts of thought were not helping the matter. So I went to the best defense there is, I said a prayer to God and asked Him to protect me. Then I made my way quickly out of the short cut and over to my site. I turned to see if anything was following me. All was quiet again and nothing came charging out of the bush. My heart slowed down as I stood waiting for a few minutes to see if anything more would happen. 

Eventually I felt that the coast was clear and I could set about making myself some supper. Besides, making a fire should keep the animals at bay because they won't come near the fire pit, right? Not to mention that at the very least I have a couple of Pokey Sticks at hand now that I can use in a pinch to help ward of any potential snarly animal. In case you do not know what I mean by the term "Pokey Stick", it is what our family has long ago named the stick that you use to poke at the logs in the fire to stir it up when it gets low so that you don't burn your hands. We usually have one set aside that stays for the duration of the trip and doesn't get thrown into the fire pit until the very last day. Sometimes we never throw it in at all and we leave it for the next camper so that they can have a Pokey Stick. On this trip, for what ever reason, I happened to have two. I guess I brought along the one from Bass lake when I packed everything up in a hurry.  Comforted by this thought I set about laying all the food out on the picnic table and went to work making supper. A couple hours later I was sitting comfortably in my chair and enjoying a nice hot meal and a nice hot cup of tea. 

I ate about half of the pot of potatoes and was pretty full. I was looking up at the stars and just relaxing when all of a sudden I heard the same snarling noise coming from the same area just across the road from my site. I froze. Now it's dark out and that meant seeing this unknown snarly animal is all that much more difficult. I figure that since I am sitting by the fire I am OK, but I will want to go to bed eventually and then all that will be between me and it is a thin wall of nylon tent material. The snarls become louder and nastier sounding. 

I jump up out of my chair and grab a Pokey stick and make my way to the car in case I need to jump into it in a hurry. Better to have some metal between me and a ferocious  beast than just some thin material. Once again, I say a little prayer. Then the nervousness in me was replaced with a different emotion....anger. Wait a minute! I am NOT sleeping in my car tonight! I am here to camp and I will NOT be chased away by a snarly animal. What's louder and probably more scary to the animal than ...a car motor! 

So I jump into my car and turn it on. I turn on the head lights and proceeded to reve the motor. Then I drive like a wild thing into the one of the two campsites across the road. I move back and forth and shine my headlights into the bush and look for the animal at the other end of the snarl. Nothing in that site. So I move on to the next site. I am sure the other campers in the RV down the road are wondering what the heck I am doing.  I have visions of being reprimanded by the Park Rangers for tearing up the ground in those campsites, but heck it was it or me. Once again I flash my headlights into the bush and see..... nothing. I think I have scared it away. I stop the car and get out and listen. No more snarling. I think we're good. 

I am just about to get back into my car to go and park it when I hear it again. The same nasty snarling sound I have become familiar with today. This time though, it wasn't coming from across the road. It was coming from.....MY CAMPSITE!   That's right, my plan had back fired. I got the snarly thing to move all right. Only it moved closer, not farther away. 

Well, the car thing worked once, so may as well give it a try again. Do I have to do this all night? Or will it finally give up and go bother someone else? I hop in my car again and go tearing through my site and pull right up beside my camp fire. And there in the headlights of my car I finally got a glimpse of the source of the snarly noise. There was not one, not two but three of them! And they were not in the least bit afraid of me or my vehicle. As a matter of fact they were headed right for me! 

I got out of my vehicle and started to laugh. I laughed at my self and I laughed at the situation. I was laughing because what was heading right for me were three.....raccoons! The snarling was because it was a mother and two babies. The babies were driving momma batty and every once in awhile she was snarling at them to put them in their place.

These little guys were bold as brass tacks. The car wasn't even turned off yet when they decided to head towards me to see if I had anything for them. They walked within centimeters of the fire pit. I was actually afraid they were going to get burnt. (There goes my theory of animals fearing fire....see all the stupid lies you learn from TV shows).  The next morning I could even see the ashy paw prints left behind on the side of the fire pit,  so it wouldn't surprise me if they had even actually gotten into the fire pit at some point during the night. 


Now, my grandfather used to be a conservation officer and my father was a biologist for the Ministry of Natural Resources before he retired and we have taken care of many a baby raccoon in the past. So I know that it is not a great idea to feed these critters because it teaches them to become pesks and rely on humans for food and it means that they won't learn to fend for themselves in the wild. However, I also know they were after what remained of my supper and I still had food spread out all across the picnic table. With three of them and one of me and they were already within a foot of me, there was no way I was going to be able to get all the food put away on time. So I gave up the war before it even began. I put the pot of left over potatoes on the ground for them and they started to fight over it. This could get nasty I thought and I am going to be stuck right in the middle of it. So I went and grabbed a bag of stale hot dog buns and a couple of peaches and just  sat in my chair and fed them until they were full. The fighting and snarling stopped and they  enjoyed their meal, especially the peaches which I cut up into bite size pieces for them.  I had a container of water already sitting by the fireplace that I put there in order to douse the fire with. They used this as their own personal sink to wash their food with and later on they got right into it and used it as a bath tub. 

Finally they were stuffed and they headed out to the bush and I began to clean up and get ready to go to bed. When all of a sudden I hear some rustling  in the bush and I see another furry raccoon face peeking out at me. Oh, I guess they aren't done after all. Once more the little bandits come sauntering over to the fire pit. There's one, there's momma, there's number three and......umm wait. There's four and now there's five! Did momma leave some behind before? Nope. On closer look these babies are a little bit smaller. This is a whole new family! No wonder I had seen so many empty shells and cray fish legs down along the water's edge earlier today. This little point is housing an awful lot of raccoons for one little area.  And so the feeding began again. I pulled out some more bread and some more peaches. These guys were definitely a different gang  because where the other ones were very interested in the peaches, these guys were more interested in the bread.  Eventually I was out of stuff to feed them and I made my way to bed and left them to their own devices. I could hear them for awhile from my tent as they occasionally snarled at each other while fighting over the last morsels. In the morning they were gone and the only sign they had even been there was the paw prints on the fire place, a few dirty peach pits and a muddy water container. 

So here it was, the last day of my solo trip camping. I had to be packed up by 2 p.m. as per the rules of the park so that meant there were only a few hours left to do anything I wanted to do. Probably not enough time to finish the other half of that hike (at least not at the speed I was hiking), but there should still be enough time to take another walk down to the beach and maybe around the campground.  So I headed down to the beach to take one last look at the lake and see the seagulls and the Canada Geese swimming in the water. 

Then I made one more round of walking the campground roads to say good bye to the place. As I walked I came across a campsite with an RV parked in it. There tended to be more RV's than tents here which isn't too surprising for the time of year. Now I don't really consider RV's to be camping really. Granted there are occasions where I can see the need for them such as for the elderly or infirmed, so I can see their place. What I didn't understand was at this particular campsite the RV had a satelite dish set up. Really?!? A satelite dish? Now that folks, is truly not camping. Why not just stay home if you need to watch TV that badly?  I shook my head and laughed and snapped the picture to laugh at later. (So now I am sharing the chuckle with you). 

After saying my good byes to the place I broke up camp and headed home. This camping trip was definitely an adventure and has left me with some great memories and stories. I will have to come back to this park one day to finish that hike and to enjoy the beauty and great environment that this park provided. I definitely recommend camping here if you are ever in the area. 

Morning greeted me with sunshine through the tent walls and a promise of a nice day. 

Looking through the screening on my tent under the fly I noticed an unusual abundance of Crane flies. Normally we only see one or two a year, but I guess it was mating season because I had about 20 or 30 all over the outside of my tent the whole time I was there. Growing up, my siblings and I had come to call them "Mosquito Hawks"  because they looked like giant mosquitoes and we had visions of them swooping in and eating up all the little pesky mosquitoes. In reality, they do nothing of the sort.  Crane flies are  fairly poor fliers with a tendency to "wobble" in unpredictable patterns during flight, and they can be caught without much effort. Not only do they not eat mosquitoes but they do not bite humans either. Most feed on nectar or they do not eat anything at all. Since they were harmless things, and since I am known not to kill anything if possible (except earwigs, mosquitoes and other blood sucking bugs) I just let them hang out and enjoy the shelter my tent afforded them.  

Hiking was the main theme for the day. Just like at the Wye Marsh I planned to leisurely hike the one hiking trail that McRae Point Provincial Park has called "Water's Edge Trail". According to the map it actually splits up into two parts so I figured I would do one part today and if I had time before I went home the next day then maybe do the other part. 

After breakfast I packed up a lunch bag with some snacks and a drink and set off to see what I could see. The entrance of the trail starts down at the lake near the Pet Play Area and the mix of water sun and trees was beautiful right from the very beginning.

All over the place I saw signs of woodpeckers making their homes. I was hoping that I would see some.  I didn't have to go very far before I did see one.

Look there it is! Honest! I spent about 15 minutes trying to get a good picture of it without scaring it away. This was the best I could do. Yeah, I never said I was a great photographer. (And this photo certainly proves that). From the distance that I was at and from the best I could tell, it was a yellow bellied sap sucker. 

So imagine if you will, I had taken a picture more like this one and you will know what that little blur you see in the previous picture is supposed to look like. This one by the way was taken by a much better photographer named Cameron Rognan  and is found on the All About Birds site  (http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/yellow-bellied_sapsucker/sounds) where you can also find recordings of their calls. The Beea Call that is posted there is the sound I heard most often and I thought it sounded something like a cat in a tree sometimes. There's lots of other info about these birds on that site too. If you are interested in birds, I suggest checking it out. 

This trail is filled with some interesting tree formations. As I got nearer to the Point I noticed a clump of trees growing naturally on an angle and a few other trees growing on a different angle. They way they were growing made them intertwine to form a natural lean-to. If I were playing Survivor I would have claimed this spot as my own because it would only take minimal effort to add some more branches and things to this to make a full fledged shelter, right near the water. The pictures don't really do it justice. (I did say I wasn't a great photographer, didn't I?) 

When you come to the Point, you emerge from the trees to see the beauty of Lake Simcoe unfold before you. The sun was sparkling on the water and the clouds were all wispy. 

The water was so clear but since it was September, it was a bit too cold to swim for my liking. Besides this spot had a little more sea weeds than I prefer. If I had wanted to swim, there were better places to do that along the trail. The sea weeds were kind of pretty dancing in the ebb and flow of the waves though. So I sat on some rocks and ate my snack and enjoyed the scenery for awhile. 

Eventually I continued on my way down the trail. This part of the trail had the water's edge on one side and the camp sites on the other. There were many tiny little off shoot trails leading up to various campsites and down to the water. Almost every path opened up into a little sunny area with a picnic table sitting either completely or partially in the water. 

I thought this was great! These are better than those benches you usually see along the side of a trail. I picked a particularly pretty spot with the tree branches drooping down over the table. The way it shaded the table from the sun reminded me of sitting under a weeping willow. 

Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought these tables in the water were a great idea. These rarely seen Table Ducks thought so too! 

It was about this time that some other hikers came down the trail. A family with two little children. As children are prone to be, they were a little bit noisy and the ducks decided to high tail it for safer waters. 

I was nearing the end of the first part of the trail. I had noticed quite a few spider webs in amongst the trees. It was a good thing I was wearing a ball cap because these spiders seemed to like to make their webs go from one side of the trail to the other so that if you aren't paying attention you run the risk of running into it face first. A shorter person (say 5 feet or under) could walk right under them and not even notice. But I am fairly tall so I had to duck to avoid them. Then I came up with the idea of carrying a stick to just hold in front of me while I walk to prevent this problem. Now I know why you see people carrying walking sticks on hikes. 

I had been walking almost 3 hours by this point and I was pretty tired. I am sure you could do the first half of the trail in about 15 to 20 minutes if you just wanted to rush through it. I just took 3 hours because I was stopping to see and enjoy every little thing. I decided not to do the other half of the trail. Perhaps I could squeeze it in tomorrow. Instead I decided to head back. There was just one more place I wanted to see before I headed back though. I ducked up one of the side trails into the closed off section of the campground where all the non-electrical sites are, just to see what they were like. 

They were just as big and spacious and nice as the ones in the electrical sites. I would say that if I were to go back during mid-summer one year, I would choose either site # 183, 185 or 187. The others were nice too, but those three were particularly nice. 

With that accomplished, I headed back to camp and spent the rest of the afternoon working on the book I am writing and doing crafts. It was my best day at camp yet. 


The evening would prove to be much more nerve racking than this afternoon had been.........

Mara Provincial Park was the intended destination. Only minutes from Orillia and along the shores of Lake Simcoe. Sounded promising. Or at least it would have been.

I pull up into the entrance way of the park only to find that it was barricaded by huge boulders. I had heard that some of our Provincial Parks were being changed into "Day Use Only" parks and I feared that this had become the fate of this park. At the side of the road sat two local residents who had recognized each other in passing and had stopped to chat. I rolled down my window and asked them if this was a Day Use Only Park. The lady told me that no, it was just closed for the season. (An apparent disadvantage to attempting to camp any time past the September long weekend). "Oh No!" I thought. "Now what do I do? Do I travel all the way back to Midland and try to find Awenda Park?"  The "Oh No" part of that thought escaped my head and dashed out of my mouth. 

Not to worry though, the kind lady on the bicycle suggested that I go back out to the highway (about a one minute drive), turn right, drive for about another 10 minutes and follow the signs to Mc Rea Point Provincial Park. She assured me that it was a beautiful little spot and quite easy to find and it too was on the shores of Lake Simcoe. I was hesitant about trying to find a place I have never been to before with no map, but I did have my cell phone and could always google map it. So, what did I have to lose in trying? I thanked her very much and headed off in the direction she had given. 

True to her word, the park was only minutes away and very easy to find. I didn't even need to stop by the side of the road to consult my phone. 

Finally, after all this time, I had arrived to the campground that I was going to be able to settle into and enjoy....McRae Point Provincial Park.

McRae Point was everything that Bass Lake was not. It was warm and welcoming. It was open and spacious and had the perfect balance of sun and shade. And it had....staff!!

I pulled up to the gate house and told the girl at the window that I wanted to stay the night. She asked if I was staying just the one night and I replied with "Maybe. We will see how it goes. One night for now and if there are no creepy people then I will stay longer".  Of course that was met with the question "Creepy people?" and I explained my story from Bass Lake.  As I am telling my story a head pops out from the back room as another staff member became intrigued with my story. Apparently he had a similar story of his own except his took place in a hotel room in the United States. So this guy could relate to just how I felt about it all. He assured me that the staff were here for the duration and that they make their rounds in the truck at night to keep an eye on things. He said that he would be sure to keep an eye out and make sure that no one was bothering me. I was grateful for the added peace of mind. 

They suggested I drive around and choose a site that I like and then come back to finish registering. I grabbed a map and headed on my search for that "perfect for me" campsite. Once again, the "end of the season" disadvantage arose in that all of the non-electrical sites were closed off and only the electrical sites were available. They didn't make me pay the extra for the electrical site though so it worked out OK. 

So I grabbed a map and drove around and finally settled on a site. I knew that September can be fairly cold at night but could still get relatively hot during the day if it was sunny. So I chose one that had a good balance of sun and shade depending on what time of day it was. Plus, once again, this one was not too far from the comfort station (the only bathroom available on that side of the park at that time of the year) and there was a nice street lamp kind of light outside the bathroom that felt just a little more safe, if you know what I mean. The bathroom itself was exceptionally clean and the hot water was actually hot. 

And what number would this campsite turn out to be? My lucky number ....137. Yep. Am I a sucker for daring the fates or what?  Oddly enough when I went to register my site though, they wrote down 135 and even when I renewed it they never changed it on the new forms. I didn't worry too much about it since no one was on 135 either. But I told myself that if they think they are going to try to move me to 135 at any point I was not going to budge.

So with a campsite / vehicle registration in hand that I actually recognized, I went to set up my camp. As nice as my back was feeling earlier from the walking it quickly became evident that I was pushing my luck with trying to put up the tent by myself again. That pretty much was the deciding factor that if at all possible I wasn't going to move sites or campgrounds anymore. I just couldn't keep tearing down and setting up the tent over and over. At least not this time around. 

McRae Point Provincial Park is not an overly large park, but the sites, themselves are huge! Granted I was on a site meant for holding an RV, but I took a walk later on to the closed off section to look at those sites just to compare, and most of them were pretty huge too!

To give you an idea of just how large my site was, this is a photo of just the left side of it.

And this is a photo of the right side of my site. There is enough space there to pitch another two tents and probably two more vehicles! It was great! 

The space was a bit wasted on me, but great none the less.  There was at least one empty campsite between me and any neighbouring campers and most of them were quiet older couples. The neighbors to my right were playing some very quiet, hardly audible 70's music and the site in behind me was playing some somewhat louder top 40's dance music. I was worried that I would have to contend with people's radios all weekend but in the end the music was never very loud and never for very long. There is nothing worse than trying to enjoy the peace and quiet and being forced into listening to someone's music that not only do you not want to hear at that point but it isn't even your type of music. If we wanted to listen to music we would have stayed home in the city and went to a night club. We aren't here to party with you. So for all you campers out there, here is some Camping Etiquette 101 : Don't turn on your radio or music players while you are camping unless you have head phones on. The rest of us do not want to hear it.

So the tent was up, there is still plenty of daylight left and it's not quite time to eat yet...what to do next?
Explore! 

I grab the map and decide to head on down to the beach. The map doesn't show any short cuts but I quickly found out that there were short cuts to just about everywhere in this park. I only had to go down the road about a campsite or two and there was one through some cedar trees. 

Going through the first 15 feet or so of this path was like entering a little cedar tunnel. It was shady and it was pretty. I had only just taken a couple of steps into it when I came to a complete halt. The smell of the cedars was so strong and so wonderful that I had to stop and just stand there so that I could keep on smelling it. It was like opening up grandma's old cedar chest and it brought with it the feeling of relaxation and peace.  After a few moments I finally continued on my way. 

As I exited the little cedar tunnel, I entered into a small open space at the top of a hill. Once again I came to a dead stop. However, instead of my sense of smell it was my sense of sound that was being delightfully occupied. All you could hear were hundreds of frogs and crickets and chirping birds all singing at once mixed in with the sounds of the waves splashing up on the beach below. It was as though I had opened a door and walked into a confined room of all these creatures. The sounds were so loud that they drowned out every other sound in the park. I could no longer hear the other campers, the car radios, the dull sound of motor boats out on the lake or the distant sound of a plane passing overhead. All of those other sounds were drowned out and lost in this symphony. I was completely encompassed by the singing and chirping and it was once again a very peaceful sensation. I just stood there looking up at the sky and I thought to myself "Now that's what I am talking about. That's what I came out camping alone for. Just to be completely emersed in nature like I am right now."

Eventually I pulled myself away from nature's "sound proof booth" (although I visited this path many times over the course of my stay) and made my way down to the beach. I was just in time to watch a beautiful sunset over the lake. The beach itself was very rocky and completely covered with tiny little empty shells that have washed up onto the beach as well as quite a few crayfish claws that have somehow managed to lose their way from the bodies they were formerly attached to. The big grassy picnic area was dotted with about 30 or 40 Canadian Geese that were using the park as a resting place before they made their long autumn journey south to escape the inevitable cold winds of winter that will eventually be upon us. Along side them were about 30 or so seagulls hoping to get some scavenged food from the picnic area or failing that maybe even trying their luck at some fishing. 

I noticed off to the side was a boat launch and on the map as well as on the posted sign there was a notification that this was a "Pet Play Area". OK, so now I love this park! A pet play area? Wow! They not only tolerate pets here but they actually go out of their way to make them welcome! I have never seen a provincial park with a pet play area. The signs always say the opposite  - "No pets beyond this point". OK, so this park has my vote! And I haven't even spent an entire night here yet at this point. 

I notice a sign for the hiking trail. Definitely going to have to hit that before I go back home. But for now it's getting dark and it's time to go and make a fire (with wood that I bought at the park office, no scrounging needed this time) and get some supper made.  I decided to make it an early night because I needed to get up in time for the card tournament the next morning. 

I snuggled in with Jerome and had a great night's sleep. Jerome is my stuffed giraffe that I have been using as a pillow for years now. Not only is he cute but if I rest my neck in the crook of his neck so that his head is on one side of me and his body on the other, it is the most comfortable form fitting pillow ever. I tend to suffer from sore shoulder (and obviously a sore back) on occasion but Jerome always alleviates that. Once you use a giraffe as a pillow you will never go back (you can get lions and hippos too, but Jerome suits me best). Don't knock it until you try it.... you will see what I mean. 

So the next morning I wake up and head in to Orillia for the card tournament. It's a miserable rainy day but I figure that it's OK because I will be spending most of my day inside playing cards anyways. At least that was the plan. However, as usual my plans did not go, well....according to plan. 

The website for IronHill said that their business hours are from 10 am to 8 pm so I decided to get there a little early. I arrived at about 9:45 a.m. only to find that the sign on the door states that they only open at noon everyday. OK, so there is a misprint on the website. No big deal, I will just do some shopping and fill the car up with gas and generally just fill in the extra 2 hours and come back. 

At about 11:55 a.m I return and the doors are still locked up tight. I decide to wait outside the door for a bit to see if anyone shows up. There is a drunk guy sitting near by and he starts to chat with me. He asks me about the cards and we discuss how if we had only held on to those old vintage things we had as kids we could have made a fortune off of them today as collectors items. Eventually he felt that he needed to go on down to the beer store to get some more to drink and he headed off leaving me to wait alone for someone to open the shop up. Eventually though, I too give up and just decide to go back to camp. It may be raining but at least I can work on writing my book that I want to publish and I could be doing my crafts in the dry tent instead of sitting here in the wet rainy doorway of someone's shop who doesn't even seem to care about their business. So I never got to play. I did write a complaint to the company when I got home  a few days later though. I don't know if anything will come of it but it made me feel better to write it. 

So I spent the rest of my day writing my book and making greeting cards and creating my paper quilled ducks and other paper quilled critters. The next day promised to be sunny and warm so I planned to do the hiking trails and see what the rest of  McRae Point Park had to offer.