I woke up to heavy rain at 8:30 a.m. and decided to stay in the tent until it slowed down a bit.  The rain started to pool in the center of the roof and then started leaking everywhere. Even pushing the water off the roof did not help. At 9:45 I got tired of waiting for the rain to stop and I got dressed, put on my clear plastic rain poncho, and went outside. Balto didn't want to leave the tent so I let him stay there while I made myself some breakfast. 

When I went back to check on Balto a little later there were puddles everywhere inside the tent. So I threw most of my stuff in the car. If I was going to stay another night I at least wanted my bedding to be dry. Inside the screen tent was fairly dry so I took an extra sleeping bag and I made a bed for Balto to sleep on under the picnic table while we waited for the rain to stop. It took some coaxing but I eventually convinced him that he would be happier there than in the wet tent. 

I figured Jayson and the rest of my friends would be here later this afternoon, about 4 p.m. or so, and so I had better do something about my wet tent before they got here.  I found some extra plastic rain ponchos and lined them between the fly and the roof of the tent. I also found the wall that belongs on the screen tent and used it as a second fly on the tent. But water was trapped in between these layers so it was still leaking for a little bit. I used a third sleeping bag and a sheet that I had with me to mop up the floor like they were giant towels. That was the best I could do with what I had. Now I just had to pass the time for a few hours and wait out the rain. So I went back to the screen tent and played Sudoku and my Game Boy for a few hours. 

The rain never stopped. At about 3 p.m. I noticed the water starting to seep in under the table. Balto was still sleeping and still dry but I didn't know for how much  longer. I looked outside and there was a lake of water all around the screen tent. It was like we were an island and the water was rising. 

The water completely surrounded the fire place too. 

I was half expecting the water to rise high enough to float the charred pieces of wood in the fire place away at any minute. 

I woke Balto up and put him in the car. I picked up his sleeping bag and put it on the table bench and then I got into the car too. I figured that since we were in the car waiting for the rain to stop we may as well drive by Jayson's campsite to see if they had arrived yet. But they hadn't. So I drove back to our site and sat in the car for awhile longer. I texted my daughter to ask about what the weather was supposed to be like. She said that the rain was expected to stop around 5 pm. It was about 4 pm now so I figured that I didn't have much longer to wait. 

Eventually it got to the point where I began to wonder where everyone was. I can see why Jayson and his family may not have wanted to stay the extra days but surely at least some of our friends should be arriving by now. So I started texting a couple of my friends to ask where they were and how much longer they may be. 

It took some time before I got a response but eventually I got my answer. Everyone who I texted told me that there had been a change of plan. Apparently it was on facebook that they were going to a restaurant instead since the weather was not good for the beach. I had missed the facebook messages because I do not have facebook on my phone. 

This left me in a no win situation. I was wet, and dirty and in no way presentable to be going to a restaurant. Plus I had the dog with me and did not want to leave him in the car while I went into a restaurant. So if no one was coming and I could not go to them, then I had to decide if I wanted to stay another night like I had originally planned or go back home. 

It took me all of 30 seconds to decide. I couldn't see myself spending another night in a wet tent at a provincial park that I really didn't care for very much. I was going home. I broke camp in record time. I shoved all my stuff that was in the screen tent into the back seat of the car. I took down the sleeping tent and shoved it still dripping wet into the trunk. I didn't even bother to pack it up nicely. Next I took the screen tent down and shoved that dripping wet into the trunk too. I got into the car with wet pants up to my shins and with my rain poncho still on. 

​Balto was more than ready to get home by this point. 

​
As I drove through the park to get to the front gate, all  around me were the other campsites with signs that they too had experienced some flooding during the rain. No wonder the ducks are so fond of this park!

I reached the park gate and put my permit into the box shaped like a little wooden cabin. I might have been able to get my money back for the extra night that I was not going to stay, but it was after 2 pm which is usually the cut off time so I figured I wasn't going to try to argue my case. I was just going to cut my losses and go home. 

As I am leaving the park I notice signs for a trail head that was not immediately visible when you first come in since it is across the road from the park. I couldn't tell you which trail it is because as usual in this park there were no signs telling you which one it was. 

As I traveled away from the park and towards the town of South River to reach the highway I noticed that there were also no signs to help you find your way back to the highway either. I happened to know where I was going since I grew up in the area and was somewhat familiar with the territory. But anyone not from the area would have a difficult time of it and would possibly need a map or GPS. 

As I headed home I thought....McDonald's for supper sounds great right about now. So with warm thoughts of Big Macs and fries in my head I left Mikisew Park behind me. 

I woke up at 6 a.m. to the sound of rain gently beating on the tent. I could hear some birds too but the gentle peaceful sound that I am accustomed to on camping trips was completely ruined by the motor noise coming from the comfort station. I decided to go back to sleep for a few more hours. 

At about 10 a.m. it stopped raining and I got up for breakfast. The tent had held up pretty good in the rain with only a couple leaks here and there. I will have to get some water proofing spray when I get home and give the tent a once over. After a quick breakfast of cold  cereal I headed over to the bathroom. Along the way, in the empty campsite next to me, I noticed the remains of what looked like someone's lean-to project. 

 The bathroom was decently clean and today I noticed something that I hadn't noticed the day before. The sink closest to the wall had a motion detector on the wall. When it is activated it turns the water on. All the other sinks were just regular taps. I had seen motion detector taps before but usually they were located under the faucet and not on the wall. 

Outside the bathroom was an event bulletin board but unlike most parks I have been to there was no calendar of events posted. No guided tours, no children's programs, no special guests. The only event at all was for one that was a musical group called the "Whiskey Jacks" and I don't think even that was taking place in the park. 

So in light of there being no events in the park I took a look at the site map for hiking or walking trails near by. There poorly photocopied map showed a short one that was only 0.5 km long that I felt Balto might be able to handle. And I liked that it was named "Old Dog Trail". 

I decided that rather than wear Balto out by walking to the trail head, I would just put him in the car, drive him there and then begin the walk. The drive took us past the beaches again. Since today was over cast and threatening to rain some more, there were no people on the beach at the moment. 

But there were still plenty of ducks around. Most of them were curled up sleeping. 

The beaches were lined with all different kinds of boats. Most of them were motor boats. It is a fairly busy lake for boats actually. 

I drove to where I thought the Old Dog trail should be. There was a trail there, but I was not 100 % sure if it was Old Dog trail or if it were Beaver Meadow trail. The map was not clear and there were no signs indication which trail it was; only one that just said it was a hiking trail of some sort. 

The trail started out with a cute little foot bridge. 

But the view from the foot bridge was one of muck and old logs. There weren't even any frogs of turtles or birds of interest.

And the view on the other side of the bridge was even worse. Just dirty water and an old rusty culvert. 

From the footbridge the trail goes back into the bush. The trail was marked with either yellow paint on a post or yellow arrows painted on the trees. 

Since it was a wet dreary day, Balto and I were the only ones on the trail. Balto tended to lay down and rest more than he walked so that meant I could take some time to see the birds and the chipmunks. 

As well as the pretty colours of the plant life all around me. 

We stayed for quite sometime enjoying the peacefulness of it all. We eventually came to a fork in the path. One leg went out to the road and the other went further into the bush. By this point I could hear some kids coming so I decided that it was a good cue to turn around and head back rather than have a noisy interuption. 

Once we were done our walk I loaded Balto back into the car and drove around for a bit just checking out more of the park. We were at the end of the park where the group campsites were and it looked pretty nice.The bathrooms here were big and nice looking on the outside. 

But on the inside they were very rundown looking and could have used at least a fresh coat of paint or something. 

At least at this end of the park the bathrooms had a little more to offer for park programs and events (but it still wasn't much). 

On the way back to the campsite I stopped by the beach and told off a couple kids who were chasing the ducks. 

It was about 4 p.m. when I got back to the campsite and I figured that Jayson and his family would be here soon. I wanted to keep an eye out for them so I stuck around the site for the rest of the day. ​Balto was pretty tired from the walk so he spent the rest of the day napping in the tent. 

Across the way in an empty campsite was a huge flock of Grackles. They were busy eating something off the ground that someone had left behind. 

One Grackle in particular came to see me and check out what I was doing. 

I built a fire to cook supper on. Amongst other things I had brought some bannock mix. I had way too much bannock dough so I tried cooking some on a stick and a large portion in the bottom of a pan. It was harder to cook in a pan and it just didn't seem to taste the same. I think from now on I will just use a stick. 

By 8:30 p.m. Jayson and his family still had not arrived and it was starting to rain pretty hard now. So Balto and I crawled into the tent and I spent the evening reading and doing Sudoku puzzles. I guess Jayson and his family did not want to risk putting the tent up in the rain. So I suppose they decided to wait until Saturday to arrive with everyone else who was  going to be there instead. I could already hear the rain starting up and I knew I was in for a night of dampness and a leaky roof. Worst case scenario, I figured that I could always go and sleep in my car if need be. 

No sooner had I come back from Killarney than I turned around and went back out camping again. This time it was to Mikisew Provincial Park. I was supposed to meet some friends for a reunion on Saturday so I decided to go a couple days early and enjoy some quiet time with my dog who just turned 15 this year. I figured that he doesn't have too many years left so why not get him out of the city and let him enjoy some time in the bush. 

The drive to Mikisew was pretty easy going except for one spot when you get in past the town of South River. At one point you will see that you have an option to go right up a giant hill or go left around a bit of a bend. There is no clear signage telling you which way to go. The answer is to stay to the left and do not go up the big hill. 

Once you reach Mikisew Provincial Park you are greeted by a gorgeous sign with an eagle painted on it. This sign is one of only two things that I found to be exceptional about this park. Everything else about this park was mediocre at best.

Once you get past the sign you come to a small parking lot and a small gatehouse. I left my dog, Balto, in the car and went in to register. I told the lady at the desk that I was expecting my friend Jayson and his family to arrive the next day (they were coming a day early too) and they had reserved site 422. I told her that I was looking for a site somewhat close to theirs, but not necessarily right beside. I asked if I could go in and choose a site and come back and tell her which one I wanted (which is standard practice for most parks in Ontario). She said that unfortunately she was not allowed to let me in unless I had paid for a site, but that I could come back and switch sites if I didn't want the one she had assigned me. 

So she assigned my site # 262 which she thought I would like because it was right across from the beach. The she took out a poorly photocopied map of the park and highlighted a bunch of other empty sites around the park. I thanked her and took the map and went on my quest for the "perfect site".  On the way out the door I noticed a sign that reminded people that the Peledes Meteor Shower was at it's peak tonight. I was looking forward to seeing it. 

I figured that since there were going to be quite a few kids with us this weekend that it would be likely that everyone will want to be relatively close to the comfort station. I tend to avoid the comfort station normally because there is usually too much foot traffic near there. But I was willing to make an exception this time especially since one or two of my friends had said before I left that there was a chance that they may want to share a site with me. 

Looking at the map, it seemed that site 262 was quite a bit farther away from Jayson's site than I would like but I figured that I would go there and check it out just the same; so I headed there first. 

As I approached site 262 I was surprised to see a mallard duck crossing the road. But the site was close to the beach so it wasn't a complete surprise. I was more surprised by the lack of fear it had. 

As I looked around I saw more ducks sitting on the beach amongst the beach goers and people were feeding them. Then I was no longer surprised in the least. These ducks were one of three reasons I decided not to take site 262. It was a lovely site if you wanted to be near the beach and had kids with you. But with hand fed ducks around it meant that there would be people following these ducks around to feed them and that meant an increase of people marching past your campsite to do this. The site was also on a corner so that meant that there would be an increase in vehicle traffic. And finally, it was directly across the road from the beach with no trees and only a road in between so that meant having to watch people going to and from the beach all day. That was not what I came to see. And so my hunt for the "perfect site" continued. 

I drove around for about a half an hour looking for a good site. The layout of the park looks pretty simple on paper, but when you are driving or walking it the roads start looking all the same and it is very easy to get turned around. More than once during my stay I heard people saying things like "no I am pretty sure our campsite was over this way... or was it that way?" 

One of the things that made it difficult to find the "perfect site" was that aside form the beach area, there were little to no deciduous trees. Almost everything were pines and they were planted like tree farms with all the trees planted in neat little rows. 

To top it all off, most of the pine trees had no lower growth left on them. So it was nothing but bare tree trunks all around you which meant hardly any privacy from all the neighbouring campers. It really wasn't a very pretty park at all. 

Finally after what seemed like forever, I chose site 386. It would not have been my first choice but it was close to Jayson's site, it was very large in case I had company, and it was also close to the comfort station. It would have to do.  So I went back to the gatehouse and re-registered my site. I ended up getting a little bit of a  refund because apparently site 262 is a "premium site" and site 386 is not. 

Once I got back to site 386 I went about setting up camp. One thing I can say in the favour of Mikisew, is that the campsites are very large. There was room for my two big tents, 2 picnic tables and I could have probably fit another 2 tents and a car on the site very easily. 

It had taken me about an hour to set up the site by myself and it was a very hot day. Luckily it was pretty shady under the pines, but it was still too hot for the dog so I decided that I would go and find someplace for him to swim. I had noticed that the beaches were all signed with "Pets prohibited in swimming and/or beach areas" which meant I would have to find somewhere else for Balto to swim. I was not very impressed by this because in most parks dogs are allowed on the beach as long as they are leashed. But not this one. This means that if you are travelling alone with a dog, you will never be allowed to go swimming yourself because there would be no one to watch your dog while you do. So needless to say, I did not go swimming while I was here. 

While I was down looking at site 262 I had noticed a sign that marked a trail head called " Lake View Trail". I figured that if Balto was not allowed on the beach, them maybe we could find access to the water in a secluded place off of the trail somewhere. So we went for a walk down Lake View Trail. Balto is very old and can't walk very far without stopping to lie down for a rest here and there. This trail is only 0.5 km long and I figured that wouldn't be too bad. 

Lake View Trail is actually quite a nice little trail for the most part. If my dog had been younger there would have been 3 or 4 places where he could have reached the water and had a little swim. However, the water's edge was always at the bottom of a steep slope. And no matter how small the slope was I knew that if Balto had gone down to the water, there would be no way that I would be able to get him back up again. So we kept walking and hoping that the next stop would be the one we were looking for. 

This trail would have been absolutely beautiful if it weren't for the fact that it was not taken care of properly. The rocks had been painted with things like " R.L + C.K." or "Kyle was here 2015".

One rock even had the message "I pissed on this rock" written on it. 

And there was a place where someone had taken the time to bag their dog doo-doo, but did not have the decency to take the bag back with them and dispose of it. They just left it there right in the middle of the path. 

You could tell that there was absolutely no respect for the park, for other campers, or for nature here what so ever. I was not impressed by what I was seeing at all. 

The trail ended at a clearing with a bunch of picnic tables. 

On the other side of the clearing was a volleyball net and another beach where there appeared to be hardly any people (but not zero people so I could not let Balto swim there). This side of the park was nice and quiet and nicely treed. 

There was a basketball net.

And even a horse shoe pit. 

And then I saw it....just the place I had been looking for but hadn't known was there (because the map was so bad that you couldn't read it). It was a dog park! And it was a nice one too. 

It had things for dogs to climb up and over and through. (Although some of these things I could never picture my dog ever using, but I am sure other people's dogs could).

But most importantly it had a place for Balto to swim. And boy was he happy to be able to get in the water and just lie there and cool off. 

The water was shallow here so it was perfect for dogs like mine who are too old to swim out far anymore. 

There was a picnic table to sit at and look at the view across the lake while your dog takes a swim or plays. 

We spent a good hour or so at the dog park and made our way slowly back to the campsite. We had to get some water so we took the platypus water filter that I had borrowed from my mom (the water is drinkable in the park, but it just tastes better when you run it through the platypus) and walked over to the water taps. The water taps were the strangest looking things I have ever seen, but they worked well and I liked the way they were set up.  

I decided to hang the platypus inside the screen tent since there really were no low branches available on the pine trees to hang it from. 

By the time we got back to camp Balto was all tuckered out from so much walking and he went directly to the tent for a nap while I mad myself some hot dogs for supper. 

After supper I did some Sudoku puzzles for awhile and waited to see if the stars were going to come out. However, it was too overcast so I never did get to see the meteor shower at it's peak. But that was OK, I had seen it a few days earlier.

Before bed I headed over to the comfort station. I had to tie Balto up to a bench outside the door so that I could go inside. It was a typical comfort station with nothing remarkable about it. Little did I know that this comfort station was going to become a pet peeve of mine. 

I went back to the campsite and went to sleep just after 11 p.m. I could still hear the other campers talking and laughing all around me but I was tired enough to fall asleep despite the noise. I stayed asleep until about 1 a.m. when Balto woke me up because he had to go out to go pee. And that was when I noticed it. The loud humming noise of a generator or a motor of some sort that was running the electricity for the comfort station. During the day you don't notice it with all the hub bub of people around you. But at night when you are expecting to hear crickets and frogs all you hear is the maddening hum of that motor. I could faintly make out the call of a loon in the distance but it was pretty much drowned out by this noise pollution. heck, it is quieter at home in the city than it was here. This was not what I went camping for. But it was too late now. It was the middle of the night and I would just have to put up with it. Maybe I will consider moving to a different site in the morning.