I had a good nights sleep despite sleeping next to a hornets nest and hearing a mouse or some other small thing scurrying around my tent last night.  It had rained in the middle of the night again, but this morning at 7:30 the rain clouds had gone and were replaced with fluffy white clouds. However, it was cold. Very cold. I stayed in my sleeping bag hoping that it would get warmer, but by 8:30 I gave up. It wasn't getting any warmer. 

The only thing good about a cold morning is it meant that it was too cold for the hornets to come out of their nest yet too. 

The only things that seemed to be out in the cold, besides Carsten and I, were a little Green Immigrant Leaf Weevil. 

And a toad in the wet leaves. 

As we busied ourselves with eating breakfast and packing up, I took note of some interesting natural wonders. I pointed out to Carsten that the red patterns on the maple leaves on the tree next to us, looked like something from out of a crime scene. 

 It was as though the tree was covered in blood splatters. I called it the "murder tree". 

The other interesting thing was the shape of the end of an old dried up cedar branch. The end of it spiraled and twisted into a point like a spear. It looked kind of artistic. I considered taking it back with me as a walking stick but I already  had a walking stick and I didn't want to carry anything extra. So, I left it behind. 

We were packed up and ready to go at about 10:30.  By this time, the first of the hornets were just beginning to emerge from the nest. Time to go! 

We were in good spirits despite the cold. We knew that todays trail would be flat and easy going all the way. 

As we walked we began to warm up. The sun was shining brightly and the air temperature began to warm up a little bit too. 

Along the way we discovered an old, rotting, moss covered, log that had the number 5 attached to it.  We assumed it was part of some former educational trail guide that many parks have, but we didn't know for sure. 

In what seemed like no time at all we made it to the sign post that signified we were at "The Beach" that can only be accessed by this trail or by canoe. 

This time we were happy to find that no one else was here. Last time it was a little crowded. This is probably because it was only about 11:15 in the morning and because it was too cold for anyone to want to swim yet. 

Since there was no one there but us, we were able to spend some time looking around.  We were completely surprised to find out that there was a campsite here!  

And it was a beautiful one at that!  It was big and spacious. It had a nice picnic table, a fire pit , and a second fire pit and table down on the shore. 

And the bathroom was an outhouse!  It looked like it was newly built in the not so distant past. 

The door didn't close properly on it, but it was clean.  

The confusing thing was there was a "no camping" sign on the post where the beach meets the trail and the portage. So, was this not an official campsite?  Or.... was this campsite number one?  If this was campsite number one, then did I sleep beside a hornets nest last night for no reason!?!  We had questions. We intended to ask them when we got back to the park office later today. 

Since there was no one around and the portage was right there, we decided to leave our packs at the beach and walk the portage to see how it was. If we were considering doing a canoe trip here in the future, we wanted to know what we were in for. 

The portage was clearly marked with blue trail markers. There were some places that would be not the easiest to carry a canoe through, however, most of it was fairly flat and level. It is definitely one of the easier portages I have seen. 

The other end of the portage came out onto Helenbar Lake. The view was beautiful in the morning sun. 

Way across the lake we could see the campsite that we had stayed at where we had seen the otters. 

This side of the lake was not as marshy and looked like a good place to swim.  Not a sandy beach like the other side of the portage, but still a good place just the same. 

When we turned around to go, we noticed a couple of old rusted metal things. We wondered what they were. I thought perhaps they were parts of someone's old snowmobile that had broken down years ago and was left to decay. 

But we read in a brochure later, that these were actually parts of McKenzie's Gloster Meteor jet plane that had crashed in Helenbar Lake in 1946.  Most of the aircraft was removed by the military, except for the wing-tip and fuel tanks. These were the pieces that we were looking at. 

It was only about a 10  minute walk to the other end of the portage. However, we didn't want to leave our stuff unattended at the beach for too long, so we headed back. 

Back at the beach there was still no one there. We had a nice quiet lunch at the picnic table on the shore over looking Semiwite Lake. 

After lunch we decided to explore the area for a bit. We couldn't get onto our next site in the main campground until 2 pm, so we had some time to kill. 

I went walking up and down the shore while Carsten went exploring down a side trail that he had found. After a bit, he came rushing back to find me to tell me what he had found. Apparently there was another secret, private, beach and campsite that he had discovered! 

We followed a trail that wasn't on any map and yet, still had orange trail markers just like the ones that were on the main Semiwite trail. Did this used to be the Semiwite trail that is now abandoned and had been moved? More questions to ask at the office. 

We didn't have to go too far when, sure enough, it opened up onto another private sandy beach!  This was exciting! 

There was a post with the remains of what used to be some sort of camping sign. Who knows what it used to say.  Why is this campsite not on any map and why is it not in use? More questions for the office. 

There was a picnic table and a fire pit here.  The view of the lake was beautiful. 

There was plenty of flat space to put up tents. 

Clearly some people still know about and use this site because there were some fold up chairs left behind. However, they were old, rusty and falling apart so the owners of the chairs hadn't been back here in a long time. 

Secret trail, secret site..... Mississagi, you keep wonderful secrets! 

When we got back to the beach it was almost 1 pm. So, we saddled up and got going towards the trail exit. 

After walking about 10 minutes we crossed paths with 3 guys going the other way and headed towards the beach. These were the first people we had seen in 7 days. 

Then a few minutes later we crossed paths with another hiker. We stopped and talked to him for a moment or two. He told us how he comes here every year and this was the first year that he hadn't seen a bear. We told him that we hadn't seen one either but that we knew they were around due to the bear poop around Upper Bush Lake. 

Finally we reached the trail head. We looked at the map posted there and admired just how far we had traveled this past week. 

Normally this would have been the end of the backpacking trip. However, we still had about a kilometer more of walking through the park to get to the car yet. 

Along the way we spotted a guy who looked like a Mounted Police Officer. Turns out he was just a regular camper dressed in red, but we had to take a second look before we realized it wasn't one. 

We took a slightly different path to get back to the car which brought us past the wheelchair accessible washroom. 

This washroom was in better condition than all the other ones in the park. It was cleaner and less run down. It was probably the closest thing you would get to a comfort station in this park.  

Close by was one of the wheelchair accessible campsites (#59).  It didn't have a wheelchair accessible picnic table that you see in some parks. 

But it did have a raised fire pit, making it more accessible, that you don't see in many other parks.

We finally arrived at the car at about 2 pm. We took off our packs that we had carried for the past 7 days. We started talking about all the things we had done without that we could now have. Things like a proper pillow, ice for our drinks, and some clean clothes. But, the first step was to drive to the office and register for our last night in the park. 

There was a different girl at the office than the one we had been talking to at the beginning of our trip. This girl was just as super friendly and nice as the last one. I am impressed with the friendliness of the staff in this park. We told her we had just come out of the back country and were there to register for Walk-in Site #2.

We started asking her about the beach site that we had just came from and she told us that the site was Site #1. Apparently, when they printed the maps, that site was over looked and did not make it onto the map. I was a little dismayed by this. It meant that we could have slept at the beautiful beach site last night instead of dealing with a hornets nest. However, it also meant that on the very first night we had slept at site number 3 and should have been at site number 2 which was the hornets nest site.  Well, at least we didn't run into other campers that we had to argue with about who's site we were on. We would have been in the wrong and not even known it. 

We told her that we were confused by the "no camping" sign that was posted there. She explained that the sign was intended for the portage and not for the campsite. That makes sense, but I think the sign should probably be posted further away from the campsite and a little further down the portage in order to make it less confusing. 

We told her about all the dead fall on the trails that needed clearing. She explained that they were under staffed and weren't able to send a maintenance crew out this year. She also told us that a volunteer group ( I forget the name of the group. Sorry!) had come out and hiked the trails and had put up the orange trail markers. We told her to tell them that they did a great job! Without those orange trail markers, our hiking experience would have been not so good. 

We told her about the bear poop in the area of the Upper Bush Lake campsite. (She also didn't know that the Upper and Lower Bush Lakes were reversed on their maps). That is when she told us the sad story of why Bear Mountain is called Bear Mountain and why there are warnings posted about bears all over the park. It's a story that I won't soon forget.   Apparently, a couple years ago, some people brought their dog with them up on Bear Mountain but they didn't have it on a leash. The dog chased after and attacked a bear and then the bear chased the dog back to where the people were. The owners ended up tying the dog to a tree and leaving it there. When the rangers went up the mountain, they found the dog dead with it's entrails everywhere and they had to shoot the bear. 

At first I was appalled by the story and wondered what kind of person would tie their dog to a tree and leave it there to be killed by a bear. But then I thought about it some more and realized that I couldn't really judge because I wasn't there. After all, if you are up on a mountain about 8 to 12 km from the main park with no gun and no one to help you, are you going to carry a bleeding and injured dog down the mountain with you when you know that a bear is right behind you and is following you in attack mode?  Chances are the dog may not have made it to medical help on time and would have died anyways. And if you left the dog untied it would follow you and bring the bear right to you again and put you in danger. It's heart breaking, but they may not have had much choice at that point really.  However, they did have a choice to keep the dog on leash so that it wouldn't have agitated and attacked the bear in the first place. Or better yet, don't bring the dog with you at all. Hopefully, by spreading this story it will make others think first and prevent anything like this from happening again in the future. 

With all this talk about the bears, we completely forgot to ask about the secret unmarked trail and unused campsite that we had found down by the beach.  So, we still don't know the story behind that. 

​We probably could have talked with her all day, but other campers were coming in and needing her attention, and we needed to get set up at our next site. So, we finished registering for Walk-in site # 2 and then we drove over to the site. When we got there we found that someone else was parked in our spot for the campsite. I noticed that their car permit said "back country" on it, so we figured that they had probably stayed at Walk-in Site #2 last night and then, since there was no parking at the trail head, they just left their car here. But that was ok because the parking lot was really rather large and we just parked in a spot next to them instead. 

We set up the big orange tent to sleep in for the night. 

And then I set up my little green tent to dry it out while Carsten threw the fly to his tent over the clothes line to dry. 

Walk-in site #2 was very similar to Walk-in Site # 3.  It was big and spacious , with a mix of sun and shade. 

It also had direct access to Semiwite Lake 

Even a great big toad was taking the opportunity to sun himself. 

We really wanted to get cleaned up and into some clean clothes. However, since there are no comfort stations in this park it also means that there are no showers either.  We had to resort to washing up in the lake.  We gathered up the clean clothes, and soap, and such, that we needed and headed towards the closest beach.  

We made it in up to about our knees before we decided that we just couldn't do it.  It was way too cold!
The cold air temperature from this morning was still not warm enough to say that it was hot out. And it definitely wasn't hot enough to warm up the lake. But we still had to get cleaned up. 

 We thought about it for a moment and realized that the beach we were at was in a shady area and there was no direct sun to warm up the water. We could see the other beach from where we were and noticed that it had more sun over there. Perhaps it would be warm enough over there. 

​We jumped in the car and drove over to the other beach. It was worth a try. 

This second beach was the main day beach of the park.  It was mostly empty right now because everyone was thinking it was too cold to swim. And they would be right. 

However, we were also right in thinking that the water was warmer at this beach than the last one we were at. Now, I am not saying that it was wonderfully warm, but I am saying that it was just that much warmer that we could manage to get in long enough to get cleaned up and wash our hair.  But boy did it take us a long time to muster up the courage to go all the way under water. 

We had just gotten in when some kids came around to play by the canoes. Their mom was with them and she looked at us like we were crazy. I am betting that she was worried that her kids would see us swimming and want to go in swimming too. She was bundled up in a coat and long pants and I could see her hoping that the kids didn't ask to go in. 

Needless to say we didn't stay in the water too long. When I got out, I headed for the nearby bathroom pretty quick so that I could change into some nice dry and clean clothes.  My teeth may have been chattering but it still felt good to be clean again. 

I came out of the bathroom and met up with Carsten in the parking lot. We decided that since we were already in the car, why not drive over to the Group campsite and see what it was like over there. That way we could turn on the heater in the car and warm up a little bit. 

The Group site was pretty nice. It had a little picnic shelter at one end. 

There was a lot of wide open, grassy, space for many tents and places to play games and sports. 

There were plenty of picnic tables here too. We sat at one of them for a bit and relaxed. It felt odd not having to be hiking with a pack on our backs all day. We almost didn't know how to spend the time. 

It was close to supper time though. One of the things on our to-do list was to go into the town of Elliot Lake to have some sort of greasy take-out food for supper.  After only eating hiking food for a week, this was an indulgence we were looking forward to.

We drove into town and found a place called "Sarah's Food Truck" and placed our order. 

We took our food to Westview Park and sat on a bench to eat it. We had a little sea gull friend that was watching us carefully; hoping to catch any food that we might drop or want to throw to him. 

After super we drove back to the park and to our campsite. The nice thing about having a campsite right next to the lake is you get to see things like beavers swimming by. 

This evening we actually got to see two beavers swimming by. One seemed to be an adult while the other was a juvenile. 

The other campers from the sites on either side of us were also down by the shore watching the beavers swimming by. 

As we stood there quietly watching the beavers, there was a commotion in a pine tree that was right next to us. It was a little bird and it was flying frantically around on one of the branches. 

The next thing we know, this little warbler lands at our feet carrying a Northern Pine Sphinx caterpillar in its beak.  This little bird was literally about 4 inches away from Carsten's feet. 

We were amazed that such a little bird had taken on such large prey. 

It seemed to struggle with the daunting task of finding a way to eat this precious meal. 

Since the warbler was so close to us and the meal so difficult for him, we tried to stay as still as possible and didn't move except to snap a few pictures.  The bird would pause every once in awhile and look up at us, but it didn't seem to care that we were there. 

It was way more intent on eating its prized meal. So, it would go back to wrestling with it and pecking at it. 

We thought for sure the bird had eyes bigger than its stomach and would never be able to consume this caterpillar. But what did we know? 

After about ten minutes the bird took the caterpillar back up into a pine tree. We took that opportunity to back away and go and sit in our chairs. We could still see the bird and its prey from where we were sitting. And to our surprise, the bird did finally manage to swallow that caterpillar.  I am sure that was one happy little bird! 

The next birds to come onto the scene were our good friends the Merganser ducks. They were swimming along in their little group, fishing as they went. 

And then we saw the beavers again. I was hoping to get a closer picture of them so I suggested to Carsten that we walk down to the boat launch to see if we could catch up to them there since they were headed in that direction. 

But by the time we got to the boat launch the beavers had turned around and gone back towards our campsite. If I had been patient then I would have been there when they swam right by our site again.  

Since we were already down by the boat launch, we decided to go for an evening walk. There was a trail that ran parallel to the shoreline that we had not checked out yet. Now was as good a time as any. Besides, the ducks had gone this way so maybe we could catch up to them and see them again. 

The trail led to a tiny little playground for the kids. It didn't have anything more than a jungle gym in it and it was hidden away in almost a secret little spot, but it was enough to make some kids happy. 

It had a cute little garden fairy on it. 

On the other side of the playground, the trail continued on. It still followed the shoreline and it was a nice little trail. We came to a little boardwalk which had some trees and bushes between us and the lake. 

This is where I saw the ducks and was able to snap a picture of them by peering through the bushes at them. 

Of course the ducks are not dumb and it didn't take long for them to figure out that I was there.  They quickly swam out to deeper water and became black dots on the watery horizon of the lake. 

The trail led all the way down to the beach where we had gone in for a swim earlier in the day. 

At the far end of the beach was a metal dock . 

And once again I met up with the ducks. I wasn't really following them at this point. They just happened to be going in the same direction that we were.  

The sun was starting to set and the horizon was turning a pastel pink. It was time to head back to camp before it got too dark. 

Passing by the boat launch once more, we spotted a Wood Duck swimming by. I almost mistook it for one of the beavers.

Once we got back to camp we sat in the moonlight for awhile and looked up at the stars. 

We went to bed around 9:15 and could hear the call of the loon off in the distance.  

Then we heard the loud yelling and carrying on of a bunch of drunk guys partying it up at the other end of the park. No one went and told them to quiet down. Well, I guess that only goes to show that we were back in "civilization" again.  I already missed the peace and quiet of the back country. 

I was woken up around 8 a.m. by two loons calling loudly to each other somewhere near by. 

There was still no sun and it was overcast again most of the day.  The No-See-Ums were particularly bad this morning. There were so many of them that you could actually see them swarming. 

We were visited by a hummingbird as we ate breakfast. It was just a quick visit, but we were happy to see it. The hummingbirds seem to be plentiful in this park. 

We were packed up and left camp at around 10 a.m.  We had to make our way back around the trees that were fallen across the side trail. This time we chose to go around them from the other side. It was trickier to climb over some of the branches but we didn't have to go as far off the trail as we did last time. 

The maple leaves were looking beautiful in their new stippled red and orange colours. 

Some of the mushrooms had put on their bright red caps. 

And even the Bunch Berries were dressing up in red collars. 

There was a dried up creek bed that we had to cross over. 

And a forest of pines that had an almost mystical look to them. 

There were two or three steep hills to climb but they weren't too terrible. 

Eventually the clouds drifted away and the sun started to come out. 

It was at about that time that we reached the first of two beaver dams. We had to cross the creek here using some stepping stones to get over to the other side of the brown waters of the beaver pond. 

On the other side was a bit of a hill that wound around the pond. We didn't see any beaver but we still enjoyed the view. 

The trail then turned into a beautiful grassy path through the trees. It was almost like a fairy land. 

The grassy path then turned into a trail of ferns. 

We had to be careful where we stepped because there were little toads everywhere. 

Every part of this section of the trail was different and changed as we went.  Next we were on a trail of tiny maples and club moss. 

One of the types of club mosses was Lycopodium. Seeing it brought back childhood memories of when we were kids and we used to go out in the woods with our mom and dad to pick Lycopodium to sell. 

Once again we came to a stand of pine trees. Looking through the trees you could see the second beaver dam that we were expecting to come to. 

The beaver pond here was much wider but the water was still brown. 

Before the trip I had read some comments online about the beaver dam, so I knew ahead of time that we were going to have to walk right on top of the dam to get to the other side. It was the only way to get across. 

The dam was covered in Jewel Weed and it was not easy to see where to step sometimes. 

It was very beautiful though. There were orange flowers everywhere and there were plenty of bees, butterflies, and dragonflies scattered throughout them. They didn't bother us though. 

There were other flowers too, such as Joe Pye Weed, and cat tails. 

And purple Asters.

We did a test run with our backpacks off.  We went about half way just to test it, to see if it would hold our weight. 

We wanted to see if there were any problem spots we would need to watch out for so that we didn't fall in.  We were going to stop and rest for awhile before crossing but the sky was turning grey again and it was threatening to rain. We didn't want to be crossing this in the rain. So, we decided not to waste any more time and we went back to the beginning of the dam and got our backpacks on. 

Carsten went first. The dam was not just a straight shot across. It went in a zig zag pattern around the edge of the pond. Once Carsten went around the corner up ahead I couldn't see him anymore and I didn't know what to expect to encounter. 

But we had no difficulties and neither of us fell in. Carsten was waiting for me on the other side and we continued on. 

​We passed a large pile of branches that the beavers had been using to build their dam and lodge with. 

It wasn't long after this that we came to the spot where the Helenbar Lake trail joined up with the Semiwite Lake trail. This junction is marked with a big sign that commemorates Lt. William Hugh McKenzie who survived for 27 days in the woods after his jet crashed in the Helenbar Lake in 1946. 

Under the sign is a visitor log book. We wrote our names inside the book and then continued on. 

We were now on the trail we had traveled on before. We had come full circle and now we had to go back up the same trail we had been on the very first night we started this trip so that we could get to site number one on Semiwite Lake. 

This trail had all sorts of crazy looking fungus growing on the trees. Some looked like toasted marshmallows. 

The trail was so much easier to travel on now. There were no hills and since we knew we were almost there, we were in a good mood and the time seemed to fly by. 

In no time at all we were at the sign for the side trail to our campsite. 

Carsten pointed out an old leaf on a piece of birch bark that looked almost like it had been stenciled on. But is wasn't a stencil. It was a work of art of God's design. 

And all of a sudden, we had arrived.  It was about 12:30 by the time we got there. But as we looked around, our good mood started turning into a mixed bag of emotions.  The site was tiny. And rocky. And had an unusually high number of yellow jacket hornets flying around.  There was a picnic table; so that was good. 

Behind the picnic table was a little side path. 

It led into the woods where there was a small flat patch of land that had just enough space for one small tent.  We were not sure what we were going to do since we needed space for two tents. We were quickly becoming disappointed with this site. 

Off to the side of the picnic table was a tiny little fire pit. Someone had draped some pine branches across it for some reason. 

Past the picnic table was another side trail. This one was filled with large rocks and it led to the lake. 

At the edge of the lake was another, larger fire pit. This one had big boulders all around it where you could sit pretty comfortably.  Now this made us more happy. This would be a great spot to have supper and watch the sunset. 

You could see much of the lake from here and the view was pretty nice. 

From here we could see the site across the lake that we had stayed at the first night of our backpacking trip. There was no one on it right now and we considered for half a second, packing up our stuff and moving over to that site for the night. But we didn't know if anyone else was booked to stay there so, we didn't. 

We wondered why there were two fire pits. But then we saw the orange sign down by the waters edge and we figured that maybe canoers used this site from time to time. And some days the weather might not be so great for sitting by the shore. So, a more in-land  fire pit might be the way to go on days like that.  But today was not one of those days so, we intended to use the bigger fire pit over by the lake. 

 Maybe we could make this work. We just had to get creative and do some problem solving.  First we had to find room for a second tent. 

We noticed that there was a small area beside the big fire pit where the picnic table might fit. If we could get it across the boulder path and moved to here, then we would have room for another tent where the picnic table used to be. 

It was tricky getting the table over to the new spot, but we did it. Once it was moved, it looked like it was the perfect spot for it and it felt like it had always belonged there. 

And this opened up a whole lot more room for another tent.  "Perfect!" we thought. 

Perfect that is until Carsten discovered a slight problem.  Under the picnic table had been an underground  hornets nest!  No wonder there were so many yellow jackets flying around the area!   We were lucky that we hadn't disturbed the nest. None of the hornets seemed to be upset and they weren't coming after us or bothering us in any way.  

After we thought about it, we figured it was a good thing we had moved the picnic table. What would have happened if we had sat down at the table for dinner and had put our feet right into the doorway of that nest?  Or worse... what if someone who was allergic to bees had done that?  

So now, in light of our new insect friends,  we had to re-think our tent set up strategy. 

Carsten's tent had to be pegged into the ground or it wouldn't stand. Since we didn't want to be accidentally ramming pegs into an underground hornets nest, we decided that Carsten should take the spot down the side trail that was furthest away from the nest. 

Since my tent didn't need to be pegged down, that meant that I had to share a spot with the yellow jackets. 

There was not a whole lot of space on that little patch of land. So, the door to my tent was only a couple of feet away from the door to their nest. This was going to be a fun night!  I wondered if I would be able to hear them buzzing underground as I slept above them.

I decided that for our safety, and the safety of any future campers (and I suppose in a round about way, the safety of the hornets) that it would be best if I took out a sharpie and wrote a warning sign on a big white rock and placed it beside the nest. This way there would be no surprises to any new comers and both Carsten and I would be able to see exactly where the nest was since it was not easy to see at first glance. 

Behind my tent we found a trail that led to the Thunder Box.  The path to it was overgrown and the sign for it was put up sideways making it difficult to see it. It looked like the Thunder Box hadn't been used in forever.

Once again we found Rove Beetles near by. These ones were a different type of Rove Beetle than the last ones we had seen. 

You couldn't really see the lake from the Thunder Box, but I did get to do some bird watching from there. A woodpecker came around and didn't seem to mind that I was there. 

Once we got set up and ate lunch, we decided that the campsite wasn't all that bad. It may be tiny and full of hornets, but it was still quite lovely here.  The fall leaf colours were stunning. 

Even the fungi wanted to get dressed in pretty colours. 

A Western Dusky Slug was enjoying the wet, slimy top of a mushroom.

A Picture-winged fly landed on my knee. I found the spots on its body and the stripes on its wings to be beautiful, even if it was just a fly.

And once again, that same group of Merganser ducks came swimming by. 

We also had a visit from a little green hummingbird. It even landed on a tree ranch for a couple of seconds. I didn't get a picture though. It was too fast. 

The sun kept coming and going all afternoon.  ​Mostly going. 

There was a moment where we could see a bright light behind the clouds and we thought that the sun  was pushing through. However, when the clouds parted for a brief moment we were surprised to see that it was actually the moon and the moon looked like a full moon even though it wasn't supposed to be full yet. 
At first we thought it must be the sun we were seeing but then we could see the sun through the clouds that had parted a little further away at the exact same time. So we were not sure what to make of that. It was kind of weird. And we didn't have time to study it much because the clouds quickly came back and covered both so that we could no longer see either of them again. 

After lunch we gathered wood for the fire and water for the water filter. Unfortunately we somehow managed to puncture a hole in our water filter bottle. It wasn't too bad though. We managed to patch it up with a piece of duct tape. (This is why you should always have a little bit of duct tape with you on a backpacking trip). 

At about 4:30  we decided it was nap time. In answer to the question "Can you hear the hornets underground when you are sleeping next to them?" The answer is "no". At least not from where I was napping.  

At about 6 pm we started a fire for supper. The wind was up and it kept blowing ashes and little bits of bark and debris into the water we were boiling. So, we took a clean towel and put it over a pot and poured the water into it to filter out the unwanted bits. 

We were almost done eating when the sky turned very dark and it began to rain.

But the sun kept shining right through the clouds and the rain.  

This left us in the dark side of the lake while the other side of the lake was all bright and sunny. 

And naturally when you get rain and sun at the same time, you get a rainbow. 

The sun continued to fight with the clouds. The rain would stop and start and stop and start.  Eventually it stopped raining all together. 

A lone Canada Goose swam by. I wondered where it was going all by itself. Usually they are in a group. 

With the rain gone the sun was able to provide us with some colour as it prepared to set. 

The moon also made an appearance. Now that it was fully visible we could confirm that it was indeed not a full moon that night. 

A chill started to fill the air and the mosquitoes started to swarm. It was time to escape to our tents. Tonight would be the last night sleeping out in the back country. Tomorrow night we would still be sleeping in a tent, but it would be in the main campground. 

So, we took a moment to appreciate the peace and quiet and the reflection of the moon on the lake. Sometimes its the little things that make life so wonderful. 

Carsten woke me up at 8:30, telling me that it was time to get up because it was starting to drizzle and we didn't want to pack up the tents when it was raining hard if we didn't have to. 

I opened my eyes to find a little green inch-worm making its way across my sleeping bag. He is lucky he didn't get squished while I was sleeping.  I brought him outside and put him safely on a nearby maple leaf. 

We got to see if our shelter that we had built was of any use. As we were packing up we would put the things that were ready to go into our backpacks, under the shelter, close to the cedar tree wall. Since it was only a drizzle and not a down pour it worked not too bad. If it were a real rain then it wouldn't have done much good. 

We were packed up and ready to leave by 9:30. I didn't even eat breakfast. That was ok though, we didn't have far to go today and I had dried fruit and granola bars in the pocket of my fanny pack to snack on.  Today we were on our way to Helenbar Lake. 

As we left, I turned and said "Good-bye toad. Stay out of the fire pit!"  

Almost immediately the trail was an upward slope. But we knew this ahead of time and were expecting it. The first part of our journey was to climb Bear Mountain. After that the rest of the trail should be mostly downhill from there. 

It wasn't all that bad really. It wasn't the steepest climb we had ever done, by far. The only thing that made the climb a little problematic was there were places where there was nothing to hold on to. Or, sometimes there was, but the tree would be old and falling apart. So, what you grabbed onto would crumble in your hand or break off, causing you to lose balance unexpectedly. 

The drizzle stopped but the sun didn't come out and it stayed a bit chilly. That's not the worst thing when you are hiking. It kept the mosquitoes away and we also didn't get over heated.

According to the published map, there are actually a few lookouts at the top of Bear Mountain, not just one. 
We got to the top and the forest opened up into a bit of a clearing. 

​The view here was blocked by trees though. We were not sure if this was considered a lookout or not. Could it be that this was once a lookout but the trees have grown up over the years and the view is now blocked? In some parks we had been to, this would qualify as a lookout to them. We were hoping for something a little more awe inspiring than this though. 

We followed the trail along the top of the mountain. It was nice and flat here and we were glad we didn't have to climb anymore. 

It wasn't long before we came to the real lookout.  Now this was awe inspiring!  You could see for miles! 

I was so busy looking at the view that I didn't see the snake that was right at our feet. If Carsten hadn't pointed it out I might have stepped on it. 

It was a garter snake that was probably hoping that the sun would come out so that it could get warm. It was not moving at all and was hoping that we didn't see it, I suppose. I felt for the little guy because I hate being cold too. 

We turned our attention back to the view. It was amazing to see not just one lake, but two. To the left we could see the lake we had just spent the past 2 nights on. And to the right we could see through the trees, the lake we had been on before that. 

I mentioned to Carsten that the mist looked really nice against the trees on the other side of the lake. He said "That's not mist. That's clouds". The clouds had been particularly low the last few days and we were so high up that I felt that was pretty accurate.  We could actually feel the moisture in the air from where we were. 

We left the lookout and continued on down the trail through some trees until we came to another open rocky area. This one had rocks in a circle that looked like someone had once made a fire pit here a long time ago. 

And someone had made an arrow out of rocks pointing in the direction of the trail. 

But we didn't follow that area because we had arrived at a second lookout point. And this one was even better than the last one!  We could see three lakes from this spot!  It just takes your breath away. 

We looked down below us and we could see the campsite where we had slept the past 2 nights. You could even see the bottom of the lake from here. So this is what the King Fishers see when they are fishing!  It was fabulous! 

We could see the second and third lake to our right with barely any trees obstructing our view. 

We could even make out where our other campsite had been. The one where all the bear poop had been. It was amazing to be able to see exactly where we had hiked for the past few days from a birds-eye view.  

After reaching the top, it was a relatively pleasant and easy sloping trail back down the other side. This gave us a chance to enjoy things like the changing colours of the leaves.

Or the odd rock formations decorating the trail. 

It was a nice hike with only a few hic-ups once in awhile, such as not being able to find the trail from time to time. But once we found it we took out some orange ribbon and marked it better for the next people using the trail.  Most the trail was easy through this stretch though.

Of course, there was still a lot of blow downs across the trail that we had to climb over or around. 

But sometimes these blow downs made for the perfect seat to take a rest on. 

Eventually we got to the intersection on the trail.  This is where the trail split into 3 ways. To the left was the side trail to Helenbar Lake. To the right was the trail we had just emerged from. Behind us was the continuing trail on to Semiwite Lake.  We were getting so close now! We picked up our pace a little. 

We battled our way through over growth and dead fall. We noticed that many of these dead fall trees had green leaves on them still. So, they were pretty recent falls. Perhaps even within the last few days. 

We came to one that was literally taller than Carsten was. There was no climbing over this one.  And the fallen tree was very long and had fallen on another one, which had fallen on top of another one after that, in a domino effect.  It created a virtual wall of trees in both directions. This meant that we would have to go off the trail and walk all the way around it and then find our way back to the trail. Sounds simple, but once you leave the trail it isn't as easy as you may think to find it again.  Plus, having a backpack on meant that we couldn't easily climb over or under things. We actually came back to the trail on the other side quite a bit further down the trail than I had expected we would be. It was kind of surprising. 

In light of this, it made me think about how hazardous not having a clear trail  could be.  Not only could you go off trail and then get lost, but there was another potential hazard. If anyone ever needed a medical evacuation, be it by a rescue crew or just trying to get themselves out with a broken leg or something, this sort of fallen tree scenario would make it extremely challenging, if not next to impossible, depending on the situation. 

The side trail to the site wasn't too long. But it was long enough that we had time to see a couple more interesting things, such as some Coral Tooth Fungus.  The bright white of the fungus was eye catching in contrast to the browns and greys of the forest. 

Then there was the little brown  Wood Frog that we spotted hopping through the wet leaves. He was doing his best to blend in instead of stand out. 

In short order we reached a grove of pine trees with a blanket of pine needles under them. This was right next to the lake. We had arrived! 

This was another wonderful site that we were very happy with.  There was a lot of open space and a nice big fire pit. 

People had left their grills behind, so we had a number of them that we could choose from. 

Someone even left an old broken rake.  Sure it was broken, but in a pinch it was still usable. We really didn't have any use for it though so we just leaned it against a tree out of the way somewhere. 

There was a picnic table here too.  That was a nice bonus. 

The site had easy access to beautiful Helenbar Lake.  To the left you can see a clear shoreline that would take you to a marshy area if you walked along it far enough. 

Anyone canoeing on the lake would be able to see the campsite by the camp sign that was attached to a tree along the waters edge. 

To the right was shoreline riddled with driftwood and dead fall. 

The MacKenzie trail that we were hiking is actually named after RCAF Lt. Bill MacKenzie, a pilot who made an emergency landing in this lake in 1946 when he ran out of fuel. He spent 27 days lost and surviving off of berries while making a trail through the forest. He finally ended up at Semiwite Lake where he was found by a fisherman. 

Apparently his plane had crashed in the water very close to where this campsite is (although this campsite was not his campsite. His was further down the lake, past the marshy area to our left). The military removed most of the aircraft, except for 2 pieces which can still be seen today at the Helenbar Lake portage (which was on the other side of the lake from where we currently were).  Carsten and I could see a patch of water lilies growing out in the middle of the lake, a little further than you usually find water lilies. We wondered if they mark the spot where the plane went in. Perhaps the wreckage created some sort of mineral rich deposits or some sort of environment that encourages the growth of the water lilies there. Or perhaps not. It could be that the plane went down in a completely different spot than where the water lilies are growing. Maybe we just have a good imagination. If we had a canoe we probably would have paddled out to see what we would find. 

This site actually had a post to put your backcountry pass in. It is rare that you find these out in the back country, so we were surprised to see it. 

It looked like someone had started to build a wall out of logs here. 

Carsten decided that the log wall would be a good place to put up his tent. 
Although there is a whole lot of open space here, the space is not all flat.  Much of it is sloped, so finding enough flat space to have a comfortable sleep at night was not as easy as we first thought. 

However, I too managed to find a relatively flat spot to put up my tent. It was pretty close to the clothes line that we had already set up though. 

This site was another site that had a good number of toads. We made sure to check for toads in the fire pit before lighting a fire. There were none. 

The Thunder Box on this site was the best one on the whole trail so far. It was easy to find and easy to get to, even if it was up a hill a little bit. 

The only problem with it was it had a bunch of bugs running around that I had never seen before in my life.  What were these odd and kind of creepy looking bugs? They had a head like a giant ant, but a bright yellow butt like a firefly or glow worm. The yellow butt didn't appear to glow though,.

I knew nothing about them so I didn't get too close in case they bite. 

After getting home later, I researched them online and found out that they were "Gold-And-Brown Rove Beetles".   It basically said that "Gold-and-brown Rove Beetles consume flies, maggots, and other living insects that live in carrion, fungi, dung, and decaying plants.  Short wings allow for a glimpse of part of their abdomen. As a result, they look like they only have one half of a wing, however, they can fly. Golden yellow hairs on the tip of the abdomen give it a brilliant, metallic sheen. The body of this insect has a tendency to bend upward while it walks. Rove Beetles prefer to remain hidden and will likely hide when they feel threatened. Finding one is exciting because most vanish from view before onlookers see them."

Well, these ones sure had no qualms about being seen. 
​

Now that the campsite was all set up, it was time to do some exploring. There was a hill on either side of the campsite. I went and climbed over the smaller hill and found there to be a marsh there with a large muddy pond. 

Naturally, I was hoping to see some wildlife here, and I wasn't disappointed. The first thing I saw was a Blue Heron. However, it saw me first and promptly decided to leave the area as fast as it could.  Then my attention was turned to the pond as I saw some movement and some ripples in the water. 

I was super excited to see three otters in the water and on the muddy banks. I stood there taking pictures as quietly as I could. Then I went to get Carsten so that he could see them too. We were in a spot, behind some trees, that was well hidden from their view so, we were able to watch them for a long time. 

Carsten eventually got tired of watching them and he went back to camp. But I wanted to see if I could get some good photos for the photo contest that the park was hosting this year.  I just had to get closer! 

I ever so slowly made my way through the trees and down the other side of the hill snapping pictures as I went. I was sure that at any moment they would notice me and take off. 

But they were way too busy and most of the time they had their heads under water so, they didn't hear me sneaking around. 

It was a real joy to watch them. They seemed to be playing and fishing for things to eat like frogs, fish, and cray fish.  They looked really happy, which made me happy. 

The pictures I was getting were decent enough but probably nothing that was going to win a photo contest. If only I could get even closer without them noticing me. 

I spotted a path that ran between the marsh pond and the lake. Clearly other people had explored here before. The path led to a most beautiful old cedar tree that looked like it was straight out of a story book. I was hoping this would be the perfect spot to get my picture. 

I remained undetected by the otters thanks to some tall marsh grasses between me and them. It was the perfect cover. 

I kept low and watched the ripples in the water. They were not easy to photograph because they spent a lot of time under water and when they did come onto the muddy banks, their colouring blended in too much for a good picture at this distance.  All my photos were too blurry or grainy. But I wasn't giving up yet. 

As I sat watching for the perfect opportunity, I took note of an interesting looking piece of driftwood at the edge of the pond. It was a bit of a different colour and had an unusual shape. 

Then all of a sudden it dawned on me that it was not a piece of driftwood at all! It was a Bittern!  It was sitting so perfectly still that I hadn't even noticed that it was there. But it knew I was there. That is why it was sitting so perfectly still. It hadn't moved the entire time I had been there, which was for a few minutes now.  It probably would have continued to sit there for as long as I did, if it hadn't been for one of the otters. The otter in all of its fun and play, also hadn't noticed that the Bittern was there. So when the otter jumped out of the water and onto the bank, it collided with the Bittern. There was a bit of a ruckus as the otter started yelling at the Bittern and the Bittern squawked  and flew away in a hurry.  

With the Bittern gone, I focused my attention back on the otters. However, I realized after many attempts to get a good picture that despite being closer to them, they were actually somewhat harder to see from this spot than from the hill I had been on earlier. 

I looked around and noticed that the shoreline of the lake might actually bring me to the mouth of the creek that feeds the pond from the lake.  Perhaps by going down the shoreline, I could pop up closer to them from the other side of the pond. It was worth a try. 

So I went back to the lake and started to follow it. You could tell that the water level was down a little bit and that this area would probably not be walkable in the spring time.  

All over the place there were lovely white Pipewort flowers growing, like little tiny snowballs. 

I tried to be as quiet as I could as I walked across wet crunchy gravel and prickly Bur-weeds. 

I was almost there and I could see my destination up ahead. There was a big pile of driftwood at the entrance to the creek and that is where I was hoping to get a clear picture. The mouth of the creek wouldn't have as many bushes in the way to impede my view. 

I was just about at the mouth of the creek when, to my surprise, I spotted my little friend the Bittern again!  He hadn't flown that far away; just over top of the bushes that acted as a wall between the pond and the lake.  He was standing there with his neck out stretched acting as though he was a log or something.  He seemed to be looking or listening for something. Every once in awhile he would turn his head ever so slightly to peer into the forest. I don't know if it was me who spooked him or something else, but after a few minutes he finally flew away. 

The entrance to the mouth of the creek was like a little tunnel that was covered in branches and sticks. You could tell that something had dragged them there on purpose to create a protective barrier to the pond, just as a beaver would. Actually, it most likely was a beaver that did this.  As far as I know, otters don't make dams. 

It had been well over an hour since I had started my quest to get the perfect photo of the otters. Perhaps even 2 hours. I had lost track of time.  By the time I got to this end of the pond there was only one otter still there. The others had gone home.  But now, I was in almost a perfect spot to get my picture. 

Of course as luck would have it., I only got one picture before the otter spotted me and the gig was up. With a splash and a crash he scampered away as quick as can be.

​It would have been the perfect picture, but sadly at the angle I was at I only got half of the otter and part of his face was blocked by a leaf from the bushes between us. I guess this perfect otter picture just wasn't meant to be. 

It was a bit disappointing but at the same time I felt truly blessed to have been able to spend so much time watching the otters play. And I may not have gotten the perfect picture for a photo contest, but I did get a couple of good enough ones to share here and to make me smile. 

I now headed back to camp by following the shoreline back. I was so focused on otters on the way over that I hadn't taken much note of the beautiful Jewel Weed that I had passed by. I began to pay more attention to the beautiful things around me. 

There was some pink Joe Pye Weed 

And some tiny, delicate little pink flowers called "Northeastern Bladderwort" . Not really a pretty name for such a pretty flower. The person who named it could have found something prettier to call it, don't you think? 

A Diving Beetle was doing what it does best in the water... diving. 

I saw the remains of a crayfish floating in the water. Possibly left over from one of the otters dinner. Or maybe from a racoon? Either way, it let me know that there were crayfish in the area. 

And so I started to look for larger rocks and sunken pieces of wood in the water to look under. Maybe I could find a live crayfish under one of them. 

Sure enough, I did find a couple here and there. They weren't too keen on me lifting up the roof of their house though, and they tried to hide under smaller rocks. They did a pretty good job of blending in. I let them think that I couldn't see them and I put the roofs back on their houses. 

There were a few leopard frogs hanging out on the shore too. 

By the time I went back to the campsite to see what Carsten was up to, it was about 4:30.  That was when we heard a terrible ruckus down at the lake and we went rushing down to the shore to see what all the noise was all about. 

It was two King Fishers having a fight over fishing territory. They were chasing each other around and being very noisy about it. 

It didn't last long though. Eventually one of them gave up and flew off to another part of the lake to fish somewhere else. 

We went back to the campsite and sat around talking until it was time to build a fire to cook our supper on. 

I was starting to notice that the No-See-Ums were pretty bad here. At first I thought I was just itchy from all the mosquito bites that I had from the day we went to Upper Brush Lake. However, it became apparent that I was actually getting bitten with new bites from the No-See-Ums. 

As we ate supper we talked about how this would make a great canoe trip for Penny, my sister-in-law. We looked at our maps and figured out where we might like to camp and how long the portage was between Semiwite Lake and Helenbar Lake. 

At about 8:30 the mosquitoes came out and that was our que that it was time to pack up the food and put it in the tree so that we could escape to our tents. 

As we were clearing the table a little moth landed in the lamp light. It was so shiny! We had never seen a moth as shiny as this one was. Apparently this little guy is called a "Shiny Headstand Moth".  Of course it was hard to get a good picture when the sun has gone down and all you have is a flashlight, so this picture really doesn't do it justice at all. 

There had been no sunshine all day, but no rain either. I had been too busy to really notice the weather much anyway. It had been another really good day. 

In my tent, safe from the mosquitoes, I could hear the loons calling each other and I could also hear a  Barred Owl. I love it here, and I went to sleep happy. 

There had been a thunderstorm during the night. I was happy that my tent had stayed completely dry even though my feet were touching the walls of my tent. 

It was still raining when I woke up and it was cold out too, so I stayed in my tent in my nice warm sleeping bag until it stopped raining which was at about 10:30.

When I did finally decide to get out of the tent, Carsten had already been up an hour before me. 

Everything was cold and wet and there was mist on the lake and coming off of the tree tops. Nothing was around and the whole area was unusually quiet compared to yesterday. There were no birds singing, no squirrels, no loons, and no King Fishers. I didn't even hear the chewing sounds of the Pine Sawyer beetles. Everything was doing what I had been doing; staying inside to keep dry and warm. 

The wood we had stashed away under the fallen tree and in a bag were perfectly dry.  However, we decided to save that wood for suppertime in the evening. Instead, we opted to get some hot water for breakfast and coffee using our portable camp stove. 

It started to drizzle a bit again. We talked it over and decided that it was too wet and slippery to be climbing bear mountain today so, we would just stick around the campsite.  That led to the next question of "What are we going to do all day?" 

​We didn't want to sit around in the rain and the cold doing nothing all day, so we decided to build a shelter just for the fun of it. We would be moving around which would keep us warm and we would be focused on our project which would keep us from being bored.  It was the shelter we had seen at the first campsite of our trip that gave us the idea. 

We found a live cedar tree which was already growing on a diagonal and had 4 trees around it that we could use as a frame. We had the old twine that someone had left behind as a clothes line that we could use to lash things together. With a bit of a plan in mind, but mostly making it up as we went along, we set about building our shelter in the rain. 

We began to roam the area looking for long thin logs that wouldn't be too heavy or too difficult to move that we could use for our frame.  

As we explored, Carsten came across a surprising discovery. There was a marker for a trail to the bathroom! 
Say what?!?  How did we miss that yesterday? 

The funny thing too was that it was on a tree beside the fallen tree. The same fallen tree that we stored our wood under to keep dry. The same fallen tree that Carsten had pitched his tent up beside. It was right there the whole time. 

We felt a bit foolish but not too much. The fallen tree was actually right across the path to the bathroom. In order to get there you literally had to go all the way around the tree. If the fallen tree wasn't there the trail would have been more evident. 

So, we followed the new found path and lo and behold, there it was. 

Yay! Now we don't have to use the fallen log anymore!. No more sitting on pine needles, sap, and pieces of bark. We were very happy with this find.

After our find, we got back to the project at hand. We found a huge area with a ton of dead fall and we gathered up some smaller pieces to make a roof with. We began to weave the dead branches together like you would on a loom to make a roof.  The twine we were using had seen better days and would fray and break on us sometimes, but we managed to make it work.

We would go back and forth gathering some dead branches then weaving them in and then going out to find more branches. While looking for the perfect branches we would find some beautiful mushrooms growing in the rain. 

There was orange Jelly Spot fungi growing in the moss at the base of one tree. 
​

And there were Painted Suillus mushrooms with red mottled tops. 

We worked on our shelter for a couple hours until we decided that it was lunch time and we stopped for a break. 

At about this time we finally saw our first creature of the day. It was a little red squirrel who was having his own lunch of fresh green pine cones. 

A little Enargia moth also decided to join us. 

After lunch we went back to building our shelter. We worked for a few more hours but then eventually began to get bored.  

We stepped back and took a look at it. It was nothing special but we liked it.  Now of course it is far from finished and probably never will get finished.  In order to finish it, we would need to get a whole lot of leaves, branches, and moss to cover it all and make a good ceiling and walls for it. However, we didn't want to damage any of the trees by cutting them apart for an unnecessary shelter. It was only for fun and we were not in any emergency situation where we needed a shelter built. If we were to build one in an emergency it probably wouldn't be this big either. 

Eventually the twine will give way and it will start to fall apart. Or someone will take the dead branches and use our frame as firewood.  Either way, we knew it wouldn't last for too long. Of course if someone else came along later and threw a tarp over the frame it would probably keep them fairly dry or shaded if need be. We didn't have a tarp with us so it was just a frame. But it had kept us busy for about 5 hours. 

It was about 4 o'clock now and it was getting colder and the wind was up.  I took this opportunity to hang up my wet clothes from yesterday in hopes that the wind would dry them out, even if there was no sun. 

While I was doing that, we heard an extremely loud and resounding cracking noise that echoed from across the lake. I spun around and said to Carsten who was down by the lake, "What in the world was that? A moose?" 

He said he wasn't sure but he pointed to a tree and said "That tree over there just started shaking".  But by the time I got down to where Carsten was, the tree wasn't shaking anymore. 

We stood there looking and listening to see if we heard or saw anything more.  The big leafy tree that he had pointed to began to look like it was a giant smiling cat face as I stared at it. It was like finding shapes in the clouds, only I was finding them in the trees.  Eventually we came to the conclusion that it was probably not a moose. Most likely it had probably been a tree that had fallen down in the wind and crashed into the other one which made it sway. With all the deadfall we had seen around here, it was the explanation that made the most sense. 

We sat for a bit but it was so cold that I needed to sit with a blanket wrapped around me.  Eventually we decided that it was a good time to start a fire. It was close to supper time and it would keep us warm at the same time. 

But once again, I had to rescue a toad from the fire pit. We hadn't started the fire yet this time, so he was in less danger than yesterday, but if we hadn't seen him, he would have been toast.  Crazy toad! Probably the same one. Probably trying to keep warm.   I picked him up and moved him over to the shelter of some trees. 

Later in the evening the wind died down and the temperature started to warm up. There was only one mosquito tonight. Probably still too cold for them. 

We kept the fire going until about 9:30 before heading for bed.  Just before heading into the tents we could hear wolves howling way off in the distance. It was pretty faint. It sounded like it was coming from another lake entirely. Perhaps Upper Brush Lake that  we were on a few nights ago maybe? Who knows. 

I got woken up in the middle of the night by the call of a Barred Owl that was very close by. 
I tried to go back to sleep but now that I was awake I had to go pee.  Thanks for that, owl.

I grabbed my flashlight and made my way to the Thunder Box. Three or four moths were sitting on the box and danced around as the light of my flashlight greeted them. I had to shoo them away because they just didn't want to move. 

Afterwards, I got back into my tent and my warm sleeping bag and snuggled in to go back to sleep.  Once again I heard the call of the Barred Owl very close by.  And then, from another direction, I heard a return call of a second Barred Owl answering the first one.  They called back and forth for about 15 minutes or so. I listened to both and noted how one call was ever so slightly different than the other. I guess they each have their own unique take on their call so that you can tell them apart; just like humans have different voices.  I smiled at this as I eventually fell back to sleep.

I woke up at 7:30 to find that I had slept the whole night through and didn't wake up in the middle of the night like I usually do. It was one of the best sleeps I had so far on this trip.  It was very peaceful, and no bears. 

I found a feather of a Barred Owl on the ground.  Barred Owls are one of my favourite owls. 

We got packed up and on the trail by 9 a.m.  Today we are headed for Lower Brush Lake, where we will be staying for 2 nights. 

We continued our project of clearing deadfall from the trails whenever we could and as much as we could. It had just sort of become an automatic thing to do now since we had been doing it so much. 

I came across a patch of Creeping Snowberry that looked almost like it belonged in someone's garden rather than all the way out here in the bush. 

I noticed a stone that had become encompassed by moss so that the whole thig was green. Since it was green and because of the shape of it, this rock made me think of a turtle's head coming out of the ground. 

Not too far away from the camp we just left there was a creek that you have to cross. 

And just a little further after that there was a second one.  I called them The  Twin Creeks.  Nothing official; I just made it up.  ​It was really lovely where The Twin Creeks are. 

The water flowed down into a ravine; possibly we guessed, into Lower Brush Lake.  We presume this is why Lower and Upper Brush Lakes on the map are not where you would expect them to be. Our theory is that although Upper Brush Lake is below Lower Brush Lake on the map, Upper Brush Lake is probably higher in altitude and feeds into Lower Brush Lake down below. 

On multiple occasions on this trip we came across rock formations that had a bunch of small stones embedded in it.  There were boulders like this in unexpected places on the trail. 

Here is what the internet had to say on the formation of these rocks: 

Pressure solution at work in a clastic rock. While material dissolves at places where grains are in contact, that material may recrystallize from the solution and act as cement in open pore spaces. As a result, there is a net flow of material from areas under high stress to those under low stress, producing a sedimentary rock that is harder and more compact. Loose sand can become sandstone in this way.

The morning had been mostly overcast, but eventually we did get some sunshine, but it wasn't overly hot. This made the trail more inviting to travel on . 

With the exception of a few minor hills, most of the trail in this section was either flat or down hill. 

The other nice thing about this section of the trail was that a good portion of it was walking along the side of Lower Brush Lake. 

We enjoyed this section of the trail immensely.  It was so lovely and peaceful to look at. The water was crystal clear and you could see everything on the bottom. 

We took a number of breaks, but not because we were tired. It was because we just wanted to sit and enjoy the scenery.  We didn't have far to go today, and we were in no real rush, and the weather was perfect, so why not just take our time and take it all in.

On the other side of the lake we could see Bear Mountain. In a couple of days we would be climbing to the top of that rocky hill to the lookout as we moved on to Helenbar Lake.  But that was not a goal for today. Today we just get to look at it from a distance. 

There were a few maples starting to change colour. Most were still green, but the ones that were changing had the most vibrant and interesting colours and patterns. Simply gorgeous!

Even plants that were all green had beautiful patterns as they were slowly becoming yellow. 

The last part of this days hike got a bit rough and unkept, which was a bit unexpected after having relatively good trail earlier that day. We thought we had passed the worst of the blow downs and over growth, but we were wrong. 

Despite the blow downs, we were still able to find our way through the trail and didn't get lost like we had yesterday.  It wasn't long before we came to the sign that showed the side trail to the Lower Brush Lake campsite.  Almost there! 

Oh but you didn't think it would be that easy, did you?  Of course not!  Just meters away from reaching our destination there was a large fallen pine tree right smack dab in the middle of the trail. There were so many branches on it that we could not climb over or under it.  We had to go off the trail a bit and find a spot where we could get around the tree.  

Once we got around that tree though, we were there!  We arrived at about 11 in the morning. It had taken us about 2 hours to get here. 

And we were super happy with this site!  Lots of wide open flat space for tents. It was beautiful to look at and it had a wonderful welcoming feel to it. We were so happy to be spending 2 nights on this site instead of the last site that we were on.  This one was like a little slice of heaven. 

Before setting up we just sat and enjoyed the view of the lake and marveled at how wonderful it was here. 

This campsite had everything that the other site did not. It had a grill for the fire pit. Sure the grill was in bad shape but it was still usable. 

It had a clothes line of twine that someone had left behind. The fire pit was big and clean and the logs for seats had a nice view of the lake. 

​And the best part... no bear poop! 

I would like to say that no one left garbage behind, but unfortunately that was not the case. We were disappointed to see that someone had left some broken frying pans and some empty propane cylinders behind in a pile under a tree.  Shame on whoever left these behind.  We did have a tiny bit of good out of it though. We were able to use a broken handle from one of the frying pans as a weight for throwing our rope over a tree limb in order to get our food up into a tree for the night. 

The other thing we thought was questionable was someone had built a second fire place down by the edge of the water. It was not a designated fire pit and it was literally right amongst a bush. However, I don't think it posed too much danger considering the only other things around it was the lake and rocks. 

I guess we just questioned why anyone would want to build a fire here in the first place when they have a perfectly good fireplace only 50 feet away.  Did someone have to share this site with other hikers at one point? Did they have an argument with their hiking buddies and split up? Did someone arrive in the dark and not know there was already a firepit available? Or maybe it was just someone thought it was nice or romantic to be closer to the lake under the stars? Who knows. 

From this spot you could see how clear the water  was even with the reflection of the trees on the glassy still surface. 

The other nice thing about this site was that, unlike the other 2 sites, this one had easy access to water. By that I mean that you didn't have to get your feet wet to get water. There were plenty of rocks to stand on to be able to reach the water without wading in. 

We could also see the top of Bear Mountain from here. We were practically right beside it.  We considered the idea of perhaps climbing it the next day with no packs on just for something to do and to see what we could expect for trail conditions. But we figured we would see how we feel in the morning and make up our minds then. 

Right now though, we had work to do. We set about getting our tents up. Carsten found a spot near a huge fallen tree that fit his tent perfectly. 

Mine was in a little grove of cedars just up past the fire place.  As I was putting up my tent I could hear sounds coming from a nearby pine tree. The sound was like that of something chewing the tree from the inside. Closer inspection showed that there was indeed some holes with a pile of sawdust on the ground below it. I have heard this sound before both at Esker Lakes Park and at Kettle Lakes Park. I know it must be an insect of some kind but I don't know what kind.  The chewing noise is actually quite loud. 

We looked around but we hadn't seen any Thunder Box. So, we figured we had better make ourselves a bathroom. Once again we found a log at a good height and dug a hole under it. As usual, we were sure to build it far enough away from the lake. 

After the site was set up we sat and had lunch. Then I remembered that I had wanted to wash some of my clothes in the lake. I didn't have laundry soap or anything, I just figured I would give them a rinse to get some of the stink out of them.  So I took the opportunity to soak my feet in the water while I rinsed off my clothes.  It felt great to just sit there with my feet in the water and know that I didn't have to go anywhere. 

As I was wringing out my socks and T-shirts, Carsten pointed to something way out in the lake that was swimming towards shore. It looked almost like a ripple that a fish would make when it comes to the surface, only it was not a single splash and then down. It was moving.  A turtle we wondered? It was too far away to tell what it was. 

Then all of a sudden, right behind the swimming thing a loon popped up and broke the surface behind it. We could then see a couple more small things like the first one also fleeing the scene. Now we began to think that maybe it was a frog that was swimming away and trying not to be eaten. But it was pretty deep water for a frog to be in. And why would there be a bunch of frogs out there together?  Perhaps it was a school of fish and some of them were coming closer to the surface in order to outwit the loon? We never did find out exactly what they were. The loon quickly dove back down into the water again and again and resurfaced a little later in the same direction that the swimming things were going. Eventually they rounded a bend and we couldn't see them anymore.  

A little while later, as I was hanging my clothes up to dry, we heard an unusual sound that I can only describe as resembling a jet plane. When I turned my head to look I saw a dark object fly by very fast only about  50 feet away from us. It was so loud and I said "What in the world is that?".  

We watched the flying thing until it landed in an old tree along the shoreline not too far away from camp. It wasn't until it landed that I realized what it was. It was a King Fisher!  
I had no idea that a King Fisher could fly that fast or make that kind of noise while it flew. I didn't even know it was a bird until it landed. I honestly had thought maybe it was a drone or something. 

We watched as every once in awhile it would dive into the water with a big splash and then fly back up to the tree again as it fished. Then it would fly over to a new tree and try its luck there. I am betting, with the water so clear and the height it could get sitting in the trees above the lake, that it probably could see its target easily from wherever it was. 

Of course it is Murphy's Law that came into effect when I went to hang my wet clothes up to dry.  That is when we started to lose the sunshine behind a veil of clouds. The rest of the day remained overcast. 
We were starting to notice how little sunshine we were getting on this trip. 

Carsten had mentioned at one point that he had seen more bugs and insects on this trail that he had never ever seen before than anywhere else he had been. 

I was beginning to see what he meant.  Along came a fly that looked like a cross between a house fly and a dragon fly. I have never seen anything like it and I was in awe.  Apparently this is an Eastern Band-winged Hover Fly. Completely harmless and ever so cute!  There were 3 or 4 of them hanging out with us at our site. God makes such amazing creatures! 

Later in the afternoon, Carsten and I both decided it would be great to take a nap. It had been forever since I had been able to take a nap in the middle of the afternoon. This was as good a time as any.

So, I headed to my tent.  A little Forest Locust was hanging out just above my door.  I like the contrasting stripes on the sides of this little guy. 

A Spur-throated Grasshopper was also hanging out near the door of my tent.  ​Grasshoppers seem to be attracted to my green tent. 

We napped until about 5:30 pm. When I got up the temperature had dropped and it was starting to get chilly. This was a good time to start a fire to both warm up and to cook supper. 

I had just began to light the fire and the flames had not yet gotten too high when all of a sudden Carsten pointed out that there was a toad in the firepit!  We rushed into action and immediately grabbed up the toad and rescued it before anyone got burnt, injured or killed.  It was a close call for that toad! 

Just as we were cleaning up from supper it started to rain. Just a sprinkle, but enough for us to gather up our stuff and get them to dry places.  Then we gathered some wood and kindling and put them in a bag under a tree. We also gathered up some larger pieces and stuffed them under the fallen tree beside Carsten's tent. At least if it rained heavily during the night we would have some dry wood for a fire the next day.

As soon as we had gathered up all the wood and stored it away, the rain stopped. So. we took the opportunity to put our food up in the tree. The nice thing about this tree we had chosen was the food was hanging out over the lake. ​If a bear wanted it, he would have to go swimming for it. 

Once the food was up in the tree it started raining again. And then it stopped. And then it started again, It just kept starting and stopping. We stood by the lake talking in the rain for awhile until the mosquitoes started to come out. That's when we decided to head for our tents for the night. Rain was one thing but couple that mosquitoes and it makes for a miserable combination. 

Despite being inside the tent, sheltered from the rain and the mosquitoes, I couldn't go to sleep. It was only 8:30 and I wasn't tired. Having a nap earlier meant I was wide awake now.  I sat and listened to the sound of the bugs chewing in the tree nearby. They seemed louder now and almost sounded as though they were calling to one another like mating  calls or something. (I later looked it up online and it seems that these chewing bugs are actually Pine Sawyer Beetles and their larva. Who knew! ) I could also hear the loud droning noise of the mosquitoes outside my tent as they were attracted to the light of my flashlight.  The noises didn't bother me at all. They became white noise to me as I wrote in my journal and attempted to finish a particularly difficult Sudoku puzzle (even though it claimed to be an easy one). 

It had been a really good day and I was happy to be here. I eventually fell asleep knowing that we get to spend another whole day here tomorrow in this little slice of paradise. 

I woke up at 6 a.m. because I was cold and I had a headache. I could hear birds flying around within inches of my tent and I could hear a woodpecker just a few feet away from me.  I could also hear toads jumping up against the walls of my tent. Carsten said that he had toads jumping against the walls of his tent that morning too. 

I lay there in my sleeping bag hoping it would get warmer but it was an overcast day and it wasn't getting much warmer. So, at about 7 I got up and started moving around to keep warm. It was earlier than we had intended to get up but since this was going to be our longest day of travel (about 8 km) we didn't mind too much. Best to get an early start anyway. 

A low-lying damp mist was rising about the lake. It made the morning feel all that much more cold. 

The mosquitoes weren't out just yet but the No-See-Ums were taking their place in being bothersome.  

I found an owl feather lying on the ground by the picnic table. I don't know if it had been there the day before and I hadn't noticed it, or if an owl had dropped this recent treasure during the night. 

We packed up and left camp at about 9:30.  I wasn't particularly looking forward to this part of the hike, truth be told. It would be long and mostly in the deep woods instead of near the lakes. As a matter of fact, we had read up about this trail online before we came and we knew that there would be no water of any sort until we got to our destination. So, we were packing the weight of extra water with us. 

Right away you could tell that the trail in this leg of the journey was going to be overgrown and rough. It wasn't well kept at all. It looked like no one came through this way much. That could be why the mosquitoes started to get thick. We were probably the first fresh blood they had seen in a long while. 

Between the mosquitoes and the No-See-Ums I got bit up pretty bad. So bad that even a week later I still had bites all over my neck, jaw line, ears, forehead and hands that made me look like I had the measles or chicken pox, or something. There were about 30 or more around me all the time. It got to the point where I put on a bug hat to try to keep sane. But even then, one or two of them would find their way under the netting; and then I had them trapped inside right next to my face. I couldn't win. I would have to say that about 95% of the bug bites that I got on the entire trip were from this day on this part of the trail. 

Despite the mosquitoes declaring war on me, I tried to stay positive and I tried to enjoy my surroundings. 

The Wild Sarsparilla were changing colours in readiness for autumn. Their stripey reds and yellows were bold and striking amongst the green leaves of the other plants. 

There were groups of puff ball mushrooms looking like they were all huddled together to stay warm. Of course this is not the case, it was just amusing to me to imagine it were so. 

There were plenty of other white mushrooms growing here and there throughout the woods. 

We had noticed a rather large amount of deadfall littering the trail. There had been many online comments about how bad it was so we already knew it would be problematic. So, Carsten decided to take matters in his own hands and he proceeded to clear any and all deadfall that he could from the trail as we went. Of course we couldn't clear anything that needed a chainsaw, but we could clear the tripping hazards and the large branches as we went. Carsten did most of the work, but I would come up behind him and get some of the ones he missed. In this way did it not only help to pass the time, but it also helped to clear the path for any future hikers. (You're welcome!)  

You could see where the park staff had been through with a chainsaw a few years previous and did some proper clearing. 

But it was evident that no one had been through here to clear anything this year, and probably last year either. 

We came to one blowdown that seemed like it had been a doozey when it fell. There were shattered pieces everywhere and the trunk was broken and sprawling in multiple directions. 

We looked up and saw where the tree used to stand. Glad we weren't under it when that one came crashing down! 

Also high up in the trees we could see an old nest of an owl or some other raptor. It was empty now and starting to fall apart, but it was impressive just how big it was. 

There were places on the trail that were pretty overgrown. There were new trees starting to grow on the trail and if left alone for to much longer, there eventually won't be a trail here anymore. 

The official white trail markers were not always easy to see. Plus there were not enough of them. If you were travelling north to south you were more likely to see the markers because most of them faced that direction. But we were heading south to north so most were not visible to us until we passed them and turned around. 

Luckily some people had come along and were kind enough to do additional trail marking with orange ribbons. I must say that without these orange ribbons we would have been lost 200 times over.  These orange ribbons saved the day. So kudos to the people who put them there!

They were so important that any time we saw that one had fallen we would pick it up and tie it back onto a tree. Also if we saw one that was extra long we would take some of it to mark the trail in other places that we thought should have one. 

Without the orange ribbons we would have come to places like this one and not know where to go. With so much deadfall and overgrown trails it's hard to know what's an animal trail and what is the actual trail and whether there is even any trail there at all. 

There was some hill climbing that came with this part of the trail. It wasn't the worst climbs we have done. The reward was to be able to see from the lookouts at the top. 

According to the official published map (the waterproof one you can buy at the office) there should be about 4 lookouts in this section. However, since there are no signs indicating the spots are lookouts, it was hard ot know which one (if any) we were at. 

Some spots looked more like a lookout than others. Perhaps some were intended to be lookouts but the trees had grown taller since they were first designated as such. Who knows. 

It was around this time that we started to see an increase in the amount of moose poop in the area.  Even if the humans weren't using the trails, the moose definitely were. 

And then we began to notice bear poop. Granted most of it was older with mushrooms growing out of it; probably from the spring. However, some of it was not all that old.  And it wasn't just one pile we came across. It was many.  The further we went the more of it we saw. 

On about 2 occasions we thought we could smell a bear nearby.  We made sure that we stayed close together and that we were making noise so that we didn't startle anything. Not much more you can do in those situations. We had bear spray with us but we never did see a bear, which was fine by me. 

There was one lookout that was pretty nice and you could definitely tell that it was one of the intended lookouts. We stopped here to rest for a few minutes. But we didn't stay long because we knew we were getting close to camp and we were anxious to get there. 

It had stayed overcast this entire time, however, it was no longer cold. Just the opposite actually. We were now too hot and we were sweating buckets. So much so, that the sunscreen we had put on earlier that morning had long since washed off of us and sweat was running into our eyes. 

I was too hot and tired to really enjoy the hike much anymore. I just kept my eyes to the ground mostly in order to not trip over anything since I couldn't pick my feet up as high anymore. 

Looking down can sometimes yield some interesting finds too though. In particular there were some interesting looking fungi. 

There was quite a bit of Upright Coral Fungus around. 

And some stark white Northern Tooth. I don't think I had ever seen any quite so white before. 

There were also some vibrant orange Jelly Spot growing on trees. They were a great addition to the fall colours that were beginning to appear. 

Even the moss seemed to flourish here. Some stones were so covered in moss that you couldn't see the stone anymore. 

We were almost at the campsite when we lost our way. We couldn't find the trail and we couldn't find any orange or white markers. We knew we were close because we could see the water and we knew there was no water until we got to our destination.  We followed what we thought might be a trail but there was so much deadfall that it was hard to tell for sure. 

After scrambling over and under fallen trees and logs for a few minutes we finally came to an open area with a couple of logs and a fire pit.  We made it!.... We think.  

Did we make it?  We began to second guess ourselves. 

The lake looked maybe a bit too swampy. There was supposed to be a swamp just before our destination. Maybe we hadn't gone far enough yet? 

And what about the big orange campsite sign that is usually posted on the site? There were none of those to be found anywhere. 

Perhaps this is just a make-shift site that people have made and stayed at when they have given up all hope of finding the actual site? 

The fire pit was full of dried pine needles, like it hadn't been used in quite some time. 

What was concerning to me was that there were piles of bear poop here and there, most of it pretty old,  in and around the campsite. This site is definitely in the thick of bear territory. 

Right site or not, bears or not,  we were stopping here for a rest and lunch regardless. It was 2:30 by this time and it had taken us 5 hours to get here. We took our packs off and leaned them against one of the logs. 

As I went down to the water with map in hand to see if I could figure out where we were, Carsten went and explored further into the tree line.  It wasn't long before Carsten came back and said that "Yes, we are on the right site". He had found an overgrown trail that ran to the right of where our backpacks were and he had found the big orange sign that says this is a campsite. 

The reason we hadn't seen it on the way in was because we had gone off the trail and came in the back way to the site. There was an actual trail to the site but we just hadn't found it. I wondered how many other people hadn't found the trail either and had just stumbled upon the site by wandering aimlessly through the bush until they got to it. 

I wanted to see the orange site sign and the missing trail for myself, so I went to look for it. 

Sure enough there it was and not that far away from the camp. However, I was shocked to see a bag of garbage hanging directly under it. After seeing all the bear poop and knowing without a doubt that this is an active bear area, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Who in their right mind would hang a bag of garbage here?!?!

And just to make a point, there was a pile of poop directly under the bag.  I think this was old moose poop, not bear. I could be wrong though. And if it was then it was there before the garbage was or else the garbage would have been strewn all over the place instead of being all neatly tied in a bag. 

And the odd thing about it was who ever left the bag there, also left a fork to go with it. Was this a joke? Were they saying "Here ya go bear! Dinner is served! We even have utensils for you!" 

I took the bag down and was loathe to see what was inside. But I carefully opened it anyways. 

Inside was a mixture of old rusted cans, that had been in the woods for years, and some more recent garbage and food items in various cans and plastic containers.  In light of the garbage that was inside, a picture was being painted for me. I think what had happened is someone was being good and kind and cleaned up all the garbage that they found in and around the campsite, but they didn't want to carry a bag of someone else's garbage another 12 or more kilometers for who knows how many days, over hill and dale and mountain to take it out of the woods. So, instead they tied it up and left it behind for the park employees to pick up, not knowing that the park employees probably haven't been out here in at least a year or two, if not more. 

What they probably should have done was exactly what we were now going to do with it. Burn it. I took the bag back to camp for disposal.

So, this is it. This is home for the night. Can't say I was too excited with this site. As a matter of fact, when we were at the office and choosing which site to stay 2 nights at, this site had been one of the ones we had almost considered. We were thankful now, that we hadn't chosen this one to stay at for 2 nights.  

At first glance there seems to be quite a bit of space, but once you really look closely you start to realize that most of the space is not flat or level. Finding a decent place to put up a tent was not as easy as it seemed. 
Carsten managed to find a spot for his small tent down closer to the lake. 

My tent was a bit trickier because it was a bit bigger. We ended up having to move a log in order to get enough flat surface space for my tent. Even then, my tent was just a few feet away from a big ole pile of bear poop. (You can't see it in the picture but it is to the right of my tent just under that bunch of ferns there.  Isn't that just wonderful?) 

Next Carsten and I set about looking for a tree to hang our food in so that bears couldn't get it. We knew that picking the right tree and the right spot in this particular area was crucial.  After finding more bear poop and climbing over more deadfall we found a suitable tree that we could use. It was further away from camp than we usually have our food, just in case. 

And what did we find only a few feet away from our food tree?  A huge bone. We were not sure what animal the bone once belonged to or how the creature had died. It looked to be a pretty old bone though. My first guess was a moose bone. But who knows for sure.  It was about 3 feet long and about as thick as my arm. At any rate, it only added to the uncomfortable feeling that you get in this campsite. 

Since we hadn't come into the campsite through the front door so to speak, we decided to follow the newly found trail back from the orange campsite sign to the spot where we had lost the trail to see where we had gone wrong. 

When we got to the spot where we made a wrong turn we said "No wonder!"  The trail was severely overgrown and the orange ribbon markers were not quite visible from where we had been. So, Carsten and I set about clearing the trail so that it was visible and we added some more orange ribbon from the extra that we had. Hopefully any newcomers will not have the same problem we had and they will be able to find the proper trail. 

As we walked along the newly cleared trail back to camp, we came across an interesting rock that was sticking out of the root of a fallen tree. Looks like the tree pulled the rock up as it went down. The rock was flat on the top and it looked like you could sit on the log and use the rock as a table. 

When we got back we had another job to do. We had read the comments online before we came that said that this site did not have a Thunder Box. We did a bit of searching and came to the conclusion that they were right.  There was all this poop around and no place to poop!

This meant that we had to build ourselves a bathroom. So, we found a fallen log that was a decent height off the ground and we dug a hole under it. Voila!  A place to poop on this poopy day.  It wasn't going to win any awards but it was far enough away from the lake and it would serve its purpose. 

While we had been looking for an appropriate place to make a bathroom,  I noticed a sliver of orange in the dirt under a log. I wondered what it was and began to kick at it with my boot. I soon came to realize that this was an orange campsite sign that was attached to a fallen tree and had been buried by pine needles and dirt over time.  Carsten and I rolled the log over and pulled the sign off of the rotten log. It wasn't too difficult to do. 

The sign still had some screws in it that were in pretty good shape. I decided to resurrect the sign in a new spot using the screws that it already had on it. I found a short broken stump behind my tent that looked like the perfect spot for it and I attached it there.  It was low to the ground but at least it was visible and we knew the that it wouldn't get buried by a fallen tree any time soon. Now the next people who come will know that this is the official campsite and not some back up site or something like we did at first. 

The sun finally started to come out for a short while at around 5:30.  

​The campsite has a lovely lakeside view but I wouldn't say that it is great for swimming in. Although the loon on this lake would probably disagree with me. 

We figured that this would be the perfect lake to see a moose. We half expected to see one every time we looked up. But we never did see one.. 

After having been followed all day long by so many mosquitoes, I was happy to say that there were not very many here at the actual campsite at all. 

I did see a Sawyer beetle (Pine bug) though. It blended in with the scenery very well. 

The frogs were trying to blend in with the scenery too but they didn't do quite as good a job as the Sawyer beetle did. Not bad, just not as good. 

At about 7 p.m. we made a fire and cooked our supper.  There was no grill at this site so we just used rocks to put our pot on to boil water. 

After supper was over and all of our food was put away, we took the opportunity to burn everything that had been in the garbage bag that we had found. That included the old rusty tin cans as well as the newer cans, just in case they had the lingering smell of food on them from being in close proximity to the food packages that were in the bag with them. 

Inside the garbage bag had been some empty fruit cups, some empty tins of meat (not SPAM but a similar brand) , what looked to be a box of wine perhaps, and some other various items. It all burnt pretty good. 

The sun went down behind the trees across the lake but there was no real colourful sunset to speak of. 
We sat by the fire for awhile but it was a long day and we were tired so we didn't stay up too long. 

By 9:30 we had put the fire out and went to our tents.  Gotta be honest that such close signs of bear made me a bit uncomfortable.  I thought for sure that I would not get much sleep and would be laying there listening to every little sound and wondering "What was that?"  or "Was that a bear?" 

However, it wasn't long before I fell asleep and I didn't wake up in the middle of the night that night at all. Guess I must have been tired. 

It thunder stormed during the night. But our tent stayed dry , so that was ok. You can smell the wet from the rain in the air, however, everything should be dry again in about an hour or so. 

We woke up at about 9 and set to packing up right away. Today is going to be the hottest day of our trek. It's expected to be in the range of about 30 degrees. That's not good when you are starting the first day of your backpacking trip because the first day is when you are carrying the most weight.  But at least the first day is a short one. Only about 2 km. 

We got to the office to check in for the back country at about 11 a.m. or so. We double checked with the girl at the desk to make sure that we had the right sites booked. It was a good thing we did because I was right in thinking that they had Upper Brush Lake and Lower Brush Lake labeled backwards on their maps. If we hadn't caught the discrepancy we would have been expected to go forwards and then backwards and then forwards again to get to the sites we had booked. 

Our first night we were booked to stay at the Semiwite number 2 campsite.  We had wanted number one because the comments left on the internet said that it was one of the nicest sites, but someone had already booked it. But that's ok because we booked it for the end of our trip instead. 

We asked where the parking was for back country hikers because we didn't see it on the map. She seemed a bit unsure of herself when she said "I think you can park right near the trail". But we took her word for it anyways. 

Once we had registered, our plan was to find a comfort station so that Carsten could change into some better hiking clothes and so that we could get our hiking boots on before heading out. 

We drove to every single bathroom in the park. That is how we found out that there is not a single comfort station in the whole park. So, instead we opted to park in an empty campsite close to the nearest bathrooms to the trail so we could use the picnic table to sit at to put our boots on. . 

I decided that since the bathrooms were right there I would go and use them one last time before heading out. I went into the first stall and there was no toilet paper. Completely empty. So I went to the next stall and there was one roll sitting on the floor of the bathroom and not in the dispenser. I am guessing it is because the previous visitors had been sharing the roll by passing it under the wall between the two stalls.  I wasn't impressed. It was almost noon and the parks usually have the bathrooms cleaned and the toilet paper refilled by now.  And this was the second park I had been to this month where they hadn't been filling the toilet paper properly. What's up with that? 

Also, there was another old box on the wall with a button and no power connected to it anymore. I pressed the button anyways just to see what would happen. Nothing happened. At least not that I could see.

As I walked back to where Carsten was I noticed a campsite that had a trampoline set up in it. I guess that's one way to keep the kids entertained but it seems a bit excessive for camping if you ask me. But to each their own I guess.

So we are pretty much ready to go and we get to the trail head only to find out there is no parking anywhere even remotely near the trail. 

This meant that Carsten had to drive the car to a parking lot at the complete opposite end of the park and then walk all the way back to the trail head while I sat and waited with our backpacks. 

Carsten was just about back, I could even see him up the road, when I realized that I think I had forgotten the camp stove in the car. I quickly checked all the pockets in my pack and I couldn't find it. Oh no! This meant I would have to walk all the way to the car and back to get it!  

So, I left Carsten with the packs and off I went. And it was a long walk!  To top it off when I got to the car I still couldn't find it. But I wasn't going back empty handed so I grabbed Carsten's camp stove instead. To  top it all off, I found the missing stove later on and ended up having to carry 2 stoves for the whole trip instead of just one. Better than carrying fuel for one and not having any though I guess. 
​

By the time I got to the car and back I had walked an extra 2 km and we hadn't even started our hike yet!
It was vey hot and humid like a sauna and I was already on the verge of getting cranky. I was beginning to worry that this trip was not going to go well if this was how it was beginning already.

It was about 1 pm when we finally got started on our hike. As we walked along my mood lightened as I saw how nice the trail was. It was decently wide, clear and fairly flat. 

There was some dead fall but nothing that you couldn't step over. It could do with some clearing out though. 

The bugs were not bad at all and there were some nice views of Semiwite Lake since much of this section of the trail runs right along side it. 

In one spot I found a really interesting maple leaf that was in the process of changing colour. It was weird because it looked as though someone had painted it using a ruler or straight edge to make the red stay only at the top of the leaf. It was like God had used some painters tape to colour this one! 

From time to time we would come across some laminated cards that were attached to a tree. They were to help people learn about the different types of trees. 

You just lifted the flap and the answer was underneath. There were a few that were missing the top cover so the answer was a dead giveaway, but I think it was still a nice little educational tool all the same. 

In what seemed like no time we had made it to The Beach. It is one of the three beaches in the park and is only accessible by hiking the trail or by boat. It is also where the portage is to Helenbar Lake. This is what we figured to be about the half way point according to the park map to where we were headed. We had planned to take a nice long rest here and enjoy the scenery for awhile. 

I followed Carsten through some trees and out into the open sandy beach. 

The beach looked nice enough and there was a picnic table down at the other end. However, there were more people here than we had expected. I suppose we shouldn't have been too surprised given that it was such a hot day.

The picnic table had people and there were people in the water and people on the beach. We couldn't even really find a shady place to sit. We found a small spot that was uncomfortably close to where some swimmers left their clothes and towels and we took our packs off and rested for a short bit. We didn't stay long though. We figured that we may as well just get to our campsite and enjoy our own piece of shoreline over there instead. 

So we put our packs back on and continued on our way. After The Beach, the trail started to get a little more messy with fallen branches and trees. But nothing to terrible. 

We knew we were getting closer when we passed a large information sign that told of the story of the plane crash that MacKenzie survived and for whom the trail was named after.  This sign is the junction where two trails meet. 

The deadfall was becoming more frequent now. I took notice of one that was covered in fungi. 

This one caught my eye because the fungi were in the shapes of sea shells and some were green from being in the weather for so long.  It looked almost like this should be in an underwater seascape instead of on dry land. 

After awhile we passed a sign that indicated a side trail leading down to what we thought was site number one (we found out after our trip was over that this was actually site number 2 and was the site we were actually supposed to be on, but it all worked out ok). 

Carsten asked me if I wanted to go down and see it but I said no because not only did I not want to walk the extra distance in this heat but also because I didn't want to impose on anyone if they were still there. Besides, it would ruin the surprise for later because we were booked for site number one for the final night of our trip. 

So, we continued on. That's when thigs started to get quite over grown and it became apparent that not as many people come this far down the trail as they do on the first section. The ferns here were thick and were growing all the way up to about the height of Carsten's shoulders. 

We were walking in a field of green and it reminded me of the scene in the Wizard Of Oz where they come to the poppy field. Were we going to wake up in the middle of this and wonder where we were? 

On the other side of the fern field, we came to an intersection. In front of Carsten is the side trail to our campsite and behind him was the sign and trail leading to Upper Bush Lake. Not far now! 

We headed down the side trail. Some of the trail had been cleared in previous years but we still had a little sapling arch that we had to go under. 

The closer we got, the nicer trail became. There were now old pine needles under our feet instead of roots and rocks and dead fall. The trail was no longer overgrown and the path seemed to widen a bit more. 

Finally saw the official campsite sign that let us know that we had reached our destination.  It was about 3:15 p.m. so it had taken us just over 2 hours to get here (not including the time it took to go to the car and back). 

The site was lovely!  There was a picnic table, a firepit and a sandy beach. We promptly took our packs off and set them on the picnic table. It was good to be free of them. 

One of the first things we noticed was that someone had built a structure out of some old logs. They used grasses as twine to lash them together and had used some moss and sticks to make a floor. We were not sure if this was done for fun or for an exercise or out of need. It looked like you could throw a tarp over it and you would have a pretty good shelter. Or you could continue to build it using nearby materials. Carsten suggested maybe for leaning a canoe on which would also give you shelter.  At any rate, we re-purposed it as a clothes line. 

Right next to the shelter frame was a pine tree that was growing crooked, which made it the perfect chair.  It was a shady and relatively comfortable place to sit. 

The beach was sandy and lovely to look at but it was pretty shallow and you had to go a really long way out to get anywhere near deep enough to swim. 

However, it was deep enough for this young gull to swim. 

Getting water here was a bit challenging because it was so shallow. There were sandbars where you could walk out on, however even by walking out on those you couldn't get to deep enough water without filling your water filter up with sand.

At the end of one sand bar we noticed that someone had dug a hole in the mud under the water. Ah ha!  That is how to get water!  Dig a hole in the mud so that there is a place deep enough to fill your container. Brilliant!  Their hole was a bit too far out of reach for us so we widened theirs and made it closer to where we could reach it. Water problem solved! 

The next thing we did was to scout around for the Thunder Box. It was pretty easy to find and was in good condition. 

Although the sandy beach is beautiful here, it is mostly all just that. Beach. Which meant you didn't have a whole lot of room to put up a tent unless you wanted to put it up in the wet sand.  We managed to find a few flat and dry spots to set up. Carsten put his tent up at the entrance to the trail. 

I put mine up next to the pine tree that made a great chair. Mine was on the path to the Thunder Box but it was no big deal since there was just us here anyway. 

After we got all set up and had a bite to eat, we went and explored a little bit.  Carsten noticed that there seemed to be a trail that lead along the shoreline back towards the other campsite that we had passed on our way here. It even had a trail marker on the trees that was the same colour as the ones we had been following. And yet this trail was not marked anywhere on any of the maps.  We wondered if this may be an old trail that they no longer use anymore. If it is then it is still in really good condition so it couldn't have been abandoned all that long ago. 
​

 It ran parallel to the shore and  was much closer to the water than the one we had traveled on earlier that day.  If I am being honest, it seemed like a nicer hike than the one we were on. We followed it for a bit but did not go far enough to see if it joined up with any other campsite. We were too tired for that. If we had been staying on this site for a few days then that would be a different story. But we knew that tomorrow we had to hike about 7 or 8 km through an area with zero water, so we decided to just stick around camp and not tire ourselves out. 

Instead we enjoyed looking at the various plants growing near by, such as the velvet red colours of the berries on the Mountain Holly bushes. 

And the hopping of a little toad all covered in sand as it made its way to someplace safer than the wide open beach.  ​Actually, there were a fair number of toads in the area. 

There were some Mason wasps busy harvesting food from nearby flowers. 

The leaves on the maples were just starting to turn colour in dappled hues of reds and yellows.

And mushrooms were dotting the landscape like little miniature trees.

As afternoon turned to evening, the sunshine turned to grey skies. There was no rain though so that was a blessing. 

We built a fire and got some hot water so that we could make our dinner.  First campfire of the trip. It was a wonderful feeling. 

As we sat around the fire, we saw a bunch of Merganser ducks swim by. It was a group of 6 or 7 of them again. 

Considering this is the same lake that we were on last night, I believe that this is the same flock of ducks. 

During the course of the evening we also saw a loon and a humming bird. 

After supper I went and stood down by the waters edge for awhile. I noticed that the mud in the bottom of the lake in some places looked a bit different than what we are used to seeing. There are little valleys and erosion patterns in the mud. 

The texture was different too. The mud was hard along the edges of the eroded areas as though there was clay or something other than beach sand mixed in with it. It was interesting and made me curious as to what was going on there. 

As I stood at the end of a sandbar I saw a little leech swim by.  It swam right up onto the sandbar and I thought to myself "Well I guess he is stranded now". But then to my surprise it began to disappear right before my eyes within seconds as it buried itself in the mud. Now, I knew that these guys live in muddy areas of the lake but I didn't know just how fast they could bury themselves. It came as quite a surprise to me. 

We didn't get a vibrant sunset. There were too many clouds for that. However, the sun did manage to peek out between the clouds for a brief moment to say goodnight. 

Then it was as though the sun squinted its fiery eyes and glared at us with a look that said "Go to bed now!"
​It was a bit ominous really.  

We didn't go to bed right away though. We weren't going to let the sun chase us inside. Nope, that was a job for the mosquitoes. At about 9 o'clock the mosquitoes came out in full force. We doused the fire and headed for our tents.  We could hear them swarming outside the screens of our tents. So many of them.  But there were none inside, so we were able to go to sleep peacefully on the first night of our backpacking trip. 

We try to get at least one backpacking trip in each year and we like to try a new place each time. This year we decided upon the backcountry of Mississagi Provincial Park. It was supposed to be a trio of us going, but when my sister had to back out, it became a duo of just my brother, Carsten and I. 

We arrived at Mississagi at about 5 pm where we would be staying one night in the campground before heading out to the back country the next day. 

The office was tiny but very cute. It had a bunch of wood carvings on display both inside and out. 

It looked like someone had put a lot of work into these carvings. I don't know anything about the artist but it made the place memorable and unique. I really liked them.

When you pull up to the stop sign beside the office you get a bit of a chuckle as you are greeted by a large yellow sign that shows a giant mosquito flying away with a human in its grasp. 

Above the door to the office was a beautiful stain glass bird light. Everything about this office made me like it more and more. 

Below the light was a self serve center where you could register yourself into the park if the park office was closed. 

Even inside the office there were more interesting things to look at like a wood carving of giant mosquitoes. They also had all sorts of T-shirts and stickers and other things for sale. I wanted to buy a sticker for my passport book but they only had giant stickers or tiny sticker, not the ones that fit in the book. So, I guess I am going to have to buy it online this time. I bought a tiny one anyways just because it was cute and I liked it.

The girl at the desk was super friendly, welcoming and helpful. We told her that we were here to register for a site that we had reserved and that we were going to be in the back country for the next 6 nights after that. 

She explained that we had to choose our back country sites ahead of time. Apparently we were supposed to have phoned in to book them before we came, but the website did not mention this anywhere and we did not know this until just now. She explained that they are currently working on improving the website so that you can do it from home in the future, however, it is not ready or implemented yet. 

No worries though, we were still able to choose our sites and she provided a book with pictures of the sites. I was glad that they had us choose sites because before arriving I had actually worried that it might be a first come first serve basis and that we would have to be racing to get to sites or fighting with people once we got there or something. At least now we would know that we could take our time and that we should have no issues. 

We had wanted Semiwite site #1 but someone had already booked it. So instead we booked Semiwite #2 for the first night which didn't seem too much further away. From there we continued to choose sites that went in a circle around the McKenzie trail with a 2 night stay at Upper Brush Lake. 

We bought a waterproof map of the trails for $13 as well as picked up a free paper copy of the trail map. 

She gave us a park booklet with a copy of the park map with all the campsites on it so that we could find our way to our site. 

I also grabbed a copy of a treasure hunt page that they had for kids. I thought it might be fun to play it if I had some time. But I never did have the time to attempt it. It was nice to know that they provided this sort of thing for the kids though. 

I was very interested in the photo contest that they had going on though. I am really hoping that this trip will yield some photos that might be worthy to enter into this contest. 

I decided to try something new this year. This is the first time we have ever camped at a walk-in site. We would be staying at walk-in site number 3 tonight and walk-in site # 2 on our last night in the park.  

The parking lot for the walk-in sites is very large. The path to the site is situated between the parking spots for sites 2 and 3. 

You walk down a single path and then it divides into two directions with the path for site 3 on the left and the path for site 2 on the right. 

Walk-in site # 3 is lovely and spacious. It's also pretty quiet. I had chosen the site based on the pictures I saw of it online. It didn't disappoint. 

It had its own little private waterfront . I wouldn't really say it was a great spot for swimming. You would be better off going to one of the beaches than swimming here, but it is definitely a lovely view and a great place to launch a canoe or kayak.. 

The only real down fall to these sites is that there is a fairly wide trail along the shore line that connects all the walk-in sites together. This means that if you look down the trail you can see your neighbour clear as day.  Seems that the neighbours weren't impressed with this either so they put up a tent right in the middle of the trail in order to give themselves some more privacy. We thought this was a great idea so we did the same thing with our tent. 

There wasn't anyone camping to the other side of us right away (although they did come later in the evening). So, we could see all the way clear down to site number one in the distance.  These paths from site to site would be great for multi-family groups or groups of friends camping together. 

As I mentioned, the parking lot where the walk-in sites are is huge. This is possibly because it is also the parking lot for the amphitheatre which is on the opposite side of the parking lot. 

The amphitheatre seemed quiet and lonely with no one in it but us.  There was a big white screen at one end but there didn't seem to be any benches or chairs to sit on like in other parks. I guess you bring your own chair to sit on when there is an event going on here. 

Across from the screen was the projector house. 

Stapled to the side of it was a little cartoon bat. Perhaps this is part of the treasure hunt being put on for the kids? 

The door to the projector house was unlocked . Carsten and I decided to take a peek and see what is inside. Yes, we are a bit nosy that way. 

I was a bit surprised to see that it was more empty than I thought. the building was nothing more than a frame with a roof on it really. I would have thought that there would have been a shelf for a projector to sit on or a bench for a human to sit on while running the projector. However, there was nothing more than a pile of dead leaves inside. It made me wonder how often the place even got used. And when was it used last? Months ago? Years ago? Who knows.

There was a little path behind the projector house that led to a broken down structure. Again... nosy.  So, we had to go see what that was all about. 

It appeared to be the remains of an old storage shelter for some electrical cables or something. They seemed to have long ago been disconnected. Perhaps this used to be the old projector house? Or maybe just the generator for the power to it? We were left to wonder. 

Next we decided to head to the beach and the boat launch. Between those places were the bathrooms so we made a quick pit stop there first. I realized that another down fall of the walk-in sites is that the bathrooms are really quite far away from the sites. This could be problematic for anyone with bathroom problems. Also, the gravel underfoot makes very loud crunching noises as you walk to them. This means that if you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night you will have a long dark walk ahead of you and you will most likely wake everyone up when you go because it is next to impossible to do it quietly. Sorry neighbours! 

On the bathrooms as well as other places throughout the park there were signs written in other languages (looks to be French and one of the First Nations languages, although I don't know which one) done to look like it was written on a piece of cut rough hewn lumber. I thought that this was a nice touch. 

The bathrooms themselves were nothing to write home about. The toilets are not flush toilets (but that is not unusual) and you have to keep the lid down to keep the smell down.  The bathrooms could definitely use an upgrade though. They were tiny and old looking. 

The sink area was ok however, the faucet was not tight to the sink. This meant that in order to turn the water on, you had to hold the faucet with one hand and then turn on the water with the other hand. If you didn't do that then the whole thing would turn towards the back wall, faucet and all, and the water wouldn't come on. 

Outside the bathrooms was a large box with a faucet coming out one end. There were a few of these around the park. These structures are where you get your potable water. There are other water faucets around the park too but you can't drink from them. They are all very clearly marked which ones you can drink from and which ones you can't. Apparently they test the drinking water daily here. 

Along the side of the road between the bathrooms and the boat launch is a big pile of asphalt. It looks as though this is a supply pile that they have been taking from and using to repair pot holes in the roads. The roads seem to be in pretty good shape here.

As we walked down towards the beach and the boat launch we noticed a long driveway off to the right. This is the driveway to walk -in site number 4. Apparently number 4 is a seasonal site so you can't just rent it for a few nights. I completely disagree with sites being seasonal sites so I am less than impressed by this. 

Carsten also pointed out that since this site has a driveway that leads right up to the site, it is not really a "walk-in site" even though they call it one.  You can easily drive your car right into the site. 

Not far from the driveway of site 4 is the boat launch. The dock here is crooked and not level in even the slightest. It looks like something from out of that nursery rhyme "There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile, He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile; He bought a crooked cat which caught a crooked mouse, And they all lived together in a little crooked house." 

Despite the crookedness, we walked to the end of the dock anyways.  It was a really nice view from the end of the dock. 

​One of the 2 beaches is right beside the boat launch. 

 It also had one of those cute signs with the different languages.

There is a long sandy beach with picnic tables. The water is shallow though and there are no buoy lines. 

At one end of the beach there were some old sign posts with nothing on them. One looked like a chalkboard from an old classroom (it wasn't one, it just looked like one).  They seemed to serve no purpose anymore and there is no telling what they once said. 

As we headed back to our campsite we saw a group of about 6 or seven young Merganser ducks swim by.

The rest of the evening we spent re-arranging our backpacks and weighing them for our big day the next day. We did this until it started to rain. It didn't rain much. It was one of those start and then stop, start and then stop sort of things and it was only a few drops at a time. But it was enough to make us not trust it. 

So just in case it decided to rain harder we figured we would just get everything into the tent and into the car to make sure it all stayed dry. We ate a late supper outside at the picnic table and were lucky enough to not get rained on while we ate. It was about 9:15 by then. 

After supper we went into the tent and took a look at the new pedometer that I bought for the trip. I lost mine last year so I replaced it with another one this year. I like this one better. I hope I don't lose it this time.
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We also took this time to look at our maps. It was at this point that we realized that there may have been a mistake made when booking our back country sites. According to the park maps we were scheduled to stay 2 nights on Upper Bush Lake. However, looking at the official waterproof map the Upper Brush Lake is labeled as Lower Brush Lake and Lower as Upper.  So which map was right?  We were thinking that the waterproof one was the correct one since it was an official in-print and published one. This means that we would have to check with the office and most likely make changes before we left in the morning. 

But for now, it was time to get some sleep. We have a backpacking adventure to start tomorrow and we need our rest.

As I drifted off to sleep I took note of how quiet the park was. It is so peaceful here and an enjoyable place to camp.