Discovering Mississagi's Secrets

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.