Five Legged Frog

We woke up to a grey and rainy morning. Looks like the weather was going to be this way all day long. 

Directly across the road from us the park staff had set up their Discovery Program tent where people of all ages can go and learn  about whatever topic they are featuring that day. 

Today's topic happened to be about frogs. It's a shame that Danielle's family couldn't come this year. The boys would have loved this!  There were pictures of all the different stages of a frogs life. There were identification cards to help figure out what frog was what. 

The kids were having a blast running around catching frogs with nets and bringing them back to the staff at the table to identify. The two guys running the program were terrific with the kids and were very knowledgeable. 

The highlight of the Discovery Program was when one of the kids caught a 5 legged frog and brought it over to the table for everyone to see. It had 3 back legs and 2 front legs.  

We had overheard the kids talking about the 5 legged frog earlier but we didn't think we would get a chance to see it. 

As with all the frogs that were caught, it was only handled for a minute and then it was let go again so that it didn't die from over handling. 

After seeing the frogs we went back across the road to our campsite. We noticed that the roof in the dining tent seemed to have a leak at the very top. So we took a small tarp and tied it to the roof to stop the leak.  It looked a little funny but it did the trick. 

We didn't want to sit around in the rain and the cold all day so we decided to get out and do something. Marten River Park has an outdoor Logging Museum. So, we decided to go and take a look at that. I had been there before but Carsten and Penny hadn't. 

Unfortunately, like last time, everything was locked up and you could only see it from the outside. But this didn't stop us. With an umbrella in hand, we walked all around the buildings and interacted with anything that was accessible, such as this big metal dinner bell. 

And we could still peer in the windows to try to get a glimpse of what is inside. 

There was one tiny little log cabin that I found particularly interesting. 

This was not because of the cabin itself, but because of the logs that the cabin was made of. Some of the logs had a naturally occurring flower design in them that came from knots in the wood. 

The building wasn't the only thing with a pretty flower. There was also some White Meadowsweet flowers growing nearby. 

When we were done looking at the buildings, we discovered a path near the museum and we decided to see where it led.  The path wasn't a long one and it mainly ran along the shore of the lake. 

There were some white water lilies floating on the surface of the lake..

We followed the path all the way to a quiet little out-of-the-way  picnic area. It was like a hidden gem. You would hardly know it was there if you didn't look for it.  It had a picnic table and a little fire pit.  We might just  have to come back here for a picnic lunch one day. 

There was an old dead tree nearby that I thought looked quite interesting because it had one very long and very straight branch on it. I have never seen a branch so straight before except in kids drawings and in cartoons. 

After exploring the museum it was still raining and we still had a lot of time on our hands. So we hopped in the car and drove about 10 minutes north to a little roadside shop called "Gramps". 

This store is packed to the brim with all sorts of interesting decor and Knick Knacks. There were wooden garden gnomes, mushroom lights, and ceramic snails. 

There were decorative bunnies, moccasins, and salt and pepper shakers. After spending about half an hour in there looking at everything we purchased some delicious fudge and headed back to the campground. 

The rain still wasn't letting up so we went into the dining tent where it was dry and played board games like Azul for the rest of the afternoon. 

It was too rainy to make a fire in the fire pit.  So instead we headed over to the laundry facilities and put Carsten's wet, rained on clothes in the dryer. He hadn't brought another sweater or jacket and it started to get chilly once it started getting dark. 

We charged our phones and did Sudoku puzzles while we waited.  There were some moths that had come in to the shelter of the laundry room to wait out the rain too.  Both were grey but one was a Carpet Moth. 

And the other was a Moss-eating Crambid Snout moth. 

Once the clothes were dry and the phones were charged and the puzzles were completed, we headed back to camp and called it a night. 

The next morning there was another Discovery Program set up across the road from us.  This time it was run by a girl and a guy and it was all about birds. I was particularly interested in this program because they had a book that played various songs of birds when you pressed certain buttons. There had been some birds I had heard recently and I wanted to see if I could find out what kind of bird they were. 

One of the kids had brought a yellow and black feather with them to show the program directors. I recognized the feather as a similar one to what I had found on our campsite. The girl running the program was busy pouring over a bird book looking for an answer. Finally she said "It's the tail feather of a Northern Flicker". I said "No way, that can't be. Northern Flickers are brown and almost peach in colour. They aren't yellow. " But sure enough, when we looked at the picture the feather did seem to match one that could be found on the Northern Flicker!

I had just learned something new. I had seen these feathers around from time to time over the years and always thought they came from a bird that had more yellow on them than that.  The kid wanted to keep his prized feather so he took it back with him to his campsite. I think the program directors were a bit disappointed that they couldn't add it to their collection. So I went back to the campsite to look for mine. I didn't find it until after they were gone, but I did bring it to the park office and asked the girl at the desk there to make sure that they got it for their program. She assured me that she would. 

It was time to pack up the car to go home. As I was packing up I noticed a little Treehopper sitting on my car window. I like these little guys. They have an odd shape body and some cool little beady eyes.

The ground was still wet from the day before and this brought out all the slugs in the area. I had to move a Western Dusky slug off of the trail so that it wouldn't get stepped on. 

We took down the tents wet, knowing that we would have to set them up again at home in our back yards to dry them out again.  

Despite the rain we had a good time camping. For now it is back to work and back to civilization. But not for long. In only one week we will be out camping again and out in the back country for a backpacking trip!