I Got To Watch The Sunset Twice In The Same Day!

I woke up at 8:40 a.m. and came out of my tent to find that Carsten had been up for a few hours already. He said that some small animal had been playing around in the camp site last night. He wasn't sure what it was because he could only make out a blurry silhouette. He figures possibly a pine marten or something like that. It didn't try to get into the food. It was just seemed to be playing and running around. 

I slept a little better than the previous night, since I wasn't as cold, but my muscles were stiff this morning from trying to keep myself from sliding down the slope all night. And the backs of my legs were sore from walking up and down the slopes of the rocks all day yesterday. It seemed odd, but it actually felt better to walk up hill than down today. 

It was a beautiful sunny morning. We packed up and headed for site # 1 at about 11 a.m. 

We hadn't been walking for very long when we started to come up over a bend. I stopped in my tracks and Carsten stopped too, so as not to bump into me. There, sitting in front of me was a beautiful male Spruce Grouse. He didn't move and just looked at me. I barely moved except to take a few pictures. The red markings and colours on him were vibrant against the pale coloured deer moss that was all around him. 

Eventually Carsten whispered that he couldn't stand there for much longer because the pack was getting heavy. I said "Ok. I guess I will have to scare him off". So I started to move towards the grouse. But instead of it getting scared and fleeing in fright, he just started walking down the path in the same direction that I was walking in. We walked together for about 40 feet until finally he decided to walk off in a different direction. He never did flee. He just casually went about his merry way. 

I was still smiling from my encounter with the grouse when we came to site # 2 and stopped to check it out. 

From first sight of the fallen trail and site marker, I knew that this site was not going to be in good condition. 

And I was right. This site had to have been the worst of the whole trail.  There was just a tiny little spot down by the lake, barely big enough for one tent. And the ground was swampy and wet. You would never want to put up a tent there, especially if you were unlucky enough to get rainy weather. There was no fire pit, and no thunder box. There was really nothing there at all. I couldn't believe this was even a site. 

The only thing nice about this site was the lake itself. Which isn't surprising considering it is the same lake that site # 3 is on. But you can't put up a tent in a lake so no matter how pretty it is, the site was not usable. 

There was one spot that may have been possible to camp on that was close by. But you had to bush wack through the trees to get to it because there was no direct trail to it. It was a big rocky area that was covered in moss and dead branches. It would be a bit of a climb but not impossible. I did not get a good look at the top because the climb up was too much with a pack on my back. So I don't know if the rock was actually usable or not. Even if it was, it appears as though no one had been up there in a very long time. So, note to self.... do not book site # 2 as an over night site when backpacking the Hawk Ridge Trail. 

Perhaps they were letting nature re-claim this site too, like they were for number four. But if so, then they should say so on the online map and they should also repair the fallen sign holder and put a sign in it saying "Closed for Regrowth" or something like that.

We continued on. In some places the path was not so bad and the under brush was not wildly over grown.

But that didn't mean that the trail was not without it's obstacles. There were still plenty of downed trees and there were some rocks that you had to get around. 

I happened to spot a False Crocus Geometer Moth basking in the sun. It's bright yellow wings made it look more like a butterfly than a moth. 

Between site # 2 and site #1 there is a 460 m portage. We stopped for a rest at the north end of it.  We didn't actually know that it was the portage at first. There were no signs along the trail saying that it was. 

​While we were there we decided that it would be a good idea to filter some water.  I made my way down to the lake by following the path of least resistance through the woods. It was over grown, yet it seemed as though there had once been a path through here. 

When I reached the water and turned around, I realized why it felt as though there had once been a path there. There was a big yellow sign attached to a tree saying that this was a portage. If there was no sign there, you never would have known that there even was a portage. Once again, the lack of trail maintenance raised it's ugly head. 

This was the first glimpse I got of Three Island Lake. This lake is also a pretty lake with nice clear water. 

In the distance, out in the water, was a lone loon who was calling out his lonely loon cry.

As I filled the water container up with lake water, I noticed a bunch of pretty yellow Horned Bladderwort flowers growing all around. 

When I brought the water back up to where Carsten was waiting, a group of hikers came by. They were the first ones that we had seen on the whole trip this far. It was a group of 3 couples that were doing the whole trail as a day trip. They asked us where the best place to stop and rest was and we told them that was site number three. 

We stayed for a little bit longer before continuing on to our site. We actually weren't that far away from it. We arrived at site #1 at about 1 pm. The site was cute but it was not without it's issues. . 

It had this interestingly shaped tree that was perfect for sitting in. However, it was a pine and the sap was oozing out of it in places. We remedied this by putting a blanket in a plastic bag and sat on that like a seat cushion. It not only protected our clothes from the sap, but it also made the seat just a little more comfortable. 

You had to go down hill just a bit to get to the lake but it was easy to access. The water was clear and beautiful with no leeches in sight. 

The problem with the site was that there was no place to pitch a tent. All around us were thick ferns and under brush. 

We didn't have a lot of options. So, Carsten pitched his tent right in the middle of the trail. It made it a bit tricky to get to the fire pit and the lake but we managed. 

My tent , on the other hand, was too big to fit in the middle of the trail. We ended up having to cut down some of the ferns and moving some of the dead fall out of the way in order to find a spot that was even remotely suitable for my tent. I was thinking to myself that this would have been a good time to have a hammock tent. Lots of trees and no ground space for a regular tent. 

I have never had a green tent before, but I bought one this year because I had lent my old tent out and never got it back. When I went to get a new one, the only colour they had was green. I am really not that particular on tent colour, but it was interesting to note that in this one instance it did seem to matter. You see, a little grasshopper came for a visit shortly after I put the tent up. And well, this grasshopper seemed to think that my tent was some sort of vegetation and proceeded to try to eat it! I watched it for a few moments (it wasn't trying to eat any vital part of the tent, just an extra flap of material) until it finally realized that this green thing was not edible and it hopped away. Up until this point I had never even considered a green tent to be a potential problem in that sense. 

Once the tents were up we were free to do some exploring. I went to look for a thunder box. There wasn't one. So, once again, we had to create our own.

​Then I went down the hill to the lake to walk the shoreline. There were frogs peeking up at me from just below the surface of the water. 

Close to some bushes, on a rock, I found what is probably the prettiest spider that I have ever seen in person. It was a light bluish-green in colour and was quite big.  I knew from it's shape that it was some sort of Orbweaver spider but I didn't know what kind.  I looked it up when I got home and found out that it is a Giant Lichen Orbweaver spider. 

A little White-throated sparrow came to watch us as we began to make lunch at about 3 pm. 
That was bout the time that a man came by looking for water. He explained that he was with a group of 5 others (his family) and that they were just at what they had thought was site #1 but there was no water access on that site. This comment kind of threw me for a loop because I thought that we were on site # 1.

He had a water filter with him and we told him that he was more than welcome to go down to the lake to get some water  and we apologized for the tent in the middle of the path to the lake. Not long after, his wife came with their dog named Leo. They were going to bring water up to the dog but we suggested that the dog may prefer to go down to the lake instead so that he could get a good drink and maybe even cool off with a swim. They were very happy with this suggestion and I am sure Leo was too because when he got down there he drank, and drank, and drank, like it was going out of style. The poor guy was very thirsty. 

Soon after, their 3 kids came along followed by another adult. They were all very thirsty. They made short work of the water that the man had filtered and so we gave them our filtered water too. Then we set both filters up again and filtered even more water. We filled every jug and water container that they had on them.

While we waited for the water to filter we had time to talk. They told us they were from London and had started the trail from the beginning earlier in the day but had not come across a good water source even once since they started (they had probably travelled about 8 km or more by this point). They were headed to site #3 for the night and then would finish the trail the next day. 
We told them what to expect of the trails ahead and warned them of the leeches in the water at site #3. We talked about how we found this trail to be more difficult than we all had expected. This was the first backpacking trip for the kids and one one the adults was carrying some of their things which put his pack up to about 50 pounds. That's a lot of weight to be carrying. I suggested that they try the Abes and Essens trail in Bon Echo Park next if they were looking for an easier trail to backpack on. 

When all the water jugs were full, they thanked us for everything and continued on to their destination. We wondered how well they fared in the days to come and hoped that they still had fun for the rest of their trip. 

After they left I decided to take a quick walk up the trail in the direction that they came from to determine if indeed that was site number one and if we were perhaps on the wrong site. I climbed up hilly trail for about 5 minutes, maybe less, and came to a rocky area with a large fire pit in the middle. Sure enough, this seemed to be the actual site number one. It had one of those orange placards with the tent symbol on it. But then... what site were we on then? Perhaps it is one that used to be a site and now they are reclaiming? Perhaps someone just built a fire place down there because it was a good place to stop for lunch? 

Whatever the case may be, this site I was standing on now was not a good site. It truly had no access to water. You could probably climb down the rocky hillside to get to the lake if you were lucky enough to not break a leg doing it. But coming back up again was a whole other story. No wonder the family who came by were asking for water. There was definitely none here.  The fire place was in a good spot. But once again, there was no thunder box and no place to pitch a tent unless you wanted to clear away some ferns again. I wasn't about to do that again. We were already settled where we were and it was near the lake. We were not moving. 

When I got back to camp, I went in for a swim. The water was wonderful!  And most importantly... no leeches!  

When I got out of the water I found Carsten examining what I thought was a stick. Turns out it was a n inchworm that was disguising itself as a stick. It was a twig-mimic inchworm. It would stand up perfectly straight for about ten minutes and not move at all. It looked just like it was a part of the branch that it was on. He was a master of camouflage. 

In a way, our campsite was like this little guy. Our campsite is a campsite mimic site!

Another caterpillar that was hanging around was the Confused Woodgrain Moth caterpillar. I liked the pretty pale yellow colour of this one. 

We took a short nap for awhile before supper. At about 6 pm we started to get hungry. Unfortunately, another downfall of our mimic campsite was that the fire pit was way too close to the trees and vegetation near by. It may be on the top of a big rock but we didn't feel comfortable lighting a fire there. Instead we pulled out our little one burner camp stove and boiled water and cooked supper with that. 

As we sat and ate supper, we discussed our plans for the next day. The weather network said it was supposed to start raining at around 1 pm the next day. So we wanted to go to bed early and get up early in hopes of getting off the trail and back to the main campground before then. We figured that we would stop at the look out along the way though. It would be the longest leg of our hike tomorrow. Roughly 7 km. Maybe more. 

At about 7:30 Carsten decided to go to bed. I wanted to stay up for a bit longer to catch the sunset. 

I walked down the hill to the shore of the lake and watched as the sun sank lower and lower behind the tree line. The sky turned to peaches and pinks and the last remaining rays of sunlight jutted out likes spikes through the clouds.  Loons flew by over head and landed in the water as they settled in for the night. When the sun had sank so far behind the trees that I could no longer see it, I made the climb back up the hill towards my tent to get ready for bed. 

When I got to the top of the hill and turned around I was completely surprised.... There was the sun again!  
I had gone far enough up the hill that my perspective of the sun had changed so that it was no longer below the tree line but was up above them again. So, from the top of the hill I got to watch the sun set for a second time in the same day. It's not to often a person can say that. 

At 9:15 pm I got into my tent. Once again it was just in time. Within moments, the swarms of mosquitoes could be heard outside. I could see them through the screen of my tent and they were everywhere. They arrived a half hour earlier here than they had at the other sites. But that was no matter because I was off to sleep; snug in my tent and bug free, thinking about the adventures that would await us tomorrow.