It's All Fun And Mice

This trip was a Glamping Getaway trip.  Just three of us; my sister, Anika, our friend, Julie, and myself.  We were headed to Kettle Lakes Provincial Park and instead of a tent, we had rented a cabin. We had been looking forward to a much needed rest from the busy world.

Since this was going to be a luxury trip for us, and we wanted to be as lazy as we possibly could, we decided that we didn't want to have to do much cooking. So, we stopped at a Subway along the way and bought some subs to bring along with us to eat for supper.

We arrived at the gatehouse at about 3:30 pm. The staff was super friendly and made us feel very welcome. 

Inside the gatehouse is a little store. It had the usual souvenirs and such. The clothing was quite pricey though. They were asking $85 for a basic zip-up hoodie, which is about twice the price I would have been willing to pay for one. 

They did have the sticker for the provincial parks passport book though. I got the last one for Kettle Lakes because my sister let me have it.  They also had stickers for a couple other parks there too (Kap-Kig-Iwan, and Tidewater). 

We just happened to arrive at a time when they were doing an Amazing Race in the park. They were running it for the month of August.  You got your puzzle page from the gatehouse and then you followed the clues around the entire park and looked for letters to fill in your puzzle.  We are puzzle lovers so we were excited to play.  Plus it was a great way to see the whole park!

We got our keys from the gatehouse and then drove a short distance to the little road that leads up to the cabin. Julie hopped out of the car to unlock the gat for us. 

Attached to the gate was a mailbox with a combination lock on it. We had no idea what this was for. Our best guess was a place to leave the keys when you were leaving if the gatehouse wasn't open. But we didn't know for sure. 

There are two sides to the gate that can be swung open. If you drive carefully, you can get away with opening just one side though. 

We drove down the dirt road and passed a sign that said "Cabin occupants only". This made us feel special; like it was our own private "No Trespassing" sign or something. 

We pulled up into the parking lot and got out of the car and put our permit in the holder on the post. The cabin is site # 200. 

We just stood there in the driveway looking around for  moment and already we were in love with the place. This place seemed to have just about everything! 

At one end there was a ramp for those who used a wheel chair or walker. 

There was a wide open, grassy area between the washroom and the cabin.  We didn't put it to much use on this trip.  But now that we know it is there, we will probably bring a game of Croquet or Bocce Ball the next time we come. (And yes, we plan on there being a next time!)

There was a fire pit with both a bench and a picnic table to sit at. 

And there was even some wood that someone left behind for us. Although, truth be told, we never did make a fire. So, I guess the wood was actually left for the people that would arrive after us. 

The cabin is not huge or anything, but it was the perfect size for a peaceful getaway. It had a deck and some chairs to sit on. It was very cute. 

We eagerly opened the door with the key to see what it was like inside. 

It has a little closed in porch that housed a couple more chairs if we needed them. 

It also held a couple of life jackets and paddles.
​On the wall were some decorative hooks and some fly swatters hanging from some of the hooks.. 

The porch was bright and airy with lots of windows to let in the light. I could easily see myself sitting out here on  rainy day with a book if the weather didn't want to cooperate.

The key to the first door also opened the second door that led to the main part of the cabin. There were 2 keys on the keychain. One for the cabin doors and one for the gate.

We opened the door and were very happy with what we found on the other side. The whole cabin was made of cedar planks and logs. The floor was a dark brown faux wood finish. It was beautiful!  And it was very clean!

To the left was a double bed.  This was where Anika would sleep. 

To the right was a bunk bed with a double bunk on the bottom and a single bunk on the top.  Julie would take the bottom bunk and I would take the top bunk. 

There was a little wooden night stand between the two sets of beds. 

Across the room was a round wooden dining table and 5 chairs. 

To the right was a gas fireplace with a mirror above it. 

On the mantle was a lamp, a battery operated lantern, and a few other items. There was a sign that told us that the cabin was run on solar power. 

There was also a guest book where we could write what we thought about our stay and read what other people had wrote. But we didn't have time for that right now. We were too busy checking out the rest of the place and getting settled in. 

On the other side of the room were some empty shelves, a cabinet with some pots and pans in it, a drawer with some BBQ utensils in it, a mini fridge, and a small vacuum off to the side that was plugged into the wall.
 
The only thing that was missing that would have been convenient was a microwave.  We had anticipated that there would be a microwave and Anika had brought some microwavable popcorn, but we could easily do with out it. We were still very happy with the place. 

Stepping back outside onto  the deck we surveyed the scene before us. In front of us was our own private lake!  It was a small lake with an unflattering name (Irrigation Lake), but we didn't have to share it with anyone except the loons. 

And there was a whole family of loons on this lake. There were the parents and 2 baby loons. 

It was so peaceful knowing that we had it all to ourselves. We could feel the stress of the busy world just start to melt right off of us. 

The lake wasn't very deep as far as lakes go. But it was deep enough to swim in and there was a sandy part that was perfect for swimming. 

It wasn't perfect though. There were signs on both sides of the beach that warned of Poison Ivy. 

And on the left side, the edges were just over run with it. So much Poison Ivy.  But we kept clear of it (thanks to the signs) and we didn't have any itchy incidents while we were there. 

Instead we enjoyed the other plants in the area like these Pearly Everlastings. 

In the sand I could see the track of a snake that had gone by earlier from one side of the beach to the other. 

In the water there were small black minnows and some water bugs playing in the leaves of the water plants. 

Above the water flew a few Bluet Damselflies. 

At the beach we  had our very own canoe and kayak that came with the cabin. 

The bathroom was a quick walk not far from the cabin. When we were  booking the cabin the description on the website had made it seem as though the bathroom was quite far from the cabin but it really isn't. 

The bathroom was very nice for an outdoor bathroom in a provincial park. We were quite impressed with it. 

It had a flush toilet like the kinds you would find in an RV. The ones where you step on the pedal to flush. There were also grab bars on the wall.

The bathrooms were quite spacious. They were also well light and airy and didn't smell. 

The brightness inside was on account of two things. One was that everything was painted white. This also made it feel clean.  The other was that the roof was made of a clear corrugated plastic instead of the green stuff that you usually see. This allowed the natural light to come in. 

The cement floors were interesting to look at because there were leaf impressions in. You cold tell that when they had poured the concrete for the floors that some leaves had blown into the wet cement before it had a chance to fully dry. This actually made it look more artistic and almost as though it had been done on purpose. 

Outside, on the ground, was an empty bird's nest that someone seemed to have taken down from one of the walls. Later on when we read the guest book in the cabin, we found out that it used to belong to a family of Robbins. The babies had long since grown up and flew away. 

There were two sinks with cold running water outside the stalls and a soap dispenser. We realized that there were no paper towels though. So we have to remember to bring some the next time we come. 

Just outside the cabin is a water faucet since there is no running water inside the cabin itself.

After settling in we spent a great deal of time just sitting in chairs out on the deck talking and enjoying the sunshine. 

We sat around until we became hungry. Then we went in and grabbed our submarine sandwiches and ate an early supper out on the deck. 

After supper, I decided to go for a walk by myself down the road that we had come in on. I was hoping to maybe see some birds or some wildlife. 

I didn't have to wait too long. I hadn't gone very far at all when a Meadow Vole ran across the road right in font of me. It stopped for a brief moment and just stared at me before moving very quickly into the safety of the under brush at the side of the road. 

The purple pink blossoms of Fireweed lined the side of the road and caught the rays of the evening sun.

I found an old abandoned bees nest in the middle of the road. I wondered how it got there. I looked up into the trees to see if I could see where it had come from, but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

At the end of the road, not far from the gate we had unlocked to get to the cabin, there was another lake. Heart Lake.  I couldn't believe how close this second lake was. 

This lake was super tiny. Even smaller than our lake up at the cabin. 

As I approached the water's edge I noticed something swimming around in it. At first it was fairly close to me but the closer I got, the further away it swam, naturally. 

It was a beaver. I looked around for it's lodge but I couldn't see one. I watched it for awhile. It seemed to be hanging out near a bunch of fallen birch trees. It would go up to the shore, take a birch branch and drag it into the water. It kept doing this over and over.  I don't think it was building a lodge. I think it was just storing some food. 

I stayed there watching the beaver until an older  gentleman pulled up in a pickup truck. He got out of the truck and proceeded to dig out some fishing gear. We had a nice chat about fishing and about the beaver. Then I headed back to the cabin and left him in peace to try his luck at catching something.

Back at the cabin, we were getting prepared to go see a presentation on loons. We donned our bug spray, grabbed our comfy blankets to wrap around us and keep the evening chill off of us, and grabbed our map of the park. The presentation was at Slab Lake at 8 pm.

We were a bit early so we decided to explore the park a little an also to see if we could find more clues to the Amazing Race puzzle. One of  the clues took us to a trail near the Pet beach. Julie hopped out of the car and ran to get the clue for us. 

We figured that since we were there and we had some time to kill anyways, we may as well go check out the Pet beach. 

It was empty at this time of day since it was getting later in the evening.  The Pet beach was pretty nice. It had a couple picnic tables and a bench. It was on a small lake with a nice sandy beach the was fairly shallow and perfect for pets to play in the water. 

This lake was larger than the one at the cabin. Across this lake I could see a swimming area for humans and I could see some people taking an evening swim over there. 

Although there were no pets at the beach at the moment, there were signs that some had been there not too long ago. 

There were also signs that some sort of bird had been there too. 

We stopped for a minute or two to admire the pink Water Smartweed in the water before continuing on our way to the loon presentation. 

At slab lake we pulled into the parking lot across from a large covered picnic area. 

At the top of the picnic shelter was a bat box.  We didn't see any bats though. 

A blue Discovery flag signaled to us that we were in the right place. Anika and Julie went to the nearby comfort station while I continued on alone to get us some seats. 

The beach on Slab Lake is one of the main beaches in the park.  In the distance I could see kids having fun on the playground equipment. 

I spotted a small gathering over by the picnic tables and headed over.  There was a fire going in the fire pit and people were chatting as they waited for more people to show up. There were 2 staff members there. Sarah, introduced herself and told us that she would be doing the presentation. Hailey was there to assist. 

I found a good spot to sit. As we waited Hailey came around with Park Review questionnaires.  I filled one in as I waited.  Eventually Anika and Julie joined me. They were excited because they had found another clue for the Amazing Race up at the comfort station. 

Sarah had a large map mounted on a board and she came around to each person and asked what park was their favourite park in Ontario. Then she would put a red sticker on that park. I chose Bon Echo as my favourite park but the majority of the people there chose Kettle Lakes as their favourite. 

Eventually enough people came that Sarah could get started on her presentation about loons. I learned a lot from her.  I learned that loons can dive as much as 80 meters (240 feet). They mate for life, and they always return to the same lake each year. This is called "lake fidelity". 

Sarah played us some different loon calls and explained what each call meant when the loons were communicating. 

It wasn't just the loons we learned about. I also learned that there were 22 lakes in Kettle Lakes park. 20 of them were spring fed and 2 of them had an outside water source. 

Sarah did a wonderful job as presenter.  All in all, it was an interesting presentation and we were glad to attend it. 

When we got back to the cabin we could hear the loons calling outside our door on the lake. It was interesting to now know what those calls actually meant. 

We set up a board game on the dining table and began playing. But then ,out of the corner of my eye I saw a small dark shape moving in the corner near the fridge. "Was that a mouse?" I asked.  Sure enough there was a little mouse running around. It was quite dark in colour, almost black, with tiny pink feet.  And it was small and absolutely adorable. 

​What I didn't know until that moment is that Julie is afraid of mice.  So, where normally I probably wouldn't have thought twice about the mouse being there, I figured that for her sake I had probably better catch it and put it outside.  

So, how do you live trap a mouse when you are in a cabin in the woods and have no live trap with you? Well, you have to get creative. I started off with a pot and piece of cardboard hoping to scoop it up or use the pot like a net.  It soon became clear, after failed attempts,  that it was not going to work and that I would have to come up with a different tactic. 

It was about this time that we realized that we did not have one mouse in the cabin, but two!  Now I had my work cut out for me. 

​I switched gears from a pot to using a light weight blanket that I planned to throw on top of the mice and scoop them up and carry them out side.  There were not a whole lot of places to hide in the cabin and yet they were proving to be difficult to catch because they still managed to hide. We couldn't figure out where they were getting to. 

Then all of a sudden we saw one climbing the metal grate of the gas fire place!  That was when I rushed over and put my blanket trap into action.  And it worked! I managed to scoop the little mouse into the blanket and I took him outside and released him into the yard. Off he went under the cover of the darkness of the night.

The second one, however, was not to be caught so easily. He was either smarter or more shy. Either way, I couldn't catch him. We tried to coax him out of hiding by placing a cherry on the floor. It almost worked. He came out for the cherry and grabbed it and dragged it under the bed where I couldn't reach him. We had to laugh though, because the mouse was about the same size as the cherry. So when he went to drag it away he struggled with it and decided to hop with it in his mouth. Soon we were giggling as this mouse was bouncing around with a cherry that was way too big for him. It was quite comical.  Unfortunately he was doing this under furniture so I was not able to throw the blanket over him.  

He too climbed the grate on the fire place but I didn't get to him on time so he actually made his way right inside the fire place and he wouldn't come out. We could see his tiny face once in awhile as we shined the flashlight in the crack he had crawled into, but he wouldn't come out and we couldn't get the grate off. 

The pilot light was on in the fire place but the flames were not high. Besides, he had found a place that was actually in the walls of the fireplace that had zero access for a human unless you wanted to take a crowbar to it.  So, by the time bedtime came around we had given up on catching him for the night. We would try again tomorrow. 

​Poor Julie. I offered to switch bunks with her but she decided to be brave and she stayed on the bottom bunk.   I am sure that she spent the night worrying about whether the mouse would climb into bed with her in the middle of the night. It didn't take me long to fall asleep though as I listened to the sounds of the loons calling out to their babies.  It had been a really good day and we were snug in a cozy cabin. Life is good!