I got out of the tent around 9:30 a.m. but Carsten and Penny weren't up yet. So I decided to go down to the main beach to have a look around.
The beach was empty and quiet at that time of day despite the hot weather. But the beach was a fairly nice one with plenty of sand and picnic tables to sit at.
It even had a volley ball net for anyone wo might want to play beach volley ball.
Unfortunately there were a couple of deer flies flying around and being generally pesky.
Unfortunately there were a couple of deer flies flying around and being generally pesky.
I looked down on the ground and found a dragonfly with crumpled wings.I crouched down to pick it up. As I did another dragonfly swooped in and started chasing after the deer flies that were buzzing around my head. It's too bad I couldn't have my own personal fly catcher flying around me all summer long.
At first I thought the dragonfly with the crumpled wings might be a new one emerging and it's wings hadn't fully unraveled yet. However, after watching it for a while and after closer inspection I realized that the wings were torn. This meant that there was nothing more I could do for him. So I left him on a picnic table out of the direct hot sun and wished him luck.
I saw a red breasted nuthatch in the tree above the table and I hoped that the dragonfly would not be noticed by him. It didn't notice and it flew away.
After awhile I started to head back to camp. On the way back I ran into my brother who had just left the comfort station. We decided to explore some of the other sites together. Number 14 and 64 were pretty nice sites.
One site that was near the comfort station had a picnic table with a metal addition on one end. At first we weren't sure what it was for but then we figured out that it was for wheel chair accessibility.
Back at our own campsite we had breakfast and then just sat and relaxed for awhile. We had a number of ants on the site and we expected them to be foraging for their breakfast, but when we saw a huge ant carrying something even larger we had to look twice. Turns out it was not an ant after all, It was a wasp carrying off it's breakfast of a large caterpillar of some sort.
After lunch, Penny and I took a quick trip down the road to the Madawaska Art Shop.
There were many nice things there. There were multiple rooms filled with clothing, art and gifts.
There were paintings on rocks and things made of wood.
I bought a bar of glow in the dark soap just for the fun of it. It really does glow in the dark!
Penny and I both bought a little leather pouch. You pull the string shut and then push the snap button closed. We thought it would be great for things like when you are going out dancing and don't want to leave your wallet unguarded at the table. Now you can bring your personal items and money easily onto the dance floor with you. I also thought it would be great for carrying my pocket watch with me on backpacking trips.
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I also bought a small piece of fudge. It was very good!
When we got back to camp, Carsten showed us a bug that he had discovered. It was quite tiny; about the size of an ant. It was covered in white spikes. It was a Mealybug Destroyer Larvae.
Carsten and I decided to hike the Lookout Trail. Penny stayed behind to relax and have some alone time.
The trail is two loops. The Lookout Trail hooks up to a second loop which is the Cabin Trail.
It was probably good that we only did the one loop. The mosquitoes were pretty bad and the first part of this trail was mostly uphill. I guess that only makes sense if you are going up to a lookout.
But we were happy to find a bench waiting for us once we did get to the top of the lookout.
It wasn't a traditional lookout in that there was no tower structure to climb in order to see the view. There was only the bench. But the view was still pretty nice from where we sat.
When we were done resting we headed down the other side of the loop and down the hill. It was much easier going down the hill than it was going up. But the bugs were no less nasty to us.
Near the end of the trail the path opened up to a marshy area. No wonder the mosquitoes were so bad here. Well, that and it was still very much mosquito season.
Not long past the marsh was a path through the ferns that led back out to the road and the end of the trail.
Since there are so many forest fires all over Ontario (it's been a pretty bad year for fires this year) and since there hasn't been much rain lately, they had implemented a fire restriction in the park. You could only have a fire from 7p.m. to 11 p.m. So we waited until 7 p.m. to have our supper and we cooked ourselves up some hot dogs.
While we ate a little red squirrel came to check us out and see what we were doing.
We were also visited by a blue jay.
I was happy to be able to get a fairly clear picture of the blue jay since I had been trying to get a good picture of one for the past few years.
We went into the dining tent and played board games for the rest of the evening. Out on the lake we heard a very loud loon. It was flapping its wings and making a scene. I think it was because a boat was getting a little bit too close to it.
At about 11 pm we went to bed. It was a cooler night. I would have liked to have slept with just the screen door open tonight but decided against it. Tomorrow we are headed to Arrowhead Park.
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