Mikisew Provincial Park - Day 1

No sooner had I come back from Killarney than I turned around and went back out camping again. This time it was to Mikisew Provincial Park. I was supposed to meet some friends for a reunion on Saturday so I decided to go a couple days early and enjoy some quiet time with my dog who just turned 15 this year. I figured that he doesn't have too many years left so why not get him out of the city and let him enjoy some time in the bush. 

The drive to Mikisew was pretty easy going except for one spot when you get in past the town of South River. At one point you will see that you have an option to go right up a giant hill or go left around a bit of a bend. There is no clear signage telling you which way to go. The answer is to stay to the left and do not go up the big hill. 

Once you reach Mikisew Provincial Park you are greeted by a gorgeous sign with an eagle painted on it. This sign is one of only two things that I found to be exceptional about this park. Everything else about this park was mediocre at best.

Once you get past the sign you come to a small parking lot and a small gatehouse. I left my dog, Balto, in the car and went in to register. I told the lady at the desk that I was expecting my friend Jayson and his family to arrive the next day (they were coming a day early too) and they had reserved site 422. I told her that I was looking for a site somewhat close to theirs, but not necessarily right beside. I asked if I could go in and choose a site and come back and tell her which one I wanted (which is standard practice for most parks in Ontario). She said that unfortunately she was not allowed to let me in unless I had paid for a site, but that I could come back and switch sites if I didn't want the one she had assigned me. 

So she assigned my site # 262 which she thought I would like because it was right across from the beach. The she took out a poorly photocopied map of the park and highlighted a bunch of other empty sites around the park. I thanked her and took the map and went on my quest for the "perfect site".  On the way out the door I noticed a sign that reminded people that the Peledes Meteor Shower was at it's peak tonight. I was looking forward to seeing it. 

I figured that since there were going to be quite a few kids with us this weekend that it would be likely that everyone will want to be relatively close to the comfort station. I tend to avoid the comfort station normally because there is usually too much foot traffic near there. But I was willing to make an exception this time especially since one or two of my friends had said before I left that there was a chance that they may want to share a site with me. 

Looking at the map, it seemed that site 262 was quite a bit farther away from Jayson's site than I would like but I figured that I would go there and check it out just the same; so I headed there first. 

As I approached site 262 I was surprised to see a mallard duck crossing the road. But the site was close to the beach so it wasn't a complete surprise. I was more surprised by the lack of fear it had. 

As I looked around I saw more ducks sitting on the beach amongst the beach goers and people were feeding them. Then I was no longer surprised in the least. These ducks were one of three reasons I decided not to take site 262. It was a lovely site if you wanted to be near the beach and had kids with you. But with hand fed ducks around it meant that there would be people following these ducks around to feed them and that meant an increase of people marching past your campsite to do this. The site was also on a corner so that meant that there would be an increase in vehicle traffic. And finally, it was directly across the road from the beach with no trees and only a road in between so that meant having to watch people going to and from the beach all day. That was not what I came to see. And so my hunt for the "perfect site" continued. 

I drove around for about a half an hour looking for a good site. The layout of the park looks pretty simple on paper, but when you are driving or walking it the roads start looking all the same and it is very easy to get turned around. More than once during my stay I heard people saying things like "no I am pretty sure our campsite was over this way... or was it that way?" 

One of the things that made it difficult to find the "perfect site" was that aside form the beach area, there were little to no deciduous trees. Almost everything were pines and they were planted like tree farms with all the trees planted in neat little rows. 

To top it all off, most of the pine trees had no lower growth left on them. So it was nothing but bare tree trunks all around you which meant hardly any privacy from all the neighbouring campers. It really wasn't a very pretty park at all. 

Finally after what seemed like forever, I chose site 386. It would not have been my first choice but it was close to Jayson's site, it was very large in case I had company, and it was also close to the comfort station. It would have to do.  So I went back to the gatehouse and re-registered my site. I ended up getting a little bit of a  refund because apparently site 262 is a "premium site" and site 386 is not. 

Once I got back to site 386 I went about setting up camp. One thing I can say in the favour of Mikisew, is that the campsites are very large. There was room for my two big tents, 2 picnic tables and I could have probably fit another 2 tents and a car on the site very easily. 

It had taken me about an hour to set up the site by myself and it was a very hot day. Luckily it was pretty shady under the pines, but it was still too hot for the dog so I decided that I would go and find someplace for him to swim. I had noticed that the beaches were all signed with "Pets prohibited in swimming and/or beach areas" which meant I would have to find somewhere else for Balto to swim. I was not very impressed by this because in most parks dogs are allowed on the beach as long as they are leashed. But not this one. This means that if you are travelling alone with a dog, you will never be allowed to go swimming yourself because there would be no one to watch your dog while you do. So needless to say, I did not go swimming while I was here. 

While I was down looking at site 262 I had noticed a sign that marked a trail head called " Lake View Trail". I figured that if Balto was not allowed on the beach, them maybe we could find access to the water in a secluded place off of the trail somewhere. So we went for a walk down Lake View Trail. Balto is very old and can't walk very far without stopping to lie down for a rest here and there. This trail is only 0.5 km long and I figured that wouldn't be too bad. 

Lake View Trail is actually quite a nice little trail for the most part. If my dog had been younger there would have been 3 or 4 places where he could have reached the water and had a little swim. However, the water's edge was always at the bottom of a steep slope. And no matter how small the slope was I knew that if Balto had gone down to the water, there would be no way that I would be able to get him back up again. So we kept walking and hoping that the next stop would be the one we were looking for. 

This trail would have been absolutely beautiful if it weren't for the fact that it was not taken care of properly. The rocks had been painted with things like " R.L + C.K." or "Kyle was here 2015".

One rock even had the message "I pissed on this rock" written on it. 

And there was a place where someone had taken the time to bag their dog doo-doo, but did not have the decency to take the bag back with them and dispose of it. They just left it there right in the middle of the path. 

You could tell that there was absolutely no respect for the park, for other campers, or for nature here what so ever. I was not impressed by what I was seeing at all. 

The trail ended at a clearing with a bunch of picnic tables. 

On the other side of the clearing was a volleyball net and another beach where there appeared to be hardly any people (but not zero people so I could not let Balto swim there). This side of the park was nice and quiet and nicely treed. 

There was a basketball net.

And even a horse shoe pit. 

And then I saw it....just the place I had been looking for but hadn't known was there (because the map was so bad that you couldn't read it). It was a dog park! And it was a nice one too. 

It had things for dogs to climb up and over and through. (Although some of these things I could never picture my dog ever using, but I am sure other people's dogs could).

But most importantly it had a place for Balto to swim. And boy was he happy to be able to get in the water and just lie there and cool off. 

The water was shallow here so it was perfect for dogs like mine who are too old to swim out far anymore. 

There was a picnic table to sit at and look at the view across the lake while your dog takes a swim or plays. 

We spent a good hour or so at the dog park and made our way slowly back to the campsite. We had to get some water so we took the platypus water filter that I had borrowed from my mom (the water is drinkable in the park, but it just tastes better when you run it through the platypus) and walked over to the water taps. The water taps were the strangest looking things I have ever seen, but they worked well and I liked the way they were set up.  

I decided to hang the platypus inside the screen tent since there really were no low branches available on the pine trees to hang it from. 

By the time we got back to camp Balto was all tuckered out from so much walking and he went directly to the tent for a nap while I mad myself some hot dogs for supper. 

After supper I did some Sudoku puzzles for awhile and waited to see if the stars were going to come out. However, it was too overcast so I never did get to see the meteor shower at it's peak. But that was OK, I had seen it a few days earlier.

Before bed I headed over to the comfort station. I had to tie Balto up to a bench outside the door so that I could go inside. It was a typical comfort station with nothing remarkable about it. Little did I know that this comfort station was going to become a pet peeve of mine. 

I went back to the campsite and went to sleep just after 11 p.m. I could still hear the other campers talking and laughing all around me but I was tired enough to fall asleep despite the noise. I stayed asleep until about 1 a.m. when Balto woke me up because he had to go out to go pee. And that was when I noticed it. The loud humming noise of a generator or a motor of some sort that was running the electricity for the comfort station. During the day you don't notice it with all the hub bub of people around you. But at night when you are expecting to hear crickets and frogs all you hear is the maddening hum of that motor. I could faintly make out the call of a loon in the distance but it was pretty much drowned out by this noise pollution. heck, it is quieter at home in the city than it was here. This was not what I went camping for. But it was too late now. It was the middle of the night and I would just have to put up with it. Maybe I will consider moving to a different site in the morning.