Mikisew Provincial Park - Day 2

I woke up at 6 a.m. to the sound of rain gently beating on the tent. I could hear some birds too but the gentle peaceful sound that I am accustomed to on camping trips was completely ruined by the motor noise coming from the comfort station. I decided to go back to sleep for a few more hours. 

At about 10 a.m. it stopped raining and I got up for breakfast. The tent had held up pretty good in the rain with only a couple leaks here and there. I will have to get some water proofing spray when I get home and give the tent a once over. After a quick breakfast of cold  cereal I headed over to the bathroom. Along the way, in the empty campsite next to me, I noticed the remains of what looked like someone's lean-to project. 

 The bathroom was decently clean and today I noticed something that I hadn't noticed the day before. The sink closest to the wall had a motion detector on the wall. When it is activated it turns the water on. All the other sinks were just regular taps. I had seen motion detector taps before but usually they were located under the faucet and not on the wall. 

Outside the bathroom was an event bulletin board but unlike most parks I have been to there was no calendar of events posted. No guided tours, no children's programs, no special guests. The only event at all was for one that was a musical group called the "Whiskey Jacks" and I don't think even that was taking place in the park. 

So in light of there being no events in the park I took a look at the site map for hiking or walking trails near by. There poorly photocopied map showed a short one that was only 0.5 km long that I felt Balto might be able to handle. And I liked that it was named "Old Dog Trail". 

I decided that rather than wear Balto out by walking to the trail head, I would just put him in the car, drive him there and then begin the walk. The drive took us past the beaches again. Since today was over cast and threatening to rain some more, there were no people on the beach at the moment. 

But there were still plenty of ducks around. Most of them were curled up sleeping. 

The beaches were lined with all different kinds of boats. Most of them were motor boats. It is a fairly busy lake for boats actually. 

I drove to where I thought the Old Dog trail should be. There was a trail there, but I was not 100 % sure if it was Old Dog trail or if it were Beaver Meadow trail. The map was not clear and there were no signs indication which trail it was; only one that just said it was a hiking trail of some sort. 

The trail started out with a cute little foot bridge. 

But the view from the foot bridge was one of muck and old logs. There weren't even any frogs of turtles or birds of interest.

And the view on the other side of the bridge was even worse. Just dirty water and an old rusty culvert. 

From the footbridge the trail goes back into the bush. The trail was marked with either yellow paint on a post or yellow arrows painted on the trees. 

Since it was a wet dreary day, Balto and I were the only ones on the trail. Balto tended to lay down and rest more than he walked so that meant I could take some time to see the birds and the chipmunks. 

As well as the pretty colours of the plant life all around me. 

We stayed for quite sometime enjoying the peacefulness of it all. We eventually came to a fork in the path. One leg went out to the road and the other went further into the bush. By this point I could hear some kids coming so I decided that it was a good cue to turn around and head back rather than have a noisy interuption. 

Once we were done our walk I loaded Balto back into the car and drove around for a bit just checking out more of the park. We were at the end of the park where the group campsites were and it looked pretty nice.The bathrooms here were big and nice looking on the outside. 

But on the inside they were very rundown looking and could have used at least a fresh coat of paint or something. 

At least at this end of the park the bathrooms had a little more to offer for park programs and events (but it still wasn't much). 

On the way back to the campsite I stopped by the beach and told off a couple kids who were chasing the ducks. 

It was about 4 p.m. when I got back to the campsite and I figured that Jayson and his family would be here soon. I wanted to keep an eye out for them so I stuck around the site for the rest of the day. ​Balto was pretty tired from the walk so he spent the rest of the day napping in the tent. 

Across the way in an empty campsite was a huge flock of Grackles. They were busy eating something off the ground that someone had left behind. 

One Grackle in particular came to see me and check out what I was doing. 

I built a fire to cook supper on. Amongst other things I had brought some bannock mix. I had way too much bannock dough so I tried cooking some on a stick and a large portion in the bottom of a pan. It was harder to cook in a pan and it just didn't seem to taste the same. I think from now on I will just use a stick. 

By 8:30 p.m. Jayson and his family still had not arrived and it was starting to rain pretty hard now. So Balto and I crawled into the tent and I spent the evening reading and doing Sudoku puzzles. I guess Jayson and his family did not want to risk putting the tent up in the rain. So I suppose they decided to wait until Saturday to arrive with everyone else who was  going to be there instead. I could already hear the rain starting up and I knew I was in for a night of dampness and a leaky roof. Worst case scenario, I figured that I could always go and sleep in my car if need be.