One Touch Of Nature Makes The Whole World Kin

After a night of rain, I woke up to a bright sunny morning. The park was quiet and peaceful and I ate my breakfast while watching the squirrels play in the trees near by.  I was enjoying the peace now, because in a few hours I knew that my nephew's kids would be arriving and the quietness would quickly disappear after that. But that is the nature of kids, and I was excited to see their happy, eager faces. 

It would be a few hours before they arrived so, I decided to go on a nice quiet hike all by myself. I figured it was early enough in the day that the trails wouldn't be full of people yet. I walked to the trail head that was not too far away from my campsite. The map that was posted there showed one large trail called the Transition Trail and two smaller loops on the same route. The largest loop is about 5 km long and goes to the edge of Marten Lake. I decided to take that one. 

At the bottom corner of the map there was a sign that said "Please report fallen trees and branches" . I was happy to see this sign. It meant that the staff in this park cared about the condition of the trails and were ready to fix them if need be. Vastly different from the backpacking trail at Halfway Lake we had hiked earlier this year. 

There was a registration box at the beginning of the trail. I am sure that there used to be some brochures and possibly a guest book inside at one point in the past. However, they had long since run out of paper. That didn't stop people from signing in though. Inside the box were scraps of paper and even some pieces of tree bark that people had written their names on nd where they were from. When people want to leave their mark, they will come up with a way to do it. I guess it's not all that strange considering paper comes from trees in the first place. 

The trail started off narrow and with a bit of roots and rocks under foot. But it wasn't in bad shape at all. 

It wasn't long before the trail opened up a bit and the first boardwalk came into view. There was no one else on the trail so far and I was enjoying the serenity of it all. 

In the damp soil from yesterday's rain I spotted some bright red mushrooms. I am not the most familiar with mushrooms, but I believe these are Waxcaps.

The sun was spilling through the trees and over the pine needle covered trail. You could smell that earthy smell in the air. 

At one spot, where the trial splits off onto another loop, there was a cleared area with very large felled tree logs that you could sit on to take a rest if you wanted to. 

There was an educational sign posted at this site, with a little "You Are Here" map in the bottom corner. I had the option to take the shorter trail loop (red trail) from here, but I was happy to continue on the longer trail (blue trail). 

I came to more boardwalks that were bordered with lovely green bushes. 

The next section was a narrow foot path. It was at about this point that I started to notice that my ankles were starting to become itchy.  I had only worn light weight leggings, but they did cover my ankles and legs pretty good so I figured that it couldn't have been from poison ivy or some such plants. 

I looked around for what could be the cause. It didn't take long to figure it out. I could see the tiniest mosquitoes I had ever seen before flying around my legs. Up until this point I thought that there were no biting bugs at all. It was late in the season and most biting bugs are almost gone by now.  But there they were; about 10 of them. Not only were they small enough that they were easy to miss, but they also never flew up any higher than my knees.  That is probably part of the reason I hadn't noticed them. Since they never flew higher than my knees it meant they never came up close enough to my ears for me to hear them. And so they had gone undetected until now.  I pulled my socks up as high as they would go under my leggings which gave me a double layer of cloth between me and the mosquitoes. It was all that was really needed. But the damage had been done. When I checked my legs later on, they were absolutely covered in mosquito bites. But only below the knees. 

With the mosquito attack taken care of, I was free to continue on and enjoy more pleasant insects to be found in the woods. A beautiful Autumn Meadowhawk dragonfly landed on a maple leaf near by. It's amber  colour looked like shiny gold in the sunshine. 

From time to time I would come across an old placard that had worn away. I presume that there used to be some sort of educational sign on them. But now they were just blank pieces of wood that looked like a preachers pulpit out in the middle of the woods. 

There was one tree that had some leafy looking lichen growing on it. It looked like someone had stuck some lettuce to the tree. 

This lichen is called Tree Lungwort. 

When I was just about halfway through the trail and almost to the lake, I could hear a group of people coming up the trail behind me. There were 3 of them and they were talking loudly and were barely paying attention to the beauty of their surroundings. 

 Since I wanted to be left alone in peace, I let them pass by me.  However, they didn't get far before they stopped for a rest at the lake up ahead. It was where I had wanted to stop. But I didn't want to hang out with them. Besides, they were talking very loud and what were they talking about?.....Covid!  I couldn't believe it!  Here I am in the middle of the woods and I couldn't even escape the topic out here!  Of all the topics in the whole world, why that one?!?  I was actually upset by this. This was no place for any conversation of Covid to be on anyone's lips. 

I couldn't hack it and I turned around and went back to a tree with an over hanging branch that I had passed, and waited there on the side of the trail for about 5 minutes, hoping that they wouldn't stay too long. 

I walked far enough back where I could no longer hear them. But they had ruined my mood. A little brown sparrow came along and landed on a branch near by. That helped to lighten my mood a little. 

After a few minutes that seemed like forever, I started to go forward again. I could see them in the distance starting to leave the area that they had stopped at. I slowed my walk down so that they could get way ahead of me. I didn't want to catch up to them. 

Finally I came to the spot where they had been sitting. It was a perfect spot to take a break and enjoy the view. So I decided to stop here too. Besides, it would put more distance between us. 

I sat on the rock under the shade of a big tree and looked out at the beautiful marsh that lay in front of me. I took out my snack and sat and ate. 

The white fluffy clouds matched the white fluffy puffs on the Tawny Grass in the marsh grasses. It was a beautiful day and I was alone in the peace and quiet once more. 

When I was ready, I got up off the rock and continued on my way. There was a bridge to take me across the water and over to dry land on the other side. 

From the bridge I could see white water lilies floating in the water. 

There was another rock under a shade tree on the other side of the bridge too! So no matter what end of the loop you started from on the trail, you would always have a rock to sit on about half way through. 

Some parts of the trail were twisted with intertwined roots from nearby trees. At least I assumed they were from near by trees. But who knows. Perhaps the roots were also from trees that were much further away.  I guess there is no way to really know. 

I was nearing the end of the trail now. Another "You Are Here" sign showed me where I was and all my options. I was almost at the end of the trail so I just followed the "Exit" markers. 

Someone had fashioned a chair out of an old tree stump. I thought it was kind of neat. 

It wasn't long before I could see the cars in the parking lot through the trees. I had come to the end of the hike. 

I checked the time and found that I had just enough time to make a bathroom trip before heading up to the office to meet my nephew and his family. 

​While I was in the bathroom I noticed a pretty Maple Spanworm moth just hanging out on the wall. 

I headed to the parking lot outside the park office and waited. I watched cars come and go but none of them were the one I was waiting for. Finally, I got a text saying that they were just leaving town and they were on their way. This meant that I had a full half hour before they arrived. 

I didn't feel like going back to the campsite. So, instead I decided to explore the Day Use beach which was very close by. 

The Day Use beach had a very large parking lot, but there were only 2 or 3 cars there. The beach was not very busy at all. 

Only one family was in the water swimming. The beach was decent enough here but it wasn't anything to write home about. As a matter of fact, I think the beach right across from our campsite was much nicer than this one. 

At first glance it looked like this beach had a playground. The swings were available to swing on. 

However, the jungle gym was closed off to the public. 

At first I thought the jungle gym was closed off due to Covid. But then I saw a sign saying that the playground area was actually open. So I guess that there must have been something that needed repair on the jungle gym or something. 

While I was at the beach I noticed  a path that led into the woods. Since I had time to explore, I decided to follow it. The path led me to a field with log cabins in the middle of it. 

A large sign let me know that this was the replica of an old historical Logging Camp. There was a map showing where all the different buildings and sites were. 

I started to look around. I headed to the first log cabin. 

I wanted to go inside and see what was in it, but there was a sign on the door that said all the buildings were closed and that there would be no tours. Sure enough, I checked the door and it was locked. 

The cabins may have been locked but I was still able to peek in the windows. The first cabin looked like it may have been a kitchen of some kind. 

The next cabin was fairly short compared to the other ones. But the chimney was very tall. 

Peeking in the windows, I could see all sorts of tools and an open fire pit. I assume that this was the blacksmith.

The back of the building had blacksmithing tools hanging from the wall. 

The next cabin had a bunch of plates all set up on a long table. I figure this was probably the dining hall. 

All around the area were displays of various types of machines. I liked this one because it was called the "Crazy Wheel" . Apparently they used to run a steel cable through all of these wheels. By doing so, they were able to control the loads of lumber on steep hills. 

There were many other old machines and things on display, like this water tanker.

And this roller. 

But the display I found most amusing was the bathroom.  There was a sign that had a quote on it that let you know how valuable toilet paper was at the time. 

And the bathroom itself? Well, it looked like this. It was a trench dug out of the dirt and a long log placed over the trench and secured by trees at both ends. It was something a kin to what we use on our backpacking trips when there are no thunder boxes. 

One of the last things to see on the Old Logging Camp tour is the left over ruins of an old boat. It had a very Viking feel to it, if you ask me. 

It was at about this time that I got a text saying that the gang was waiting for me at the office. So I hurried over there to meet them. A little chickadee landed on a branch nearby and watched me go. 

The girls were excited to have a campsite right by the beach and the swing set. Right away they got into their bathing suits and went down to the lake. Mila got busy catching frogs with a net. 

And Addy got busy making sand castles in the sand. 

Almost right away the girls made some new friends. The nice thing about camping is everyone looks out for one another. Especially families with kids. In no time at all we had an extra child at the dinner table and drinking hot chocolate with us. And Mila and Addy would run next door to the other child's campsite to play with the toys there. Parents would come by and ask "Are our kids bothering you?" to which the reply was always "Oh no. Not at all."   It reminds me of the Shakespeare line "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin". 

While the girls and their dad were spending time at the beach, Victoria and I set about getting things tucked away into the tents and getting the food ready. 

The girls were bunking in with me in the big red tent while Dylan and Victoria were in the medium sized orange tent. 

As I helped Victoria to unpack everything from the car, I couldn't help but notice that they had brought cabinet with them to store some of their camping gear. It took up quite a bit of room in the vehicle but it sure made everything organized. Apparently this set of drawers is dedicated to camping stuff. They store it in the shed and then just throw it in the car when they are packing for the camping trip. 

After everything was unpacked and we were just relaxing at the picnic table, Mila came up to us and said "I think I hear a bat!" It was the middle of the day time and and there shouldn't be any bats out at that time of day. So I went with Mila to see if we could find this bat. I remember as a child I encountered a bat on a tree in the middle of the day. So, I knew it was not entirely impossible for there to be a bat around. 

Mila and I headed towards the area where we could hear the squeaking noises that did sound like a bat. They were coming from the area of the near by boat launch. 

We looked and we listened but we didn't find any bats. I am pretty sure the noises we heard were coming from a bird actually.  We headed back to our campsite. As we walked along the side of the road we saw a Brown Thrasher. 

We were just about at the campsite when Dylan, Victoria and Addy pulled up beside us in the car. Dylan said that they were on the way to the park store to get some fire wood. They didn't knw when we were coming back so they had left us a note on the chair. And then he chuckled. I wondered what he thought was so funny so I went to find the note that he had left. Once I saw it I knew why he had been chuckling.  It said "We took the girl " (meaning Addy) "Meet at the beach at noon tomorrow with 100 million dollars. Muahaha....Just kidding. Brb." 

I laughed. I kept that note. It hangs on my fridge now. :)

There were a lot of different moths to be found around the campsite. Aside form the Maple Spanworm moths I had seen around, there were also some False Hemlock Looper moths like this one. 

And there were Bronzed Cutworm moths. I liked the rusty colours on these ones. 

The rest of the day was filled with playing at the beach and relaxing at the campsite. But the fun didn't stop there.. Eventually it got dark and we brought out the flashlights. 

We headed on down tot he beach to see if we could find any frogs. 

And we found plenty of frogs. Finding frogs at night is a tradition with the kids. This one was the biggest one we found that night. 
Frog hunting is always a catch and release program with us. The kids can catch them, hold them for a minute, then let them go. Then it is off a little further down the beach to find a new frog. That way it teaches the kids to respect nature and not over handle the frogs which could stress the frogs out and cause them to die. 

We had nets with us, so frogs were not the only things we caught that night. We caught a couple minnows too. Dylan wanted to use them to go fishing so we transferred them into a big plastic tote box filled with water later on. However, he never did go fishing with them so later on they got released too. 

After the kids had chocolate and went to bed, the adults sat around the fire talking and relaxing until the fire was nothing but burning embers. We couldn't have asked for a better way to finish off a wonderful day.