Plans Gone Awry

There was a gathering of moths during the night and some of them were quite pretty. I guess that is why they are the "butterflies of the night".

We didn't get too fancy with breakfast. I just had some cereal. I remember, as a kid, getting mini boxes of cereal that had perforated lines in on one side that you could pop open to get at the cereal inside. Then you would pour the milk into the box and grab a spoon and presto-change-o you would have a built-in bowl of cereal. I was happy to find these "Fun Packs" of cereal on the shelf of my local grocery store. But I was disappointed to find out that they no longer have the perforated lines in the cardboard. Well, I was not going to be bested by a box with no perforations.I grabbed a pair of scissors and I cut my own door into the box and so it was that I ate my cereal in my make shift bowl as I traveled down memory lane. 

We had another visitor this morning too. A Long Horn Pine Beetle made an appearance. Since these little guys bite, I kept my distance. 

Before heading over to the boat tour we made a quick bathroom stop.  The odd thing about the bathrooms here are that the doors are at the back of the building, not the front. But the bathrooms are not smelly like most. In fact, they had a bit of a perfume smell. And they were pretty clean too. 

By 11:30 a.m. we arrived at the Greystones store to buy our tickets for the boat tour to see the pictographs. 

We were very surprised to find out when we got there that both the boat tour and the Cliff Top ferry were all sold out for the entire day! We couldn't believe it! The store had only been open for maybe an hour or so. 

We weighed our options and decided that we would get up extra early the next morning and try to be first in line for tickets. And if that didn't work, we would try renting a canoe and go see the pictographs by ourselves. Now that we had all this unexpected time on our hands for the next while, we decided to explore the campgrounds a bit, starting with the store itself. 

The Greystones store used to be a little school-house in 1921.

Inside the store you can find your usual camping fare such as hats and T-shirts and compasses and maps and things like that. But what I like about this store is the little room at the back that houses a mini art gallery.  

You can buy the paintings that are hanging on the wall or, if you only want something smaller, you can buy prints, cards, or notepaper instead. 

After looking around the store, we went next door to the Visitor Center. They have all sorts of educational displays there. My favourite  is one where you have to guess what bird, animal or insect made the different holes in the pieces of wood. 

I discovered the "Dollywood" that was carved into the wall in one of the rooms that one of the staff had mentioned when I was there last year. 

In another room was a display of photographs of some of the pictographs that we had wanted to see. There were descriptions of what they represented under each one. I learned from this display that the difference between pictographs and the petroglyphs we had seen at Petroglyph Provincial Park is that  petroglyphs are carved into the stone while pictographs are painted onto the stone. 

Another display showed some taxidermy lizards called "Five-Lined Skinks". They are Ontario's only lizard.  I hadn't known they existed until I saw this display.  

After seeing all the displays inside the Visitor Center we set out to explore more of the park outside the Visitor Center. We headed towards the lagoon where the boat rentals were. We passed by the amphitheatre on the way there. 

The lagoon had quite a few people milling around. Many were there to rent canoes and kayaks. 

I went over to see what the prices were in case we needed to rent one the next day if we couldn't get on the boat tour. That was when I discovered that they also rent pedal boats! So we added that to our list of options for the next day. 

We sat on a bench for awhile watching the people and the boats go by. On the other side of the lagoon we could see a picnic shelter. 

We even saw a dog with his very own life jacket. I am not sure if that is something they have for rent a the park or if his owners brought it for him. I forgot to ask. 

After sitting for a bit we continued our walk and ended up at the main beach. This is the largest of the beaches and is the busiest of the beaches. It was a hot day and there were people everywhere. 

At the beach there was also a little hut on wheels. 

Apparently it is what they use when they are hosting their charity BBQ down at the beach. 

We headed back to the car and drove back to camp. Next on our list of plans was to hike the Bon Echo Creek Trail. The trail head wasn't very far from our campsite. All we had to do was take a short cut through the maintenance yard to get to it. There were workers in the maintenance yard as we passed through but they didn't seem to mind us cutting through. 

The flowers that were growing along the path to the trail were pretty pinks and purples, There were some purple Asters. 

And some Viper's Bugloss flowers.

It didn't take us long to arrive at the trail head. 

Only to find out that the trail was closed! Once again our plans for the day were derailed. 

So we turned around and went back the way we came. As we cut through the maintenance yard again, we saw a ground hog hanging out in the grass. 

And a robin was looking for a meal in the grass too. 

Since we couldn't hike the Bon Echo Creek Trail, we decided to hop in the car and drive to the trail head of the High Pines Trail and try our luck there instead. 

This time the trail was open and we were able to go on a hike. It was a pretty little trail too. 

It's too bad that the mosquitoes on this trail were pretty bad. But Carsten had some bug spray with him so we used that and we were good to go again. The kind of bug spray that Carsten had was Off Familycare. It was Summer Splash scented and it smelled really nice. Not like the smell of regular fly dope. It smelled more like fruits and berries. I am gonna have to get me some of that. 

At one point the trail splits off and goes off to the right. It goes from grassy and open to....

shady and woodsy. It was peaceful and enjoyable. 

On the way out of the trail we spotted some vibrant pink Sweet-William flowers. So beautiful! There are quite a few different flowers in this park. 

After the High Pines Trail we weren't quite ready to go back to camp yet. So, we drove back down to the main beach and took a walk across the foot bridge to the Pet beach. 

We stood on the bridge for awhile and took in the view. We were in no hurry to get anywhere. That's the great part about the lazy days of summer vacation... you can take your time and just relax.

On the other side of the bridge was a warning sign.  Can't say we weren't warned (not that we needed warning... we are good with dogs being off leash).

 The pet beach was a nice open area with a couple of dogs romping and rolling around. They were having a grand 'ole time! It was entertaining just to watch them play. 

Once you pass the pet beach, you are headed towards South Beach. Along the way we passed by a basketball net and an old BBQ.

Another little foot bridge to cross and we were at South Beach.

We had seen a couple of bus loads of people leaving this beach as we were leaving High Pines Trail. But now the beach stood empty with the exception of us. It was a really nice grassy area with plenty of picnic tables. If I had wanted to swim I probably would have chosen this beach over the crowded main beach. 

We spotted a Gypsy Moth caterpillar on one of the picnic tables. Apparently this is an invasive species and shouldn't be here. Since they are nonnative, there are few natural enemies to keep them in check. Repeated defoliation can lead to the death of many trees, changing the mix of tree species and affecting dependent wildlife.

We also saw some White Admiral butterflies. 

At the end of South Beach is the Pet Exercise Trail. 

But we didn't walk that trail. There were some tree branches that were coming down over head and we had already done enough walking by this time. So we turned around and headed back the way we came. 

Since the beach was practically empty the animals and birds felt a little more comfortable to make an appearance. We saw a black squirrel...and he saw us. 

There were a good many Robins hanging around. 

Along with the White Admiral butterflies, there were also Red Admiral butterflies. 

The Blue Jays were a little more shy, but they sat still long enough for a quick photo before flying into the denser part of the woods to hide. 

There were damsel flies and Chalk-fronted Corporal dragonflies chasing down mosquitoes and other pesky insects. 

We went back to camp and made a fire to cook hot dogs on. We had been traveling from park to park for a few days so we needed to do a bit of laundry and get a shower. We decided to do a rotation to get things done. We each took a turn staying at the campsite to look after the fire while the other ones either did laundry or took a shower. 

The water was hot enough, although you did have to keep turning it on because it wouldn't stay on long enough. The disappointing part was that even though they had recently cleaned the showers, they weren't that clean. There was gum stuck to the wall, and a muddy foot print. There was a gob of some sort of conditioner or soap on the wall too (which isn't so bad in itself). In one of the showers (not all) there was even some black mold in one of the windows. But I have seen way worse showers than this. 

The rest of the evening was spent sitting and relaxing in front of the fire and playing board games in the screened dining tent. We didn't stay up too late because we wanted to get a jump on the line up for the boat tour the next day. We didn't want to miss out on it for a second time.