Point The Way To Indian Point

I stayed warm during the night but boy was it cold out in the morning. I did not want to get out of my sleeping bag. So, I stayed in it for as long as I could; until my bladder and my hungry stomach forced me to get up. 

My mom was already up and starting to pack up. We wanted to do a bit of hiking at Indian Point Provincial Park before going home. 

The main reason we were so cold was because our site had no sun and it was colder in the shade. I dragged my wet tarp over to the sunny picnic table at the site across the road. Then mom and I dragged our chairs over and had breakfast and coffee in the sun to keep warm. We sat and talked for quite sometime there; just enjoying the peacefulness of it all. I noticed that a gentleman from a site further up had the same idea and had dragged his chair into the sun of an empty site nearby too. It was that kind of chilly morning. 

Once we were all packed up, we headed down the road to Indian Point. It is a day use only park and is only about 10 minutes away from Balsam Lake Provincial Park. 

We had never been there before and I had only read a little bit about it on the internet. So, I didn't really know where the entrance was at the time. I did know that some people had difficulties finding the entrance. I tried using Google and it brought me to a little side road off the highway. 

But this side road was actually a drive way to someone's privately owned property in the park and was not a public access way. 

I then remembered how people had said that you had to go all the way around and through the town of Coboconk to get to the public access to the park.  So I reset Google to take me to Coboconk.

As we drove down the highway, we were amazed to see 7 Turkey Vultures sitting in a tree. I have only ever seen Turkey Vultures flying in the air and never have I seen one in a tree let alone 7 at the same time. That is not to say that they don't sit in trees or anything. It's just that it is rare to see it. Of course, I was driving and could not get  picture of it. 

Once I was in Coboconk I reset Google once again to take me to Indian Point. Coboconk is a lovely little town and we enjoyed driving around some of the streets and looking at the houses as we made our way to the park. 

When we reached Indian Point Road, we saw, off to the left,  a familiar information bulletin sign like those I was seeing  along the trail in Balsam Lake Park. There was a small space across the road that looked like parking for maybe about 3 cars. It had a back hoe sitting in it , so we weren't sure if that was someone's private property or not.  We got out of the car and took a look around. There seemed to be a trail behind the information board but it was grassy and not well used. It could be just a path that someone trail blazed and not a real trail at all for all we knew. There was no real trail head sign or map that let you know that you were for sure in the right place. 

The only thing we knew for sure by the "You Are Here" sign on the information board is that we were for sure at Indian Point Provincial Park.  There were no trails marked on the map; only the road. 

We didn't know if we were supposed to drive further to get to a trail head or of this was it. We could see another blue sign a little further down the road. So, we decided to get back in the car and drive down the road a bit to see where it would take us. 

The sign said "Indian Point" and "No Dumping" with a bunch of other regulation symbols on it.  This sign could lead people to believe that the trail head and trail parking were to be found further down the road. 

However, this was not the case. We came to a place that looked to be a little less Provincial Park like and a little less inviting. 

​There were big signs letting us know that this area was for "Members Only"  and that this was a private area. So we didn't go any further than this and we turned the car around and headed back to the start. 

We were almost back to the beginning when, from the right side of us, 5 wild turkeys flew out of the bush and flew over the top of the car and barely missed the car. They landed somewhere on the other side of the road but quickly became camouflaged with their surroundings so that we couldn't see them again. 

We reached the beginning of the road  at the park boundary. This time we parked the car in the small parking place near the back hoe and walked across the road back to the information board.  

This must be the place then. Was this information board supposed to be the trail head? 

We decided to walk the grassy, over grown, path and find out.  

The grass was still green but was starting to turn brown in preparation for winter. There were chickory flowers blooming among the grass stalks. 

The grassy path took us to  pretty little open meadow. 

The purple, blue, and pink flowers of the Vipers Bugloss plants gave spots of vibrant colour to the otherwise muted greens and browns of the meadow. 

In short order, the grassy over grown trail became wider and more recognizable as an actual trail. It almost seemed like an old road even. I thought that perhaps snowmobiles and ATVs were used here. 

However, we came across some signs that showed that ATVs and snowmobiles were not permitted here. Nor was hunting or dumping. 

In the trees a Ruby-crowned Kinglet sang to us. 

And a Turkey Vulture circled above our heads. 

The trail took us away from the meadow and started to take us into the tree line.  The sun was shining and the day had started to warm up quite a bit compared to how chilly it had been when we woke up. 

At this section the trees became thicker but the trail was still wide and easy to travel on. The trees started to form almost like a tunnel over the trail. 

The trees were thick enough to block out much of the sunlight, however, it was all so very beautiful. The sunlight that did filter through created pretty shadows and revealed a lush carpet of bright green grass beneath the trees. If we had been in the high heat of summer, this is a place I would definitely take refuge from the heat. 

It wasn't long before we could see the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. The trees were opening up and the sky became more visible again. 

And the sunlight hit the changing leaves and lit the colours up so that they practically looked like they were flames. It was so gorgeous in this section of the trail. 

And it was so peaceful. It was the perfect trail to walk in the fall. 

Mom and I came across a big gnarly old tree that had so much character. We just stopped for a few minutes just looking up at it and admiring its majestic beauty. It was another tree that we thought would be right at home in a fairy tale. 

Parts of the trail here became flat rocks that looked like stepping stones in someone's garden.

Then we came across a second three that was even bigger and grander than the last one that we had admired. The trees here are just full of character. 

A red Meadowhawk dragonfly landed nearby. It's bright red body matched the reds of the autumn leaves. 

​It was about this time when we started to hear gunshots in the distance, back in the direction that we had come from.  We realized that it was close to hunting season and we weren't wearing any bright orange vests or anything like that.  Now hunting is prohibited here, but that won't stop dishonest people from doing it anyways. It is totally possible that it was someone shooting on private property on the land that adjoins this land, but we had no way of knowing if that was the case. I figured they could be after the wild turkeys that we saw fly by earlier. At any rate, the shooting was what made us decide that it was probably time to head back. 

On the way back we ran into two other groups of people who were on their way in. There were probably bout 12 other people in total. They seemed unphased by the sounds of the gun shots in the distance. We said a quick hello as we passed each other.  I was a bit worried that there was not enough room in the parking lot for the vehicles and that we may have gotten hemmed in. But all was well and I was able to pull away without any difficulties. 

We were now headed home. It was past lunch time and we were getting hungry. My mom mentioned that we were close to a place that we used to go to for lunch when I was a kid every time we went to visit my Farmor (grandmother).  We called it "The Rabbit Place"  because there used to be a big pen with about 20 or 30 rabbits in it outside the restaurant. There was a huge dirt mound and the rabbits were allowed to burrow inside of it and people would feed them grass and carrots. We loved it. It had been about 30 or more years since we were last there. 

We pulled into the parking lot and found that the place was now called "Tent - Kitchen and Bar".  I thought that was a pretty odd name for a restaurant. "Tent" did not make me think of food in any form or fashion. 

The rabbits were long gone now and the rabbit mound was much smaller. You would never even had known that rabbits had once lived there. It saddened me a little. 

The inside of the restaurant was completely different too. Where once there was more of a dinner feel to the place, it now was more like a posh bistro with art on the walls. 

I had come expecting to grab a burger and fries or something, but nothing like that was to be found on the menu. And the prices were pretty, well... pricey.  I settled on some French Toast. 

My mom ordered the waffles.  Both orders were very fancy looking and looked delicious. However, neither of them tasted all that great. Mine was tolerable but I took a bite of my moms and it was like eating a mouth full of dry sawdust. When the waitress asked us how it was we lied and said it was good. Later, in the car, I asked my mom how she could even eat any of it. She said that she just pretended that it was bread.  

We were surprised when the waitress brought us some complimentary cinnamon treats for dessert.  They were fairly decent but still not the greatest. 

So we were a little disappointed in that place. I guess sometimes it doesn't pay to revisit some of your childhood memories. 

But that was a small blip on an otherwise perfect day.  We had a great trip and were on our way home. Although I will miss the peacefulness of sleeping in a tent until next summer, I won't miss the chilly mornings and will wake up in my nice warm house in the morning. Time for me to start my hibernation process.