"Site Seeing" And A Secluded Beach

I awoke to the sounds of birds singing, wind blowing, and waves on the shoreline. It looked like it had been raining during the night, but it wasn't raining at this moment, The sky was very grey though. 

Penny and Carsten and I decided to to take a walk down the Limestone Trail. We read in the park bulletin that there was a secluded beach on this trail and we were curious to see it. 

The trail is a nicely groomed winding path through some beautiful stands of birch and cedar and other pines. 

True to the bulletin's word, the secluded beach was not that far down the trail.It was quiet and sandy and looked like a great place to swim. We did not go in though.

Instead, we explored the shoreline. There we found tiny little marsh beetles.

We had to be careful so as not to step on other small insects, like an occasional wasp. Apparently I found out later on through iNaturalist.ca   that this is a Spinola's Mason Wasp which is quite rare and is considered to be critically imperiled in Canada. 

On the other side of the secluded beach was more trail to follow. 

We had to be careful not to step on the tiny little toads that would cross our path from time to time. 

We came to another open area where we found a picnic table. This would be a beautiful spot for anyone wanting to have a picnic lunch, 

The pair of loons from the day before were still around and seemed to be in love with each other. 

A little red mushroom in the shape of an umbrella reminded us that it was about to rain soon. So, we headed back to camp to play a game of Catan in the dining tent. 

As we played our game, a little Meadow Vole decided to come to visit us. It would pop in and out of the pile of fire wood that we had brought into the dining tent to keep dry. 

When the rain let up, mom and Penny and Carsten took a walk to the Brent store and to "see the sites" (the other sites in the park. I drove dad there in the car.

There is a little town in the middle of this provincial park. By little I mean tiny. Maybe about 20 cottages or so. Brent was the former location of an old logging town and now the park has a Historic Walking Trail where you can learn all about it. 

​​Unfortunately, the Brent store was closed. I am assuming this is due to the Covid-19 virus. 

Despite having the store closed, canoe rentals were still available. You call in  your reservation, they get it ready, you come to the store to find the form posted on the door with instructions for pick up. Not a bad system.

Since the store was closed, dad and I decided to drive up to see the Ranger cabins.

There are two cabins that are for rent in Brent. Both looked like they might be nice to stay in for a few days.
We noticed that sites 24 and 25 seemed to have their own private beach. We kept that in the back of our minds in case we want to come backto do more camping here another time.  

I brought my dad back to our campsite and then decided to take a walk on my own. Since we had just seen the sites at one end of the park. I wanted to see what the sites were like at the other end of the park. 
The main road through the park is the Brent Historic Site Trail. there is a big map on a billboard showing the 5 different historic locations. I was curious about the graveyard at historic site number 1. 

I decided that I wasn't impressed with sites 7 to 13 that were along the way. They were not near the water, they did not have a good view and they looked a little dark since the trees were so thick that the sun was not getting through easily. It could just be that it had been raining off and on all day and the sky was still grey. 

At the graveyard was a large white cross. The graveyard was smaller than I expected and the cross was bigger than I expected. 

The little graveyard is nestled in at the very end of the park beside a bunch of other sites. I figured I would look around and do some "site seeing" while I was here.  I spoke to a gentleman who was on site # 1 and he told me that he just loves the park and that he comes here every year. I thought the park was nice enough but I wasn't convinced it was great enough to come back year after year.... until I saw a gem of a site right across from his. 

It is site number 2. 

Site # 2 is very long. It is probably designed for an RV in mind. It is about as long as 3 campsites put together. 

​The further down into this site you go, the more privacy it has. It is decently wide and you can see the lake at the end of it. 

And then when you get to the end of it, there is a great view of the whole lake and there is a tiny little mini beach that you can go swimming at. I could just picture sitting in a chair or at the picnic table watching the sunset from here. ​Site # 2 has become my favourite site I think. 
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Sites 3 and 4 were beside each other with no real barrier between them. They would probably be good for two families that wanted to be together. Sites 5 and 6 were also close together but were a little more secluded. They had a path to the lake but were not right on the water front. Nope, number 2 is the best site of the bunch at this end of the park. 

I walked back to my camp and took a nap for awhile before supper. The rain had stopped for the day but the ground was wet in the grassy areas and you had to avoid puddles. 

We played games in the dining tent again after supper until bed time. We could hear a barred owl hooting it's distinctive call in the distance as we went to sleep. 

The next day Penny and I were headed out to Driftwood Park for our annual Girls Only camping weekend while Carsten, mom, and dad headed home.  None of us ever did go on the crater hike, so we will have to come back to do that sometime in the future. However, Penny and I did stop to walk up to the Crater Tower before we left, which is on the side of the road on the way out. 

At the top of the look out tower is some information on the size of the crater and how it was formed. 

Tecumseh Lake could easily be seen from the top of the look out. Gilmour Lake was not visible from where we were. I guess the only way we will see Gilmour Lake will be to come back and hike the trail.  We both agreed that this view is probably stunning in the Fall when the leaves turn colours. 

As we continued down the gravel road we spotted a young groundhog making his way across. 

Before we could get too close to him, he made a dive for cover into the bushes on the other side. Safe and sound. 

It was a nice way to end our stay at Brent. Now we were off to Driftwood for fun and adventure with the girls!