Someone Else Moved Into The Osprey Nest

Yesterday's sunshine had warmed up the air enough to make it warmer to sleep at night. But by 7 a.m., when we were waking up and getting out of our tents, we were met with a very cold wind from the lake. It was so cold that you could see your breath. Now this is closer to "Pukaskwa cold". But at least it wasn't raining.
    We hurried to get a fire started but we didn't have much wood left and what we did have was somewhat damp so it didn't throw much heat. Knowing that we would be warmer once we started moving, we had a quick breakfast and prepared to start the last leg of our hike. 

Mom left at 9:30 a.m. Carsten and I left at 9:40 a.m. and Heather, Devin and Jo-Jo left at about 11 a.m. The trail was easy going but we knew that we could expect a large steep downward climb of a hill we were told about by one of the other hikers who had passed by on one of the previous days. We were kind of dreading it. 

Carsten and I found many woodpecker holes in trees. Some of them were quite large. When we looked inside one of them we saw some dead bugs inside. I wondered why the wood peckers hadn't eaten those ones. 

We caught up with mom and told her how we had noticed that the map said there was a "Lookout overlooking Johnston Lake and Grand Lake" and how we thought it would be a good place to stop for a break. So we were aiming for that as a first goal before tackling the dreaded hill. 
   We figured that it must be one of those lookouts built from lumber with steps to climb up if it was tall enough to lookout over two separate lakes.  Yeah... not so much.  What we didn't know at the time was that this "lookout" the map indicated was nothing more than a rocky outcrop and that it was so over grown with trees that you couldn't even see one lake (even without leaves on the trees) let alone two lakes. As a matter of fact I think we were probably already at the so called "lookout" when we were discussing stopping at it. Of course we didn't know this at the time. 

So with happy thoughts of looking forward to going to the lookout we continued on. It wasn't too long before we got to the "dreaded hill" that we had to climb down. Now granted the hill was much steeper than any other part of the trail, however, we were amused to find that it was really nothing to dread at all. When we compared this downward climb to either the ones at Kilarney's La Cloche Trail or the ones on Algonquin's Highland Trail, this was a breeze. On the other trails you practically had to take your pack off and throw it down and follow after it to get down. This hill was steep enough that you wanted to try to hold on to the trees as you went, but you never felt the need to take off your pack to get down it. 

At the bottom of the hill the trail evened out and it was easy going once again. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. As we had predicted, the temperature was warming up and we were warm from moving. It was a beautiful day.  I managed to catch a photo of a Yellow-bellied Sap Sucker as she was looking for her lunch in a nearby tree. 

Off in the distance we could hear a chain saw humming. It got louder as we walked and soon we saw two of the park rangers cutting away the dead fall from the trail. This explained why we had encountered so much dead fall on our trail the past few days. We had just come a few days too early and they hadn't cleared the trails yet.
   Encountering the two rangers was fortuitous because we had just reached a point on the trail where it split into two different directions. We were still looking for that elusive "lookout" and since we hadn't found it we figured that we were way further back on the trail than we were according to our map. So we were able to ask the rangers where we were and where to find the lookout. That was when they told us that we had passed it and that it was overgrown. 
   They said that we could find a better lookout if we wanted to go up towards Berm Lake, but we politely declined and explained that we had been in that area three days ago and that we were now on our way out of the bush. We were too tired to add extra kilometers to our trip and we were ready to go home. 
They were kind enough to point us in the right direction to the end of the trail and we continued on our way.  

This part of the trail ran along side of Johnston Lake so we were able to see some nice scenery. It was a lovely part of the trail.

We made plans to stop to rest at the portage that was marked on the map. Hopefully it wasn't as elusive as the "lookout". Just before the trail intersects with the portage, there is a little wooden bridge that crosses over some water. 

When I looked over the edge of the bridge I saw some clutches of frogs eggs. I wondered what type of frogs they were. I suspect they were Spring Peepers but I had no way of really knowing. 

Finally we made it to the portage. And we were glad for it because we really needed a break. 

We took off our packs and found some logs to sit on. We had a drink and ate some snacks. It is amazing how much difference a little break with no pack on can make when you are hiking. It gives you a second wind when you are ready to go again and you feel like you can make it the whole way after all. It was good to be able to stretch and relax a bit. 

We took the opportunity to pull out the map and see where we were, how far we came and how much farther to go. We noticed on the map that there was an osprey nest and a heronry (heron nesting grounds) in the middle of Johnston Lake and we would be passing right by. We also noticed that there was a camping site for canoers along the edge of the lake by the osprey nest. So we decided that although we are already taking a break and won't really need another one, we would stop at that site to see if we can spot the osprey. 

While I had my pack off I took the opportunity to look around. I went down to the lake and enjoyed the stillness of the water. I watched a little squirrel run about the bottoms of the trees. It was the first squirrel I had seen this whole trip. 

I also saw some fiddle heads starting to sprout up from the ground.
    We had only been at the portage for a short while when Heather, Devin, Jo-Jo and Fable caught up to us. We told them of our plans to see the osprey nest and they liked that idea. 
    After a spell we got our packs back on and continued on our way. 

Just like our plans to find the "lookout", our plans to find the campsite for canoers was also thwarted.  The campsite was completely flooded out and there was no way we were getting anywhere near it without some large rubber boots on. But all was not lost. We figured we might be able to see it from the trail if the trail got close enough to the water's edge at any point. So we didn't give up. 

Along this part of the trail there were some very pretty spring flowers. I thought that the Round-lobed Hepatica flower was one of the prettiest I had seen this trip. I almost didn't see it at all if mom hadn't have pointed it out to me. It grows fairly low to the ground.

Once I realized there were flowers to be found, I kept my eyes open for more. I found a different version of the Hepatica flower, the white, Sharp-lobbed Hepatica peeking our from some dead leaves. 

And not far from that was the blue, Sharp-lobbed Hepatica. 

Finally we found a spot on the trail where you could see the osprey nest! And from where we stood we could see that there was a bird in the nest! 

But the more we looked, the more we realized that this bird does not really look like an osprey. It was too big and it was too white. Nope, this was not an osprey. This was a sea gull! Apparently osprey don't always use the same nest year after year. So the sea gull was being an opportunist and moved right in. That's not to say that the osprey won't come back (if not this year than maybe next year) so the sea gull could get evicted at any time. 

I also tried to look for the heronry while I was there. The only other time I saw a sign for a heronry was at Mashkinonje Park and it just looked like a bunch of dead trees. I spotted a bunch of dead trees at one end of the lake and I suppose that could have been it, but I don't really know for sure. We never saw any herons in the area. 

I did spot a little chipmunk though. First chipmunk sighting of the season for me. 

It wasn't long before we came to the bridge that we had crossed over on our way into the trail. We knew it wouldn't be much longer now before we were out. 

I took one long, last look at the lake and the beaver dam before we left. I almost wished that we could stay a few more days. Almost.

But the thought of a hot shower and a warm bed to sleep in called to me. That and the thought of the great tasting burger we would be eating at Burger King on the way home. There is something to be said for the amenities of civilization, but I know it won't be long before I am itching to get back out into the woods again on our next trip.