The Great Snake Stand Off

I was pleasantly surprised by how well I slept and how warm and cozy it was. Considering it is now October, I thought for sure I was going to freeze in my sleeping bag during the night. However, I remembered to wrap my shoulders and back in an extra blanket to keep the draft out and I had worn my warm socks, a hoodie, and heavy weight leggings to bed. This combination worked so well that I got a great night sleep. And now I was ready to see what today would bring.

Mom was already up and having her coffee when I got out of the tent. We were both looking forward to a peaceful and quiet day. She asked me what I had planned and I said that I wanted to go check out the beach and the dog park. She didn't want to come along and she thought it would be a perfect opportunity to get in some of her own alone time. So we agreed to meet up later and go for a hike in the afternoon.  For now, the morning belonged to ourselves. So after breakfast I left my mom at the campsite to red her book while I went down the trail towards the beach.

The blue and purple/pink blooms of the Viper's-bugloss plants that were growing along the side of the trail gave the autumn landscape an extra bit of colour to enjoy. Viper's-bugloss got its name, 'Viper', from its spotted, winding, snake-like stem, which resembles a snake's markings, or from the shape of its flowers, which look like the head of a snake. 'Bugloss' comes from the Greek meaning 'ox's tongue' and refers to the rough, tongue-shaped leaves.

I passed through a couple of the large boat trailer parking lots again that still stood empty. 

A couple of them had a wash station for hosing down boats and things. 

I was admiring the colours and patterns of the various leaves all around me. Everything was staring to change and it was all so beautiful. 

As I looked closer I could see some Cepaea snails just hanging out under the leaves. 

I found myself back on the Lakeshore Legacy Trail only this time I was on the other side of the boat launch area.  As I walked the trail I would stop from time to time to read and look at the pictures that were on display on various information boards along the way. They showed some of the history of the park and of the area.

Eventually I came to the beach area that was marked by a lovely little covered picnic area. 

The beach was big and sandy and, at his time of year, fairly empty.  There were plenty of picnic tables everywhere. 

There were even some that were extra long. They were almost twice as long as a regular picnic table. 

The interesting thing about these long picnic tables is that they seem to have been here probably since the park opened. You can see pictures of people sitting around them and having lunch in some of the old photos that were on display on some of the information boards posted along the hiking trail. 

Off to the side of the beach I spotted a little building. So I decided to go and see what it was. 

Looks like it is a boat rental place that also sells snacks. 

But not surprisingly, it was closed for the season. 

On the dock next to the building was a flock of seagulls. 

When I moved closer to the Ring-billed gulls they seemed fairly unconcerned. They didn't fly away. They just stood there eyeing me up. Rather than disturb them, I moved on. 

Over by one of the bathrooms there was a huge tree that was in the middle of changing colour. I was amused to see that only the top part of the tree had turned red while the bottom half was still green. 

At the beach there is a playground for the kids. Since it was too cold to go in swimming, most of the people were hanging out here with their kids. 

Nearby was a Nature Kioisk. A cute little table with a roof over it where I assume the staff do discovery events and presentations. It is a good place for kids to take their coveted caterpillars and frogs they have caught to take a closer look at them. 

I continued down the path and enjoyed watching the bees flit around in the purple Asters. I saw another lady with a big fancy camera and I tried to strike up a conversation with her about photography.  However, she was not very receptive of the idea of having a conversation. So, just kept to myself and continued down the trail. 

At the far end of the beach is the pet beach. There is no fence or other visible division line. The only indication you have that you are at the pet beach is a big blue sign with arrows pointing in the direction of where the dogs are allowed and not allowed to be. 

This was the only part of the beach where I actually saw people swimming in the water. It was some kids with their dogs. The adults sat at the picnic table and watched. Kids are much more brave than adults are when it comes to swimming in cold water. 

Just on the other side of the pet beach the trail came to an end. And so did the park. There was a big blue metal gate that blocked the entrance to the park and you could see the road and a house beyond the boundaries.  I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be nice to live right next door to a Provincial Park?"  You could go for a walk on the trails and go to the beach any time you wanted to. 

Since I had come to the end of the trail I had to turn around and go back.  I noticed that the Buckthorn plants still had their dark berries hanging from the branches. The berries (and all parts) of the Buckthorn plant are mildly poisonous and will cause cramping and diarrhea.

On the way back I noticed a volley ball court that I hadn't noticed on the way over. 

I also noticed some poison ivy. It was on the opposite side of the trail, away from the main beach area. It was starting to turn it's autumn red colour so it was easier to spot. 

However, there was a lot of it to spot.... a whole field full of it. 

I put some distance between me and the poison ivy and went back to the playground area.  One of the fun things they had here for the kids besides the playground equipment was  place where you can put your face in a hole under a large fish that was in a replica of the Balsam Lake sign so you can have your frinds take a picture of you.

The interesting part about this replica is that it isn't a replica of the present day park sign. It is a replica of the old park sign that used to greet you as you entered the park. I spotted an old picture of it on one of the history boards on the trail. 

Off to the side I could see a cement pit for people to put their hot coals and ashes. Not too many parks in Ontario have these. I wonder if this has been here since the opening of the park? 

As I walked, a little chipmunk peered out at me from behind some grass tufts. I think that he thought I couldn't see him. 

I left the beach and followed another part of the trail. It led me right to the bridge that my mom and I had been on the night before.  

There were no ducks or muskrats today. Only frogs.

The shallow water had some sort of algae growing in it. Looks like some leaves that were decomposing. Perfect hiding place for the frogs. 

I followed the same trail back to camp that my mom and I had taken. I came across the cabin again; the one that you can rent. I knew it was empty so I decided to go and see if I could take a peek in the windows to see what it was like inside.  I thought that maybe our yearly girls camping group might consider staying here next summer. 

A big crow watched me as I strolled across the lawn over to the cabin. 

I peeked into the first window and saw that the inside was spacious and quite lovely. It had a wood stove and a comfy couch and chairs. 

Then I peeked in a second window and saw a kitchen with a full sized fridge and stove. There seemed to be a downstairs level too, but I couldn't really see into those windows very well. 

In the back yard there were 8 Adirondack chairs in a circle around a fire pit. 

A number of Dark-eyed Junco birds were looking for worms and bugs in the grass near the fire pit. 

The back of the cabin had a deck where you could sit outside and relax. This definitely looks like a great cabin to rent if you want to do some glamping. 

I headed up the road back to camp. One of the maple trees that I saw had turned a really pretty colour of red that was more of the peach side than the red side. 

A Robin watched me walking from his perch way up high in a tree. 

By the time I got back to camp it was lunch time.  My mom and I had something to eat  and then we decided to go for a hike on the Plantation Trail.  The website and brochure had said that it was a  "4.2 km (2 hours) hike – a moderate forest trek with both natural and pioneer highlights."

You have to drive past the gatehouse and down the road to get to the trail head. When we got to where we thought the trail head was, we only saw a blue and white hiking sign, not a trail head sign. 

 To make things even more confusing, when we  walked a little further in, the trail head sign that we did see said "Woodland Loop Trail" and not "Plantation Trail".  The map we had showed 2 entrances. So we were unclear if we were at the right starting point. 

We decided to jump back in the car and drive down to the other entrance and see if that was the "Plantation Trail". 

When we got to the other entrance we found a "You Are Here " sign.  There was no "Plantation Trail " labeled on it anywhere.  We were beginning to think that the hiking trail had been renamed but that it was not updated in some key places. 

Since there was no parking lot at this end and there was a parking lot at the first entrance, we decided to once again jump in the car and drive back to where we had come from. 

We found another "You Are Here" sign at this entry point.  We noticed that there were a couple of loops to choose from. We decided to start off by doing the Woodland loop and we would consider the Pond Loop if we felt like it once we got to it. 

And so we began our hike. The trail was wide and flat and pretty easy going. 

From time to time we would come across some numbered markers where I am sure there was supposed to be some sort of educational or historical point of interest. However, without any brochure or other information, the numbered posts were  nothing more than a bunch of numbers to us. 

It was a beautiful and relatively warm day for October. The leaves had started to fall and they littered the ground beneath our feet. 

We saw the fuzzy pods of Dog-Strangling Vines that had split open as they prepared to spread their seeds to the wind. 

The wild roses had lost their blooms but had left behind the red berry-like rose hips at the end of their stalks. 

Leaves were turning colours and brightening up the otherwise brow and green landscape. 

There were not a lot of summer flowers left at this time of year, but the purple Lindley's Asters were out in full bloom. 

I was very disappointed to find that amongst all this beauty someone had to be a jerk and leave a bag of doggy doo hanging from the branch of a tree. I am guessing maybe they threw it and intended for it to land on the ground in the bush where they figured no one would find it. But instead it got caught on a branch and now hangs there for all the hikers to enjoy. Such a pity that some people behave in this manner. 

We rounded a corner left the doggy doo behind us and pushed it out of our thoughts. Instead we turned our attention to the warm sunshine and sounds of the wind in the trees. 

Shortly we came across our favourite tree on the whole hike. It looked like a tree from a fairy tale. We imagined it would be a tale of dryads and nymphs. 

It had branches that twisted and turned in interesting ways. Some of those branches looked like they were inviting you to climb up into them to make a tree fort, or to just sit and quietly read a book in them. 

Next we came to a section where the trees got a little bit thicker. This seemed to be a favourite spot for birds. There were so many birds here and many different kinds. They were not easy to see because they did not want to sit still for long and they flit from tree to tree.  

I stopped for awhile to try to stand quietly in an effort to get some pictures of the birds, while my mom continued on ahead on her own. 

My efforts and patience was rewarded with pictures of  few birds. Although they were not the best quality pictures, they were still a delight to me. I was able to capture photos of a Red-breasted Nuthatch. 

The peachy-red belly is a lovely colour. 

There was a female Ruby-crowned Kinglet

​She also had a bit of a peach coloured belly, but not as dark as the Red-breasted Nuthatch.

Then there was the Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Red breasted birds seemed to be the theme for the day, because even a Robin Red-breast joined in with the other birds in the trees. 

After awhile I realized that I had been so engrossed with the task of photographing birds that I had lost track of time. My mom was probably wondering what happened to me.  I hurried to catch up and found her sitting, waiting for me on a large stump on the side of the trail. 

Now that we were together again  we continued on our way. It wasn't long before we came to  a sign that served to strengthen our theory about the renaming of the trail. The sign said Upper and Lower "Plantation" Loop.  

And not far away from that sign was another "You Are Here" sign.  This one was showing the junction  and this was where we had a decision to make. Do we make a left and do only the Woodland Loop or do we go straight and continue onto the "Pond Loop"?

We decided to keep going up the Pond Loop, with the idea that if my mom got too tired then she would wait for me at the roadway entrance (the one we had driven to) and I would walk back and get the car and pick her up there. 

And so we continued on up the Pond Trail until we reached..... 

.... the pond.  The pond was long and very shallow. It was a place that just seemed to catch the rain water. It wasn't deep enough for any big fish or anything. There were just some frogs and some water bugs. 

It was still a nice little spot though. It had a bench to sit on to take a break from all your walking. 

It was an interesting bench. My mom and I studied it's construction and decided that it wouldn't be too difficult to build one ourselves. And we might just do that one day. It looked like it was put together using some lumber that was lying around. the boards were not all measured to be the exact same size, but it worked well and it still looked good. 

The trail at this point was carpeted in fallen pine needles. The sun dappled the ground through the pine trees. 

Tiny little white mushrooms were peeking their heads up out of the ground all over the place. 

The further we walked the more the pine trees started to grow further apart from each other and the brush wasn't so dense. 

Until finally the trail went right through an open meadow.

Milkweed and other seed pods were nestled in amongst the grasses there. 

The meadow was not a big meadow and soon we found ourselves back in the trees again. The trail then led us to the fork in the trail where it was time for my mom to make a decision. Did she want to carry on or should I go get the car and pick her up at the road?

It was starting to get late and her legs were getting tired so she decided that she would take the fork that goes to the road and I would carry on down the main trail, get the car, and pick her up at the roadway entrance. 

I was walking by myself now, but I wasn't always alone. Occasionally a red squirrel would yell at me from the tree tops. 

I was surprised to find an apple tree in the middle of my travels. I don't know if it is from someone throwing away their apple core many years ago, or if this was left over from an orchard from the plantation that is now long gone and over grown that the trail used to be named after. Many of the parks that I have been to seem to have some sort of farm or homestead historical background story to it. 

As I neared the exit, there was yet another piece of evidence that this trail was once called "Plantation Trail" 

I reached the parking lot and found my car and drove up the road to pick up my mom. 

When I got to the trail entrance up the road I could see my mom just within the tree line. She was waving to me excitedly and motioning for me to come over to where she was. She seemed to be looking at something and she wanted me to bring my camera. I thought maybe she had spotted a rabbit or something. 

But it wasn't a rabbit. It was a beautiful brown and beige snake. It was not a snake that either of us had ever seen before. I did not know what type it was. I knew it wasn't a garter snake or a rattle snake.  

My mom told me how she had been standing there waiting for me to come along when she spotted the snake. The snake was slithering down the trail but stopped in its tracks when it realized that my mom was there. It just sat there not moving. And my mom stood there not moving. My mom figured that if she stood still the snake would just move on in short order like most other snakes do. Snakes don't tend to stick around when people are nearby. But this one didn't. Apparently for over 20 minutes the two of them just sat there staring at each other in the "Great Snake Stand Off", until I finally showed up.  She said that for awhile there she was beginning to wonder if the snake had died in front of her eyes or something because it just wasn't moving and it was that still. 

So, I took a long stick and gave it a nudge to see if it would go on it's way into the bush. But instead of slithering off as fast as it's little body could take it, like any other snakes I have ever encountered, it instead  coiled itself up and became very defensive. This could just be it's nature or it could be because it was autumn and it was cold and it couldn't move as fast as it would normally in the summer. But no matter the reason, we decided it would be best to just leave it alone and go back to camp. 

We were still excited by our sighting though and we really wanted to now what kind of snake it was. So we stopped into the Park Office and showed the pictures to the girls at the desk and asked if they knew what kind it was. One thought it was a type of garter snake and the other tried to look it up on Google on her phone. The answer was inconclusive at the time. But when I got home and posted the pictures on the  inaturalist.ca website, I found out that this is a Dekay's Brownsnake. 

Befoe heading back to camp I wanted to make one more stop to check out the amphitheatre. 

There was plenty of seating but the stage here was quite small compared to most other Ontario parks. Looks like it is used more for viewing films outdoors than to do much in the way of presentations. But I couold be wrong. 

To the right side of the stage there was a sign that pointed to the "Eco Campsites". I had no idea what an "Eco Campsite" was so I left my mom sitting on one of the benches and I took a quick trip down the side trail to see if I could see one. 

I came to a campsite numbered E1. 

Looks to me like an Eco Campsite is just another name for a walk-in campsite. There didn't seem to be anything special about it except that you couldn't get a car in there. 

One of the great things about camping in the autumn is seeing all the changing colours of the trees . And the trees in this park did not disappoint. As we drove back to the camp site we admired all the beautiful trees.

By the time we got back and made supper it was starting to get dark. With the setting of the sun the temperature started to drop. Tonight we were too tired to play any board games. Instead we opted to go to our own tents and go to bed early. We had done a lot of walking today. Besides, it is warmer when you are curled up all cozy in your sleeping bag.