The Perfect Night at Samuel de Champlain

Samuel De Champlain has been the go-to campground for our family my whole life. It is the campground we went to as kids and the one we have spent birthdays and family picnics at. It is the campground I tend to compare all the other campgrounds to (whether good or bad).  We have watched this campground change and evolve over the years, as our family has changed and evolved over the years. And here I was visiting it again, but this time I was on a solo run. Just one night. Just me and my dog. It was like visiting an old friend.

It felt like forever to pack up my gear and get out the door. Luckily most of my gear was already packed from my previous camping trip so I just had to top everything up. It was a hot and humid day with no air conditioning in the car and I was beginning to wonder if it was all worth it for for less than 24 hours of camping.  But as I pulled off the highway and down the lane way to the park gate, the rest of the civilized world fell away and I said "Yes! Yes, it IS all worth it!" 

Just off to the side of the main office is the visitor center. This is a newer building.  I remember a time when we were camping here and this building hadn't even been built yet. 

I didn't go inside the visitor center this time around. I had been in there last summer when my relatives, Jens and Gurli had come to visit us from Denmark. 

There is a replica voyageur canoe housed inside. In the summer time the park offers voyageur canoe rides in a canoe similar to this one. You can dress up as voyageurs and paddle down the river while learning all about the voyageurs and the fur trade. 

But the canoe was put away for the season so there would be no more tours until next summer. 

Besides, I was just here for the camping this time around. I pulled up to the tiny little office and went inside to register. The office is so small that only 2 people are allowed inside at a time. 

The park is made up of two campgrounds. There is the Babawasse campground on one side of the river and Jingwakoki campground on the other side ( or as we affectionately call them "Bab" and "Jing"). 
The name “Babawasee” finds its roots in the Ojibway language meaning “a lake is seen through the woods”.
The Ojibway name Jingwakoki aptly describes the campground setting meaning “pine forest or tall pines”.

My campsite was in Jing so I had to drive over the bridge to get to the other side of the river.
The Amable du Fond River is a lazy river and I fondly remember how we would take our single air mattresses and start float down the river until we got to this bridge where our mom or dad would be waiting in the car to pick us up. The water here is so gentle that I even did this while I was 7 months pregnant. 

On the other side of the bridge there is a little marshy area that is off to the side. I always like to slow down here or stop to see if I can see any wildlife. I sometimes see blue herons here, but not today. 

Instead, I just saw the warning sign that there is poison ivy here. You don't see too much of it in the park and this section is not near the actual campsites. But people do walk over the bridge so it is good that they had the warning posted. 

The poison ivy was starting to turn yellow with the changing colours of the autumn leaves. 

I pulled up to my site, number 160.  At this time of year parts of the park are shut down and there aren't a whole lot of other campers. I love that about September camping. So I had no immediate neighbours, but there were still other campers a couple campsites down from me. 

The site I got was large with lots of open space and yet plenty of trees. A small beach was right across from me. 

And to the left was the boat launch. This was the perfect site for me because I had my dog with me and he wasn't allowed on the beach. But he was allowed at the boat launch. 

So the first thing Balto did was to go in for a swim. He loved it. 

A female Autumn Meadowhawk Dragonfly came to hang out at the beach with us. 

I was fortunate enough to be able to watch a Northern Flicker as it hung around my campsite. Something that I am sure would not have happened if the campground was full of people. Unfortunately, all my pictures of it turned out blurry and out of focus. 

It didn't take long to get the tents set up and the site in order. My tent was still a bit damp from the last time I had gone camping so I left the door open to let it air out and dry out before I put anything in it. 

The next step was to locate the water tap and the bathrooms. So Balto and I went for a little walk to scout them out. I didn't have the map of the campground and this section was not the section we usually camped at so I wasn't completely familiar with the area. But it didn't take long to find it.

But my effort was all for not because the water wasn't drinkable anyways. I filled my container just the same so I could wash dishes and put out the campfire with it. 

Across from the water tap was the bathrooms. They looked the same as any other vault bathrooms that you find in the provincial parks. 

However, these ones were flush toilets!  I was not expecting that. 

On the way back to the campsite I passed by the little beach. I call it the little beach because it is not the main beach and it is tiny compared to the Bagwa Day Use beach on the other side of the lake. There are some swings and teeter totters here for the kids to play on. It's a cute little spot among the trees and even when the park is busy this beach is not overly crowded. 

When I got back to my site I noticed that I had a little visitor. A crow was marching all along the perimeter of my site looking to see if I had dropped anything of interest for him and just generally checking things out. 

I figured I had just enough daylight to do a mini hike on the only trail that I thought Balto could handle; the Wabashkiki Trail. So, I loaded him into the car and headed for the trail head down by the day use area at Bagawa Beach. The park dtore was along the way so I made a quick stop in there to see if they had anything of interest. 

The store was filled with little souvenirs and nic-nack, as well as some over priced T-shirts. There wasn't anything I particularly wanted or needed so I didn't stay long. 

Outside of the store were some wild Black Eyed Susans growing along the edge of the parking lot. 

As well as some pretty purple flowers that could be Knap Weed, but I am not entirely sure. 

On the way we passed an open field area. When we were kids, this was a baseball field. We would play baseball against other campers and had a blast. The baseball field is now long gone and now it looks like some road less traveled runs right through it. It was disappointing to see. 

I chose the Wabashkiki Trail because from what I read, it is a relatively flat trail as well as relatively short. Considering my dog can not always go far these days at his age, I thought it best to keep it simple. I also liked the fact that there was a look out at a beaver pond very close to the beginning of the trail.

​ I doubted I would be able to do the whole trail full circle but I figured I would go as far as Balto would let me and then turn around and head back. The beginning of the trail was nice and wide and quite flat, as promised. 

Unfortunately, as nicely groomed as the main path was, the side path to the first "look out" was an entirely different story. If it weren't for the map, you wouldn't even know there was a path to the beaver pond. It was terribly over grown. I left Balto on the main path for a moment and pushed through the tall grasses to take a quick peek at what was on the other side. I knew Balto couldn't get through this underbrush and I knew he would sit for a moment while I checked it out. 

So I dashed into  the 20 feet or so of tall grasses for a quick look. It was quite lovely, but I wouldn't really call it a look out. 

I wished that the side path to this spot was cleared because I would have liked to have taken Balto here and sat for awhile to see if  I could see any birds or beaver. But I hoped that there would be more to see further down the trail.

So I went back to where Balto sat waiting for me and we continued down the trail. 

The lazy, late evening sun shone through the trees and cascaded across the path. 

Every once in awhile the trees would open up and reveal the calm waters of the Mattawa River with the reflection of the sun and clouds glistening from the surface.

These were the perfect opportunities for Balto to take a quick dip in the water. And he did. Multiple times along the way. 

Soon enough we came to a little foot bridge.

The view of the river from here was quite nice.

I didn't have a whole lot of sunlight left in the day and it didn't help that the clouds were blocking out the sun from time to time. Besides, Balto didn't want to come up on the bridge so I decided to turn around and head back. 

Along the way I spotted a leopard frog.

And the dragonflies were flying about overhead. 

By this time Balto was starting to tire out. We stopped often for quick rests on the way back. It was probably good because he was still wet from his forays into the water and it would be nice if he dried off a bit before getting back into the car. 

The end/entrance to the Wabashkiki Trail shares the parking lot of the Bagwa DayUse beach. Once I had loaded Balto into the car and he curled up on the blanket on the back seat, exhausted from going as far as his little 17 year old legs could carry him, I took the opportunity to do a quick look around the beach. 

The playground consists of some swings and teeter totters and there are a couple of gazebos at this beach. 

Bagwa Beach is a fairly large beach with lots of sand and plenty of picnic tables and places to BBQ. 

​We have spent many a birthday and family picnic at this beach, swimming, eating and playing board games in the gazebos. 

At the furthest end of the beach there is a plaque on a large stone to commemorate the opening of Samuel De Champlain Park in July of 1962. 

​Standing there in the quiet without any of the regular campers or beach goers around, you can practically feel the history surrounding this place. You can imagine what it must have been like as a voyageur travelling through this area.  

Or even just what the park may have been like when it first opened in 1962. We had already seen the changes made here over the span of more than 45 years that our family had been coming here. How much more different was it here a decade previous to that? 

​

As I stood there pondering, a little chipmunk with it's cheeks stuffed with what was most likely wild mushrooms or seeds or some other such foraged food, came peeking out at me from around the base of the rock. It barely took notice of me as it turned around and went back to it's business of getting ready for winter.

As I walked back towards the car, I watched a mother mallard and her ducklings swimming around out across the water, just past the buoy lines,. 

I had only been standing there less than 10 minutes but by now the sun was starting to get lower in the sky and I could see some fog rolling in across the other side of the lake where my campsite was. Balto was waiting in the car so I picked up my pace a little. 

But that didn't stop me from admiring things as I went, such as the bees flitting among the purple asters.

Or the chickadee hiding out in the branches of a pine tree.

Or the little red squirrel climbing up the base of that same tree. 

And the blue beauty of the Blue Jay scanning his domain from the high up in the branches of another pine tree. 

I drove back to the campsite and decided to take Balto and our supper down to the boat launch where we could sit and watch the sunset while we ate. 

The marsh grasses along the waters edge were illuminated in the pink hues emanating from the waning sun.

The water was like a mirror and the clouds, tinted pink, reflected up at me. It was so clear and so quiet and peaceful. It was heavenly to be able to sit there and just quietly relax. 

I sat there for quite sometime. I sat until the sun could no longer be seen and until it was starting to get dark enough that I would soon need a flashlight.

I don't often have a campfire when I am camping by myself because I figure that I might get too bored or too tired cold or something and that I might not want to tend to it shortly after I built it. But this night I built a fire. It was too nice out not to. The temperature was perfect! Not too hot and not too cold. I was actually able to sit outside and watch the fire in my T-shirt. And there were zero bugs. None. It was way too nice of an evening to spend inside a tent so I knew that I wouldn't get bored while I tended this fire. It was wonderful to smell that campfire smokey smell and to hear the wood crackle and watch the flames dance. I sat there quietly and enjoyed every minute of it. 

And what was Balto doing while I sat by the fire? He found his bed in the dining tent and was fast asleep. I had worn him out with our long walk. 

Through the trees I could see the moon shining down by the lake. I thought how pretty it probably was down there at this time of night. So once the fire was out I decided to take a stroll down there. 

I did a quick check on Balto to make sure that he was still asleep and then, without turning my flashlight on, I made my way down to the beach in the dark. The moon had a hint of orange to it and just as the clouds had reflected on the surface of the water during the day, so too did the light of the moon. 

As I stood by the edge of the lake in the dark, listening to the crickets, I saw the familiar flickering flash of fireflies and and glow worms. I turned on my flashlight momentarily to see which one it was. It was a glow worm crawling around on the damp beach sand. It didn't like that I was shining my light on it and making it's presence widely known.

It was probably happy when I heard a splash in the water and turned my attention and my light over to the direction of the lake where I had just heard a fish jump. Sure enough there were a number of small fish hanging out in the shallow areas of the lake. They looked to be sunfish or maybe some small bass.

I didn't stay down at the beach too long. I didn't want to have Balto wake up and bark because I wasn't there and wake up all the other campers. I figured that I did still have enough time to make a quick trip up to the comfort station (which was only about the distance of one campsite away from mine) before I went to bed.

Sitting just outside the door of the comfort station was a very large toad. I guess he was hoping to find some bugs that would be attracted to the light. It was pretty slim pickings for him at this time of year though. 

When I got back to the camp I woke Balto up and moved him from the dining tent into the tent we were sleeping in. I left the tent door open and had just the screen up. If it weren't for having to worry about Balto leaving in the middle of the night or mice or other small animals getting in I would have considered the possibility of not even having the screen up. It was that nice of a night.  But with or without a screen, I was happy to be able to spend this wonderful evening out camping in the great outdoors with my dog on this beautiful and perfect night.

Goodnight Moon. 
Goodnight stars
Goodnight air
​Good night noises everywhere