The Campfire! My home away from home.

Well this trip turned out to be quite the adventure! I was lookin for an opportunity to head out on an early spring solo trip and, well, something came up here, another thing happened there, got called into work this day and the end result, I found myself with 2 days off mid week with a great forecast and an open highway. So off to the Massasauga I go! Decided to head for the southern access at Pete's Place this time rather than go thru Three Legged Lake at the Northern end of the park. First adventure of the trip....got lost driving up! Left work at 2 pm in Woodbridge full of fire and brimstone gonna do me some campin, had the route all memorized and all, neglected one little point from my maps, the road I wanted to take couldn't be accessed from highway 400! Got all the way to Healy Lake Road, even saw the road sign for it and my heart sank as there was no exit ramp! Finally found a place to turn around and headed back twenty or so kilometers to Tower Road lookin to catch Muskoka Road 11 north, missed the exit, probably while I had my head down lightin a smoke. By the time I realized my mistake and got turned around I was now an hour behind schedule and would be racin the sunset the rest of this day! Finally got to Pete's Place around 5:30 pm. The office was closed so I used the Self Serve station, great set up, easy to use and was on the water by 6 pm! This was my first canoe trip in about 6 months so I was a little leary at first, but the rhythm of the paddle took over in just a few minutes and I found myself settling into the task with ease. It only took 45 minutes to cross Blackstone Harbour to the portage. 15 minutes later I had my pack on my back and looked at the horizon for the setting sun, plenty of daylight left as this is "only" a 700 meter portage, or so I thought......picked up the canoe, swung it onto my shoulders and started my way up the portage. About 50 meters in I hit the first mudpit.....ankle deep mud that was tryin to suck the shoes right off my feet, only went another 20 or so meters before I dropped the canoe, huffin and puffin, dropped the pack and took a break,winded from fightin the slippery mud under foot.

This is when the bugs found me, blackflies, swarms of em, not biting yet, just being a nuisance buzzin in my ears and around my eyes and mouth. Left the pack in the mud, picked up the canoe and started off over the mudtage again. Winter had caused a lot of blowdowns around here and I ran into a half dozen major blowdowns right on the trail, turning this port into quite a challenge, I would imagine that later in the summer when it dries up and the wardens have a chance to clear the debris this will be a fairly easy haul, but not today. There were deer and moose tracks all through the mud on the portage along with scat and fur rubs on trees. Lots of animal sign,... just as I neared the end of the portage I got the biggest animal sign, with a canoe on my head and my eyes on the ground to keep track of my footing, I was startled by a single loud cough and some branches cracking ahead of me, I raised the bow of the canoe so I could see and there not 50 feet away was Mr Black Bear staring me down.....I let go of the twart to try and grab the bear spray on my hip, the canoe slid on the fulcrum of my shoulders and the stern struck ground with a loud bang. With my heart in my throat and nearly a load in my pants, the bang of the canoe on the ground sent the bear packin ...he took off like I had just taken a shot at him...leaving me standin there with adrenaline rushin thru me. After a few minutes I picked up the canoe again and finished the port, then very warily headed back down the trail to retrieve my muddy pack, one hand on the bear spray the whole way. Fear not tho campers, I am a prepared boyscout and had a pair of clean underwear in my pack!!!!!!!! HAHA! Take that Mr Bear! The sun was dipping below the horizon as I reached my campsite, site 521, and was amazed at the sight I saw, someone had taken the effort to haul pressure treated lumber in and built a suite of furniture...benches, tables and a kitchen prep area, I kinda felt cheated seeing all this, I came here for the wilderness, not Camping-By-Rona!

Ayway, the sun was down so I pitched my tent real fast on the only somewhat level ground I could find and had a cold supper of dry sausage and cheese, didn't dare cook that steak in my pack with the rush of that bear encounter still flowing thru the veins. Scraped up enough deadfall for a small fire. By 10 pm I hit the sack, bone tired and let the spring peepers, whip-poor-wills and loons serenade me to a deep sleep.

     Next morning up and at em at with a glorious sunrise, spent around two hours hauling down whatever deadfall wood I could find and sawing it down, got quite a nice pile. Stoked up a fire by 9 am and said the heck with it, threw the steak on the fire along with a pan of bannock and a potato. What a feast, prime rib steak, hot bannock and baked potato for breakfast! Now this is living! Cleaned up the breakfast dishes and went out to try a little fishing to no success.

 Had a quick lunch around noon , made a pan of "Peaches and Cream Bannock", yummy, then grabbed the camera and started hiking along the shoreline of Little Blackstone Lake. Hiked over to site 522 to do a little clean up for the Great Wilderness Cleanup, didnt find much, whoever has been camping on these sites has definitely been careful to haul all their rubbish out with them. Found this sobering reminder that yes indeed I was crashing in someone else's backyard. Wolf kill maybe?

 From the way the carcass was scattered over 20 feet or so someone definitley had a meal off this fella! Continued on my way, just enjoying the sunny day and stumbled across this little guy, a five lined skink? I think it is, not sure....and he was really fast!!!!!

Made my way back to camp, and since I had started my day backwards with a steak and potato for breakfast, decided to make a pan of brownies for dinner....yessiree life is good. Cleaned up the dishes once again, got the fire blazing, and as the sun set on day two heard a splashing across the lake, a moose comin down for his evening meal. He was completely unconcerned about my presence across the lake from him. I debated getting in the canoe and paddling over for a better picture but thought better of it, why disturb such a magical moment.

Spent a little while watching the fire and listening to the whipoorwills then hit the sack once again to be serenaded by the sweet song of springtime in South Central Ontario.

   Woke up at 6 am to the rain drops splashing on my tent, a steady warm spring rain...packed up camp in the rain and noticed there was something very different about this morning, the blackflies were biting, so I dug out the bug dope and hosed myself down. Made myself a quick pot of coffee and headed out of the massasauga. On the portage the rain stopped and the sun started peaking thru. Thats when I "felt" the grouse beating their wings in the spring time romance ritual. Yes, felt more so than heard, a deep bass drumming that was more a feeling than a sound. Beautiful. The paddle out was quite uneventful. The paddle out is always a little sad for me, not because I have to go home, but because I always wish I had just one more night around the fire. Dragged the trip out as long as I could, stopping to explore a few interesting rock outcrops. As I loaded up my car ever so slowly, I rejoiced in the ache of muscles that had been sorely underused over the winter and started thinking ahead to my next trip! This is most definitely a to-do-again trip, maybe with some friends next time, but I definitely won't be booking this site...no decent tent pads and all the pressure treated lumber furniture does tke away from the experience. For those who would want to explore without the portaging there are several campsites right on Blackstone Harbour within a ten minute paddle of the put-in...great place to give somone their first taste of interior tripping without having to go too far. For now I have to content myself with cleaning up a load of wet muddy gear, and dream about my next opportunity to escape into Wild Ontario.

For more photos visit the Blackstone photo album at http://www.thecampfireonline.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=5470898

Well the forecast was bang on for this trip. The weather had called for showers off and on for Tuesday, precipitation dropping off in the evening but temps also falling with it. Hang it all! This is my favourite trip of the year, my Fathers Day trip with Alyssa. Its all I ask for, for Fathers day, 2 days for me and kiddo to head out somewhere and get a little dirt time. So, rain be danged, we pulled out of the garage around 9:30 am, heck bent for highwater on our way to Awenda Provincial Park. The weather steadily worsened the further north we drove till we arrived at 11 am in Awenda to sleet and cold, cold temps, down to 9 degrees c in June, who would have thought it? We made our way thru a water logged, deserted campground to site 300, there we discovered our only neighbours on site 299. Gary and Linda had booked in Saturday intending to stay till Thursday, but had had enough of the rain, cold and bugs and were packing up to leave as we arrived. They were kind enough to give us two bags of dry firewood that they had left over, I hope they do come to this website so they can see me thanking them yet again for thier kindness. We set up camp in a cold rain and got the fire going. Grabbed the picnic table and  propped it on its edge beside the fire hoping to dry it out a bit so we could use it later

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Since the weather wasn't cooperating, we sat under the rain tarp and made the best of it, preparing and baking a deep dish pizza on the open fire....yummy, Chicago style pizza loaded with pepperoni, bacon, onions and cheese!!!!!!!

The rain let up as we finished off our pizza, so we cleaned up dinner dishes and headed out for a hike. We tried a little bushwacking but the forest floor was just too wet and muddy after 2 straight days of rain,

We stayed to the trial and made our way down to a georgeous Georgian Bay beach! That is if it had been a normal June day, the stiff breeze blowin in off Lake Huron combined with the dampness caused us to head back to our campsite real fast.

 Nothing much else to do but play some games.We spent the evening playing "Battleship"  and shooting "Bows and Arrows" till dark settled in, then Alyssa wanted to practise making fire with my firesteel and some charcloth, and thats how we spent the rest of the evening.

Crashed around 10 pm and had a farily miserable sleep , everything was damp and for myself at least I kept waking up to pull the sleeping bag closer to ward off the cold. Alyssa seemed to bear it much better than I did and had us up and about by 6:30 am the next morning. The morning rose bright, clear and warm, temperatures had gone up by at least 8 or 9 degrees overnight and it was quite nice throwing off the warm coat to greet the morning. Made ourselves a breakfast of fried bread and bacon and took  a little time to relax while I sipped some steaming hot camp coffee. Breaking camp was a slow sweet process, we kept stopping to check out cool mushrooms, watching birds and tending to our last campfire.

As we pulled out of Awenda at noon, we saw this fella grazing by the roadside just before we left the park....

Despite the rain, the cold, and the danged pesky mosquitos, this will go down as one of my favourite trips, Alyssa is a very cool kid to hang out with  and I really enjoyed this trip! I have to tip my hat to the staff of Awenda tho, this is definitly the cleanest, most well maintained campground I have ever stayed in, even the outhouses were spotless and quite comfortable to visit, honestly, in most campgrounds I would rather dig a cat hole and squat over a rotting log than use the latrines, even in Algonquin....this park keeps things prestine, even the latrines! Great job folks! My overall impressions of Awenda, beautiful mixed hardwood forests, lots of wildlife, large, very private, very well maintained campsites, great facilities, and super friendly staff! Now if they could only control the weather......

Kirk

Holy Sheep Dip, this has definitely been the season for rain, we pulled out of Maple about 9am on Friday, storm clouds brewing up their rainy elixirs as we drove north on the 400. The drive up was uneventful and we got to the put in about noonish, just in time to load the boats and get greeted by a soft summer rain shower. Just a short spatter to dampen the clothing. The park was quite busy this time around, lots of folks at the put in getting loaded up and getting unloaded and quite a crowd on the portage from Three Legged Lake to Spider Lake both arriving and leaving.  A casual paddle for 45 minutes in a soft rain saw us at site 7 as the rain let up and the sun poked its way thru the clouds. We arrived at our site and took our sweet time setting up camp, relaxin in the warm sun and having a couple of beers first. Once camp was set we lit the fire and put the pork roasts on to cook. Since we had some time and the sun was so warm we went for our first PFD float of the weekend, strap on the PFD's, grab a beer and slide into the water, letting the wind drift us as we chatted. This site is great, several good flat tent pads, a great fire pit on the rocks overlooking the water and fantastic diving from the large rock at the front of the site

Dinner was great, porchetta cooked on an open fire and rice. Once the dishes were cleared away we settled in for a relaxing evening around the camp fire. Our site had some of natures wonders, beautiful water lillies and this almost transparent dragonfly,  it was a tiny  little thing and nearly see thru.

I crashed about 10 pm, the boys stayed up to enjoy the rest of the evening. Therefore I was up bright and early at 5:30 am. Stoked up the fire to burn off some of the dampnes and got to spend about a half hour watching Momma beaver and her Kit playing, beaver kits can be quite unsettling, their cries sound very much like a human baby.

About 7 am I headed out to do a little fishing to some limited success, one very small bass and lost a really nice pike. came back in around 8 am as the boys were rising, fired up the coffee pot and made a breakfast of bacon and eggs. A hike thru the back 40 behind our site revealed some real treasure, two large flat slabs of granite that were just perfect for baking pizza on so I hauled them back to camp. Marc went to work right away washing the stones and sterilizing them in the fire, a little bit later, with some oil and corn meal, the pizza was laid on and the stones went in the fire. While the pizza baked, Burt headed out for some fishing and landed a small 2 lb pike, filleted it and fried it up for an appetizer. What a delicious treat, fresh fish and wood fired pizza, dang the boys done real good.

After another PFD float I decided to take a little nap and slept through a nasty rain that pretty much drowned the afternoon for the guys. While I was snoring, Marc, Paul and Burt hunkered down under the rain tarp and rode out the storm. The rain let up early in the evening but everything was just soaked. I got the fire going again and put together a nice shepherds pie for dinner. After dinner, Paul and I headed out for a quick paddle and some fishing but to no luck. So back to camp we went to soak up the warm fire and a couple more beers, the hilight of the evening for me was seeing this little guy. God, no matter how often I do this camping thing, no matter how often I visit a lake, there always seem to be new discoveries to make. This little tree frog was no bigger than about an inch long. An absolutely beautiful little critter. We spent the rest of the night shooting the hay and watching the stars.

Woke up Sunday morning to a damp dreary day. We took our time making a light breakfast and having some coffee before breaking camp.As soon as we pushed the canoes from shore the rain started, a fairly heavy rain soaking everything down again, but it was a wonderfully warm morning, which meant that under our rain jackets and PFD's we were sweating like crazy and I ended up being soaked anyway. Not many pictures of this morning as the almost constant 100% humidity was playing hell with my camera gear. I lost a lot of what I thought were gonna be great shots as the view finder on my camera was completely fogged up and I had a hard time telling when I had a sharp focus on anything. We got to the portage out to find it a total gridlock, six canoes already unloading on shore, our two boats pulling up and three more canoes pulling in behind us. Between the crowd of campers, the mud and the rain slicked rocks the portage proved to be quite a challenge.As we were reloading the canoes, the thunder kept rolling in over the lake, putting a sense of urgency to our paddle across Three Legged Lake. We loaded up the cars and started down highway 400, thats when the nastiest thunderstorm of the weekend hit us. High winds and blinding rain forced us to reduce our speed down to just 50 kph and put on the hazard lights. Seriously, this was one nasty storm, not only in intensity but in duration, it didn't let up till we were nearly back in Barrie an hour later. Finally home at 4:30 pm and now I have a couple hours work ahead of me cleaning all my muddy gear. Oh well, it happens that way sometimes. Still an awesome adventure, I can't wait to head out again.

Kirk

For more pictures visit the photo gallery at  http://fw.members.freewebs.com/MembersB/editAppPage.jsp?app=photos&pageID=93573901&token=8f905de48a6065a122b991883d

A day trip with Kiddo!

Finally got to visit Tiny Marsh again, this time with a camera in hand. Unfortunately the theme of this summer ran true for this trip as well...RAIN!

Rain aside this is an easy hike along well cared for trails for anyone interested in wetlands and wetland flora and fauna. Comes complete with a rustic visitors center and a picnic area so you can easily make a day of fun out of this trip. There were lots of waterfowl (After the rain started and the camera packed away and tonnes of frogs for my kid to catch! We only stayed less than an hour tho as the rain started shortly after we arrived and didn't want to let up. So this is a trip to be done again another day, but I wanted to show it for those who were looking for something to do on these warm autumn afternoons! If you go during the summer tho, bring lots of bug spray, this is a Marsh and the skitters can be really bad here. To get there or for more information... http://www.trailsofgeorgianbay.com/tiny-marsh.html

Definitely gonna have to bring the canoe here and try some of the pike fishing, rumour has it the fishing is pretty good here! For more pics.... http://www.thecampfireonline.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=7171189