Back home again, after a visit to Kiosk campground

Morning at Kiosk beach

We arrived home Thursday afternoon about 5, after an overnight stop Wednesday night at another Ontario Provincial Park campground. Kiosk is a small 24-site campground at the northern end of Algonquin Park on Kioshkokwi Lake, and is a popular jumping-off point for canoe trips into Algonquin interior.

The smallish parking lot for canoe trippers was pretty well full. Part of the appeal of this Algonquin access is that it's nowhere near as busy as more southern access points along Hwy 60, and it gets you in to different areas of Algonquin.

The beach makes a nice staging area for loading and launching canoes and small boats:

The couple loading their canoe (above) headed out into the lake, starting their trip right into the stiff headwind coming up the lake. They made little progress at first, but kept at it. We got worn out just watching them. :))

All of the campground sites are on or close to the shore of the lake. We managed to get this nice waterfront site for the night.

 

The stiff headwind the departing canoeists faced was also coming right in to our site from the lake. Once again we were really glad to not be in a tent like in our early camping years! There were lots of tent campers here though; it's just not a campground for really large RVs. There are several more waterfront sites around the cove to the right here:

Looking across the cove to our site

 

Campground facilities are limited here. No hookups on the sites. The main toilets are  elaborate composting units:

They worked well, especially compared to the usual vault toilets. They also have several of the smaller vault toilets too, complete with flush toilets though. No showers or laundry facilities. One positive side effect of the current virus issue is that we've found all the campground washrooms kept much cleaner than we've come to expect in Ontario Provincial parks.

It's a pretty drive for the 30 km into the campground from Hwy 17, much of it along a scenic river. 

 

 

On the way home we stopped at a town park in Sundridge, just off Hwy 11. The park is on Lake Bernard, which has the distinction of being the largest freshwater lake in the world without an island. It's a very sandy area, so maybe there have been sand islands in the past that have dissolved into the lake over time? According to Wiki, there is speculation that the lake may have been formed by a meteor impact.

We were a bit early for much of the fall colours, but saw signs the large change is on the way soon:

On this last night especially the temperature got down close to freezing. We made good use of our little Wave 3 propane-powered heater (the hose is attached to it):

We've had the heater for a year or two, using it as a free-standing heater. It was cumbersome though, it always seemed to be in the way, especially the attached propane hose. You do have to be careful of clearances around any heater, and we were always afraid of backing into it or knocking it over.

The heater is now mounted on the end of our kitchen cupboard as shown. Hinges on the aisle side allow it to be swung as needed, either pointing at the van seats as-is or turned up to 180 degrees to point up the aisle to the bed in the rear. The brown knob is attached to a magnet which keeps the heater in place as we drive. This was the first trip using the new home-made mount and it worked well, safe and convenient.

Restoule Park, our mini-adventure continues

Restoule Lake

Our Near North adventure trip continues. Coming into the southern edge of Ontario's North country always feels adventurous to us. Over the years we've roamed around much of it, but never right where we are now. The fall weather throws us back to the days after our girls were old enough to stay home alone, when Cathie and I usually had fall trips as our empty-nest excursions. 

These were usually into the North-Eastern US states, partly because at that time the Ontario parks wound down after Labour Day weekend, when the student help went back to school. Apparently Ontario didn't know about hiring retirees in the fall. Anyway, we often journeyed into the US NE, especially enjoyable in late September and on in to October. Very cool sometimes, but often spectacular fall colours in Vermont, New Hampshire and New York State.

Last night was reminiscent of those trips, bundled up by a fire, sun setting early, just the fine feeling of camping in the fall.

 

Restoule (link here) is a large Provincial Park, about 700 sites. About 2/3 are non-electric sites, so we had a lot of site choice for Monday and Tuesday nights. Apparently it still gets busy here on the weekends. LOTS of vehicles pulling boats for the fall fishing in this area in the many smaller lakes, and waterways leading to Georgian Bay. Restoule Lake is one of those pretty lakes. 

Here are a couple views from our campground:

There is still canoe rental available

You can see the colour change happening in the back hills   

We haven't seen much intense colour yet, but change is coming:

This area has many deciduous trees, so the colours can be brilliant in a good year. Many of the lakes will be set with colourful hills in the background.

Here's some fall colours:

I don't think I'd try eating those red mushrooms!

Another Short camping trip

 

For several days we've been thinking about a local trip of some kind, and had decided to load up the bikes today and head to Rondeau Provincial Park, south of home on the Lake Erie shore. We've been to this park several times, mostly in the spring, and we know it's nice biking and hiking there. 

Rondeau was still pretty busy-looking this week, but sites were available, so we decided today was the day to head out. So, here we are, camped north of home at Six Mile Lake Provincial Park, just off Hwy 400 south of Parry Sound Ontario. 

Yes, flexibility is one of our strengths for successful trips. Some may call it indecision, but we stand by flexibility. :))

Unlike our usual early starts, we got away just after noon today. We had to get the van home from Goderich this morning, decide what to take on a northern trip, and pack. We decided to not take bikes this trip.

Six Mile Lake has lots of sites available, mostly for small rv's and tents. and we found one that suited us:

It's self-serve check-in now. Showers are closed, as in most if not all Ontario Prov parks. Toilets are mostly open though.

We were camped and set up by 5:00 or so, and ready for supper:

 

Sometimes it's hard to get the van level on an uneven site:

Sometimes the bedrock comes in handy though

 

We're not real sure where we're going from here, just northerly. We might get around to Kiosk and Brent Parks, off Hwy 17. The weather threatened and dripped on the way today, but it's pretty nice here. Hope that continues.

 

Another G2G trail ride: Blyth to the Maitland River

It was a beautiful cooler day today, fall is in the air, a good day for another bike ride. We decided to load up the bikes and head to Blyth to pick up another section of the Goderich to Guelph trail (Trail link). Monday's ride was from Goderich eastwards to the Maitland River. Because the old rail bridge over the Maitland there was dismantled and removed, it's about a 10km detour to continue past that section, so we turned around. Today we started at Blyth and rode westwards to the Maitland River, which is almost exactly halfway along the Goderich-to-Blyth trail section.

This section wends its wooded way through farm country. It's almost the same length as Monday's ride (about 26 km return), but strong gusty winds made it a tougher ride today. Our bikes have electric assist but we were still tired by the end of our ride.

When we reached the Maitland River again today we turned around, and rode back to Blyth.

Supports for the old rail bridge

The trail visible on the other side would continue to Goderich

The trail group has a plan to put a new bridge over the river here. Costs estimate: a cool Million $$. It won't likely be happening soon,

It wasn't all smooth sailing...

Nice view from a little bridge

Almost back to Blyth - only 110 km to Guelph!

In the parking lot before we left on today's ride, we met a trail volunteer who told us of a friend of his who lives along the trail closer to Guelph. One day his friend started really early, rode to the and of the trail in Goderich, then back to the other end in Guelph, then home again. The trail is 130 km long, so he rode 260 km that day. Hard to imagine but we believed the story! We sure won't be doing that. 😰

A bonus picture from Bayfield beach yesterday. It was windy then too, but the beach has some sand again:

Today's ride, in red:

Biking on the G2G trail

Monday was a beautiful day, and the morning was a great time for a bike ride. We decided to load up the bikes and try out the Goderich-to-Guelph (G2G) multi-use trail. This is mostly based on an old rail line running from Goderich to Guelph through southern Ontario countryside.

We drove to a parking area at the north end of Goderich and unloaded the bikes. Soon after starting, the trail crosses the Menesentung Bridge, with great views of the Maitland River and the Goderich salt works.

 

Today we rode the first 12.5 km of the well-surfaced trail. Even though the morning was cool, the shade was welcome and the trees gave shelter from the sometimes-brisk northwest winds. Some sections opened up to give views of the countryside.

Soon enough, we came the the end of this first trail section, at the abutments remaining from an old rail bridge that crossed the river. The trail continues on the other side, but it's a 7km detour to cross the river without getting wet. One intrepid cyclist had his mountain bike down at the river, intending to ford it through some shallows, but he was still thinking about it when we headed back the way we came.

On the way back we started to see the main bridge again:

 

A lovely introduction to the G2G trail, we covered 25 km for the round trip, in a leisurely 2.5 hours. 

On Sunday our older daughter and family came for a visit, bringing a yummy carrot cake (made by 2 of our grandsons) for a birthday celebration. When we got home from our ride, our treat was our last pieces of carrot cake from the day before. All in all a fine day.

An approximate map of today's ride, in red: