It’s been a while since I have posted anything new here on my blog…it’s been a crazy busy summer…a great one, but very busy. After our incredible trip to New Brunswick in July, we decided to head up north of Sudbury, ON in August. There is just something about northern Ontario…it’s so beautiful, picturesque and peaceful. So we packed up our little travel trailer and off we went. Once again, we found a great sitter for our pups…too far of a drive for their senior bodies…so they stayed home where they are happiest.
The very first day, I think someone was trying to tell us something…we hit the worst road traffic/construction we have ever seen. The highway was a parking lot with people getting out of their cars and walking up and down the road…some even taking scenic photos of the surroundings. We were stopped dead in our tracks for the better part of an hour…got through that construction and then hit some more just a few short miles up the road. It was awful…but after about 8.5 hours, we finally reached our destination.
After checking in at the gatehouse, we found our campsite and started to set up. The sites were all large and private…which is what I am always striving to find. What can I say…I like my privacy! We were also extremely surprised to discover that we had full internet service at our site so we could keep in contact with friends and family while we were gone. Not in a million years would I have thought that we would have service that far north, an hour away from the nearest town, and in the middle of the bush in the middle of nowhere! Who knew???
Our first full day in the park, we took a short walk around our campground…found the store and the beach…and then decided to take it easy for the rest of the day and just puttered around the trailer. The weather was warm-ish but there was always a threat of rain. On one of the warmest, sunny days, we decided to head out to find a nice spot to sit by the water and do a little fishing. Well, our search somehow turned into an 8km treacherous hike through extremely rugged terrain, up rock-face cliffs and around inland ponds and streams. Were either of us prepared to do such a hike??? HELL NO!!! I was wearing my comfy little Birkenstock sandals for crying out loud!!! They very quickly became my most hated pair of shoes. I ended up with the biggest, most painful blisters on the arches of each of my poor little feet…I could hardly walk for the remainder of our stay. Not only was I wearing the most inappropriate footwear, do you think we thought to bring any water with us….NO! A cell phone…NO!!! We really were stupid…and very lucky that nothing serious happened because during the entire 8km hike, only once did we see anyone else on the trail. That should have been a big ol’ hint right there…hmmm, why is there nobody else on this trail? Because it’s awful, that’s why!!! By the time we finally made it to the end, I was pretty much in tears…we were both suffering from heat exhaustion…and we were both dehydrated. I was not walking anywhere for the remainder of our vacation…my butt was going to be planted in my bed, a chair or a canoe…and that’s it!
That night, we knew it was going to rain…they had been calling for it all day…but, we didn’t expect the kind of storm we got. It hit about 12:30am and it rained hard. I got up, put in the awning and found the flashlight. It wasn’t too long after that that we lost our power. We stayed up for about half and hour and then decided to head back to bed. By the time we woke up in the morning, many, many other campers were packing up to head home. We still didn’t have any power…it would end up being out for 18 hours. Thank God for battery back-up…we didn’t loose any food. So for most of that day, we were trailer bound…we napped, read and played lots of cards. Finally the power came back on and we could at least watch some movies to pass the time. When the rain finally let up, we decided to go for a drive into Chelmsford for a few groceries, etc. We ended up talking to some folks who said that there was actually a tornado that went through the area during the storm…not too far from Halfway Lake, I might add! We payed closer attention on our way back to camp and noticed many, many trees down (in strange linear formation, I might add) and hydro workers were out repairing the damage. Apparently, there was a tree that had come down and landed on a tent with kids inside, but thank goodness nobody was hurt. We stayed another couple nights, but decided that if it was going to continue raining, we would rather pack up and head home. So that’s what we did…and finished off our vacation in our nice dry, comfy home.
