Mikisew Provincial Park

With this being our last full day at Mikisew Provincial Park this morning we got up early, as we wanted to do both the Beaver Meadow Trail with the red markers and the longer Maple Canyon Trail with the blue markers.


















We went to the start of the trails and after looking at the trail map decided to do the Beaver Meadow Trail first and where it connects with the Maple Canyon trail and follow that trail until it connects with the yellow markers of the Old Dog Trail that we did yesterday and follow it back to the beginning.

The start of the trail took us around the golf course and then through a forested path before coming out into a clearing.

It was there we meet another person who was returning from the wetland. After I spoke to him about his camera, he let us know he had been taking photographs of a young male moose in the pond. We thanked him and continued.

It wasn't long before we once again entered the forest and the ground slowly began to get softer and more moist.

Then came the first of a number of boarded walkways which allowed us to cross through marshland.

This continued until we came to the beaver pond, where there was a long elevated wooden walkway with the pond on both sides.

Unfortunately, there was no sign of the moose in the pond which was disappointing.

The one compensation was that as we started up the hill after crossing the walkway there were moose tracks in the mud at the side of the trail.















The nice thing about this trail was that there were different views of the pond on our left side, including coming close to the beaver lodge.















When we came to the Maple Canyon Trail, it lead us away from the pond and through a wonderful hardwood forest with many of the leaves on the trees in various stages of changing colour.















There were a number of places along this trail, that had wooden benches so you could sit and enjoy the views from the high points along the trail.















Eventually, we came to a point in the trail where we found the trail marker showing all three trail colours and followed it back to the start of the trail.

From there it didn't take long to return to the trailer where we had lunch and then relaxed and enjoyed the sunshine for a couple of hours.

We decided to take a stroll down to the beach and once we arrived there, we took off our shoes and walked along the shore until the sun got lower in the sky. It was time to head back to the trailer.

While I made supper, Ron put the logs into the fire pit so we could enjoy our evening tea or coffee with a fire.

It was the perfect end to an enjoyable day.

Tomorrow we will pack up and make our way back home.

Returning Home from Chutes

Today we are leaving Chutes Provincial Park to return home.

After breakfast and before we left, we wanted to go and see a full view of Big Chute Falls.

We followed the trail beyond the observation deck and went down a long flight of steep, wooden stairs.

This put us half way below the falls and above another set of rapids. 

It was soon time for us to make our way back to the campsite pack up our things and prepare the trailer for us to go home.

It wasn't long, before we were on the road and soon back on the Trans Canada Highway.

The return home was fairly uneventful, with only two slow downs for construction.
















About halfway home we stopped for fuel, took the time to stretch our legs and have lunch.

It wasn't long before we were back on the road again.















A couple of hours away from home we stopped to have supper, before continuing on our journey.

It was nice to finally make it home, but I wasn't impressed to see by flower beds had become overgrown with weeds.

White Lake Campsite 79 - A Work in Progress

Today was our third day at White Lake Provincial Park with another sunny and warm 82F (28F) day.

After taking the dog out for her morning walk and enjoying the loons and their babies on the calm lake we returned to the trailer and had breakfast.















While relaxing over our morning cups of tea or coffee, we discussed our plans for the day. Ron wanted to go fishing and try his luck again, but with my knee still hurting from being in a cramped position in the canoe yesterday, I decided I would stay here at the campsite and sketch.

After taking a number of reference photographs I started this sketch of the empty campsite across the road. It had some lovely birch trees nestled among the pine and spruce trees, with a lot of wild flowers in bloom around the edges of the lot.

Ron returned a few hours later and once again he didn't have any luck catching Walleye, Northern Pike or any other type of fish for that matter.

We decided that after lunch, we would walk the Deer Lake Trail which gives the option of a 1 mile (1.5km) long walk to the observation deck or continue around Beaver Pond for 1.6 miles (2.5km).

The trail was fairly level with just one section that went slightly uphill and then back down to the observation deck.

The observation deck allowed you to view almost all of the Beaver Pond.















From there we opted to follow the Deer Lake Trail around the Beaver Pond.

Aside from a few pathways through the forest we were pretty much within sight of the pond.

Some areas of the path went over soft, wet, marshy areas and a pathway made of wood planking wound its way through the forest on the edge of the wetland.

While on the trail you would catch glimpses of birds and butterflies, hear the rustling sounds of small animals scurrying through the underbrush and the never ending chorus of frogs.

It wasn't long until we were back to the beginning of the trail and heading back to our campsite.

We saw the sign for Clearwater Lake and decided to check it out which is listed as a fairly easy trail and only 1.2 miles (2km) long.















When we arrived at the start of the trail, Ron wasn't particularly thrilled about reading the warnings about meeting a bear on the trail, but decided that with it being fairly well travelled, the odds were worth going anyway.

The trail going through the forest was of hard packed earth and fairly level without a lot of tree roots near the surface which, if you are not watching where you place your feet could be a problem.















It didn't take long for us to make our way to the lake which as we approached it, we could see the sandy bottom through the crystal clear water.

There were canoes available for rent and a bench by the water where you could sit and enjoy the peace and tranquility of the place. The only sounds were the whispering of the leaves as the wind blew though them.















It was nice to see the fingerling speckled trout in the water by the shore and I watched them for a little while, until it was time to retrace our steps back to the car.

As we drove back to the campsite we talked about going on the Tiny Bog Trail in the morning and going fishing in the afternoon on our last full day in the park.















It wasn't long after we returned to the campsite that we had supper and the dog was taken for her final walk.

As the sun was setting it was time for a bonfire while we relaxed and enjoyed the evening.

Chutes Provincial Park

Today we are starting our vacation and heading to Chutes Provincial Park for an overnight stay before leaving to go to White Lake Provincial Park for four days and then returning to Chutes for a couple of days before returning home.

Chutes is a small 268 acres (108.32 ha) park that was established in 1970 close to the town of Massey, Ontario.

We arrived in the late afternoon after six hours of playing in traffic, although it could have been worse if we would have been travelling on a Friday night.

It is a quiet campground located on the Aux Sables River and has a 3.7 mile (6km) hiking trail with great views of scenic waterfalls and river gorge, as well as a wide variety of birds which I will enjoy on our return trip from White Lake.















By the time we had the trailer set up for the night and took the dog out for a walk it was supper time.

After supper we settled down for the evening to enjoy a campfire before we turned in for the night.















We will be leaving early in the morning as we have a long drive ahead of us to get to White Lake Provincial Park.

Fire

Today, after supper while I was babysitting my grandson, he brought out his and my drawings of Fire that we had started during the summer (see post on 02 August 2019).

I was very surprised to see that he had kept them and wanted to finish them.

We worked on putting in the flames with red, yellow, orange, blue, green and purple until the area of the fire was completed.

Together, we decided that it would be better if we did not try to put a dark background behind the flames.

He asked me if he could keep my drawing and I was happy to give it to him.

Fire - A Work in Progress

Today I was babysitting my grandson, Aaron and after supper he wanted to draw and colour.

So, I had him get washed and into pajamas so he would be ready for bed when his dad came home on his break to put him to bed.

While he was getting ready I got out coloured pencils and paper. When he was ready, I asked him what he would like to draw and he said "A campfire."

So, we sat together and I had him follow along with me.

First, I made a curved line near the bottom of the paper and using brown I ran lines out from the curved line to make the logs.

Next, we ran dark lines outward on each log to give the illusion of bark, followed by colouring them in.

Now it was time to put in the flames, using yellow, green, red, blue and orange.

Before we could finish the drawing his dad came home and it was time for him to go to bed.

Going Camping in Algonquin Provincial Park

Today we went up to Algonquin Provincial Park in Whitney, Ontario for the rest of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

We stayed at the Lake of Two Rivers Campground which is of course, located on Lake of Two Rivers.

Algonquin Provincial Park, was established on 27 May 1893 and is the oldest provincial park in Ontario and the first provincial park in Canada.

Facilities include lodges, campgrounds, scenic drives, hiking and skiing trails and over 930 miles (1,500 km) of lake and river canoe routes.















The park lies across the southern edge of the Canadian shield and is located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River and has Highway 60 running through the south end of the park, while the Trans-Canada Highway bypasses it to the north.

Additions since it was first created have increased the park to its current size of approximately 2,955 square miles (7,653 square kilometres).

The rolling landscape was smoothed and gouged by the glaciers that receded 10,000 years go during the last ice age which also created the over 745 miles (1,200 km) of streams and rivers and over 2,400 lakes which provide access by boat to the interior of the park.















The park is considered to be an area of transition between the Northern Ontario coniferous forest and the Southern Ontario deciduous forest. Due to this unique mixture of the different forest types and also the wide variety of environments within the park, it allows the park to support a wide diversity of both plant and animal life.

The on land the park is famous for its wolves and a wide variety of other animal species are common and almost 250 bird species have been recorded throughout the park. The cold, deep, lakes are home to trout, small-mouthed bass, pike, muskellunge and walleye can also be found.

In 1992 Algonquin Provincial Park was named a National Historic Site of Canada in recognition of its many heritage values, a few of which are its role in the development of park management; it being an important site for wildlife research; its role in inspiring artists, which gave many Canadians an appreciation of their country; pioneering visitor interpretation programs many of which were later adopted by both national and provincial parks across the Canada.















A new visitor centre complete with bookstore, museum and restaurant was opened in 1993 to celebrate Algonquin's centennial.

Algonquin Provincial Park is the only designated park within the province of Ontario to allow industrial logging to take place within its borders. Logging began in the 19th century, especially for white pine and today over 70% of the park is still subject to controlled logging.

Recently park planning and land use pressures and have led to a lot of public debate regarding the appropriate use and designation of the park, which in my opinion doesn't bode well for the Park.

The last thing I want to see is a subdivision in the middle of the park or the lakes being ruined by having hundreds of cottages and motorboat traffic destroying the peace and tranquility of these pristine areas.

Roasting Marshmallows I

It won't be long now before the parks are open and we can go out camping.

One of the nicest things about camping is sitting around the open fire at night. The smell of the wood smoke and roasting marshmallows.

This is an original 3" x 5" matted and shrink wrapped, pen and ink drawing available for $30.00.

Bonfire 1 - A Work in Progress

I was going through my unfinished paintings to take out the ones I would work on first and try to get finished for next year's show season.

I came across Campfire (see posting on 24 December 2010) and Coffee Pot (see posting on 25 December 2010) which would be ideal for a show in Algonquin Park, so I decided to attempt a bonfire on a small piece of paper and see how it worked out rather than work on paintings that were already started and make my mistakes on them.

I used various mixtures of French ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson and burnt sienna for the background to create a warm dark purple background that would provide a strong contrast to the yellow and orange flames.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have it completed.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.

Coffee Pot - A Work in Progress

With today being Christmas Day I didn't have a lot of time to paint.

I seem to be on a camp fire theme and today I started a painting with the coffee pot sitting at the edge of the camp fire on one of the fire pit rocks keeping the coffee warm for the next person who would like a refill.

A lot of this scene you will just have to use your imagination on until I get back to doing more work on it. I will post it at a later date.

I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

Campfire - A Work in Progress

It will be quite a while before it warms up enough to go out camping.

What I enjoy the most about camping is getting away from everyone and being able to just relax by the water or sit around a campfire without having to listen to people shouting, dogs barking and the whine of boat engines.

I will post this painting later once I decide how many people I want around the camp site.