back from the north
We're back! And not cold anymore, haha. Went on a weekend camping trip to Bruce National Park, the area by Cyprus Lake to be exact. We went early to beat the crowds. Also to (hopefully) beat the bugs. ...well, 1 out of 2 isn't is okay...
It broke down into 3 extremes.
Friday: extreme bugs
Saturday: extreme wet rain
Sunday: extreme cold/wind
solartempest and I met up with Joe, Janice, and Paul in the morning and caravaned straight to the park. It was a pretty smooth drive with one break at Kettles for lunch. They have incredibly tasty burgers!! *___* We checked in, found we weren't allowed to park 2 cars at our site (were kind of :/ about it) and went to our site. The first thing we noticed: black flies. Everywhere. In our site. Encountering black flies during a hike is one thing; it's a bigger issue when they're in your rest space. We went back to see if we could switch sites. We switched to one that would let us park 2 cars on the site but the black flies problem still persisted. Although we saw sites that were vacant/relatively black fly free, we didn't end up switching again. Kevin lent me his orange rainjacket since my black one just attracted more and more black flies (they like dark colours and all I have is black, dagnabit). Paul probably had it the worst, being in long shorts and wearing dark blue. Somehow we got our tents set up and after chilling briefly in a bug-free zone (our tents), we decided to head out for a (presumably) short hike.
The hike we decided on was Horse Lake Trail. It was a really pleasant hike. The trail itself was obvious: it was either lined with thin tree trunks or rocks and the ground was very soft. If not, there was a seemingly brand new boardwalk. A lot of the boardwalks/benches seemed ridiculously new, actually. Admittedly, it seemed almost too nice, too tailored. Unnatural even. :x As we walked, we noticed there were less and less black flies following us, which was a relief. The trail ended at a rocky beach. It was literally filled with rocks. A mist was rolling at this time and you couldn't see the horizon at all. The sky and the water just melded into one. Kevin wanted to check out the ledges so we walked along the rocks for a while. It's a bit tough going since some rocks weren't completely stable, they were of varying sizes, and stuff like that. The views were great, though, and the weather was just lovely~ After making it to the ledges and a bit past that, we headed back to camp to make dinner and, thankfully, not as many bugs as before as dusk had passed. Dinner was grilled(?) pork chops, baked potatoes, and assorted veges. Dessert was s'mores. My marshmallow evaporated!! I didn't know that could happen! XD; It was Janice and my first, eating/making s'mores. We chillaxed around the fire for a bit before turning in. The facilities at the camp weren't bad. There were "flush" toilets but only cold water. Oh, and tons of spiders. Janice may or may not have helped me kill a bunch before I could feel comfortable enough to use the bathroom. >_____>
Every time I woke up Saturday morning, I heard rain. It never went away. Since we were expecting rain, Kevin and I were prepared for it. Waterproof hiking boots = ♥. Although I need to get waterproof pants that are longer than the ones I have now. It kind of defeats the purpose if the pants ride up a bit higher than my boots. The guys had sent up a tarp over a picnic table the night before which was lucky for all of us. We sat under there and made breakfast and our lunch for the day. Our hikes didn't sound like they'd be particularly grueling. We began with the Georgian Bay Trail which was pretty nice, though not nearly as good as Horse Lake Trail. We always took little trail offshoots to check out the shore/water. At some point, we had left that trail and were travelling on the Bruce Trail. I still don't even remember when that happened. The Bruce Trail can be tough! It's not an easy feat at places. I don't think my mum would be able to handle a hike like that. There was often changes in the elevation and you were almost always walking on rocks because of the kind of land there. And walking on rocks when it's pouring...yeah, have to be careful. We were looking for the Grotto and hiked for a while until we thought we found it.
So what we found was a hole in the ground. Kevin was looking out for this hole and we thought it may have been for the Grotto. Kevin wanted to go down there but the others, myself included, were more hesitant. So he went to go check it out first (using his superb climbing skills to get down there, of course ;P), gave the green light, and still no one wanted to go. I think I would have been less hesitant if it wasn't raining and the entire way down that hole was, well, rocks. But I decided to go for it, anyway, with Kevin spotting as I made my way down (almost fell on him at the last part that had less available holds, lol). It was a pretty cool place! We discovered later on that this was actually Overhanging Point. The others didn't want to come down so we took photos/looked around there in their stead. Climbing up was actually way easier! For one, I can see where to hold/step. :p If the rocks weren't wet and I had proper gear (and a bit of chalk), it would have just been a 5.2/5.3, methinks. After regrouping, we had a lunch break and took a look at the map we barely glanced at and realized that a) we were on the Bruce Trail and no longer on the park trails and b) we had totally hiked past the Grotto without realizing it. That meant we had to head back the way we came.
Admittedly, after a while, I was getting a little mentally fatigued. On a pouring wet day and walking only on unsteady rocks for so much of it, it can get a little tiring. When we hiked through the first time, I was thinking, thank goodness we only have to go through this once. Alas, we didn't go through the hard(er) areas of our hikes twice but three times. >_> We eventually found the Grotto and it was really neat! If it wasn't raining so hard and the water levels weren't so much higher, I would have loved to go down to actually see it. >: Hiking that bit of the Bruce Trail the third time was far more difficult since it was way more slippery that time around. I'm so thankful I have good gear. We saw a group of school kids doing parts of the same hikes in really inappropriate footwear. I can only hope none of them hurt themselves. We returned via the Marr Lake Trail and that was way tougher than the Georgian Bay Trail, due to all the rocks jutting out of the main path.
Since the hike was so draining, we decided to go to Bruce National Park's visitor centre in Tobermory to warm up. It's a really nice centre! There's an awesome play area for kids that was a beaver dam. I crawled in one hole and out the even smaller hole. Kevin didn't think he'd fit out of the smaller one but he did. XD; We were having too much fun there. Then we checked out their exhibits which was actually pretty interesting and well laid out/thought out. The place ended up being a great pick-me-up. We returned to our site to make dinner, which was pasta with ground beef and tomato sauce. We've learned our lesson when it comes to cleaning dishes. :p Also kept hearing some strange sounds near the end of dinner (Kevin thought it may have been a raccoon) but we never saw anything. Sort of related: headlamps are godly! Since we couldn't do much with the still non-stop rain, we went to bed early.
It was freezing every time I woke up! So I kept going back to sleep, lol. The winds were super strong. I was hoping it would dry our tent (it did!) since there's nothing more annoying than packing a wet tent. After tossing on a billion layers, we decided to forego breakfast and start packing up instead. Even though it was really cold and windy, the weather was much nicer than the constant downpour of the day before. The only casualty of the wind was one of the grommets on the tarp. It did a stand up job, though. :) We left the site and went to the visitor centre again to check out the look out tower. It was 20 metres tall and a great way to see the area. But it was soooo windy. You could feel the tower swaying! We had lunch at A Mermaid's Secret Home. It was okay. I was kind of unimpressed that they assumed that I wanted something other than what I ordered (basically it was the more expensive version of what I wanted and came with extras I did not like). Following lunch, we caravaned together most of the way back toward Toronto.
Before heading back to Kevin's place, we made a quick stop by kethveren's. Michelle and Brian were incredible dears for going to the Toronto LEGO store opening event on Saturday and lining up to a) buy a LEGO set so b) we could get the limited edition minifigure set that came with the purchase. They were there for over 3 hours... We were kind of surprised. None of us expected this turnout at all! I was incredibly sad that I missed out on the event myself since it happened on the 3 days we were out of town. So Kevin got his set, I got the limited minifigures, and we now have a copy of the MMO game, lol. If I do play it, it won't be until after my CSC is done and over with. Which reminds me that I need to book the exam. Likely I'll make it for after Colossal. Waaaah, I'm sooooooooooooooooooo excited for Colossal!! *_________*
A rather strange feeling has come over me. If I wasn't working, I kind of want to hike the Bruce Trail in its entirety. ._. That's not really like me to say. I'm not even sure why I thought that. I was only wondering what all of the Bruce Trail looked like (I've hiked bits of it in Milton and now in at Bruce National Park) but I'm suddenly itching to try it. It isn't likely to happen, of course, not in its entirety. I wouldn't mind going to check out sections of it occasionally, though. :)
It broke down into 3 extremes.
Friday: extreme bugs
Saturday: extreme wet rain
Sunday: extreme cold/wind
solartempest and I met up with Joe, Janice, and Paul in the morning and caravaned straight to the park. It was a pretty smooth drive with one break at Kettles for lunch. They have incredibly tasty burgers!! *___* We checked in, found we weren't allowed to park 2 cars at our site (were kind of :/ about it) and went to our site. The first thing we noticed: black flies. Everywhere. In our site. Encountering black flies during a hike is one thing; it's a bigger issue when they're in your rest space. We went back to see if we could switch sites. We switched to one that would let us park 2 cars on the site but the black flies problem still persisted. Although we saw sites that were vacant/relatively black fly free, we didn't end up switching again. Kevin lent me his orange rainjacket since my black one just attracted more and more black flies (they like dark colours and all I have is black, dagnabit). Paul probably had it the worst, being in long shorts and wearing dark blue. Somehow we got our tents set up and after chilling briefly in a bug-free zone (our tents), we decided to head out for a (presumably) short hike.
The hike we decided on was Horse Lake Trail. It was a really pleasant hike. The trail itself was obvious: it was either lined with thin tree trunks or rocks and the ground was very soft. If not, there was a seemingly brand new boardwalk. A lot of the boardwalks/benches seemed ridiculously new, actually. Admittedly, it seemed almost too nice, too tailored. Unnatural even. :x As we walked, we noticed there were less and less black flies following us, which was a relief. The trail ended at a rocky beach. It was literally filled with rocks. A mist was rolling at this time and you couldn't see the horizon at all. The sky and the water just melded into one. Kevin wanted to check out the ledges so we walked along the rocks for a while. It's a bit tough going since some rocks weren't completely stable, they were of varying sizes, and stuff like that. The views were great, though, and the weather was just lovely~ After making it to the ledges and a bit past that, we headed back to camp to make dinner and, thankfully, not as many bugs as before as dusk had passed. Dinner was grilled(?) pork chops, baked potatoes, and assorted veges. Dessert was s'mores. My marshmallow evaporated!! I didn't know that could happen! XD; It was Janice and my first, eating/making s'mores. We chillaxed around the fire for a bit before turning in. The facilities at the camp weren't bad. There were "flush" toilets but only cold water. Oh, and tons of spiders. Janice may or may not have helped me kill a bunch before I could feel comfortable enough to use the bathroom. >_____>
Every time I woke up Saturday morning, I heard rain. It never went away. Since we were expecting rain, Kevin and I were prepared for it. Waterproof hiking boots = ♥. Although I need to get waterproof pants that are longer than the ones I have now. It kind of defeats the purpose if the pants ride up a bit higher than my boots. The guys had sent up a tarp over a picnic table the night before which was lucky for all of us. We sat under there and made breakfast and our lunch for the day. Our hikes didn't sound like they'd be particularly grueling. We began with the Georgian Bay Trail which was pretty nice, though not nearly as good as Horse Lake Trail. We always took little trail offshoots to check out the shore/water. At some point, we had left that trail and were travelling on the Bruce Trail. I still don't even remember when that happened. The Bruce Trail can be tough! It's not an easy feat at places. I don't think my mum would be able to handle a hike like that. There was often changes in the elevation and you were almost always walking on rocks because of the kind of land there. And walking on rocks when it's pouring...yeah, have to be careful. We were looking for the Grotto and hiked for a while until we thought we found it.
So what we found was a hole in the ground. Kevin was looking out for this hole and we thought it may have been for the Grotto. Kevin wanted to go down there but the others, myself included, were more hesitant. So he went to go check it out first (using his superb climbing skills to get down there, of course ;P), gave the green light, and still no one wanted to go. I think I would have been less hesitant if it wasn't raining and the entire way down that hole was, well, rocks. But I decided to go for it, anyway, with Kevin spotting as I made my way down (almost fell on him at the last part that had less available holds, lol). It was a pretty cool place! We discovered later on that this was actually Overhanging Point. The others didn't want to come down so we took photos/looked around there in their stead. Climbing up was actually way easier! For one, I can see where to hold/step. :p If the rocks weren't wet and I had proper gear (and a bit of chalk), it would have just been a 5.2/5.3, methinks. After regrouping, we had a lunch break and took a look at the map we barely glanced at and realized that a) we were on the Bruce Trail and no longer on the park trails and b) we had totally hiked past the Grotto without realizing it. That meant we had to head back the way we came.
Admittedly, after a while, I was getting a little mentally fatigued. On a pouring wet day and walking only on unsteady rocks for so much of it, it can get a little tiring. When we hiked through the first time, I was thinking, thank goodness we only have to go through this once. Alas, we didn't go through the hard(er) areas of our hikes twice but three times. >_> We eventually found the Grotto and it was really neat! If it wasn't raining so hard and the water levels weren't so much higher, I would have loved to go down to actually see it. >: Hiking that bit of the Bruce Trail the third time was far more difficult since it was way more slippery that time around. I'm so thankful I have good gear. We saw a group of school kids doing parts of the same hikes in really inappropriate footwear. I can only hope none of them hurt themselves. We returned via the Marr Lake Trail and that was way tougher than the Georgian Bay Trail, due to all the rocks jutting out of the main path.
Since the hike was so draining, we decided to go to Bruce National Park's visitor centre in Tobermory to warm up. It's a really nice centre! There's an awesome play area for kids that was a beaver dam. I crawled in one hole and out the even smaller hole. Kevin didn't think he'd fit out of the smaller one but he did. XD; We were having too much fun there. Then we checked out their exhibits which was actually pretty interesting and well laid out/thought out. The place ended up being a great pick-me-up. We returned to our site to make dinner, which was pasta with ground beef and tomato sauce. We've learned our lesson when it comes to cleaning dishes. :p Also kept hearing some strange sounds near the end of dinner (Kevin thought it may have been a raccoon) but we never saw anything. Sort of related: headlamps are godly! Since we couldn't do much with the still non-stop rain, we went to bed early.
It was freezing every time I woke up! So I kept going back to sleep, lol. The winds were super strong. I was hoping it would dry our tent (it did!) since there's nothing more annoying than packing a wet tent. After tossing on a billion layers, we decided to forego breakfast and start packing up instead. Even though it was really cold and windy, the weather was much nicer than the constant downpour of the day before. The only casualty of the wind was one of the grommets on the tarp. It did a stand up job, though. :) We left the site and went to the visitor centre again to check out the look out tower. It was 20 metres tall and a great way to see the area. But it was soooo windy. You could feel the tower swaying! We had lunch at A Mermaid's Secret Home. It was okay. I was kind of unimpressed that they assumed that I wanted something other than what I ordered (basically it was the more expensive version of what I wanted and came with extras I did not like). Following lunch, we caravaned together most of the way back toward Toronto.
Before heading back to Kevin's place, we made a quick stop by kethveren's. Michelle and Brian were incredible dears for going to the Toronto LEGO store opening event on Saturday and lining up to a) buy a LEGO set so b) we could get the limited edition minifigure set that came with the purchase. They were there for over 3 hours... We were kind of surprised. None of us expected this turnout at all! I was incredibly sad that I missed out on the event myself since it happened on the 3 days we were out of town. So Kevin got his set, I got the limited minifigures, and we now have a copy of the MMO game, lol. If I do play it, it won't be until after my CSC is done and over with. Which reminds me that I need to book the exam. Likely I'll make it for after Colossal. Waaaah, I'm sooooooooooooooooooo excited for Colossal!! *_________*
A rather strange feeling has come over me. If I wasn't working, I kind of want to hike the Bruce Trail in its entirety. ._. That's not really like me to say. I'm not even sure why I thought that. I was only wondering what all of the Bruce Trail looked like (I've hiked bits of it in Milton and now in at Bruce National Park) but I'm suddenly itching to try it. It isn't likely to happen, of course, not in its entirety. I wouldn't mind going to check out sections of it occasionally, though. :)