July 2010 - Point Farms, Goderich Ontario

Sunday July 11th 2010 - 290505 - 10.30 a.m.
Woke to a great day for camping, hot and sunny.  So packed up camper and hit the road, heading first to Goderich, then to Point Farms Provincial Park.   We hadn't been to Goderich for some time and it was a gorgeous day to wander around the town.  We had no idea that there was an Arts and Craft Fair in the town square.  It was so interesting to wander through the town square and see some many intriguing arts.  It was very difficult not to buy everything in sight.

After checking all the booths we headed 10 minutes north to Point Farms Park. - 1 p.m. 290630.

It was extremely busy, so we took site 143 without even going to look at it, because it would probably be gone by the time we got back to the office.  It looked like a real good site when we found it, but the people who were to leave were still there.    So we walked along some of the beach waiting for the "actual" check out time of 2.p.m.

There were two areas of beach, the one in this picture was the one that you can just hike around and get onto the other hiking trails.  Extremely pretty area.  From what we could see all the trails looked great.  We were looking forward to getting back to them when all hooked up.

Headed back to site at 2.15 p.m. and it still  was not vacant.  So we went to the parking area and had our lunch.  3 p.m. we headed back to the site, but still unable to get in.  This time we pulled into a vacant site opposite and waited until everyone left site 143.  Finally 3.30 p.m. we got into the site and all hooked up.

Sat outside enjoying the sunshine for a while, then decided to walk to the beach through one of the trails.

It began to cloud over quite quickly and we could hear thunder in the distance.  The walk to the beach was really pretty through the trails and then down 110 stairs down to the shore line.

Guess what!  That meant we would have 110 stairs to climb back up to the top.

The beach was getting empty as the clouds were boiling up now and the thunder still rumbling over the lake.  The wind got very gusty and a few spots of rain began to fall.  Well that meant we really should consider going back to our camp site.  To do that we would have to climb 110 stairs!  Surprisingly enough it was not too bad for either of us.  Guess we are a little healthier than we figured.

Got back to the site just a little damp as the rain was not too bad right then.  It was still very warm so we sat out under the awning.   We did move the picnic table to the edge of the awning to allow us to BBQ if the rain kept on. To allow the rain to drain off the awning Mike lowered one side of the awning slightly.  It rained quite heavy for while, then began to ease up some.

So wait for it, we now have a "Blond" Hiker Mike story.

Hiker Mike decided he needed to know how much rain was on the awing.  So he tapped the awning from underneath. Go Figure!  All the rain fell on the picnic table.
You gotta Love him, haven't you?

After fits of laughter we managed to BBQ a magnificent meal.

The evening cleared up quite a bit so we were able to sit around the camp fire and relax.









Monday July 12th 2010.
The heavy rain and thunder woke us up early.  After breakfast we did some reading and writing but it was far too wet to go outside and do anything. 

We had monsoon type rain and a lot of thunder and by 11.00 a.m. the camp was flooded.  So we decided to pack up and leave.  It was far too wet and the roadways were inches under water.  It would be impossible to walk any of the trails today or tomorrow.

290630 - 1.45 p.m.  All packed up and ready to leave.  Very lucky that our camper really is waterproof.  We have no idea how such heavy rain did not get into the camper anywhere.  At least that was a good test.

Had good ride home, and the skies were clear in Durham.    290746.

This was the first trip we had to leave the camp earlier than planned.  We do look forward to going back there as the trails really did look very inviting.

First time we have had to leave camp earlier than planned.