Macgregor Point Park. Ontario

Tuesday August 21st 2012                    310094      10.30 a.m.

Good day to get up and get going, sunny but not too hot, and the forecast sounds good for the next week.

It appeared to be a good time to head to Mac Gregor as we hadn't been there for some time. Easy ride to the park, but a little disappointing when we arrived.  At that time there were  no sites available, so we had to take a ride into Port Elgin and return to the Park after 12  noon.  On our return we were indeed lucky and given site #31.  It turned out to be a really good site.  We had never stayed on that site. 

However, when we arrived at the site the folks that had it were still there.  So we took a ride and parked near the Turtle Pond, which you can see was almost dry.  Very little water there and no turtles, but quite a few frogs.

We slowly walked around the Turtle Pond and the Fringe Trail.  Considering the park was supposed to be full we saw very few people.

Then we tried to get into our site again, but still no luck.  The folks there were in the process of packing up but not ready to leave yet.  So this time we drove out to the Lake Ridge Trail.  We haven't done this trail for ages.  It is, for us, one of the most difficult trails in the park.

It is a really beautiful trail, and always there is something new to see.  But you have to pay attention to where you are walking as the boulders are quite large.  You can also wander off the trail very easily without realising you have done so.

150,000 years ago this was Lake Algonquin.  Now the trail goes along the Lake Bed.

From the Lake Bed you climb to the top of the ridge, which is several hundred feet above here the lake was.

You then reach an area where you can still see the remains of a stone wall around the farming area.  Quite a few apple trees are still growing there. 

The last cattle to be moved from this area was in the 1970's.  So not that far back in history.

A little further along the trail we came across the remains of a 1890's hand made water well for the farm house.

Cannot imagine what it was like to live here then.

So yes, lots of interesting things to look at along this trail. 

Not to mention the friendly little snake we came across. 

And we are not even half way into this hike yet.

Quite a way into the trail we came across a Quartzite Rock, supposedly 2,000 million years old.

It was extremely large and very cold to the touch.

Yes, it was unfortunate that we could not get into our site when we arrived.  But we have had a fantastic hike, and enjoyed every minute of it.

We were all set up ready for a well earned late lunch about 3.45 p.m.   310194

It was brilliant sunshine and a really good site.

Relaxed for a while, then just wandered the camp or a while.

After such a late lunch we didn't have dinner until later in the evening.  Then just relaxed around the fire.

Wednesday 22 August 2012

Another great day, BBQ Breakfast then time to hit the trails.

We had decided to hike the Old Shore Line Trail, Merganser Cove and the Deer Run Trail.

 The cove was extremely quite, but very relaxing.

As you can see there are some very artistic people around this area.

 

 There were quite a few people we met along the trails today. 

 It was a good 3 hour hike, so time for a reward before we made it back to our site, and relax for a while.

 Some of our friends were really happy to see us back at camp, especially this little Nuthatch.   We called it "The Attitude Bird".

As tiny as it was it chased all the other birds away.

 Like us, this little squirrel was enjoying a relaxing afternoon at the camp site.   No doubt waiting for us to have our late lunch again, and see if he would be lucky enough for a few crumbs.

After a relaxing afternoon catching up on some reading, we decided to take a nice slow walk though the Deer Run Trail before dinner.

Cooked dinner on the fire, then spent rest of the evening there.

It was a really great day, thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thursday 23rd August 2012

Another really nice day, but for one thing.  Time to head home again. 

After packing up we drove to the Tower Trail.  This is another trail  we do not do very often.

This year the trail had been groomed and bird watching area's added.  It was really good to see all that.

All the work certainly added to the adventure of this trail.  We saw two Great White Egrets, a couple of beavers building a dam, several frogs an many different birds.  The hike took a couple of hours and was well worth the trip.

We had some shopping to do in Port Elgin before heading home.

This had been a couple of excellent days away.  Really looking forward to the next one.

See you then!

POINT FARMS ONTARIO PARK

Monday July 9th 2012                      309664        10.15 a.m.

Finally the humidity broke Saturday night so it was time to load up and head out camping again.   This time we decided to head to Point Farm , near Goderich.

Weather was good for travelling and we had a good ride to the park.

Arrived about 11.30 a.m.  309769.  Picked site 206, which had really nice layout and the weather was perfect for us, bright, sunny, hot and NO humidity.

After lunch we took a walk to the beach and along the shore line to the south.   For the time of year it was very quiet here, much to our surprise.

We just took a slow relaxing walk enjoying the peace and quiet, and the wonderful sunshine.

It felt so good we could stay here for ever!

It appeared other people thought the same as us.

There was only one way UP from the beach - and it was 131 steps of it.

Very well constructed and extremely picturesque.

It was still another hour walk along the trail back to our site, where we awarded ourselves with a good cool drink.

We relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, as that had been close to 3 hour hike, which we both really enjoyed.

My Chef did a fabulous dinner of Burgers and Beer.   Complimented the decor with a really good campfire, where we spent the rest of the evening.

Another great day in our life of camping.

Tuesday July 10th

Breakfast all done and another gorgeous day to plan ahead of us.   Already sunny and warm, but a slight breeze to keep us comfortable.

Some friendly squirrels came around to check if we had managed to leave them any breakfast.  So yes, they were disappointed.

We hiked the Old Farm Trail to the beach stairs.  Yes all 131 of them.

Just wandered north along the beach to the end of the park.

Fantastic walk, nice cool breeze of the lake, and as you can see no one else wanted to share the beach with us.

From there we found The Ravine Trail.  We had never done this trail so not sure what to expect.

All we can say is WOW!!!  

 The scenery was superb.  We were walking in the tree tops, and at times could not even see the bottom of the ravine.

You did have to keep your eyes open and feet secure on the ground - long way down!

Walked this trail until we met up with the Old Farm Trail again.  Then back to our site.  This is certainly a trail we are looking forward to doing again.

We relaxed around the site until later in the afternoon when it cooled off  a little.

Had a really nice relaxing afternoon then it was time to hike another part of the trail before dinner.

This trail took us down to the beach without taking the stairs, and certainly another pretty trail.

Slowly wandered the beach then back up the stairs and back to our site.


Spent the rest of the evening around the fire conjuring up all kinds of those silly camp fire stories we seem to enjoy telling.


Wednesday July 11th.   309769

Have to head home today, would love to stay for a while longer, but things to get done at home.

 Decided to stop off in Kincardine on the drive back.  As you can see this beach is very busy to what we had the last few days.

I thought it would be nice to reward my chauffeur and chef to a delicious lunch at the Erie Belle in Kincardine for allowing me to take these few days off.

How nice is that!

Catch you all on the next trip.

BUFFALO, NY and the rest of the journey.

June 24th the rest of the day.

After leaving the airport we took a trip through Buffalo - twice actually - we managed to take a wrong turn.  Luckily it was quiet and a very nice day for a drive.

From there we went to Fredonia for all our supplies before heading to Erie State Park. NY.

 All set up by 4. p.m.  (308506)

So sat around  and relaxed with some munchies for a while before exploring.

Very pretty park.  we hiked along the bluff over looking Lake Erie.  It was a perfect day, warm and breezy.  That allowed us to do further exploring along the trails in the park before we had our BBQ supper.

We had company drop by for supper too.

As you can see he was far more interested in the vegetation than our BBQ - clever bunny!

Later in the evening our site was alive with fireflies.  That really looked magnificent.  Too bad I couldn't get that picture.

We had a fairly busy week with Andrew and Penny and were on the road early today so decided to go to bed early.

Good job we did.  There was a huge Thunder storm about 11.30p.m. which lasted well over an hour.  Just a little scary, it was really close by.  Mike slept through the whole thing.  No idea how he managed that.

MONDAY JUNE 25th -  Oh yes, 6 months to Christmas Day!

The storm had all blown away, and left a  few clouds and lots of sun, but also left it very warm.

Looked outside to see how the world had survived, and from what I could see, it had done well.  There were lots of little bunnies running around and several families of Robins.

Perfect weather for cooking breakfast outside.

As you can see it is a really interesting park with some great walks.  The trails were great, and all fairly easy.  So we spent a lot of time walking around and enjoying the park and the weather.

After hiking it was time to sit and plan our route ready for tomorrow.  Then we just relaxed for a while.  In fact we had a very lazy afternoon.

Great campfire after dinner, so also a very relaxing evening.  It felt good to relax!

Tuesday June 26th.                                    308506     11 a.m.

BBQ breakfast - already hot and sunny.  The plan for today is to find our way to Findley State Park, Ohio.  But you never know what we might find along the way.  We have not travelled this area since early 199o's.

So all paced up and ready to hit the road by 11 a.m.

First though, it has to be story time.

Last night while we were sitting outside a Police Car rode around the past very slowly.  Not once but twice.   It didn't stop anywhere.  Shortly after that a red pick up truck did the same thing - twice.  Very weird!  Then, when leaving the park this morning we saw two jail guards supervising 10 prisoners when were doing the ground maintenance at the park.  Approximately a mile along the road we drove past the Correctional Facility.   Now we put 2 and 2 together and wondered if there was in fact a prisoner missing last night.  Well you never know do you?

So Back to today. 

                                                                                                                                   

 From the campsite we took the Sea Way Trail for as far as it goes along Highway 5.  went through the Vineyards in Westfield NY.   There were some really pretty towns along this route, and a lot of them were getting all dressed up for 4th of July.

Hudson OH. was a really pretty little town.  Unfortunately we didn't get pictures of it.  Now beginning to get quite hilly too.

We kept driving until we reached Findley State Park, which we had researched on the Internet and it seemed to be exactly our type of park - OK, so don't always believe what you read!  Rule # ????

It was a good place, clean and tidy, but not quite what we had expected.  We didn't even find any hiking trails.  The Park Office closed at 6 p.m.  We were there at 6.10 p.m.   No where to but wood for the fire, and no Camp Host available.     308877                  6.15 p.m.

So we checked ourselves in, had a good steak dinner and managed to keep the fire going with whatever we could find to burn around the site - picnic table next!  No just joking.

It was a nice evening but we will not be staying here tomorrow as planned.

That's the beauty of being "GYPSY'S".

Wednesday 27th June 2012                                 308877                   11 a.m.

WOW! Another hot clear sunny day.  So far the weather has been perfect.

After breakfast we decided we would go on to Proud Lake Michigan today, where we would meet up with Vince, Barb and Kayleigh.  We would be about 10 minutes from where Vince would be staying at the Lake House.

So all packed and on the road by 11 a.m. and just meandered along the country roads, through lots more very pretty little towns and villages, most of which were all decked out for July 4th Celebrations.

Arrived at Proud Lake just before 3 p.m.  309183.  

really great place, but to be honest we didn't do too much exploring as it was full sun, very little shade and, guess what?  It was 100 F.

As I mentioned Proud Lake wasn't too far from where Vince, Barb and Kayleigh would be and we had all planned to spend the weekend together.  But due to unfortunate circumstances all plans changed - a very long story!

Serendipity stepped in and we did get to have Kayleigh with us for the remainder of the afternoon.  That was heaven!

It was still too hot to go exploring, so we all sat around the site and caught up on all the news and stuff that had been going on since our visit last year.  Now that was well worth the drive.

After supper we did light the camp fire, not that we really needed it, although it did cool off a little through the evening.  Once again there were many fireflies and also one lone raccoon.

Not sure what tomorrow will bring the forecast is for a very hot humid day, temps around

105F  That is very steamy!

Thursday 28th June.
Yes, the forecast was correct.  It was very hot and humid. 
I was just starting to BBQ breakfast when Mike told me to look to my right.  Not even 10 feet from us was a skunk slowly wandering towards the bush area behind El Campista.
Too close for comfort!
After breakfast we took off shopping as it was too hot to try to hike, already 95F.
It was a pretty ride through the lake areas.
Naturally we spent to much. but did have fun.

Sat around in the shade when we got back to camp as it was really hot 110F + humidity.
The forecast was for this to hang around for quite a few days yet with all weather records already being broken.  So we decided it would be best for us to pack up tomorrow and head back to Durham.  Unfortunately it would mean we would not get to spend much time with Vince and family. 
However, they also came to the same decision.  They were ready to head home Friday also.
Too bad things changed and we couldn't spend the time we had planned but we can always do it another time.
Did not light a fire, far too hot.

Friday 29th June 2012                    309254                    10.30 p.m.
After breakfast, and all packed up we headed to Novi for a visit with Vince, Barb and Kayleigh.   It was still very hot.  We had a great visit before we all headed to our vehicles and started our journeys home.
Vince and Barb were dodging Tornadoes nearly all the way the back to Charlotte.  So not such a good time for them.
We did some extra shopping then crossed the order.  Once again another lucky crossing, took about one minute to line up and cross from Port Huron into Sarina.

From there we headed into Kincardine to the Erie Belle for a combined lunch/dinner.  Sat inside as it was so hot outside.

It was fabulous and a great way to end the trip.  Too bad it didn't turn out as planned, but what the heck we all had fun anyway.

Arrived in Durham 8.45 p.m. - and yes it is still hot here in the Great White North.

Catch you next time!!!