Oh No, Not Another Camping Trip

On Sunday evening I got back from the second of my two trips up to Bruce Peninsula.  Trip 1 involved yurts.  Trip 2 involved tents.  In today's post, I'd like to share some pictures, but the report will be somewhat disjointed, as I will mostly just point out events that go with the pictures.

We were a group of 7.  Marie, Dave, Vaughn, Melissa, Ben, Kevin, and me.  We went up in 2 groups.  Group one included me, Melissa, and Dave.  We drove through tornado weather.  We thought we were going to die.

Melissa and I saw big dust clouds signalling what we think may have been the touchdown of a tornado.  We arrived safely and pitched the 2 tents that we had brought with us.  We then attempted to make a fire, but everything was so wet that it was very difficult.  When the rest of the gang arrived, they pitched the other tent, and we got a fire going.  Dinner that night was apples, carrots, hummus, and three roasted chickens Ben had picked up from a Fiipino restaurant in our neighbourhood.  It was a little hard to fall asleep that night, but in the morning, we were up pretty early.  We made what Marie termed "breakfast boats".  This was necessary because out of the 7 of us, nobody brought a pan or a pot.  Oops!

We set off for a hike, and lo and behold, just like my last trip, in the same place except on the other side of the bridge, we spotted a snake.  He was hard to follow, but after some movement he resurfaced with… a fish in his mouth.  Wildlife hunting in action!

We made it to Georgian Bay and the Grotto.  Ben and Kevin went for a dip in the cold waters.  They were very brave, since it was also a very windy day and the waves were choppy.

After a while, we hiked to a rock beach on our way back to the campsite for lunch.  Here is Ben and wilderness.

Many photo ops presented themselves.  Here was a beautiful dragonfly that decided to chill out on Vaughn's tent.

We picked up a bunch of sticks on our way back from the hike.  They would serve as our food cooking sticks.  Vaughn whittled them with a whistle (well, I don't think he whistled, but we can pretend he did, since it sounds cheery).  He did a wonderful job.  Those sticks made our marshmallows and hotdogs feel safe and properly pierced.

The fire constantly going and the light shining through the trees made for some interesting photos.  Here is Dave looking like he has Cyclops' powers, except with smoke, not lasers.

After a visit to the Singing Sands Beach (the dip in Lake Huron served as our "shower" for the weekend), we went back to the campsite for dinner.  Dave's mother - bless her heart - made kalbi for us.  20 pieces of wonderfully delicious, authentic kalbi.  Oh, we ate like kings that night, for we also had burgers and s'mores.

Later in the evening, Vaughn went for a swim, and when he came back, he informed us that a big snake was chilling by the beach.  I was the first out the door.  We went down to the beach, and there she was.  A big, beautiful, hungry snake. 

She was eating some kind of salamander. She got very nervous when we approached close, and she backed up into this tree trunk, curling her tail up and out of sight.  It took her quite a long time to eat.  In fact, we were there for…. oh, I'd say over half an hour and she still hadn't finished her meal by the time we left.  A lot of people passed by and were curious what we were looking at.  We presented Snake (what a creative name) proudly to passersby, explaining what was happening.

We watched the sunset as the mosquitoes started to really dig into us.  Some ducks swam by.  Here was a straggler.

On the last day, Sunday, we reluctantly packed up and loaded up the cars.  We went to a rock beach (Little Cove) and hung out there by the rough waves.  We threw rocks into the lake, and I ran up and down the beach, a most precarious exercise on such uneven chunks of rock.  Afterwards, we went into Tobermory for some delicious Fish n Chips.  We hung around the docks for a bit after lunch, and then, sadly, it was time to go home.  I'm glad we had such beautiful weather to end a beautiful trip.

Trips like this can really make friends grow closer. But I find that not just the trip, but the aftermath of the trip helps friendships grow.  I can certainly say that on Monday, after such a wonderful weekend away, and the reality of being back in the city sinking in, I was inspired, and my love for my friends grew infinitely.  I realised that my friends are here to stay, and that nothing - really, nothing (except maybe murder) - can take them away from me.

This week promises to be a very good one.  I've been busy with social events and it's only Tuesday!  I did BodyAttack yesterday with Marie, planned a bachelorette with Rachel and Sarah after the gym, then did coffee with Ben this morning, worked, and then did tea with Alex in the evening.  I think the first 2 days of the week really set the tone for the rest of the week, so here's hoping for another great set of days.

Love and peace.

Bruce Peninsula yurt trip

I went camping this weekend at Bruce Peninsula Provincial Park, up on Georgian Bay/Lake Huron.  I went with my 2 oldest friends, Rachel and Esther, who I've known since elementary school and junior high school, respectively.  We took the Friday off from work and drove up from stormy, rainy Toronto to happy and sunny Cyprus Lake.

Cyprus Lake.  Great care was taken wading into the water to get this shot.

We stayed in a yurt, so we weren't exactly "roughing it", but we got a taste of quiet forest life.  We unpacked our sleeping bags, locked our food in a cabinet, and put on the sunblock.

Our yurt had a wonderful location just seconds away from the water

On the first day we took a dip on Cyprus Lake, the lake our yurt was located by.  The water was deliciously mild - a little cold going in, but wonderful once we were fully submerged.  We tread water and swam for a while before heading back in for a meal.  We were eager for a quiet, good night's rest, but I think we were too excited and too tired.  We turned off the flashlights, but an hour later, after Esther dropped a water bottle from her top bunk, we all admitted that we hadn't fallen asleep yet.  A trip to the washroom ensued, followed by more fitful tossing and turning.

The second day we were awoken at 5am by some men in the neighbouring yurt talking about what their mothers or fathers or whoever said 5 years ago, this dramatic thing or the other, and we were all extremely grumpy about it.  Why discuss this at 5am in loud, booming voices?!  We grumbled about it, but when Rachel finally gathered the courage to go and ask if they could keep it down, they were just taking off to shower.  Um…?!  We were finally able to drift back to sleep for another hour and a half, but we were all tired from our late night and early awakening.

However, we didn't let it keep us down.  We coffee'd up and went for a hike to the Grotto on Georgian Bay.  On the way, we stopped on a bridge to look into a little river feeding into the lake.  Imagine my complete delight when we saw an Eastern milksnake!  He was cooling off in the water.  He then began to swim, his powerful body projecting him from rock to rock for shelter from the running water.

Eastern milk snake, a non-venomous species of snake found in Ontario

Upon arrival at the Grotto, we took a dip in the turquoise-coloured waters of the freezing Bay.  There were signs on the trail cautioning swimmers that the body of water was very cold and that it could inhibit swimming ability.  It was freezing.  I only stayed in for about a minute before my limbs began to seize up with cold.  It was extremely refreshing once back on the shore - it was 28 degrees celsius before humidity.

The water of Georgian Bay looks deceptively tropical and warm.

We hiked back to our yurt for a well-deserved lunch and then to the lake for another dip.  We swam, chilled on the beach, and ate our snacks - wasabi peas in the shade on the beach.  What more could a person ask for?  Well, another snake sighting would be nice.  Lo and behold, my wish was granted.  There was another milk snake taking a dip in the water.  Others in the water kept their distance, fearful, uninterested, or disgusted, but I followed the little guy in the water until he surfaced near a log.  I must admit that I reached out and touched the tip of his tail.  Then as he slithered under, I let my hand brush along his smooth back section.  He came to a pause and I went in for another touch.  I got it in, but I pushed his limit and he struck at me.  I pulled my hand away, backed up a step in the water, and watched as he slinked off along the shoreline.

I feel a mix of intense thrill and guilt - thrill that I got to come into contact with one of my favourite creatures, but guilt for disturbing him and scaring him with my touching.  Bruce Peninsula is also home to Ontario's only venomous snake, the Massasauga rattler.  If I ever encountered a venomous, or otherwise unidentifiable snake in the wild, I would not try to touch it.  I would stop and back away immediately.  As much as I love snakes, I understand that some of them can hurt me more badly than just a bite.  Also, I would just like to note that I love snakes and would never bring any harm to one.  While touching a snake in the wild violates the "leave nature alone" principle, I believe that my actions caused the snake no harm, and it was simply another animal interaction in both his and my daily lives.  Like a playful dog, I had a curiosity that had to be satisfied.

After our swimming and wild creature encounter, we drove over to Singing Sands Beach on Lake Huron for more swimming and beach bumming.  The water was shallow and warm for such a long distance that we didn't even bother to go as far as the deep end (wherever that may have been!). 

Singing Sands on Lake Huron.

That night after dinner we played cards till sunset, when we got up to enjoy the mix of colours.

Sunset over Lake Cyprus.

More cards, and then it was time to sit around the fire.  Once the residual light from the sunset dimmed for good and the worst of the mosquitoes were upon us, we went back into the yurt for more card playing.  We reminisced about the songs we'd learned to sing and play on the guitar in grades 7 and 8 and had a wonderful night.  When bedtime came, I believe we were much more exhausted and fell asleep easily.  Oh, but one hiccup - Rachel and Esther got up to go to the washroom, but they locked themselves out of the yurt.  Luckily I was inside to open it for them!

The next morning I woke up at 6:30 and went to take a peek at the sunrise.  There were some ducklings making off into the water as I approached the lake.

Early morning dip for the ducklings on Lake Cyprus.

I did some sit ups on the beach to wake myself up.  It was wonderful working out on the sand with the sun rising above my head.  I had done some push ups, sit ups, and jumps the previous morning.  With the hiking and swimming, I'd say I met a bare minimum amount of exercise.  A jog would have been nice, too, but then there was only so much time for all our activities.

It was then time to go home.  We had breakfast, packed up all our things, and checked out of our wonderful yurt.  We said goodbye to the park and had a rainy drive home (it's amazing how the weather moulded perfectly around our plans - sunny for our entire trip, and then rainy for the car ride back).

Bruce Peninsula is a beautiful place, and I would go there again.  In fact, I'm going back the weekend after next for another camping trip!  This time in tents with another group of friends.  Here's to another weekend of hiking, swimming, and wild animals.

This week, though, it's back to my regularly scheduled life.  I hope to make it to the gym 4 times and go for at least one plain run outdoors.  Next week's update should include fewer pictures and more gym talk.  I did, however, enjoy writing about my trip here and sharing pictures.  I hope you did, too!