Pinary July 27th 2012

It's been a while since I've been to a park.  I've been spending a lot of time at my families property up near Bracebridge.  It's remote, it's quite, and there are no neighbours. 

All things Pinary Completely failed at this past weekend.   I must preface this with the fact that I used to LOVE the Pinary.  It still does have very nice sites, nice beaches, and great facilities.   Unfortunately it's under staffed, and security seems to disappear when it gets dark.    We had rowdy neighbours that were up and yelling until 2 or 3am each night!    It's hard to report them to the staff, when they are no where to be found.   

New Camping Season is here!

It's almost camping time!!   I can't wait to get away this summer.  I won't be camping at provincial parks as much this year, but i'll be visiting them for day trips and such!

Speaking of day trips, went to bronte creek for the afternoon on sunday!   The triliium trail was absolutely beautiful!   There were hundreds of trilliums blooming!  Mostly the white ones, but a couple pink and we spotted  red ones!   Also interestingly some that had green stripes, and some were entirely green!  

There were also some trout lilies, which are those cute little yellow flowers that look like they are turned inside out.   We saw Yellow and white ones.  I hadn't seen white before! 

Also in the mix was jack-in-the-pulpits,  buttercups and  wild strawberries!

If your thinking about heading out to check out the spring wild flowers now is the time to do it!   Trilliums are in full bloom and will be dying off soon!

Bronte Creek is quite a strange park as far as provincial parks are concerned,  firstly, the day use area, and camping area are separated by the creek, which is in a huge gorge.   There is NO road between them in the park,  you need to jump on the qew to get from one side to the other!

The other strange and interesting thing is that there is a farm in the park!  with cows, pigs and peacocks!   I think there is also a petting zoo somewhere in the park to, but we didn't get to that. 

On a semi-related note,  i was looking for somewhere to visit for the afternoon and came across Trillium Woods Provincial park, a lovely sounding non-operating park located somewhere near woodstock.   It's got a trail and that is all! The interesting thing is that it is NOT where it is if you put "trillium woods provincial park, ontario " into google maps, or where the little bubble points to on the ontario parks map!!  It's about 20 minutes from there!  
It's  here

just so you know! 

Brant Conservation Area

Recreational Rating: 4/10
Natural Setting Rating 2/10

Overall Rating: 4/10

This park only gets this high of a rating b/c i've got really fond memories of camping here as a child.   We spent all summer every summer here growing up.  it was sooooo much fun.   It's got the giant pool and splash pad, the river for canoing and fishing,  and lots of fallen down trees in the wild areas to climb all over.    

It's also notorious for drunkin partiers.   I remember one year, when i was a kid,   we were all sleeping, and my younger sister got out of her tent to go to the bathroom, she came back and there was someone in her tent passed out!!!  she freaked out and of course my parents thought she was crazy.  but turns out some drunk women had actually found their way into her tent.   

Another thing brant park is notorious for is racoons!  the park is full of them, and they are some of the smartest racoons out there.   we've had them get into all types of coolers,  vehicals, 1/2 bunt corn in the fire bit, anything, and they like to fight.  They sound pretty scary to kids when they are fighting!!

funny story,   one time we strung up a carp (the fish most common in the grand)  in a tree, just high enough for the racoons to have to stand on their feet to touch it...   they had it swinging back and forth and knocking them over! it was hilarious. 

they have nice dry firewood! they keep it in a storage container!  but it's pretty expensive.  the staff are friendly, and the park is pretty clean.   they clean the bathrooms at least 2x a day. 


there is a consesion stand that used to sell all kinds of awesome candy, like penny candy, 5 cent candy, all kinds of 25 cent candy, candy bags, and the ussual fries and hot dogs and they had a decent selection of freezes and icecream to.  now it's got about 3 kinds of boxed candy,  candy bags that are a dollar for 90 cents worth of candy,  2 or 3 icecreams and i think they still make french fries. 

another thing that has gone downhill is the events,  i remember when we camped as kids there was 2 or 3 things to do every weekend, now there is 1 thing on each weekend if your lucky.   they still do halloween in the park in late august which is pretty cool.

our trip to the park this past august was very eventful.   we had these neighbours that were horribly loud @ about 3am,  cursing, and being all domestic disputeish.  I went over and asked them to be quite,  not as nicely as i could have, but much nicer then they deserved.  3 were completely unreasonable and one guy was actually reasonable saying he was sorry and trying to keep the others quite.    they shut up for a while, but started carrying on again @ 6am.   well, we went up to the gate to complain and get them kicked out,   2 or 3 other people also complained, but it wasn't enough to a direct removal.  the head security guy went down to there site and told em it was there 1 and only warning and so much as a minor complaint about them would get them forcefully removed from the park.  

well, bout 20 minutes later the rowdies came over and yelled at us,  and they yelled at us across the road saying they wanted to fight us and blah blah blah.   then around 2pm one of them came over and started yelling at us for no reason, then threatened to pour lighter fluid on our tents and burn us in our sleep.  yup, classy guy.  needless to say our neighbours and us both got on the cells to the gate, and the police!  they said they'd be right down. but then the guy and his buddy packed there backpacks and started walking down the road!   three of us followed them! we lost site of them at one point, but found them at the dam.   we tried to stay out of site, and then the cops called my cell, and we followed one of them back right into the cops, and the other got across the dam.   they ended up catching him on the other side.   turns out he was wanted!!! 

so that was quite the adventure!! the park gave us 2 sets of 3 free nights for all the drama though!! which was quite nice,  the security guy apologized profusely for not being able to eject them from the park sooner to. 

I don't really have any pictures of brant park handy,  which is sad, it's not some nice huge oak trees, and lovely meadows and the river is nice, if you ignore the browness.

Algonquin Park

Overall Park Rating: 8/10
Recreational Rating: 8/10
Nature Aspects Rating: between 6 and 10 / 10

Algonquin is a lovely park.  It's got TONNES of very nice trails, and a wide variety of camp sites.   The trouble is,  the parks are almost always full, and the trails are like walking down a busy street there are so many people there.  Even when camping in the off-season (between thanksgiving and may 24)   because they close down 3/4 of the parks,  all the parks that are open are still very full.   The trails are quieter, which is nice, but when your camping in mid-april you'd expect to beable to get a decent site.


I know a lot of people think algonquin is the be all and end all of true ontario camping, but i beg to differ.  there are a LOT of parks that have way nicer sites,  aren't over camped, and have decent trails as well!

The one thing algonquin is good for is Interior camping.  no over crowded campgrounds there!!   I haven't tried it myself, but my sister went on her first interior trip a few weeks ago, and hasn't shut up about it since.

there are some good things about Algonquin i suppose, it's got a great park store, with a small cafe/ restaurant,  it's got that logging museum, the gates have lots of information about the parks, and if you go in early/mid may your pretty much guaranteed to see some moose!

I'd rather camp at Mikisew, Restoule, Lake st Peter, or Awenda before Algonquin. 

Bon Echo Civic Holiday weekend 2010

Park Rating: 9.5/10
Nature Aspects Rating 10/10
Recreation Aspects Rating 10/10

WOW.. this park lived up to every expectation that I had and more!  It is gorgeous!   The Mazinaw Rock face is breathe taking!  the staff are efficient and friendly, and we had one of the worst sites in the park and it was better then every site McRae has!




The comfort stations are brand new and   there are LOTS of out houses (flush and non-flush) through out the park.





The visitors centre has a lot of interesting things and lots of information about the park, and the staff there are friendly and knowledgeable, and very interested in what they do.   When we came in to report we saw a five line skink the  guy working was almost as excited as we were and he didn't even get to see it! 

The fire wood wasn't completely dry, but it was dryer then most we've had this summer, it was all birch so it burned anyway!

Bon Echo has a LOT of trails.   there is the 3 that are part of the Abes and Essens Lake totally 17km, the cliff top trail, high pines, the shield trail, and the bon echo creek trail.   We did the Cliff Top Trail, it's got a great view of the lake and the park, but the trail itself is nothing to write home about, it's incredibly busy as well.  But it is worth it for the view.    We did about 1.5 km of the Abes and Essens it's very nice!  quite rugged, i wouldn't recommend trying to do it in heels ;).   We plan on going back an doing the whole loop as an over night hike.  











My sister and I fished at Bon Echo for the first time in probably 10 years.  It was a lot of fun, we mostly fished off the shore of Mazinaw lake, and the first lake on the Abes and Essens lake trail.   We caught a couple bass, a pumpkinseed, and a small trout.  nothing worth taking home, but it was fun none-the-less.  I think with proper equipment and such there is fish worth catching somewhere in the park! 

There are bears, moose, deer, chipmunks, squirrel and all the other usual mamals in the park.  there's a nice variety of birds, and reptiles including the endangered 5 line skink! which is a cool looking lizard that has a bright blue tail.  we saw one on the mazinaw cliff face about 150 meters down from the dock.  

Like i said earlier we had pretty much the worst site in park (at least the parts we saw).  there was nothing between us and the neighbours behind us.  but the sites were both very large and i think there used to be a buffer but people had been over camping  the edges and killed the buffer.   pretty much all the sites in the park were very spaced out, had lots of undergrowth between them and were nicely staggered for privacy.

There is canoe and kayak rentals at the park as well, the are very reasonably priced and they have LOTS. they also had a couple of paddle boats and row boats!    

There is a gift shop run by the friends of bon echo, it's got all the usual ontario parks merchandise and a LOT of other very nice clothing for the park.  It also has a lot of toys, books, and art.  All in all a very nice gift shop.   One thing the park is missing on the store front is ice and other forgotten necessities!   this is something parks like Pinery still takes the cake for. their store is wonderful, but we're not talking about the Pinery.  


One other good thing about the park was the signs!  everywhere there was signs!  it was so easy to find everything we were looking for!

Mikisew Provincial Park

Overall Park Rating: 8/10
Nature Aspects Park Rating: 7/10
Recreational Aspects Park Rating: 7/10

This park is another Hidden Gem.  It's gorgeous, it's quite, the staff are friendly, the woods dry(mostly), and best of all, it's not over camped!   It is most definitely in my top 5 parks!  Mikisew is a bit of a trek off the beaten path, so there is NO highway noise and very very very little light pollution (better then algonquin).  Take your time on the little country roads once you get off the highway, they are a little rough, and very windy.   Not to mention you never know when a deer, moose, bear, fox, cat, or frog will jump out in front of you!

There are a couple trails that are across the road from the main park area, they are all worth hiking, there's lots of interesting trees, landscapes and rocks and such along them.  We took a picnic lunch with us on one hike and ate it on top of a series of giant rocks.  It was quite lovely, and because we were off the ground, the mosquitos weren't to bad either!    there is also a trail that goes along the lake shore and around the campground.  It's quite nice, but the ones across the road are nicer.  

As far as wildlife is concerned, there are plenty of birds,  dragon flies, butterflies, small rodents, and deer along the trails.  I'm pretty sure there are moose in the area and bears as well, but we didn't see any of those.   There are also lots of frogs, toads, and SALAMANDERS like the one in the picture above.   Please be careful when hunting for salamanders they are delicate, don't touch them!!  and please, put logs and rocks back where you found them,   carefully!.

One thing to take into consideration when looking into a site here is that a large portion of the campground used to be a pine plantation, so there is a LOT of pine trees, and with pine trees comes limited privacy because not a lot grows underneath them.    To compensate for that the sites are nicely spaced out.





There is no park store, or rentals, but the gate house sells the usual ontario parks shirts/pants/random stuff.   have i mentioned the friendly staff?   Both trips we took to this park the staff were amazing!  the first time we got to the park at around 11pm, they were just closing up the gatehouse for the night, and weren't mad at all that we showed up that late, with no reservation, and no firewood.    they put us on a random open site, told us we could set up on any site that was open and to come back in the morning to let them know where we were.

The closest civilization would be "The narrows"  it's about 5 or 10 minutes from the park. Theres a general store, a giant eagle carved out of stone, a beach and that's about it.   Have a look in the park news paper, there should be a coupon for buy one get one free icecream at the store!  The store at the narrows has pretty much anything you'd need but forgot.  a little bit of food, a little bit of toys, some general hardware and the like.   the people there are also very friendly!

That's about all i've got on Mikisew for now!

Lake St Peter Provincial Park

Overall Park Rating: 8/10
Nature Aspects Rating: 7/10
Recreational Camping Rating: 8/10










This park has everything Algonquin has except the over camped feel!  It's one of my favourite parks.  The first time I camped there i was a little kid, i think 10 or so.  My family was tent camping and we had one of the sites right on the water.   (which is a good portion of the sites).   We forgot one of the tents so me and my sister rigged up a tarp and slept on picnic tables, it was quite the adventure.    I've been back twice since and it lived up to my childhood memories wonderfully!









This park has a lot of very nice, sites, in general they are quite private and large!   the trail (which is across the road from the park)  features some nice scenery, with trees and rocks and cliffs and the remnats of an old hunt cabin.  It's all very picturesque and beautiful.



There is a park store, boat rentals, and crazy squirels that take all the needles off pine trees and nearly fall out of the trees!


when we were there last year the wood was dry to, which seems to be a bonus instead of a regularity these days.

That's about all i've got to say.  it's a wonderful park and if your looking for the "algonquin" experiene but don't like camping in parks that have no grass, or anything between the sites, this park is what you need!