Outdoors

Bon Echo is located north of Napanee in the Southeast Region of the Ontario Parks system. It is known of "Mazinaw Rock" which is a rock face above Mazinaw Lake which is one of the deepest lake in Ontario...aside from the Great Lakes of course...and has visible native pictographs.

This particular trip will always be extremely memorable.

We were in Mazinaw Campground, Sawmill Bay, Site #93. It was a really great site on the very top of a hill, comfort stations were located at the bottom and it was surrounded by trees and very quiet. We had a resident chipmunk named "Ollie" who came to visit all day and night...he liked to sit on top of the case of beer.

There is a small lookout near the gate house with a view of Mazinaw Lake and Mazinaw Rock. We also went on a hike to The Narrows and watched the birds swoop and skim across the water. During one walk down our site road, we spotted a young deer grabbing some lunch off some bushes. He didn't appear to be bothered by us and stayed for a few moments before slowly wandering into the forest.

We spent a lot of time at Bon Echo hiking. We explored the Abes and Essens backcountry trail. We didn't see any bears but it was great hike and the trail was well maintained.

Bon Echo became especially memorable for Keir and I when we ventured in a canoe to tackle the Kishkebus Canoe Route. It takes approximately 5 hours to complete and is about 21 KM and includes portages. For those of you who have not done this trip before, keep in mind the following:

• Check the make sure the map in the park newspaper is to scale....
• Do not count on the visitors centre being open...we went looking for a map and info pamphlet for the route and it was closed for staff training.

Make sure you start the route at the beginning and not the end. Had we a proper map, we would have known we did the entire thing backwards....

On with the adventure....we paddled fom the lagoon to South Mazinaw Lake to Campbell Creek which took us to Semi-Circle Lake. We portaged over an abandonded beaver dam into Shabomeka Lake and then into Kishkebus which was a long and narrow lake. A little intimdating as it was beginning to get very windy and overcast.

We finally reached the last portage and hiked 1.4KM with a canoe, 2 paddles, and wet gear as it started to rain. It was mostly uphill as we did the trip backwards...next time, the trip should be much easier. We reached German Bay, then North Mazinaw Lake and finally returning to the lagoon.

Bon Echo is one of those parks where there is so much to see and do that you need to go back again to experience it all. Our next trip we plan to explore more of the trails and some of the side canoe routes.

MacGregor Point is probably one of the most beautiful places to explore in the Ontario Parks system. Keir and I had both been here before with friends or school trips and we were eager to go back.

The weather was good; it was warm with a bit of sun although some of the days had cloud cover. When you're hiking in the summer, sometimes cloud cover can be a good thing.

We stayed in the Nippising Campground on Egret Circle, Site # 135. It was a great site, large and private surrounded by lots of trees.

MacgGregor Point has amazing trails but hike with caution as there is poison ivy everywhere. Some of the trails are also not very wide so if you are exploring on a bike, take care of hikers who might step in poison ivy trying to get out of your way....like me (wash with soap and water as soon as you can, it will help).

There is a great beach which has a huge number of frogs. There is also a large playground area for children....or us because tire swings are the best.

Our favourite trail at MacGregor is "Tower Trail" which is aproximately 3.5KM and takes you around an amazing view of the wetland and has a great observation tower where you can waterfowl and other wildlife. On a previous trip, I was able to watch an otter swim at the base of the tower. A few weeks prior to this particular trip, a mother bear and her cub were spotted wandering through.

We also hiked around a small area called "Water Snake Pond" which was a fantastic muddy area with tons of frogs and of course, raccoon prints.

Sunset Point was a trail off the beach which had a beautiful view with the sunset reflecting off the clear water of Lake Huron. We also explored "Turtle Pond" which can be accessed by the Huron Fringe Trail off the Old Shore Road Trail. Turtle Pond has never been a disappointment for wildlife viewing as we often saw an Egret in the shoreline.

On our last day, we decided to take an early morning hike to Turtle Poind which lead us to an amazing opportunity to vew a family of raccoons enjoying some breakfast. There were four, a momma and three babies. We were able to quietly observe them for about five minutes before the boardwalk creaked and they scampered underneath.

We have been able to explore all the hiking trails at MacGregor, approximately 15.5Km...and we often did many of the trails more than once, they are amazing.

This camping trip marked our first of many outdoor adventures together. Murphys Point is located in the "Southeast Region" of the Ontario Parks system, near Perth. It is a beautiful park, family oriented and although on the smaller scale, it offers wonderful opportunities for wildlife viewing with numerous activities to experience day or night.

During this particular trip, we booked in the Fallows Campgound on Old Stone Road, Site #135. The campsite was clean and private with water and privy a few sites down. We like booking sites that aren't directly around those areas to avoid pedestrian traffic.

The weather was good for much of the trip except for the last day when he had to pack up our gear in the rain. Since then, we have purchased a very large tarp to hang over the tent area as we only have a balcony and attemping to dry the fly of an 8-man tent takes 2-3 days.

This park had been a place of childhood memories for Keir and I was excited to share in what he loved so much about it. We rented a canoe from the park store and picked our canoe up from Hogg Bay where we spent the afternoon on the calm water exploring all the corners and edges it had to offer.

We had the wonderful opportunity to see a loon gliding across as well as a beautiful great blue heron on the small island across from the beach. If you paddle quietly or stop and allow the water to carry you, you can also see many turtles sunbathing on logs and fish swimming under the canoe.

The beach at Hogg Bay had frogs upon frogs in the reeds and along the shore, they were fun to watch...I can spend hours looking for frogs...ask Keir.

We had a few nightime visitors wander through the campsite but the raccoons were very shy and kept moving through the site.

For our canoe trip and our walks to the beach we packed peanut butter and jam sandwiches and dinner came with the usual hotdogs meal. I introduced Keir however to the simplicity of campfire quesidillas and now we have them everytime we go!

Murphys Point has hiking trails but this is the only provincial park we have been to...numerous times where we have not hiked a single trail! The wildlife viewing is so amazing even from the campsites along with the enjoyment of the canoe trips, we seem to run out of time! Our next trip to Murphys Point will definitely need to include the exploration of their trails!

It is a beautiful place to be; the staff are extremely friendly, the sites are well maintained, and the scenery of the park leaves it to be without a doubt, a favourite of ours and we will always go back.