Coming up: Bronte Creek

Half an hour from our hometown
Will camp there for a night at the end of Sept.
with Ryan, Lyndsay and baby Ty if they bring him, too.
Tanner would most likely have another friend, Roxy along.

Bronte Creek is known for its maple syrup.
It also has good educational programs that are related
to Ontario curriculum for students. I would get to see it firsthand
and see what I can do for my students in the future.

Looking forward to this!

Emily Provincial Park

Length of stay: 4 nights, 5 days

Temperature: average of 26c plus high humidity.
3rd day, cool and breezy which was nice
because I got to snug into my sweater :)

Weather: Heavy, pouring rain, thunders,
and lightning during our first 3 nights.
Very cloudy during these days, several peeks of sunshine.

Park Quality: Has four different campgrounds,
Cedars, Hill, Circle and Lookout Sites.
Environmentally clean, big sites, accessible ramps
to comfort stations, good campgrounds for children
since they have a nice big playground and an amphitheatre.
Provided plenty parking spaces and numerous rentals
such as biking, fishing, canoeing, BBQ, etc
nearby swamps, has a lifted boardwalk
over the marshes but was closed.
Has two beaches but one was closed,
beach that was open was small and busy, there were boating docks beside
that dogs are found swimming there when no boats were pulled out on the ramp.
Hardly seen any poison ivy plants. Very open (meaning not closed
to plants when walking by) and organized in paths and roads.
Surrounded by busy chipmunks, moths, lady bugs and flies, few spiders as well as
raccoons who are our true thieves again :) Had a visit from a skunk, too!

Our Site Quality: (#97)
Good size, 3-wall designed by trees,
far from comfort station and water tap
if sites surrounded are occupied for short-cut.
Spotted grass, more dirt, under a few covered trees,
partially shaded when sun peeked through in the afternoons
Walked on main road to reach the beach.


Quality of workers: Young staff, always seen patrolling

Quality of neighbours: Camped by the main road,
seen a lot of passerbys, but trees around our site
provided good privacy

Attractions: Kawartha Lakes

RATE?

Did I like this Provincial Park? It was a manageable park.
Did Matt like the Park, too? I'm not sure. Gotta ask him.
Did Tanner, too? High five could be higher if access to swimming was easy.

Pictures, stories and movies to share!
COMING SOON!

Wheatley Provincial Park

Length of stay: 7 nights, 8 days

Temperature: average of 25c all week

Weather: hard to tell weather from onsite
where most sky is covered by tall wooden trees.
Often times, the weather was partly sunny, partly cloudy.
Our last day, rainy. We left before the town gathered 55mm of rain.

Park Quality: Has three different campgrounds,
Bosey, Highland and Middle Creek.
Very nice and environmentally clean, in deep woods,
nearby swamps, has two wooden bridges to go across to the beach,
beach has many fallen trees showing from top to roots, looking natural and artistic,
a few spots of poison ivy plants and plenty of various green, green plants.
Surrounded by various spiders, especially long legged ones and
raccoons who are our true thieves :)

Our Site Quality: (#47) our original site was #---,
we couldn't imagine staying on that site for a whole week.
Asked for a recommended site. #47, it was.
Awesome, beautiful, luxurious size and perfect for a week stay.
Spotted grass, more dirt, under tall wooden trees, fully shaded,
a bit of sun rays through on the edges,
perfect design for separating rooms from two-three tents,
to kitchen, to sheltered tent, to bon fire area
and our personal access to drinkable water tap.
A minute walk to the comfort station for shower and bathroom.
Near a walking trail to the bridge to the beach.
I could go on about our site.
Best site ever in my whole camping experience before this blog :)


Quality of workers: Once in a while, seen driving by our site. Friendly staff at office. When approached, gentle and easy-going.

Quality of neighbours: had no neighbours, but one far down our path.
Great privacy for a week, until weekend came...
nearly all neighboured sites were booked
but hardly seen them. Our site is well hidden :)

Attractions: Colasanti's Garden and Pelee Island were two
of several attractions we went to. Good choices!
Will tell you why with pictures and tales to come!
Another part of the attractions we wanted to try,
but didn't -- a beautiful golf course just right in front of the Park.
Beautiful course from our view, didn't go....
no desire to play golfing at the moment but do other things.

RATE?

Did I like this Provincial Park? Obviously!
Did Matt like the Park, too? Yes!
Did Tanner, too? High five!, he showed.
Did our friends, Jason and Jeffy who stayed for a week with us like the Park, too?
*awaiting their answers*
Did our other friends, Debbie and Jeff, who came for the weekend, like the Park, too? *awaiting their answers*

Lots n lots of pictures, stories and movies to share!
COMING SOON!

Long Point Provincial Park

Length of stay: 3 nights, 4 days

Temperature: at least 35-40c plus the humidity

Weather: clear and sunny all the way,
with bright moonshine or stars at night



Park Quality: no electricity, nice and environmentally clean,
a few minute walk to a small store and to the beach,
a small comfort station nearby, lots of trees and sand dunes
and plenty of poison ivy plants and flies. Several cute chipmunks.







Was mistaken for poison ivy at first.... studied the plant in the booklet
and finally identified the real plant. There were many of them.




Our Site Quality: (#251) sandy, partially private,
shaded in the a.m. and early p.m.
and full sunshine, slightly shaded from 3 to 6pm,
almost no breezes.



Invented addition of tent roof and umbrella for shade and breeze...
Screenhouse is a good shaded shelter but not good
for letting the breeze in, when there is a breeze.



Quality of workers: Always seen around, mellow and friendly.

Quality of neighbours: Friendly, quiet and a good number of peers for Tanner :)

RATE?

How do I rate our experience camping there? I wouldn't rate well because there are factors to be considered. Would I want to camp there again?

That depends. The sand is everywhere... They easily go into our stuff, our food and else. The hot weather didn't make sand convenient for us at all... With the sweats we shed, the sand was easily attached to our skin from head to toe and was hard to get rid of. See how sand gets in Tanner's mouth and his food area (only because Tanner dug sand for cooler surface)...




The sand was also discomforting for Tanner to walk on; too hot and too penetrating as well as irritating on his paws. Consequently, he is put on antibiotics for 14 days because of the infection that grew inside his paw.

His treats are hard to eat... You'd see Tanner's favorite red ball with milkbones inside in most pictures. He could hardly touch it because of the sand. To give him treats, I must hold my hand under his mouth for fallen crumbs or else he'd swallow them covered with sand.


Matt got this cardboard as his plate mat. This treat, you see, is called 'super chew' which is good for a weekly dose of nutrition. It was his first time having this kind of treat.





Because of his super chew treat, he made several more dumps than he used to and thank goodness for sand, they make it easier for pick up just like the ones in the cat litter box.

The flies and bugs were our true pests. See Tanner's first bite near his eye:


We bought Muskol, a Canadian product of Insect Repellent and sprayed ourselves nonstop for four days. Imagine sand stuck on us after the spray... Anyway, Tanner often tried escaping when we reached for the Muskol. After the visit to the vet today, he said to spray repellent on cloth and wipe it on him, instead of spraying on him. Tanner dislikes being sprayed by water, so it's likely the spray that bothers him.


Citronella candle helped, day and night!


If the weather is much cooler, I'd say I'd give it a chance. The park is beautiful... and I'd love for us to spend more time by the water but because of Tanner's limping from day one, we didn't want to make him go through on hot sand again or leave him at the site alone. Because Tanner did not enjoy his days at the park due to extreme heat and the irritating sand, we couldn't enjoy as well. However, we did enjoy there at nights when the temperature lowered.












It's just that the weather was the biggest factor.

See how heat has gotten to Tanner -- he panted, dug for cooler surface, and appreciated the wind of a truck ride and a swim outside our park where there were no sand dunes.


The ride to the park from home... already panting.


*endless panting*

Digging to no end...

Still not satisfied after digging *a big sigh*

Now, see in the sequence how appreciative he is with the evening ride and the dip in the lake.













Random pictures:






Next, we'd be off to Wheatley Provincial Park for a week.