Welcome to Something Completely Different Petroglyphs Provincial Park

Without actually counting them on a map, you might think it's funny that I have been talking for three years about seeing 108, then 103 overnight camping provincial parks. So today I counted and found out that the Internet is flawed.

Yeah.  It's not me Internet, it's you!

It's always good to do your own homework, but I still might get an F because it's three years late.  I'm still blaming the internet.  I have now come to some interesting conclusions that may have an effect on what I write about and see in the future.  Now everyone put your math hats on; my math hat is a pork pie.  The "Parks Guide 2014" (I don't know why I never picked up a 2015 guide) lists a total of 110 separate parks, but 14 of them are day use only.  I use the term separate parks because, not including interior or back country, there are 2 campgrounds/parks at Rainbow Falls, 3 in Lake Superior Provincial Park, and 11 at Algonquin for a total of 13 extra campgrounds. Hence we either have 110 separate parks to check out or 109 campgrounds to stay at -- I am choosing the easier task I think by visiting the 110 separate parks, we'll see what Beverley thinks.  The first day-use provincial park I am going to talk about is Petroglyphs Provincial Park just south-east of Kawartha Highlands and straight south of Silent Lake Provincial Park.

Original Petroglyphs Provincial Park sign.  I can almost hear the Hinterland Who's Who theme as I look at this. I think this episode would be about the Long Tailed Turtle 

Petroglyphs Provincial Park houses the largest concentration of rock carvings in Canada.  They were accidentally found by a prospector for the Industrial Minerals Department of Canada in 1954, how long they were lost for no one knows.

Everett Davis learning a thing or two while stepping on sacred stone and using black crayon to highlight the carvings.

Estimated to be carved in soft white marble 600-1100 years ago by the Algonkian speaking people, they predate European contact and are referred to as Kinomagewapkong or "The Rocks that Teach". In 1984 a building was constructed over the petroglyphs to protect them from weathering, frost shattering the carvings, and the growth of algae over the carvings.

No photographs are allowed inside the building like a Mennonite carriage thus you'll have to go see it for yourselves.

Petroglyphs Provincial Park is open from 10am to 5pm daily from the second Friday in May until Thanksgiving.

I think this carving is about an elder whose eye exploded because the children were being too loud while he was telling a story.

Now that the lesson is over, Beverley and I went to PPP on the way home from Silent Lake Provincial Park and we spent around two hours exploring the grounds, petroglyphs, and Learning Place.  There are four hikes at this 1643 hectare day-use park and if you did them all it would take you at most 6 hours.  We didn't do any of them, but the only thing I would have wanted to see is McGinnis Lake a meromictic lake where the water at three different levels never mixes and in the bottom 12 metres of the lake it's 5-6 degrees Celsius and has zero oxygen.

Instead of hiking, we spent about an hour looking at the petroglyphs and then tracing a couple that we liked from casts provided.

I suggest to do what the researchers did and fill in what's carved, don't do a rubbing like a grave stone.  Yes these are the ones Bev and I did.

After soaking it all in, we then went to the Learning Place where you can watch films and read more on the petroglyphs.  The weird thing is no one knows exactly what the rocks are trying to teach, but it is still very interesting especially when you make up your own teaching stories to go along with the carvings.  Taking everything into account this is a worthwhile spot to stop if you are camping at Silent Lake, Kawartha Highlands, Lake St. Peter, or anything on the east end of Algonquin because your entrance is free with your camping permit.  Lastly because there are only 14 of these day-use provincial parks I have to create a new system for ranking, so here it goes:

Hiking and Activities:  Hiking yes, but no swimming at this day-use park.  Many spots to have a picnic lunch on your way home from another park.

Park Class:  Cultural Heritage

Recommended Length of Stay:  One hour if you want to see the Petroglyphs, 6 hours if you want to do absolutely everything.

Overall Impression:  This Provincial Park should be on your bucket list of things to see in Ontario if you are interested in cultural heritage.

Rating out of 14:  Well so far it's #1.  Since we haven't really seen any day-use PP I'd have to say this is the best one we've seen... out of one.

Perfect thing to do on a rainy day when your umbrella is upside down like this.

For those Campgrounds who are keeping track;

#2 Algonquin

#3 Quetico

#19 Sandbanks

#21 Neys

#22 Wakami Lake

#23 Nagagamisis

#26 Pancake Bay

#29 Chutes

#30 White Lake

#40 Mississagi

#43 Long Point

#49 Marten River

#51.5 Silent Lake

#52 Restoule

#53 Point Farms

#56 Inverhuron

#58 Rene Brunelle

#69 Sibbald Point

#82 Rainbow Falls

#91 Turkey Point

#92 Bronte Creek

Day Use
#1 Petroglyphs

Silent Lake Provincial Park -- This is Not the Sound of Silence

Hello camping my old friend,

A car, a tent and a fire... Perfect.

We've come back for more fun again.

Can't you see the fun?

Cause the cold last year was not a big enough warning.

HELP! I'm cold.

We got frost bite while we were sleeping.

Time for bed Bev?

But the quest that was planted in my brain, still remains.  Starting at a lake of silence.

"Shhh, I'm hunting Provincial Parks."

Welcome to Silent Lake Provincial Park May 17th 2014 and Bev's and my first camping trip this year.  This was also the first time I have went camping on May two-four weekend since I was a child camping with my parents, and I'm not even sure I did it then as I don't think we ever went this early in the year.  Question: Is it just me or when you call a weekend May two-four don't you expect it to come on or near May 24th. Answer: No, every seven or so years it's seven days early and next year it's a day earlier.  2nd Question: How is it that Queen Victoria has a magical birthday that can move around so it's always on a weekend?   Don't you wish you had that power?  Because of the nebulous holiday, Silent Lake was closed right until May 17th because it was covered in snow and most of the sites near us were puddles, luckily for us it was gone on our site by the time we got there (Otherwise I would have had to question the outfit above -- probably by just adding rubber underwear).

Our walk-in site right next to the beach, along a hiking trail and wide open to the world. 

This year I thought I'd be smarter (not much luck yet), and instead of leaving for camping on Fridays at 4pm from Toronto, I thought Bev could use our transit system to my advantage and take the 'GO' to Peterborough while I travel out ahead of time and set everything up.  Kind of a pain for both of us, but I would much rather do this than be in traffic for countless hours.  I guess setting up in the dark is on my Murtough list. When I arrived at Silent lake around 11am, I was the only one there (and ran around naked for hours) and I have to admit it was silent.  Even at 4:30 in the afternoon when I left to pick up Bev, it was still silent.  However, when we returned at 6pm it wasn't silent lake any more; it was party lake provincial park and I REALLY NEED TO ACCEPT THAT IS WHAT LONG WEEKENDS ARE FOR.  Note to self : if you want a quieter experience camping skip long weekends and go on a regular weekend like May 24th.

Whether 17th or 24th we were still too late to pick the Fiddleheads beside our site.  It's O.K. we brought our own and
we laughed and sung to these fiddlehead about how we boiled and ate their brethren.

With Bev there, we had dinner a little fire and went to bed.  Night 1 : Temperature low -3C vs. Layers of clothing for Beverley 2.  Suffice it to say Bev didn't sleep very well on the first night and at one point I found her on my back, vampiring my body heat for her own, with only about an inch of air mattress left for my comfort.  Skip forward to the next morning, we decided to hike the Lakeshore Hiking Trail (15km).  Likely the longest hike we have ever done, the trail follows the shoreline of Silent lake, Second Silent lake and goes by Quiet lake and Lost lake (found it).  This was probably the best hike I have done at a Provincial Park -- it was challenging, beautiful, well-marked, and unbeknownst to us... closed until further notice.  I guess I can say it should have been beknownst because a lot of the trail looked like this stream above, there were fallen trees across the trail, and if you got too far off you might never find the next trail marker.

Bev at hour four of our hike.  

Something that was funny if you ever hike this trail, there are steep incline signs when it was a gentle slope and nothing when you were climbing up or down a three storey hill.  It became a game for us to find the signs that were completely unnecessary.  Like this one;

As you can tell nothing to worry about here or behind us, but at other places it is like climbing a mountain.

Like this!  Grosse Morne National Park Newfoundland.

Night 2 : Temperature -2C vs. Beverley's layers 5.  Sleep no better.  The next day we hiked Bonnie's Pond Trail (3km) named after a horse that perished while dragging logs across it in the 1800's.  This was a nice leisurely hike in comparison to the Lakeshore hike.  It goes through boggy areas and mixed woods forests and of course by Bonnie's Pond.  This is a decent hike, but really if you are doing the Lakeshore Hike you should do this one first or it may seem anticlimactic.

Bonnie's Pond a great place to hear silence.

The last trail is the Lakehead Loop Trail (1.5km) and half of the loop is part of the Lakeshore Hiking Trail, so we decided half was enough, it's not eight but it's like four and better than zero.  This trail is an easy trail, good for families,  and it gives one an understanding of the landscape around Silent Lake which is mainly Canadian shield.  As a side note, the hiking trail maps that are normally printed in the provincial park guide are, in this case, sold for a twoonie at the park office -- cool little guide, but still nickel's and dimes wrong.

About as wrong as this.  But look what I found...

The Blue Headed Vireo.  The first bird in my blog. These birds are so tame you can supposedly pet them.

Silent Lake Provincial Park was opened in 1975 as a Natural Environment park about 20 minutes south of Bancroft or an hour north of Peterborough on highway 28.  It is a natural environment where people can explore by hiking, swimming, canoeing (didn't hear of a single person who caught a fish), mountain biking, or, in the winter, cross-country skiing.  It's only about 2 and a half hours outside of Toronto and it's open year round.  From talking with people who work at the park it sounds like fall is the time to visit.  They say the forest is more beautiful, the water is warm enough to swim in, there are more birds and other wildlife, and though they never said it, there would be wild mushrooms.

The only mushrooms we found were Morels just the wrong kind; False Morels -- deadly poisonous.

The sites at Silent Lake were built in the 70's and some sites are in hardwood bush (no privacy) and some in pine bush (should be privacy).  None of the sites except for ours and number 66 have a view of the beach, so don't hope for that either.  With this in mind the best sites are; in Granite Ridge Campground #94, 110, 134, and 137, in Pincer Bay Campground #30, 44 (a yurt), 45-46 (a group site), 47, 55-56 (another group site), and 57, and in the Walk-In Campsites #66, 73, 74, 80, 82, 83, 84, and 86.  You may have noticed I didn't put our site on the list because during our first day we noticed our site had a path through it open to everyone and that made it not very private at all.  Silent Lake to me is a conundrum, it is far enough north and large enough (3500 acres) that the sites should be large and private, but as you can tell out of 167 sites there are only 20 really good ones and none of them are right on the water.  This is a great provincial park for hiking, winter skiing and mountain biking, good for canoeing, and just O.K. for everything else. Night 3: Temperature -1 vs. Beverley's Layers 2 and she slept fine -- another conundrum.

Site Cleanliness:  Excellent, but so it should be as we were the first ones there for the year.

Privacy:  There were some private sites, but not enough to make this a good park if you want privacy or silence.

Hiking and Activities:  Excellent.  There was enough to do for easily five days even though they do not have programs put on by the park.

Park Class:  Natural Environment.  There are a lot of unique fauna that can be easily found in this park and when I arrived there were deer grazing along the road to my site -- they realized pretty quickly it was time to take off.

Beach Quality or Ease of Getting to the Water:  Beach quality was good (although it was way too cold for a dip), but most people would have quite a hike or even a drive to get to the beach.  One great thing is they have a raft at both beaches where you could swim to and dive off of.  It would have been great fun.

Here is what it looks like.

Recommended Length of Stay:  Five days -- I'm not a big fan of this park, but you could still fill five days.  It takes a whole day to do the 15km hike.  One day to recover.  One day for a canoe and maybe a fish. One day to do the small hikes and the beach and one day for put up and take down. 

Overall Impression:  I enjoyed my time at Silent Lake, but also it was the first camping trip of the years so it could have been utterly awful and I would have still loved it.

Now here comes the reorder of the year:

Rating out of 103: #51.5 I figure this is the benchmark middle of the parks we have visited so far.  Activities were great, the beaches looked nice, but privacy and access to the beaches have to put this park smack dab in the middle.

Some numbers have changed if you're keeping track:

#2 Algonquin

#3 Quetico

#19 Sandbanks

#21 Neys

#22 Wakami Lake

#23 Nagagamisis

#26 Pancake Bay

#30 Chutes
#51.5 Silent Lake

#52 Restoule

#53 Point Farms

#56 Inverhuron

#92 Rainbow Falls

#101 Turkey Point (has to stay there because of the bourbon)

#102 Bronte Creek

Old Rating out of 107: 

Again if you were keeping track:

#2 Algonquin

#3 Quetico

#19 Sandbanks

#21 Neys

#22 Wakami Lake

#23 Nagagamisis

#29 Pancake Bay

#33 Chutes

#52 Restoule

#53 Point Farms

#56 Inverhuron

#93 Rainbow Falls

#101 Turkey Point

#105 Bronte Creek

Coming Up Petroglyphs Provincial Park -- Day Use Only.

Pancake Bay Provincial Park : A Little Slice of Wonderful

It will become evident Beverley and I go north more often then most people (from what I understand most young men go west).  The reason for this is Beverley was born in Thunder Bay and therefore we travel to see her family every couple of years and when we do so, we camp.  After a great and tumultuous time in Algonquin we decided our next stop was Pancake Bay Provincial Park on Highway 17 north between Sault Ste. Marie and Wawa.  Supposedly, Coeur de Bois used to stop here with only enough flour to make pancakes before restocking their supplies in the Sault.  Personally, I think there could be a lot more reasons such as, the bay is shaped like a pancake, the sand is beautifully smooth like pancake batter and I like to make things up.

Wow! What a beach. I'm feeling hungry for breakfast.

Pancake Bay is like one of those oases (who knew the plural of oasis was that?) along the up and down crazy road between north and northern.  The beach is gorgeous, sandy and long with enough room to have your own private space, but if you want to get in the water I would suggest to arrive in either August or September or on one of those more and more frequent plus 40º celsius days.  It is Lake Superior after all.

Trying to look excited about not swimming. June 2010.

At Pancake Bay there are 325 campsites with 160 of them with electricity, but the best ones are along the water.  Which means even numbers from 102 to 122 for trailer camping, 124 if you want a yurt, 151 to 160 the closer to 151 the closer to the comfort station, 229 to 241the closer to 241 the closer to the comfort station, and 369 to 372 with a bonus number 367.  All of these sites you can walk right off and site onto the beach.  There are other sites that are great in this park, but if you are going to go all the way to Pancake Bay these are the preferred sites.  My personal favourites are 157, 232-238, and 367.

The view from our site. #236.

I would also suggest to spend at least two days at Pancake Bay because there is definitely enough to do in the area.  Agawa Rock is a great hike and as long as you are wearing non slip shoes you can check out the Ojibwe pictographs.  I do have to point out that if you do slip they have ropes in the water you can climb to get back on the ledge.  Thanks.  Slowly these pictographs are being eroded so take the time to see a glimpse of Canadian history.  Just a note that Agawa Rock is actually in Lake Superior Provincial Park so you may want to check this out if you stay at Agawa Bay Campground.

See what I mean by non slip shoes?

There are two trails if you like hiking.  The first is the Edmund Fitzgerald Lookout Trail which can be tailored to fit the length of time you wish to hike from 2 hours to 7 hours. There is a lookout where you get a great view of Lake Superior, plants, wildlife, and lakes, marshes and falls, oh my!  This is more of a hike for hikers, but it doesn't disappoint.  The Pancake Bay Nature Trail is right inside the park and is suitable for everyone.  It is lined with nine different educational signs that tell you all about the area surrounding Pancake Bay.  Things like the pitcher plant;

Natures insect trap.

Or conglomerate rocks that have been dragged by glaciers.

Run the glacier's trying to kill us.

I have a soft spot for Pancake Bay and I'm sure I'll be back here more than once after this ten year experiment, but trying to be objective here it goes.

Site Cleanliness: Good.  Just a little left over from previous campers.

Privacy: Depends on the site.  The numbers I have highlighted are good but others are not.

Hiking and Activities: Great.  There is a ton of hiking and they offer programs throughout the summer for campers of all ages.

Fire Pit and Amenities: Excellent.  All the fire pits are great, a picnic table for all the sites, and the comfort stations are very good.

Beach Quality or Ease of Getting to the Water: Amazing.  Again for the sites I have highlighted it is amazing, but for all the sites it is easy to get to the water and the beach is beautiful.

Overall Impression: I love this spot, maybe because my wife loves it so much, but also because it is beautiful.

Rating out of 107: Well, I have to be honest this is tough.  I'm going to put it at 29 for all women who wish not to age past that number, but as I'm sure you are aware it is going to be difficult to rank these until I have seen more.

Our blazer!