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.

Prelude to this Season of Blogging

I feel like I have a lot to explain, and not just about the picture below -- so last year I found out the province closed down 7 provincial parks.

This Quest of doing 107 parks in 10 years just got easier.

I don't know how long they were closed for (because we are going to one of them on June 21st), but the province was looking for help from neighbouring communities to keep the parks running.  It seems, after a little research, that Caliper Lake PP, Mississagi PP, and Tidewater PP have reopened in partnerships with the MNR and the closest towns. however, say goodbye to Greenwater, Obatanga, Springwater, and The Shoals.  I've found out you can still enter these parks free of charge but they are not being maintained and parking is very limited since the front gates are closed and locked.  Therefore my Blog is now about 103 provincial parks in 10 years and the ranking numbers will have to change.

Robert Fidler happy for two reasons; His quest is four parks easier and he loves his new/old clothes.

Second, the outfit.  Last year my last grandparent passed away, and before you get all teary on me, they all had big, far-reaching, and long lives and I was lucky to know them for as long as I did.  Last Christmas, presents were being exchanged of some of the belongings of my Whale grandparents and at least part of, if not the whole family, thought I would enjoy Elwin's summer relaxing outfit.  I told them I would wear it at least once on every camping trip this year and I am a man of my word.  So that completely explains that.

Sandhill crane from last September's trip.  Beautiful weird bird.

 Lastly, after camping in the early part of last year I realized I needed a new hobby because there were no mushrooms to find until late summer. As well as the outfit, I also inherited a pair of binoculars (which I forgot the first trip of the season) and a bird book. So with each blog will come, I hope, at least one picture of a bird I saw on my trip.  Well, I hope you're ready because Silent Lake is coming right up.

Restoule now tell me, Am I really going to love you forever, Oh, Oh, Oh, Or am I caught in a Hit and Run?

If you've ever been on a long trip there is often a moment where you'd rather be home, or in a bed, or dry, or any place, but where you are.  Upon arriving in Restoule Provincial Park, right after Cheaters Park and before that the curse of Lake Nagagamisis, I was on the brink.  Thankful for the great rest at Cheaters park and a chance to refresh ourselves, we were now camping well into the second weekend of September and the weather was not showing signs of being an Indian summer.  (Should be First Nations summer as it is not referring to a summer in the land of curries.)  While driving the long and winding road into Restoule, I was shocked at how many deer we spotted and it made me think of how, in a month, my father and brother would be shooting them.

"O.K. I'll make you a deal.  Don't tell your family where we are and I'll stop giving you the stink eye," Deer.
"Stupid deer" Me.

Not all of the provincial parks are open in September, so you have to check which ones stay open later, but if they are open, and you're game, you pretty much have the place to yourself.  We had our pick of the sites and chose a nice one by the beach.

Bev in welcome/tah dah pose at site 236 at Restoule.

The site was fairly private, but as always,  provincial park + hardwood bush = you can see your neighbours.  Luckily for us we were the only ones around so we had no neighbours.  After setting up we set off on a hike and mushroom hunt (Shhhh. We're hunting mushrooms).   The first hike we did was the Angels Point Trail (2.5 km) -- an easy hike where we killed a lot of mushrooms.  This was the sort of hike that you take with your kids or your parents just to get off the campsite.  That being said, because it was prime mushroom season, Bev and I enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

Pave this trail and it's a scene from Miller's Crossing.

The second hike we did was the River Trail (2 km) -- more of a moderate hike through another hardwood bush, we were surprised we didn't get to murder any mushrooms.  I think they got word and all went into hiding.  This hike was more our speed and beautiful, but because there were very few mushrooms, we enjoyed ourselves ever so slightly less.   Rangers Point (1km) is a flat easy trail that takes you along a river to Stormy Lake.  It is suggested that you take a picnic and go on this trail, but personally I think this is a trail to teach your one year old how to hike.  There is a nice view of Stormy Lake, yet let's put it this way; we didn't take a picture of it.

I now must confess.  We decided that we were only going to stay one night at this park sometime during our first day and when you do that, you have to be choosy on what you do and what you skip.  I don't feel right anymore only going to a park for a night and reviewing it, because I find that you always miss something (maybe a second night?).  On that note, the other two hikes are Gibs Trail (? km) which is a linear trail meaning at some point you have to choose to turn around and travel the same path back.  Gibs travels outside the park into crown land which I worry about because I think I would want to see the end of the unmarked, unmaintained trail and may never be seen again.  If we had the time I think this would have been our favourite trail and many a mushroom would have perished.  Lastly, Fire Tower Trail (7km) is a challenging hike to the top of the bluffs and a historical fire tower.  We did the tiniest bit of this hike through a pine bush and enjoyed it, however I have to assume if you have seen one fire tower you have seen them all.

There, now you've seen one.

It may seem like we didn't enjoy ourselves at Restoule and that is simply untrue.  We walked down to the beautiful beach, we did as many hikes as we had time for, and we checked out the entire campsite which is mostly a smart set up, with many sites at various elevations so no site is staring at their neighbours.  Due to this, I was confused by a bit of the history.  This park was originally a farm, but with all the hills I have to wonder what they were farming?

One of the Beaches at Restoule.  Pretty eh?

In an effort to include other points of view I want to say that a friend of mine, Charles Lehmann, really had a bad time here.  Upon further questioning (using the comfy chair and the pointy cushions), he admitted his drive to the park was long and uncomfortable, the water was too warm, the floor of the lake was mucky, he had a run in with an Ontario outhouse cobra and there was a fire ban.

Charles after his run in with the Ontario outhouse Cobra!

All of these things can ruin a camping trip and we are usually very careful to avoid these things at all cost.  For example: Fun Fact: to anyone who wants to go camping on May 24 weekend watch out that there isn't an alcohol ban at your park, unless you like it that way.  Personally I don't like being told what to do.  For us camping is about being together and great food over an open fire.  Enter the internal monologue : I'm not one to show off my food normally and a part of me is already feeling guilty for wanting to do it and another part hates the first part, but I do want to show the wild mushrooms and I've done that in the past without any problems.  Hell I do it again at the end of this Blog post.  Screw it, I'm going to do it.  Exit the internal monologue. Here is what we ate at Restoule.

Steak, and wild mushrooms.  I'm sure we had a vegetable not pictured here.

Restoule is also a great jumping off point for canoe trips, they have back country sites available all the way to lake Nipissing.  It looks amazing, but unfortunately I don't think we'll get a chance to try it for about 7 years from now.  The best sites are; at Kettle Point Campground numbers 424, 426, 430, 432, 435, 437, 438, and 440.  At Putts Point Campground numbers 233, 234, 235, 236, 253, 257, and 309.  And at Bell's Point Campground numbers 4, 7, 8, 16, 29, 39, 41, 43, 44, 47, 49, 50, and 53 -- be warned at Bell's it's a bit of a walk to the beach.

Privacy:  Decent.  There are private sites (look at the suggestions) and if you set up your equipment you can block sight lines to other campsites.

Hiking and Activities: Very Good and by that I mean there are quite a lot.  I was impressed with the amount of hikes, if you like canoeing you could easily spend 5-7 days at this park.  They also have programs run by the campground during the high season.

Park Class:  I'm guessing recreation.... and I am wrong.  This park is a Natural Environment class of park which means: "Natural Environment Parks are selected to protect large, representative, and ecologically viable areas throughout Ontario."  I really am no good at this game.

Beach Quality or Ease of Getting to the Water: You can get to the water from every site within minutes.  The beach quality was good, but to be honest we just got our feet wet due to the weather so I can't be sure Charles wasn't correct in his assessment of the water quality.  Note that you can also swim at Stormy Lake.

Recommended Length of Stay:  If you are canoeing then you could stay for two weeks in the back country enjoying yourself, but if you are on a family trip I would suggest 4 days.  A hike a day, a swim a day and rent a canoe for a day to check out some of the close lakes and fishing.

Overall Impression:  I liked Restoule, but we were there at a good time of year for me.  Privacy I think would be an issue if this park was full and it wouldn't be hard to fill that beach in the same circumstances and if the bottom is all weeds and muck well then you might not want to be in the water for long.  Two of the hikes were silly easy, but they had three that were/would have been fun. 

Rating out of 107:  Tough call really because I liked it and it has drawbacks, but I think it has to fall at #52 for all those times I played cards with my family and was left cleaning the floor of the cards.

Again if you're 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

And now a mushroom moment with Robert Fidler:

First we saw...

Oyster mushroom or Pleurotus Ostreatus. Edible.

Then, 

Amanita Muscaria or Fly Agaric. Poisonous.

Then...

Hygrophorus Russula. Edible.

And lastly.

Amanita Flavoconia or Yellow Patches. Poisonous.

Thank-you and good night.