Killbear - Ontario Provincial Park
Five months in the planning. Two vehicles. One week off from work.
At the most popular campgrounds of Ontario, planning needs to be done at least 5 months in advance. It is done on-line and the weeks get eaten up one by one by anxious would-be campers as the weeks in February and March click by. I grabbed our August 8 week at 5:00 a.m. on March 8. My first choice site was already gone by that time.
We live in Toronto, and Killbear, just north of Parry Sound is about a 3 1/2 hr drive up the 400. Sometimes the biggest challenge is just getting out of Toronto, but thankfully we left at noon on Sunday and laughed ourselves silly at all the traffic coming in the opposite direction, of long faced people that would have to show for work the next day.
My husband led our caravan of two vehicles. He's the dude with the tools which comes in handy when, as you're sitting in a parking lot after just buying some dairy supplies for the week and you just close your hatch, the rear license plate falls clean off the vehicle. My Escape is only 2 years old. He was able to reattach the bottom two screws but I'll have to make a trip to the dealership for the parts to reattach the silly thing.
We got to the campsite a little late and had an impossible time trying to light the fire. I finally put the steaks on at about 10:00 p.m. but the flame was so weak that we fired up the campstove and finished the job there.
Glen could only stay one night and left reluctantly on Monday evening. I thought from the look on his face that he wanted so badly to stay and relax. I was to find out later that he was actually very worried about how I would fair on my first camping trip, and with two squirrely little kids by myself. Thanks dear.
As it turned out, he may have had grounds because the very next morning...I met a bear.
The bear found our dog first who was tied to a tree just outside the tent. I awoke at 5:30 a.m. to the sound of Fred doing a growling, whining noise that meant he was in distress. I completely expected there to be naughty, haughty raccoons running amok just outside of his reach. When I poked my head out of the tent, I came face to face with a black bear. Fred was on his lead stretched to it's fullest as close to our tent as possible, curled up in a ball. Five feet from him, beside our picnic table was the bear. Twice the size of my 90lb dog.
Remembering the words of wisdom from my 8yr old the day before, the thing to do was to shine a flashlight at the bear. Back in the tent I scrambled, feeling around in the pitch black interior for something hard. I got my hand on a flashlight, flicked it on. And off. And on. The darn thing wasn't lighting up as instantly as I remember it always doing. I'm sure in retrospect I wasn't pressing the button properly. It finally came on and I blazed it away at the bear who hadn't moved in all this time. It was looking at me though and decided to skedaddle. It ran across our camp site, up over the rocks, and disappeared completely. And by now my son was awake and inquiring urgently about what happened.
We never saw the bear again but my cutlery was disappearing. I found a knife in the grass at the entrance to the site one night, and then the next night, the same knife was gone forever.
The kids had a great time. Justin met a boy his age the first day and they had a great time together. I am now happy I let him bring his Pokemon cards, as the boy he befriended had also brought Pokemon cards. Who would have thought??? The boy also had twin younger sisters for my daughter to play with. It was unfortunate that they had to leave on Thursday because we still had a couple of days to go and no one else my kids' ages nearby.
We went to the 'off leash' park, on the park property but a long car ride away from our site. The 'beach' was actually a 10 foot stretch of granular sand surrounded by lush forest and sheets of glacier-scraped rock. Fred isn't a swimmer but had a great time prancing about in the waves. Not such a good time with the other dogs. He gets downright hostile which is why we had made a stop part way up to the park to buy a muzzle. On it went. Then Fred spends the rest of the time trying to rub it off his head.
It was also at the off leash park, in the parking lot that we saw an over-zealous, rather thin, garden variety snake with a much larger frog leg stuck down its throat. The snake was writhing, the frog was trying to hop and neither were getting anywhere. My son was able to snap off a few pictures of this ridiculous scene before the snake gave up and slithered back over to a big log pile. The frog sat stupidly where the snake had left it until I nudged it into the forest. With such slow unresponsiveness, the frog might as well have a sign on its back "Eat me". It deserved to become something's lunch if it's just going to sit there. Mind you, it now had a rather large icky gash on it's back where the snake had sunk its fangs in order to hang on. Such is life.
I congratulate myself on how well organized I was for this trip though I had neglected to buy and/or bring a couple of key items. Ohhhh..like comfortable chairs, and proper coolers instead of the insulated bag someone from work had lent me. Otherwise, I really did have a handle on what we would need supplies wise and food wise. Heck, I had had 5 months to think about it, and most of that at work in our long stretches of inactivity. I had done Internet research, talked to people, etc. I had not put my camera on my list, but I had remembered to bring it anyway. However, I did not ensure I had a charged battery, and thus to my dismay, when pressing the on button found out it was completely drained. Does this really mean I need to invest in a second battery? Smart people are nodding their heads.
We were in a prime spot too which is probably why the two sites at our location had been snapped up so quickly. We had a tap for clean drinking water, reasonably decent outhouses with their own sinks, within clear site was the Comfort Station that had showers, laundry, and bathroom facilities, and down the road a 10 minute walk was the beach.
By the way, the site I had wanted foremost, which was already booked, was entirely empty the whole time we were on vacation. I know that in 5 months anything can happen to change peoples' vacation plans, but there is a cancellation system in place and I would have thought people would use this to free up the space but it appears to be not the case. Is it possible that someone would pay the $250 and take the loss because they can't be bothered to go through the hassle? There were a lot of sites available and yet on-line, everything looked to be taken. I should have asked at the gatehouse where we checked in. Our site was pretty good but I would have liked one that was flatter. The kids kept rolling off their air mattresses in the middle of the night and usually woke up on the floor.
I want to add a note about Fred that unfortunately put a nasty, long lasting damper on my otherwise pleasant thoughts about our vacation. On the Friday before we were to leave, at a site across the road from us arrived a large gaggle of about 3 adults and countless pre-teens, mostly girls. They were very excited about Fred and came over to say hi and to get to know my kids. They were extremely polite, friendly, and intelligent. But while my back was turned to attend to the endless cleaning, I heard a yelp and then shouting.
Turns out Fred, for whatever reason - being overwhelmed by all these strangers, or perhaps someone had accidentally stepped on his foot, whatever, he bit one of these girls. And badly. She had been petting him and he not only bit her but punctured her skin and she started bleeding crazily. I gave her paper towels and told her to put pressure on it and then I ran to the faucet to rinse out the hat she had had in her hand which was covered in blood dripping. By the time I got back she had made her way back to her own campsite and was being tended to by the adults. Of course their first reaction was to know if Fred had rabies. I know I am a responsible dog owner and I am almost fanatical in my duty to keep him vaccinated and otherwise checked up on by a vet, but these people don't know me, don't know my dog, and were concerned. They got my name and phone number.
As it turns out, the girl's mother made the drive up on Saturday to pick up her daughter and take her to emergency. last I was made aware, the daughter is getting intravenous anti-biotic for a slight infection, and she needs to go back for a second dose. I've had numerous calls from the Region of Peel's Health Dept of which I've done my best to return the calls but have not reached anyone. I left a message with as much info as I thought they would need and have left it at that. Now I sit and wonder if, as my husband and neighbour think..that this will blow over, or, as I fear, am I going to get a call from a lawyer about a pending lawsuit. The girl's mother and I have spoken at length and she seemed understanding, forgiving, very nice. I know though that all it takes is a whisper in someone's ear and someone can turn malicious if there is a profit to be made. Oh Fred. He's almost 10 years old and has always been only tolerant of my own kids, nipping them if they annoy him deliberately or growling at them for perceived disrespect. He's bitten my husband too but that's another issue altogether.
I would go back to Killbear and for longer if I could. With all the proper equipment and supplies, it could be a good place to unwind and enjoy nature. It wasn't fun for Fred to be constantly on a lead and to be in unfamiliar surroundings so I would have to think hard about whether I will take him anymore.
I'm glad to be able to give my kids this special view of nature and a taste of what self-reliance and organization can do for us. I don't know if they missed their technology, but if boredom was ever a topic I reminded them of the bag of 'homework' I brought up just in case. It wasn't a truly relaxing vacation for me, being on my own and still having to do the cooking, hauling of water, cleaning, etc., but the kids will get older and be able to be a better help and the exposure to the outdoors is enriching I think.
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