July 4, 2015 Chutes to Kilarney Provincial Park
Happy Fourth of July from the Great White North, eh?
After another fantastic night of sleep in Chutes Provincial
Park, we decided to get on the road for Kilarney Provincial Park about 300km
away. We don’t have GPS in Canada nor do
we have any phone service so it was old school mapping and asking directions if
we get lost, which we did. I missed a
turn off of Canadian Hwy 17 and we ended about 30 miles off course. When I asked for directions with the nice
lady at the gas station and how to get to Kilarney she was like “oh, ya know
yer on the wrong highway then, eh?” It
was pretty funny as I stated that was why I was asking her for directions—she
had a chuckle. I guess not a lot of
people ask for directions anymore face to face as everyone has a GPS or some
type navigational computer, somewhere.
As we thought we were getting off the exit to the Provincial
Park, I was relieved to see that we made the exit in a little under two
hours. What a great ride through the
Canadian countryside! NOPE. Once we got off the main highway it was
another 58KM on a rough two-lane to the park.
UGH. I had to keep checking the
rearview to make sure the bikes weren’t jumping off the rack and playing havoc
with my 20 year old cheap no-more-stretch-left-in-it bungie cord. We eventually made it with no catastrophes.
This park was MUCH different than Chutes, no “lock up your
valuables” signs, Canoe rentals, paddleboard rentals, kayak rentals, loads of
people—it was an awesome park, and huge and remote. Kilarney is a town of approximately 200-300
people as told by the Park officer and was still another 12 km down the road.
We got to our site. (Site 42 for future reference) and it
was incredible. The first thing I did
was look through the trees to see the lake and then walked to the huge boulders
that were bordering it right off our site.
The view was incredible. We pitched the insta-tent with the view open to
the lake below, then sat on the rock for about an hour just admiring this
place. Unfortunately the mosquitoes were relentless in this park too.
We found out that wi-fi was only available at the country
outfitter store nearby so we all went and stocked up on mosquito coils and also
checked out the tee shirts located inside.
GT loved the “easy to escape a bear, just trip your buddy” shirt.
Thought that was funny so we made that purchase for him along with a Styrofoam
piece with night crawlers in it. At
least he doesn’t want $2.25 huge jawbreakers anymoreJ
After getting everything caught up as far as computing at
the store we headed back to explore the campground. Like I said, this place is almost 32 miles
from oh, nowhere so as we were driving around exploring the campgrounds a
passerby let us know that a momma black bear and her three cubs were walking
nearby. We stopped and looked. What an
incredible sight to behold--in the wilderness, not the zoo, with a mama bear
and her three infant cubs following close behind her. We didn’t have time to get the camera so we
had to settle for crummy cell phone pictures.
The bears appeared to be unfazed by us.
Mama bear looked at our car, then the cubbies, one by one, pranced
across the road. It was one of the most
beautiful natural things I’d ever seen, but it also made me a little leery to
hike the trails around here.
We opted out of the trails and decided to swim across the
lake to the rocks on the other side. Gt,
after about an hour of pleading finally got me to go in the water with
him. Damn that water was COLD. I had to work my way to the depths in order
to get the whole body wet. How did I do
this? Avery knocked a plastic Powerade
bottle off the rock by accident and since, in GT’s eyes, there was a spider the
size of a tarantula out of a science fiction movie on a rock 20 feet away that
was more interested in eating 11 year old boys than other vermin, he wouldn’t
go get the bottle—just sit there and bitch how Avery put the plastic bottle in
the water on purpose. That was a fun
experience as how to get wet in brisk Canada water. 
The next task was to attempt to swim across
the lake to the rock that protruded from the other side. I don’t know how long
the swim was (5 miles?—ok maybe 1000 ft, I’ll have to check it on Google) but
it didn’t need to be long. I also didn’t
know how DEEP the water was either so that hurt my confidence a little
bit. Needless to say, I was a little
worried about GT making the swim over. I
was also more worried that, since I hadn’t swum a LONG distance in a LONG while
that I had a little bit of worry in my own abilities (insert family motto here)! After constant movement and telling GT to
‘come-on’ I finally realized that because the water was so cold, I couldn’t
catch a DEEP breath, ya know, the breaths that move the blood to your cold
muscles and keep them moving? My arms
started to feel like lead weights and I had to swim this one out and get to the
other side. I had a feeling that since GT was a good swimmer he would not have
a problem and I decided to get to the rock quickly. I couldn’t touch until I was about a foot
away from the rock, but glad I made the decision to get there. Once on the rock, my heart was racing,
muscles absolutely exhausted, and I had to think long and hard about the swim
back. Luckily the rock was jutting from
the other side of the lake trail, and not an island so I decided not to chance
it and to walk it. GT was a little
bummed that I wouldn’t back with him but I didn’t feel like drowning with no
lifeguard on duty in a foreign country.
Would have been a trip bummer, for sure, eh? We jumped off the rock once in to the
painfully cold water, and trudged it back to the other side where we swam (me
laboriously) in the shallow water. I’m
not sure how, but when we made it to the rock, there were PILES of an unknown
type crap on the rock. I’m really not
sure what type it was but it was REALLY gross.
Damn, I almost sunk swimming to get to this? Really Canada? Whatsupwithat, eh?
Don’t buy “IPA beer” in
Canada either, as it’s NOT even close to being the same thing. We bought some kind of Keith something crap or whatever
it was called and it tasted like Odouls and Lowenbrau. Gross. Didn’t even save the packaging, which
I like to do with new beers I try, and post them to my garage wall as a nice
wallpaper. Sorry Canada, your beers and
mosquitoes and big rock swims don’t make the cut but everything else so far has
been amazing, ESPECIALLY THE WATER right out of the tap!
Jen read about this
fresh fish place this is world famous so we had to eat there because I needed
energy to fish, and possibly hike later and hopefully not get eaten by
bears. We drove into town, and after a
quick stop at the store to reserve tomorrow night’s room in Niagara Falls (I
think we’re all a little camped out) we went to a place that served Pickerel
and Chips (French fries). The fish was
delicious, just as I remembered it when I used to live in the north. I drowned
mine with malt vinegar, mixed with tartar sauce. YUMMY!
Garrett and Jen like it too.
Unfortunately Avery is not much of a fish, or anything for that matter,
eater with the exception of starchy foods and carb foods and chicken and fruit
and veggies so we ended up at a local market (with a very sparse inventory
inside) and grabbed her some fruit, some cereal and some 2% milk. Everyone was happy. We checked out the small harbor town and
grabbed some pics of Lake Huron too.
Thanks Provincial Parks of Canada, it’s been a pure delight
(for the most part).
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