Massassauga August 7-11

My fear of rattlesnakes, and my vivid memories of my fear last trip in Massassauga park when Philip told me about one shaking it's rattle at him when he startled it when he was collecting firewood, and all my phobias last trip made me hesitant to book this trip, but once again, against my better judgement, and according to my better half's better judgement, we booked a two night trip in Massassauga.  Then, after such a great experience at Bon Echo I even extended the trip to four nights, apparently completely forgetting which park I was booking at. 

To get in was a fairly lengthy paddle, which all but Jennifer enjoyed.  We also had a small portage (400m?) which was mandatory to get into the park from our access point.    We landed at site #7, and it was ideal for us.  Open enough to be sunny, giving Philip his much desired morning sunshine, a lovely view from the rocks, but also a nice play area defined by two hills, our camping stuff nestled at the bottom.  So, unless the kids were wandering through the bushes into the thicker woods in the direction of the thunder box, or heading far down the other "dead end path" we could see them all the time.  The kids were very good about taking company with them, and taking the company back too, even if it was slow Daniel. 

 Daniel spent the first while playing around the campsite.  New to us this year was the introduction of tiny kid backpacks filled with toys.  Toys for camping with!  They were thrilled with this!! 

Jennifer got grubby right away, and was very cheerful after her nap (tuckered out from her loud complaining in the canoe, and lulled to sleep by the waves) and she swas pleased to not go in the canoe again for a day and a half!

Melanie set out to domesticate our campsite, hanging up a clothesline.  After all, where would we hang our wet clothes to dry if it wasn't for her?   She also set up the sleeping bags, and did whatever arrangements were necessary for getting comfy that night.  She was not impressed to find out we had decided that Nathan Matthew and her were old enough to sleep in the small tent by themselves.  However, having a flashlight to themselves was an attractive feature that helped pacify her!

 Nathan wasn't real keen on this "kid tent" idea either.  Once we told him he could put an arm around Matthew, and an arm around Melanie, and look after them when they were worried, turn on the flashlight to show Melanie there wasn't anything scary, I guess he figured he would have to handle it and protect his sister and younger brother!  (After all, Mom and Dad would be right beside--our tent fly was touching his, so it would be okay, right?)

Matthew was very excited about this proposition of ours.  He said he was big enough.  Then he promptly picked up his gun and went to hunt for chipmunks and squirrels, to keep our food pack safe from these marauders.

By our second day, we found out that a tiny turtle was living right by our "boat launch".    We saw a frog too.

 Nathan caught a small trout fishing off the rock.  First fish caught by him, which is very exciting!  I do suspect he may have felt relieved when the trout rolled off the rock after Philip unhooked it, and could swim freely away into the deep water.

Melanie gave fishing a go too, after all, wasn't she with me when I caught our only fish last trip?  But the fish did not bite for her.  She caught a few rocks and weeds though, I believe.

Although the following picture is dark, you can see all the kids just keeping busy in their usual fashion, and enjoying the good outdoors.  Jennifer found the climb up the rocks quite challenging, and we always had to be near enough to hold on to her or bring her down if she did make it to the top-since the drop down the other side was very steep, and the water very very deep!

Daniel thought that chipmunk hunting was a great idea, and took it very seriously, as long as the chipmunk didn't get too close!

Having brave company when hunting makes it a lot more fun, and less scary too!

As soon as Jennifer got tired, she'd suddenly switched from being very excited, happy and content to being very clingy and cranky.  After a cuddle time, she was happy to lay down for a long comfy nap in the tent, and would be much more cheerful again when she got up.

Day 3 was time to head out to our second and last site, and since I'd forgotten all year so far, I quickly squeezed in a loaded canoe picture.  Our canoe was very loaded indeed!  We booked from Swift canoes this trip, knowing that if we asked for a 17 foot Temagami with an extra seat we would actually get it when we came.  (Other trip rentals from other companies have disappointed us when we've showed up for our longer canoe, and we've had to fit (thankfully!) into the regular 16 foot one that was available.

We had trouble steering this longer canoe, and could really feel wake from boats when we passed through any motorboat territory.  After a bit of meandering, we did learn to steer it-only it required both of us actively steering, when usually we have left the back paddler as the steersman, and the front as an extra engine (unless caught in big waves!).  Maybe next trip we will try two canoes, though Nathan and Melanie will not likely have stamina or strength to help-so we'd have to avoid big lakes and windy places so we wouldn't get caught by surprise wind and waves.

To get to our next site, we had a portage, but it was less than 200m, so very manageable, and the three older kids ran back and forth a few times getting our miscellaneous little stuff-I didn't bother trying to cram it all into our packs.  After all, we had a long paddle to get here, and another long paddle to go, so a great excuse to stretch their legs!

 Daniel and Jennifer preferred to keep me company.  Or I preferred to keep them company.

 Portages are great times to catch up on snacking!

 Matthew decided to join in the snacking after his last trip.  He was so eager to help out carrying stuff!

(Just one paddle Nathan?  I'm sure you could've taken more than that in one trip!)

(I guess Melanie didn't do a whole lot either.  To be fair, it was all that was left besides the pack which was too heavy for them to manage, even between the two of them.)

 We still haven't figured out what type of flower this is.  We haven't tried very hard either though.  Very pretty, and stood out nicely amidst the green.  Despite being bright, though, I missed it until Philip pointed it out, since there were blackberry bushes, and I only had eyes for ripe blackberries!

After more paddling, which involved a beautiful long narrow paddle down a marshy creek pathway, and then past a bunch of cottages (some including all the bells and whistles like satellite TV) and  we ended up at comparatively primitive site 610, not quite nestled in Gooseneck Bay, but right before it.  Right after we started unloading our trusty canoe, the threatening sky began a drizzle.  It drizzled for some time, and we had the tents and a tarp set up long before it began to rain more seriously.

We found this site a little less ideal for a big group of little kids-but I suspect that if it was really sunny, we may have noticed other attributes to the site.

We spent a lot of time under the tarp.  Day number 4 was rainy and wet.  The rain let up for a while in the morning, so we packed up our entire crew into the canoe and checked out Gooseneck Bay.  It was pretty weedy in places, but very secluded looking.  Beautiful, even in cloudy dreary looking weather.  We were the only campers in the 600 range of sites.  That was a bonus!  But we could hear motorboats occasionally off in the distance, since after all, we weren't far from a public area that was mixed in with Massassauga park. 

Seven people under a small tarp can get trying if it's drizzling into the afternoon!

 Camping is tiring in the rain.

 Jennifer was affected by the atmosphere as well.

I suspect that if I packed an extra set of clothes for all the kids, I'd have been more relaxed in the rainy weather.  And if I was more relaxed, and let them get a bit wet now and then, all the kids would been more cheerful too!

The rain let up again late afternoon, and the kids tried fishing again.  Nathan caught another small trout!  Then after dinner, the the clouds let down a much heavier rain, and we ended up going to bed a bit earlier than usual, partly just to keep dry.  After all, Mommy was worrying about the fact that she had only one set of warm clothes, and what if 2 emergencies happened, not just one?  After all, it was a long way out of the park from where we were camped!

 In the wee hours of the morning, the rain stopped, and in the morning we packed up under a cloudy threatening looking sky, ate snacks for breakfast instead of cooking the usual meal, and were "on the road" by 9am, a record for us!  Then what a lot of exercise!  I was energized by the memory of a cold last paddle out, and we made good headway.  The kids were very peaceful during our paddling, and Nathan even saw a big snake on an island that we passed by!  Once we were at our second (and last) portage, a drizzle started, but when we were loaded up again, it stopped.  We made it to the van dry except for the kids' arms, since I finally let them drag their hands in the water during our last stretch of paddling.