Monday Sep 6 Sleeping Giant Provincial Park.

After I promise to be super duper extra careful and to never use it anywhere near any water, I have my husbands permission to use his work phone to snap a few photos. So here, we can see what the last day of our camping trip was like. It is time to head back to civilization today. We have a meeting point at 12 noon, and if we don't make it, we aren't sure how to communicate. Through the outfitters emergency phone, I guess.

Matthew is feeling better today, but is not back to his usual energetic self. Otherwise he'd be in the thick of things helping pack up camp. :p

All that clothes hanging out to dry...maybe a quarter of it dried out properly, the rest we pack up loosely, hoping we remember to let it finish drying later.

Our bathroom facilities are a bit awkward at this site...the girls and I have to bushwhack quite a ways until the underbrush is thick enough so we can have some privacy. Which means your legs are at risk of getting wet, since the bushes haven't gotten much time to dry out between rain showers!

In order to fulfill my promise of being careful, there are no photos taken of our last portage, including a massive bees nest hanging right over the middle of the portage trail. We left it alone and carried on our way. We paddled through the lake--Melanie and Nathan were familiar with it and told us where to go. And then we sat on the beach and waited to be picked up. There were people with trailers and boats there. Including a guy we met on Sunday who'd come to our campsite to make sure his boat was ok. Finally our ride shows up. And we are in a vehicle with all it's bells and whistles.

We had decided to head south again instead of going back to the lodge to clean up...we'd rather save time and not have to re-drive over the same section of road. Ooh, look Mom got her camera going again! (Jennifer is more interested in the book she didn't get to finish on the way to Wabakimi...and Nathan has been bored of me and my camera for several years now.)

 

We decided to camp at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park. Stores are closed because it's labour day so we can't even buy fresh fruits and veggies (I was sooooo looking forward to that). Instead we had camping food for one more day. :( But the park had laundry facilities, which was amazing. Whatever soggy and musty clothes I could find got a good wash and a thorough drying. Absolutely amazing...just put in a few bucks, push buttons, wait a while, switch machines. Add more money, push more buttons, wait some more and tada!! Clean and dry clothes! Wonderful!

Even a picnic table is a huge luxury. Cooking in a comfortable position should not be overrated!

The rules and expectations of the park are overrated though. Please can you move the tents? They are on the grass. The poor grass might get wrecked. Oh dear. Fragile. This makes me (almost) want to go back in the back country again.

 

 We went for a short drive and then explored some walking trails. And found this outcropping of rock that was apparently world famous. The head has fallen off...I think it was supposed to look like a lion. This was as close as we were allowed to get. I'm sure it looked cooler with the head on. And from closer up.

We wandered around some of the trails ad checked out some of the steep views.

Off in the distance is a big hill. Apparently that is the Sleeping Giant. With some imagination it can look like someone laying down. Not from this angle though. That's all we saw of him.

There was an interesting collection of flat stones with names signed on.

Flat stones...we can think of other uses for...

Instead of signing our names we had fun rock skipping.

Yup, they are perfect size and shape for the job!

Back at our campsite we hang towels out to dry. Remember what hot water and soap are like? The showers are just lovely. But the towels are too late for the dryer, so they have to try dry the old fashioned way instead.

Fortunately we had some pickles in the van...it is the closest to fresh veggies that we can get today. It helps make our camping dinner seem a little bit more interesting.