Stormy Lake Lookout

Today was a bright sunny day and -23.  We had nothing on the agenda, so a snowshoe hike was planned to Restoule Provincial Park to check-out the Stormy Lake Lookout.  We had been here before Christmas without snow shoe and promised ourselves we would return.  So John and I packed a lunch and headed out around 1 pm.  We used mapper.acme.com to plot some gps points and print out a topo map--one large and one close-up of the area.

There was some ice on the back roads so I had to drive with care.  But we soon arrived at our destination.  You can see the cluster of markers on the map in Restoule Provincial Park.

We parked the van at the entrance to the park (marker F) and walked about 400 m down a road to the trail head (marker G).  There was a very sleight wind and my face started to freeze in the 10 mintute walk to the trail.  Once on the trail and in the trees we had only to contend with the -23 temperature.  I didn't know the direction of the trail--only that it eventually led to the fire tower (marker J)

The walk was beautiful.  The sun shone bright through the snow covered trees.  After about an hour we checked our location with the gps and our topo map.  We still were only about half way.  At this temperature I didn't want to take any chances getting lost or extending our hike beyond day light.  So we stopped for hot choc and a snack and John looked out over a cliff.

While hiking back to the van John heard the faint sound of a woodpecker.  He spotted it and we moved in closer to get some video and pictures.

Internet Photo of Pileated Woodpecker

We were able to get quite close and see that it was a Pileated woodpecker.  You can hear the sound he makes as he bores into the tree.

It is always cool to observe wildlife and not interfere with what they are doing.

Good spotting John!

The Restoule area is very scenic and beautiful.  We will be going back for sure.

Promised Land Camp

This adventure happened a couple of nights ago and I'm just now getting around to recording what happened.  My good friend Bernie Zweerman along with his son Brandon and family friend Jason were visiting the area for some ice-fishing and they were staying at Promised Land Camp.

Brandon, Jason, Patty Ann, Bernie Z

 Marker B on the map shows the location of their cottage--number 4. A very nice cottage.

Patty Ann Dennis and I were invited for steak dinner at 7:30 pm.  PA brought a cake.  Thoughtful.

Promised Land Camp is about 30 km from North Bay.  The roads were clear and dark.  It was mild at about -3.  We arrived and enjoyed a terrific meal.  Jason was the chef on the BBQ and managed  4 different steak requests.  Nice work.  Medium-well for me.  I'm not really a big steak guy--having gout will do that to you.  However, it was delicious, along with mashed potatoes and green peas and Patty Ann's cake.

Bernie, Jason, and Brandon are all very knowledgeable about animals.  It was neat to listen to them talk about their own adventures with nature and animals.  Cool people.

"You want to see a deer carcass?" (WARNING: my son John suggested I put a warning regarding the video below.  It shows the remains of a deer after being partially eaten by wolves.

That's sort of the way it is with Bernie--if there is something unusual or incredible around he will find it.  Small things or big things it doesn't matter--everything about nature is fascinating to him.  He is a retired science teacher.  So after our meal, we all suited up and headed out in the darkness and onto the frozen surface of Lake Nipissing.  The remains of a deer were on the ice, marker A (17T 0613724, 5108666) on the map.  The distance between the deer carrion and the cottage was 230 m.  The wolves had taken this deer down close to shore, and very close to the cottage.

As we respectfully examined the remains it was hard to ignore the sheer beauty of the night.  The cloud cover had moved off and now millions of stars could be seen.  The big dipper was prominent.  The temperature had dropped about 9 degrees in 2 hours.

We heard a wolf howl in the distance.

Nature in all its beauty.

I was in awe.

The Black Forest

We had no plan today. This was the last day of the holidays and the idea was to just chill and get ready for tomorrow. However, I got a call from Ralph Celentano and his friend Micheline. They were heading to their trailer on Shields Point Road near Rutherglen and invited us out for a snowshoe hike. So without a map or compass or even a lunch, we headed out for a quick hike.

The last couple of days have been mild and it rained quite a bit yesterday and last night. During the night the temp dropped and in the morning it was snowing. A beautiful return to winter for us.

We forgot that between rain and snow has to be ice. We found that about a 1 km from our destination. The road was glare ice under a 1 cm sprinkling of fluffy snow. When I spotted a hill with a sandbox to the side I decided to back our way out and change plans. The B on the topo map is our turn-around point, and A was our new location--The Black Forest.

I've been wanting to hike this area for a while. The last time we were in the area, I was in a canoe and John was in the kayak. I thought today we could walk around the the trails and make our way to the water.  There are a nice set of short trails and trail markers--so getting lost was not an issue.

Getting near the water was difficult as the forest near the water is quite thick.  We left the trail and headed to the sound of the running water.  John led the way.

 

A couple of times I had to find my own way because John picked a route over a few logs.  It was easy for him with his short snow shoes, but a little trickier for me.

 

 

This forest is managed by Henri Menard, a local environmentalist.  He has a company called Le Chantier 705 497-3046.  We met him at the beginning of our hike and he was obviously someone who cares about our forests and is enthusiastic about environmental awareness.  He asked John to tell his teacher about the forest and to bring his classmates back for a tour.