Blog po polsku/in Polish: http://ontario-nature-polish.blogspot.ca/2015/12/biwakowanie-w-parku-long-point.html
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| Long Point and area |
In 2014 we paid a short visit to Long
Point Provincial Park and decided to return the following year. Indeed, one
year later, we were back, this time to spend a few days camping.
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| Poison Ivy |
Although the park gets quite busy and
crowded in the summer, the Victoria Day Monday on May 18, 2015 was perfect to
start our vacation, as most campers were just heading home. After driving around the
campgrounds and checking out campsites, we selected one in a sandy dune,
somehow protected from the wind, very close to the lake. It was facing another
campsite, yet during our stay nobody stayed there and we enjoyed plenty of
privacy. The campsite was clean and there were abundant poison ivy plants
growing around it, so we had to exercise extra caution while walking. The fire
pit was conveniently located in the middle of the campsite; unfortunately, it
was full of old ashes-I wished the park had removed them at the beginning of
the camping season. The campsite was very close to the water tap and washroom;
the latter was religiously cleaned every morning by park employees.
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| Our campsite in Long Point Provincial Park |
It was sunny and
cloudy during our stay as well as very windy. Fortunately, we did not see one
drop of rain. Every morning we sat on the top of the sandy ridge, enjoying
watching and listening to the waves; at night it was possible to see the lights
on the other shore of Lake Erie, in the USA. From time to time a bulky lake
freighter appeared on the horizon.
In the evenings it
was getting quite cold and we cuddled together around the fire—the firewood
sold by the park was excellent. Later we found out that the temperature dropped
a few degrees below the freezing point at night. Catherine actually put on her
down filled jacked and winter hat which seemed strange, considering it was hot
and summer-like on the day we arrived. The wind, although a little annoying,
provided two benefits: we could always hear the soothing sound of waves
crashing onto the shore as well as we did not encounter even one mosquito or
any other flying insect, which was just awesome! There were plenty of
red-winged black birds, very inquisitive, often checking out our stuff that was
on the table. We also saw a couple of ephemeral golden finches. Here and there
we spotted a lone chipmunk, but none was interested in us (or our food). One
night a raccoon came over to our campsite scattered some garbage hanging on the
tree.
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| Long Point Bird Observatory |
Since we brought
bikes—as a matter of fact, I had just purchased a new mountain bike—a few times
we went biking along the main street and side streets. We rode our bikes from
the main camping area to the old campsite which was still closed for the
season. We had read in the local paper that some officials were proposing that
the city/county buy the property from Ontario Parks and use it as Day Use.
Catherine got chatting with a park employee and mentioned this; the employee
said, “that will never happen”. The Park just spent a lot of money to upgrade
the facilities and convert 35 sites to electric.
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| Sandy dues and Lake Erie, just meters from our campsite |
We also visited the
Long Point Bird Observatory on Old Cut Boulevard, where we could watch bird
banding and were able to observe many different birds up close. It was
fascinating to sit a few feet away and watch the handlers weight, measure and
observe the tiny birds they caught before banding and then releasing them into
the wild.
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| Port Rowan |
The nearby town,
Port Rowan, had a few interesting stores, good thrift shop, old hardware store
converted to antique shop, restaurants and an ice cream parlor as well an LCBO
store and a dollar-type store which was packed to the hilt with any and
everything. The information booth on main street had plenty of brochures on
local attractions—as well as excellent bike trails in Norfolk County!
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| Map of the Lynn Valley Trail |
Thus, almost every
day we drove from the park and spent several hours biking on the Lynn Valley
Trail (from Simcoe to Port Dover), Waterford Heritage Trail and Delhi Rail
Trail—all of them were old rail line trails. The trails passed through forests,
grasslands and farmers’ fields as well as over numerous bridges and often met
up with other recreational trails. We absolutely enjoyed riding on them—there
were very few other users and we did not have to worry about cars!
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| Many years ago it was a railway, now it is multi-use trail |
We drove to the
town of Delhi, known as the Heart of the Tobacco Country, where 100% of
Canadian tobacco is grown. A lot of immigrants from different countries have
settled in Delhi and thus it is a very multicultural city. We saw a Polish,
German, Belgian and Hungarian halls/community centers; we were told there used
to be a Portuguese and Italian center as well.
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| Polish Alliance of Canada in Delhi, Ontario |
Later we visited
Port Dover, which was teeming with tourists and motorcyclists—for many years it
has hosted the famous “Friday the 13 Motorcycle Rally” and although it was not
a Friday, we still saw a number of bikers everywhere.
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| Port Dover |
On our way back
home we stopped at the Nanticoke Generating Station, the largest coal-fired
power plant in North America, able to provide up to 4,000 MW of power. As we
approached it, we could see two tall chimneys, plenty of transmission lines...
and almost nobody else around! Unbeknownst to us, the station had stopped
operating in 2011 due to pollution concerns, yet the plant was still maintained
for potential use with alternative fuels. We drove to the entrance and a lonely
guard emerged from the security booth. We spent about 10 minutes chatting with
her about the plant and its possible utilization in the foreseeable future.
Since she had worked there for dozens of years, she was very knowledgeable as
well as she had such a charming and unique personality that we were sure she
could easily be an actress or at least work in public relations!
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| Nanticoke Generating Station on Lake Erie |
Overall, we had an
awesome time at this park, enjoyed biking very much and we are already planning
a similar outing next year!
Blog po polsku/in Polish: http://ontario-nature-polish.blogspot.ca/2015/12/biwakowanie-w-parku-long-point.html
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