FRENCH RIVER, ONTARIO—CANOEING, CAMPING AND ESCAPING A FOREST FIRE. GRUNDY LAKE PROVINCIAL PARK, ABANDONED BUILDINGS IN STILL RIVER. JULY, 2018

Blog in the Polish language/w języku polskim: http://ontario-nature-polish.blogspot.com/2019/10/french-river-rzeka-francuska-ontario.html

More photos/więcej zdjęć: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jack_1962/albums/72157711430091198

I have always considered the French River area to be one of the most beautiful places to go canoeing and camping, so Chris and I were quite thrilled to it again. It was very hot and sunny and we were aware of the fire ban—well, we had to forgo sitting around a campfire in the evenings, but it was not the first (and last) time I had to deal with fire bans.

 

Hartley Bay Marine, from where we commence most of our canoeing trip on the French River

We left Hartley Bay around 4:00 pm and soon reached Wanapitei Bay and paddled towards its western shore. The campsites along that shore appeared to be vacant, but we kept paddling until we reached the ‘intersection’ of the Main & Western Channels. First, we checked out campsite #617, where I had camped 9 years ago. It was nice, offered a breathtaking view, but we could not find a good spot for the tents (except on the small beach facing east—and I really like watching sunsets). Besides, it was quite windy and we were incessantly attacked by horse flies. We saw blueberries bushes with very few tiny, dry and bitter blueberries.

Our campsite #619. In the spring this whole area is under water

We paddled to campsite #618 across the river, but it was occupied. So we continued paddling on the Western Channel for several minutes until we arrived at campsite #619. The campsite was not perfect, but since it was very humid, sunny and hot (over +30 C), Chris was extremely reluctant to keep paddling any farther. The campsite faced west and at least we could admire sunsets! It had nice rock formation and a fire pit already full of wood. There was a spot for at least one tent near the fire pit, but we decided to set up our tents on the small ‘beach’, farther down from the fire pit. By the way, we could see that probably during the spring thaw the width of the river increased by up to 10 meters—there were sandy deposits even in the forest. Well, we hoped that during our trip the river was not going to suddenly become as big as to flood our campsite—unless there was a huge rainfall or the dam near Lake Nipissing burst!

View from our campsite-sunset

Although we were not aware of any issues with pesky bears this summer, we still decided to hang our food. The problem was finding the right tree in the forest, not an easy task considering swarms of voracious horse/deer flies and mosquitos. Supposedly the food should be hanging over 30 meters from the tents; in our case, after almost one hour, we managed to hang the barrel with the food and the cooler about… 3 meters from the tents. I guess it’s still better than NOT hanging it at all… By the way, I again appreciated the bear-proof bins installed on some campsites in the Massasauga Provincial Park—I wish all parks had such bins.

Part of our campsite and a fire pit-unfortunately, we were unable to use it

The campsite had several rock formations, which were perfect for sitting or relaxing. However, it was quite exposed and it was difficult to find shade—we had to keep relocating our chairs all the time. Another issue was boat traffic—not far from us was Atwood Lodge (on Atwood Island) as well as other cottages, so plenty of motorboats (including, on a couple of occasions, a barge carrying construction equipment and building materials) were passing by all day. From time to time we saw canoes and kayaks too. At night we could sometimes hear trains’ whistles.

The pike made a tasty supper

It was our intention to do as much fishing as possible, but the hot, sunny & humid weather prevented us from paddling during the day, it would have been too arduous. So we ended up spending most of the time sitting at the campsite, relaxing, talking and reading books. Fishing from the campsite during the day did not bring any results. A couple of times we took the canoe for an evening paddle around Atwood Island and nearby bays. In no time we caught several pikes—some of them we had to release due to the size limits (we were not permitted to keep those between 53 and 86 cm in size).

 

The fish is being cooked... and the white dots are mosquitos, swarms of them, it was just unbelievable!

Unfortunately, when we brought the fish to our campsite to clean & fry, we encountered another problem: MOSQUITOES! They became very active after 8:00 pm and while Chris was cleaning the fish, I had to wave a towel to chase them off, but due to their huge numbers, it didn’t do much good. But the worst was yet to come: when I was frying the fish (on my propane stove, of course), a huge, dense CLOUD of mosquitos appeared and they were all over me and the frying pan, it was absolutely horrendous! Even though I did spray myself with a DEET-based insect repellent, it did not help much: while the mosquitoes were not biting me, they were getting into my eyes, ears and mouth. As soon as the fish was ready, we hastily ate it, with our headlamps on, standing close to the shore and still being attacked by multitudes of hungry mosquitoes. I’ve been camping for tens of years and it was the second time I encountered so many mosquitos. We quickly went to our tents and could hear the continuous buzzing outside for at least another hour. We decided to skip fishing in the evenings—even if we caught any fish, it was impossible to clean & eat them. One night we were fishing from our campsite and apparently caught a catfish—but it must have been very big because the 35 lb. fishing line snapped.

 

Garter snake was trying go catch a frog

Regarding horse flies, I found a perfect solution to get rid of them. Namely, I taped a sticky patch (from Canadian Tire) to the top of my hat. Because horse flies are somehow compelled to sit on the top of one’s head, the patch made the perfect landing strip… and once they sat on it, they stayed there… forever! Without exaggeration, this method eliminated 95%+ of flies

Because most of the time we just sat at the campsite, I managed to read a wonderful, yet very depressing book, „A Fine Balance” by Rohinton Mistry. Most likely the book and its characters will stay in my memory for a long time. It is a masterpiece—but at the same time the story is so horribly sad that at times I wondered if the plot took part in India in the 1970s or during the German occupation of Poland during the Second World War (round-ups, forced labour, forced sterilization). In spite of everything, I recommend it to everyone.

We didn’t see or notice any bigger animals on our campsite, not even a squirrel. Once I found a garter snake near my tent’s entrance—I gently grabbed it and moved to the forest. The next day my friend saw another garter snake, much bigger, near the water. As we were watching, it suddenly jumped towards a small frog, but it escaped. We also saw several birds circling above our campsite. It was mainly turkey vultures, looking for carrion. While fishing, we spotted several blue herons and loved observing them majestically taking off, flying and landing. On one occasion I saw a falcon and a blue jay. And we often heard invisible woodpeckers in the forest.

 

Smoke coming from the nearby forest fire

On the sixth day the weather became somehow peculiar—layers of darker clouds moved in, but it did not rain and we could still see regular clouds behind them. Soon, we noticed—and later smelled—patches of smoke. Obviously, there was a fire going on somewhere! The sun, shrouded by the smoke, appeared unusually red.

 

The sky was full of smoke coming from the forest fire

The next day the sky looked similar, leaden and full of smoke. We thought that the fire was very far from us and we were even planning to go fishing later afternoon as the sun was much less intense. Then before noon a park boat arrived at our campsite with an assistant superintendent (the same one that we had met 3 years ago, in 2015) and another park employee. We were told that a major fire had been raging in the Key River area for two days and that there was mandatory evacuation of all campers, cottagers and visitors, so we had to immediately pack up and head to Hartley Bay Marina.

 

The sun, shrouded by the smoke, appeared unusually red

Within one hour we were on the water. From Wanapitei Bay we could see the smoke in the south. There was a chopper flying above us. Soon we noticed many other kayaks, canoes and motorboats, all proceeding towards the marina. The park boat once again approached our canoe and the warden took down our campsite permit number, to keep record of those campers who were safely leaving the area.

 

The local firefighters near Hartley Bay Marina

Once we reached Hartley Bay Marina, we quickly packed the car, put the canoe on the car and left the loading area to let other people use it—and indeed, it was a very busy place, teeming with campers and boaters forced to cut short their vacation! At the entrance to the marina we were stopped by local firefighters who asked us to write down our names—that we had safely left. While driving on Hartley Bay road, the smoke was getting more visible. There was a police cruiser at the end of the road, making sure nobody was going back towards Georgian Bay.

 

At Grundy Lake Provincial Park-a fire ban notice. All campers followed this fire ban

The fire, called “Parry Sound 33”, which began on July 18, 2018, turned out to be one of the major fires in Ontario, scorching 11,362.5 hectares. It was officially declared to be extinguished on October 31, 2018!

 

Our campsite #127 at Grundy Lake Provincial Park

Out of my approximately 15 camping & canoeing trips on the French River, this one was the least successful due to the sweltering weather, fire ban, clouds of mosquitos and finally the evacuation that cut our vacation short. Of course, such inconveniences did not change my opinion on the French River—it was still my favorite place to come camping and canoeing! Well, it was another adventure and I’m looking forward to visiting this outstanding park again and again in the future.

Abandoned gas station and a service station in Still River, near highway 60

As we were driving to Grundy Lake Provincial Park on highway 69, the smoke became much thicker; it was like driving in a dense fog. All cars slowed down and had their lights on. Luckily, Grundy Lake Park was still open and there were some sites available. We stayed on campsite #127 for two nights. It was a nice, average site. The smoke from the fires had not reached the park, so at least we could breathe easier and I aired out my car which reeked of smoke.

Still River. Abandoned gas station

The park was pretty full and there were many families with kids. Of course, there had been fire ban in the park for some time and I was told by the park staff that it had been religiously observed by all campers. The park offered various children/family-related activities and had a naturalist center open.

The park had several lakes (no motorboats were allowed), but we did not canoe on them. According to the park tabloid, there were a number of paddle-in campsites for those who would like to experience more seclusion, peacefulness and wilderness.

I even found this black telephone at the abandoned gas station in Still River! In September, 2018, we stopped there and Catherine tried to make a phone call, using this very device (https://live.staticflickr.com/3001/2871020765_c26f01467b_h.jpg)!

Just vis-à-vis the park entrance was the new location of Grundy Lake Supply Post (relocated from the intersection of road 522 and highway 69). It sold gas, various camping/fishing supplies, basic groceries, ice cream, hamburgers as well as rented canoes, delivering them directly to the park. It was here that we had purchased our canoe in 2010!

By the way, 4 days after our departure the whole park was evacuated and 800 campers had to immediately leave it due to smoke coming from the “Parry Sound 33” fire.

At the Hungry Bear Restaurant

The next day (Sunday) we went for breakfast to the Hungry Bear Restaurant—just the previous day the place was encompassed by smoke coming from the fire—but fortunately, the wind had changed its direction overnight and the sky was perfectly blue.

We had an omelet and a 3-egg breakfast with coffee (free refills), it was very tasty and exactly what we needed after one week of canoeing & camping on the French River. On my way to the adjacent Trading Post I met Hungry Bear & Blueberry Hound who just emerged from their den and were very happy to shake hands and pose for photos!

Still Riven-an old gas tank

After breakfast we drove south on highway 69 to a town of Still River. On the east side of the highway we could still see the semi-ruins of a truck stop. I had spotted this building in September, 2008, while coming back from our fantastic canoe trip on the French River. Catherine and I had spent there about 30 minutes, exploring the buildings and taking photos of the gas dispensers and the existing structures. There had been a rotary phone which Catherine had tried using; whereas unable to talk to anybody, it had made a great prop for photographs! Then over the following 10 years I passed this truck stop on numerous occasions and each time part of it was missing or destroyed by humans or elements—and people kept dumping more junk around this place. So, it was almost exactly 10 years later that I, along with Chris, re-visited this place. Indeed, it was quite junky—now there were old boats, cars, a school bus and a myriad of other junk—among them, the black rotary phone! Part of the building was missing—yet when I entered the still standing building (it was not locked), I was surprised to see plenty of relatively new stuff, including some power tools. It appeared that somebody had set up a workshop there and was still using it. I was a little concerned that this place was open—after all, nobody else was around and for thieves it would have taken just minutes to grab the most valuable stuff and take off. There was a police station nearby and I wanted to report this fact, but of course, there was nobody inside. We took numerous photos of this place and then drove just across the highway, to an abandoned restaurant and motel. 

Welcome to Long Branch Hotel. Dining Lounge. Truckers Welcome

There was a big, faded sign that said, “Welcome to Long Branch Hotel. Dining Lounge. Truckers Welcome”. Alas, it must have been a very long time since the place saw any guests! We carefully entered the former restaurant/lounge. Part of the floor had caved in. There were some old furniture and some had stickers with prices—I think that before the place went under, there was an auction and whatever was not sold, still remained. The second building, the hotel, was also in a very bad shape. The main hall’s floor totally caved in. The rooms contained some broken furniture, toilets and drywall. All the windows were broken and the glass was everywhere—as well as graffiti adorned both buildings. It was obvious that vandals had been here at work for a long time; again, it is one of those things I could never understand—wanton destruction of property! We carefully walked around the buildings and saw some covers on the ground—perhaps the gas tanks were still buried underground, as there was a smell of gas. While we were exploring the hotel, a couple arrived and also embarked on a tour of the restaurant.

I think it was part of the restaurant

“If you’re planning to stay here overnight, there’re plenty of vacant rooms in the other building”, I told them. Well, one would have to be really desperate to take shelter there!

A hotel room, with a private bathroom!

Having spent two nights in the park, we packed up and headed home, stopping in Parry Sound. First of all, we went to Hart’s and No Frills, where we purchased a few food items and drove to the Sequin River, where traditionally under the train trestle we had lunch. Later we walked back to town and went to the new location of the Bearly Used Books bookstore. Now it was on the main street, in the same building that members of the federal and provincial parliament had their constituency offices. The place was huge, but in no time I found my way among the thousands upon thousands of books and soon felt like at home—or rather, like at the old location! As always, the staff was very nice and knowledgeable, quickly pointing me to the right area. Unfortunately, this time I was unable to spend too much time in the store, but still managed to buy three very interesting books.

Inside Jessica Vergeer's Studio. Vintage-style posters of Parry Sound, Wreck Island, Killbear Provincial Park and the Lighthouses at Snug Harbour and Red Rock.

Just vis-à-vis the bookstore, across the street, was Jessica Vergeer’s Studio. About a year ago I had seen some of Jessica Vergeer works online and I was finally able to visit her store. Indeed, the paintings were awesome and I could appreciate them even more because I had canoed & camped on Georgian Bay for years and had personally seen—or rather experienced—the one-of-a-kind scenery depicted in them. She is a very gifted artist!

Postcards of original paintings by Jessica Vergeer

I bought several postcards of original paintings by Jessica Vergeer as well as vintage-style posters of Parry Sound, Wreck Island, Killbear Provincial Park and the Lighthouses at Snug Harbour and Red Rock. Since I had visited most of these places by canoe and/or camped there, the pictures brought back plenty of wonderful memories!

Even though we were not able to spend a lot of time in Parry Sound, I truly enjoyed our visit there.

Blog in the Polish language/w języku polskim: http://ontario-nature-polish.blogspot.com/2019/10/french-river-rzeka-francuska-ontario.html

More photos/więcej zdjęć: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jack_1962/albums/72157711430091198

CAMPING WITH BLACK BEARS AND CANOEING ON THE FRENCH RIVER, CAMPSITE #609, JULY 27-AUGUST 3, 2015

Blog po polsku/in Polish: http://ontario-nature-polish.blogspot.ca/2015/12/biwakowanie-z-niedzwiedziami-i-pywanie.html

More photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jack_1962/albums/72157661833578890

Our route as per the GPS tracks

Twenty years ago, in August, 1995, I had spent one week camping and canoeing on the French River—we had departed from Hartley Bay Marina, portaged over the Dalles Rapids, reached the Bustard Islands and after spending two nights there gone back, this time portaging over the tramway and proceeded back to Hartley Bay. It had been my first canoeing trip in Canada and also the best one I had ever taken in Canada—as well as it got me hooked on canoeing! Since then I have visited the French many times—this is a magical area, very picturesque, containing here and there remnants of not so distant history. Moreover, the famous French explorer, Samuel de Champlain, had canoed on the French River in 1615; on August 1, 2015, it was exactly 400^th anniversary of Champlain's reaching Lake Huron (Georgian Bay)! So, I was looking forward to spending a week on this magnificent river (which, by the way, with its myriad of inlets, narrows, bays, islands, rocky isles and polished rocky shores hardly resembles a river at all!).

Our campsite #609 on the French River (Boom Island) was very open and spacious

A friend of mine and I left Toronto on July 26, 2015; it was very hot, +33C and we had air conditioning at full blast. Our first brief stop was at King City's Tim Horton's on highway 400, where they botched up my order—AGAIN—it had happened so many times before! Once we had something to eat and drink, we were back on the highway and it was a very smooth ride. North of Parry Sound we saw a steel memorial of a drummer on the right side of the highway. In early January, 2012, four teenagers had died on an icy stretch of highway 69. One of the teens was Cole Howard, 19, a popular drummer of a local band. His father, James Howard, had an artist create a likeness of Cole behind his beloved drum kit and the sculpture was erected in 2014. In addition, there were crosses at the site to commemorate the other teens killed at that accident.

In order not to rush, we decided to spend the first night camping at Grundy Lake Provincial Park. According to Trip Advisor's most recent reviews, there were plenty of mosquitoes as well as bears at the park, so we brought an extra can of bug repellent. We got campsite #113, the same Catherine and I had stayed on in 2010, before our canoeing trip to the northern portion of the French River. A short path led from the campsite to the lake, it was possible to sit on a big rock and the view was quite impressive! Plenty of campers were canoeing (no motor boats were allowed on the park's lakes) on the lake; although the park was probably 90%+ full, it was relatively quiet. There was a water tap just across the campsite and several meters further away clean bathrooms. We started the fire and had ribs. Amazingly, there were no mosquitoes at night due to the very hot weather. Serenaded by loons, we quickly fell asleep.

Fishing station on the Bustard Island in 1896. In 2009 we found and visited this location (refer to the photo below)

In the morning we quickly packed up and drove to the French River Visitors' Centre, where we spent 20 minutes looking at the displays and learning about the local history. One of the photographs in the Centre showed a late 19th century photograph of a commercial fishing station in the Bustard Islands in 1896. In 2009, 113 years later, I paddled to the Bustard Islands and located the same spot, albeit the houses, ships and people were gone... We also got our permits at the Center—and were informed that three campsites, number 610, 611 and 617 had been closed due to bear activity. Guess what—we actually wanted to stay on campsite #617!

The site of the Fishing Station on the Bustard Island in 2009, 113 years later. Houses, sailing boats and people are gone, but the rocks remain...

Following the visit at the Centre, we headed to the Hungry Bear Restaurant, had coffee & a light snack—the place was teeming with tourists and there were line-ups. In a couple of years the existing road 69 will be made into a freeway and thus the access to this renowned restaurant will become restricted; I hope the restaurant will survive this change, as it has been become a very well-known landmark for over 50 years! Satiated, we drove to Alban to do our last-minute shopping. At the LCBO store we ran into the owner of Grundy Lake Supply Post, from whom Catherine and I had purchased our canoe in 2010. Unfortunately, the company that used to make Scott canoes had declared bankruptcy several years ago. I told him that it was one of the best purchases of my life! From Alban, we drove to highway 69, turned into Hartley Bay Road and some 20 minutes later arrived at Hartley Bay Marina.

Kamp Kaintuck, one of the oldest camps on the French River

The main office was located just meters from the CNR railway and we went there to obtain a parking permit-parking cost $10 per day plus $10 for launching. We chatted with two very nice employees a.k.a. (co)owners who told us about campers calling the marina “that there are bears at our campsites!” They called bears ‘overgrown racoons” and I fully agreed with this nomenclature. I was told that Mr. Palmer (owner), whom I had met during my first visit in 1995, was still actively working at the marina. I quickly told them about Celina Mroz and Jarek Frackowiak, two kayakers from Poland, who had contacted me in 2008, inquiring about paddling on the French River. They had arrived in Canada in 2009 with their tiny folding kayak and paddled from Hartley Bay to Ottawa! I still remember a photograph of both of them on Hartley Bay Marina’s docks. In 2011 they went to Peru to paddle on the Ucayali River and were murdered in cold blood by local Indians while kayaking on the river.

View from our campsite; it was certainly raining in Hartley Bay

Once we got our parking permit, we slowly drove a short distance to the docks. I recognized the employee I had seen in 2008, who showed us where to park the car. I also took a photograph at the same spot we had taken a group photo in 1995. While we were loading our canoe, two women were also preparing to commence their trip, they were planning to paddle the Voyageur Channel (something I have to do one day) and another couple was going to the Bustard Islands (I envied them!). Once we were finished, I simply left the car with the key in the ignition (yes, the marina provided valet parking) and hopped into the canoe.

Our canoe at night

Once on the water, we welcomed a light breeze in this hot and humid weather. After about 25 minutes we left Hartley Bay (I mean ‘the bay’, NOT the marina), we entered Wanapitei Bay and quickly checked out campsite #601 on an island. We did not like it—it was too dark—so we proceeded to campsite #612, on the east shore of the bay. It was better, yet we were not too keen on it either. Since the next campsite (#613) was occupied, we crossed the bay, maneuvering among some islands and rocks, and slowly paddled along the western shore, eventually approaching campsite #609.

View from our campsite. Those ominous clouds made us change our mind and stay put instead of going fishing

It had a big, semicircular open ‘beach’ strewn with sand, rocks, pebbles and some vegetation. However, according to various waterlines on the rocks and on the ground, the whole site—and I mean up to 15 m from the water—must have been flooded during spring and fall (later, the warden confirmed that), thus leaving no space to set up tents during those seasons. There was a meadow deeper in the forest, in a hollow, where tents could be pitched, yet due to its location, it could also become quite damp and swampy if it rained. Since the site was exposed, we expected less mosquitoes. It also had a couple of fire pits and a new thunder box in the woods. Well, the two nearby campsites, #610 and #611 were closed, so we did not feel like paddling anymore and decided to bivouac here. Obviously, we were aware that those campsites, located just a few hundred meters from ours, were closed due to bear activity and that there was not any barrier to keep the bears from moving over to our campsite, but we did not really think much about this. So, we quickly set up two tents on the ‘beach’ and hung the barrel and cooler (both full of food) on a sturdy branch. Too tired to go for a paddle, we started a campfire and had a couple of steaks. We were facing several islands with cottages which were occupied as we soon saw lights flickering in the windows.

Chris with our dinner, i.e., a nice pike

Our campsite was located on Boom Island; according to the description on the official French River Map, “Booming out Grounds—during the logging era, this section of the river (exactly in front of our campsite) was used for gathering logs that were run down the rapids. They were put in boom and towed by alligator boat down the river.” I even found a very old rusty metal part of a machinery, likely coming from an alligator.

From our campsite we could see campsite #612 across the bay (which soon became occupied) and the well-known Kentucky Club Island (2 km away), where Kamp Kaintuck, a privately owned fishing camp, was located. It had been the site of an annual fishing trip for a group of Louisville, KY business and professional men since 1912.

"There is a bear at our campsite!"

Next day was very hot and sunny; since my tent was exposed to the morning sun, I had no choice but wake up—or suffocate. It was really impossible to do anything in the open, so we moved our chairs towards the forest and sat in the shade. I brought a number of books and while trying to pick one of them, I was suddenly startled by Chris’ (too) calm words:

“Jack, there is a bear behind the trees!”

Indeed, we saw a black bear—its black fur contrasted with the forest’s green canopy. It must had been watching us for a while; then it kept moving around behind the trees and finally faded in the forest. Just in case, we hung the cooler and the food barrel—after all, it was not after us, but our food (or so we hoped).

I started reading “Phantoms” by Dean Koontz and about 30 minutes later I saw a moving black shape in the forest—wow, another bear! It was followed by a cuddly, small cub! So, now we had a sow with a cub! The bears kept roaming around the campsite, but all we saw was their black fur and moving branches or bushes; a few minutes later they vanished in the forest without even giving me a chance of taking a photo.

Bear rummaging through our stuff at the campsite

Around 6:00 pm, when it finally got cooler, we jumped into the canoe and went fishing, paddling in the southern direction. I caught a very small pike and let it go. Then we paddled back along the shore, constantly casting. I snagged a bigger fish, but after a brief fight it got away before I even got a chance to take a look at it. As we were slowly approaching our campsite, being pushed by the light wind, I heard some clamor coming from the direction of the campsite—since a big rock blocked the view, we kept paddling vary hard to get an unobstructed view of the campsite—then we heard another clatter—and finally we saw the campsite. As I suspected, there was a black bear standing next to the transparent utility box in which we kept our non-edible stuff. It was probably over 200 lb. and was innocently looking at us, but quickly went about his business of sniffing at the plastic box, its cover already removed, and with his paw tried to poke around inside. We paddled closer and Chris came ashore, armed with a paddle, but the bear immediately took off and disappeared in the forest. The box had a few holes here and there, fire starters were chewed up and a plastic bottle containing red wine had a few cracks. We continued fishing and headed towards the small bay where campsite #608 was located (there were two canoeists camping there)—the bay was weedy and I thought it would be a perfect fishing spot. I was right—in no time I caught a 4 kg pike, about 90 cm long.

We immediately got back to the campsite—fortunately, the bear was not there, but the box cover was again dislocated, an evident sign that he was still hanging around the campsite. As Chris went to clean the fish, I washed the canoe, all that time observing the area and looking for the bear—I was afraid that he could have been attracted by the smell of the fish and come to investigate. Yet eventually it was not the bear that made Chris’ life miserable, but swarms of mosquitoes—they were mercilessly attacking him and soon plenty of horse/deer flies joined them. After he cleaned and filleted the fish, Chris took a quick bath in the lake—again, hordes of mosquitoes droned around him. Suddenly, he became surrounded by dozens of dragon flies which had materialized out of the blue and were apparently catching the mosquitoes—finally, we found allies!

The bear was very persistent, circling around the campsite

Minutes later we were sitting around the fire and had the last portion of the ribs (we left the pike for tomorrow). Before turning in, we religiously placed all the food and cosmetics into the barrel & cooler and hung them up in the tree. Yet nothing disturbed us and both of us slept very soundly.

Wednesday turned out to be yet another hot and sunny day and we spent most of the day sitting in a shaded area, reading books and magazines. Chris found two snakes—a green snake and a small red bellied snake, both totally harmless—as well as a few colorless hummingbirds showed up, one of them took a particular interest in Chris' head, hovering around it for a while.

We saw a bear again, but it was hidden in the forest and quickly retreated. In the late afternoon we wanted to go fishing, but the sky became dark and soon a light drizzle turned into a pouring rain. Well, we certainly needed rain; besides, I was afraid that should the heat wave continued, a fire ban could be imposed, thus preventing us from having campfires. So, we went to our tents and I read for a while, then fell asleep.

In the middle of the night I was awaken by an eerie cacophony of howling and whining, apparently made by a pack of coyotes. They must have been very close to our campsite, as the sounds were very loud. I awoke Chris and both of us were listening to this very loud, peculiar and surreal spectacle, which ended as abruptly as it had started.

On Thursday, July 30, 2015, I was up at 8:00 am, but drifted back to sleep. While in a middle of a dream, I was brought back to reality by Chris' shouting.

“Jack, there is a bear next to your tent!”

As I was hastily getting dressed, he was telling me that the bear just headed to the shore.

“OK”, I thought, “the danger is over,” and decided to stay in the tent, but two minutes later I was once again roused by Chris' yelling.

“There is the sow with the cub here!”

Well, I can’t get any sleep here, I thought and got out of the tent. Indeed, I saw it and a cuddly cub on the beach and they were going to the forest towards a small meadow. The bears quickly vanished in the forest and again, I had no chance to take a picture of the cub.

I walked towards the forest, sat in the chair and drank my tea, when I heard Chris again.

“Look, there is a bear on the rocks, on the other site of the campsite!”

Indeed, a medium size bear (probably the same one we had seen before) was slowly walking on the rock formations towards our barrel which we had just lowered to get food for breakfast—exactly where we were sitting. I snapped several photos as the bear was slowly moving towards us. Then I stood up and in a very assertive tone of voice, shouted something. It stopped, gave me a nasty look and turned back into the forest—but a minute later popped up again and was wandering on the rocks nearby for some time, only to fade into the forest.

The bear was quit bold and kept watching us, hoping that once we are gone, he can put things in (his) order!

Finally I had my tea and we talked about all the excitement we had in such a short period of time—and then I saw a bear again, staring at us, its black head clearly contrasting with the forest's green canopy. It was the sow, followed by the small adorable cub—presumably the same ones we had seen two days before and in the morning. They kept looking at us, then slowly walked to the rocks and finally retreated to the forest, with the adorably looking cub awkwardly following her. Wow, I had never seen so many bears in the wild in my life before (except at garbage dumps), let alone on an interior campsite!

We kept reading books and at 4:00 pm we went paddling: first to the campsite on the left (#608), then to a bay with two campsites, #614 & 615, both were vacant. The other campsite, #616, was occupied. We wanted to paddle to campsite #617 (the closed one, which I wanted to stay on—our group had stayed on it in 2009 during our trip to the Bustard Islands), but it was so windy that we remained in the bay for a while. There was a small inlet in the bay and we paddled there; I cast and caught a small pike, just perfect for supper! Pushed by the wind, we slowly drifted back towards our campsite, passed it by and ended up near campsite #608, where Chris caught a small pike, but let it go. While approaching our campsite, I noticed that there was something blue on the ground—but since the barrel and the cooler were still safely handing, I did not think much about it. Once we got ashore, I realized that the blue object was our cooler's lid! To make the story short, the bear must have climbed the tree and although the cooler was hanging about 1 m from the tree’s trunk, it still succeeded in removing the lid and tossed out several bottles full of tap water (which we had frozen and placed inside the cooler—there was still some ice in them). Except for the bottles, there was just one other thing in the cooler—a box with dew worms—the bear pulled it out, but most of the worms remained inside the cooler. Once I lowered the cooler, I saw a number of tooth marks on its walls (in addition to the tooth mark made by another bear on our campsite in Algonquin Park in 2011).

The bear also punctured our water bottles (which were left on the ground), once more ‘inspected’ the plastic box that contained strictly non-edible stuff, such as paper towels, paper coffee cups, plates and damaged many of them—as well as damaged the box itself. In addition, it punctured two of our 4 l jugs full of spring water. It was a miracle that it had not gone into our tents! The barrel, where we kept all of our food, was safely hanging on the tree branch and was undamaged—it could not reach it.

Our campsite #609

We had brought several cans of bug spray with us. One can was in the plastic box—and we found it empty, with three holes, apparently made by the bear’s teeth. Considering that it was a pressurized container, when the bear bit it, the can must have exploded right into its face, spraying it with the rather unpleasant substance containing 30% of DEET. Since it was the last time we saw that bear at our campsite, we came to a conclusion that most likely the encounter with the bug spray was so unpleasant and literally unpalatable that the bear decided to keep away from our campsite for good. Well, maybe next time we would bring some pressurized cans of foul smelling stuff and purposefully leave them for a bear to bite at—that might be the best and harmless bear deterrent!

Chris patched up several of the bottles and jugs with the masking tape and managed to save some of the water. We had a water filter, but we did not want to use it, preferring mineral or tap water that we brought with us.

Chris cleaned the fish, I minced carrot, garlic and onions, stuffed the fish, wrapped it in aluminum foil and grilled it over the fire—it was delicious! We sat around the fire for a while and went to bed past midnight. We also admired the full moon—it was also the blue moon, the second moon of the month.

The bear tried to approach the campsite from the water

Friday was noticeably cooler, but we did not mind this change in the weather at all. We were up at 10 am and there was no bear activity at night, or at least we were aware of any. We wanted to paddle to Hartley Bay Marina, but noticed ominous black clouds and occasional lighting, so we decided to stay put. At one point we spotted, several dozen meters in the forest, the sow with the cub, but they kept away from us and almost immediately disappeared. Not long after it started raining; we sneaked into the tents and fell asleep, waking up before 6:00 pm, when the rain ended. For some time we were fishing off the rock near the campsite (the same rocks favored by the bear). Again, dark clouds were forming over the Hartley Bay area and it was probably raining there. Soon, we saw lighting and heard thunders. Suddenly it became windy and as we were ready to seek shelter, Chris caught a sizable pike, but because of the pouring rain, he did not have the time to clean it and just left it on a rock as we rushed to the tents. Soon it was pouring as well as a storm blew up, accompanied by lighting and thunders.

Saturday, August 1, 2015, marked the 400^th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain's arriving at Lake Huron (Georgian Bay) after his journey on the French River (he must have paddled several km from the location of our campsite); we heard on the radio about local commemorations of this historical event. It was also the 71^st anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, which lasted for 63 days.

And you call it a pike???

As the weather was good, we paddled to Hartley Bay, passing Kentucky Club Island, but Kamp Kaintuck appeared to be empty at that time. There was plenty of activity at Hartley Bay Marina; we did not have much stuff, so we quickly unpacked, the marina employee brought the car and let us put the canoe on the canoe rack on the dock. We drove to Noëlville, a small town where most inhabitants were of French origin and spoke French (and English), although I was told that sometimes they had a hard time understanding French-speaking people from Quebec and France. We went shopping to the supermarket and then to the LCBO store. There was a small dollar store and I chatted with its owner for a while about vacationing in the Dominican Republic, as she went there every year. Later we stopped at the Hungry Bear restaurant where Chris had a cup of coffee, then drove to Hartley Bay Marina, launched the canoe and were on our way to the campsite. It was windy and of course, we were paddling against the wind! The most difficult stretch was crossing Wanapitei Bay; the waves were quite high, yet it was the head wind that made it very arduous to move forward—even though we were paddling hard, our speed was 3 km/h. Once we reached the campsite, we had delicious cold been and were glad to see no signs of bear rummaging. Chris caught another pike from the shore and we promptly had it for supper. We sat around the fire until 1 am; from time to time we could hear passing trains, which were blaring their whistle very loudly, its sound propagating for miles. I took a lot of photographs of the full moon and the canoe, using a strong flashlight.

Sunday was cloudy, but nice. We spent time reading and relaxing. I finished my book (“Phantoms” by Dean Koontz) and found it quite good, then started reading “The Nurse's Story” by Carol Gino, which was very touching and informative. For the first time in 2 days we had not had a bear sighting—we almost missed NOT seeing one, as we had gotten so accustomed to them—even forgave the buster that had damaged our possessions! Chris caught a sizable Walleye from the shore, cleaned it and as we were preparing to fry it, it started to rain and we put it in the cooler and went to bed without having a campfire. It rained very heavily at night.

Ready to depart!

Finally came Monday, August 3, 2015, our last day on the French River. We were up at 9:30 am and started to pack—first of all, we had to dry the tents and tarps, so we spread everything out in the sun all over the campsite. A motor boat arrived at the campsite with two park wardens. Actually, it was the first time I ever saw wardens at the park—sometimes I wished they had patrolled the park more often, as some of the campsites we had camped on in the past were such a mess, with broken beer bottle glass everywhere and fire pits full of garbage. They quickly inspected the campsite. I told one of them about the bears and even showed photos and videos; he said it was quite a big bear (although I had seen much bigger) and also said that there had been problems with bear activity at other campsite, campers were complaining about the sow with the cub. I also asked them about all the fallen trees near the thunder box—they had been felled 8 years ago during a violent storm. The wardens confirmed that in fall and spring the whole campsite was flooded. We were asked to show the camping permit—although I had always bought one, I was told by quite a few campers that they never bothered to get one as it was very unlikely to encounter a warden in the park. They said that so far, all the campers they had checked had valid permits. Eventually, the warden affixed a new sign to the tree just below the sign with the campsite number: “Campsite Closed.” Yes, it was due to all the bear activity! I wished I could have talked to them longer, but they were in a hurry and quickly left. Before departing, we fried the walleye Chris caught yesterday; whereas pike was very good, the walleye was absolutely delicious!

The wardens attached this sign to our campsite

It took us just under one hour to arrive at Hartley Bay Marina, which was teeming with activity, some people were coming, others leaving, and it was difficult to find a spot to moor the canoe at the dock. However, the marina’s employees were very well organized—one of its trucks had a towing hitch installed in the front so that it could easily tow boat trailers. I paid for the parking and Chris was gradually bringing our equipment. Ten minutes later my car was brought and parked at the loading/unloading area, we quickly loaded it and left for Noëlville.

Unfortunately, the supermarket was closed (it was a long weekend Monday) and we drove to Alban, where we went to a grocery store called “Lemieux,” bought several steaks, then paid a quick visit to the LCBO store and drove back to the Hungry Bear restaurant. There was an accident on the highway, one car was overturned and rested on its roof, another damaged—but I think nobody was seriously injured. Chris had coffee at the restaurant and I spent 30 minutes at the Trading Post, mostly browsing the book section—some of the books on the French River were awesome! Then we drove to Grundy Lake Provincial Park; almost all campsites were occupied and we were given a choice of 3—we spent some time checking them out and picked #152—it had an impressive old pine tree and we noticed there were similar massive pines at other campsites, too. Although there were campers at adjacent sites, we hardly noticed them. We did not see any bears (not that they would have scared us at all after our French River bear encounters), but plenty of very inquisitive birds kept coming to the campsite, trying to look for and steal our food.

Again, mosquitoes were not too bad and at night we were serenaded at night by loons—something truly unforgettable! Unfortunately, we did not have time to canoe on Grundy's four lakes, which do not allow any motorized boats and thus are very quiet.

Campsite #152 at Grundy Lake Provincial Park

Grundy is a big park, with many campgrounds, some catering mostly to recreational vehicles (RVs), others to RVs and tents, so the level of privacy might vary considerably, depending on the campground. It is a good idea to either do some research online before making a reservation or drive in the park for an hour or so to pick the most appropriate campsite.

The park offered plenty of activities—we went to the soapstone carving workshop at the Picnic Shelter. Participants could buy a piece of soapstone for $2-$60 and then turn it into a canoe, bear, heart or many other objects—tools were provided. It was amazing that even kids created impressive, shining carvings—it was an excellent idea to let people experience this activity! After all, similar soapstone carvings can cost hundreds of dollars. I wished I had tried to carve something, but knowing my manual dexterity, I was unwilling to try.

Although I heard on the radio that as a result of the hot and sunny weather ‘professional’ blueberry pickers had a very tough time finding blueberries, on Tuesday morning I decided to take Chris to my 'secret' spot, where last year blueberries were so plentiful that in no time the 4 liter jug became full of them! We took highway #69 and then road #529; as we were driving on the latter, we did not see any homes, just were surrounded by wilderness! From time to time we saw signs saying 'Fire ban-no open fires'—but I guess they had just become obsolete as it was pouring while we were there. Finally we arrived at our destination... and what a disappointment! Most of blueberry bushes were totally baked by the sun, its leaves dry and blacken, as if incinerated by a torch! There were some berries, yet very small and dry, totally unpalatable. After wandering for 15 minutes, we managed to pick just a handful of blueberries.

Campsite #152 at Grundy Lake Provincial Park

According to statistics and research in Ontario, human-bear occurrences (ranging from sightings to contacts) fluctuate with the availability of food in the wild. When bears have trouble finding food in the forest—and the lack of blueberries constitutes a food failure—they come out, looking for food and visit, among other places, campsites. Thus, it could be the explanation why we had seen so many bears on our campsite!

Disillusioned, we headed to Pointe au Barril where we had a slice of pizza and poutine, proceeded to the town's main store, got a piece of pork for tonight's barbecue and headed back to the park, which apparently had not gotten any rain. Our 'neighbors' had left and we could enjoy plenty of privacy. In the evening we put the meat on the grill—and then it started to rain! We sat under the impressive pine, which did provide some protection against the rain. I donned the rain-gear and from time to time checked on the steaks. Once they were cooked, we had them and quite frustrated, sneaked into the tent. It kept raining on and off the whole night.

View from our campsite

On August 5, 2015 we got up in the morning; the tent was still wet and we decided to dry it later at home instead of wasting time at the campsite. We made a quick stop at Pointe au Barril and drove to Parry Sound, where we went to “No Frills,” bought fresh salad, bread, feta cheese and mineral water for our lunch. We also checked out “Hart”, but did not find anything interesting.

We headed to the town's waterfront, where under the train trestle over the Sequin River, on the old Chippewa docks, we had our lunch. I wanted to show Chris the plaque Catherine and I had seen last year, depicting Tom Thomson's painting of the trestle made in 1914, but could not find it. One lady told me it had been vandalized! I also spoke to Keith Saulnier, the owner of Georgian Bay Airways Ltd. that provided air tours of the area (I had taken such a tour in the 1990s and it was awesome!). I thought about hiring a plane, along with 2 other people, in order to take aerial photographs of the Massasauga Park, Franklin Island, the Thirty Thousand Islands and other places I had visited by canoe. We also spoke to a fellow on a big cruising motor yacht—its tank held up to 500 gallons of gas and used about 1.5 gallons per mile. A very impressive—and expensive boat! There was a big speed boat, which could be probably compared to a sports car—its main purpose was to go very fast. We also took a look at other interesting boats moored at the docks. I showed Chris the Center for Performing Arts, but we did not have time to go inside. Drive home was problem free; before Toronto, I took the toll road and thus avoided the rush hour traffic.

Once again, our campsite and the bear

I wish we could have done more canoeing and explored other parts of the French River. Yet we caught plenty of fish and the highlight of the trip was undoubtedly the numerous bear visits, we will certainly remember them for a long time!

Blog po polsku/in Polish: http://ontario-nature-polish.blogspot.ca/2015/12/biwakowanie-z-niedzwiedziami-i-pywanie.html

More photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jack_1962/albums/72157661833578890