Burlington (Aug 15)
We rolled into the RV repair place in Gananoque around 8:30 a.m. and rolled out at 10:30 a.m. with a brand new toilet. These days it is generally cheaper to replace than repair – I presume they send the old one back to the factory for refitting, but who knows? In any case, we have a new toilet and it has a feature we like.
The “black tank” on the RV is essentially a mini-septic tank. As such, whenever we empty the tank, we need to add enzymes to the tank and enough water to make them happy. Our previous tank could be filled either by repeatedly flushing the toilet (which likely contributed to the valve failure) or by using the shower hose (which we figured out several weeks into the trip). The new toilet actually has a “fill” mode, making this task, which we do almost every time we move, much easier.
Usually when we move we hit the road around 11 a.m., so moving out at 10:30 felt very good – especially considering that we had already travelled 1.5 hours. We were in good spirits, especially when we realized that our good friends Don and Mindy were also headed to Burlington. Unfortunately, our schedules did not mesh, because we arrived too late and they left too early. Fortunately, they live in State College and we will see them next time we are home.
The trip was uneventful but long. We were struck by how aptly Vermont is named. At this time of year, it is all green, green mountains in every direction.
We pulled in around 4 p.m. and set up in Lone Pines RV Park, close to Lake Champlain. There are a lot of bicycle trails in and around Burlington, including one that is right across the road from the RV park.
After a long drive, Chuck usually spends the next day resting. I did some grocery shopping, and then checked out the bicycle trail, which proved not to be the main trail, 
but did take me to the lake. My work was beginning to pile up, so I also spent some time on data analysis for an urgent project.
On Thursday we were both ready for a long bicycle ride. The Island Line Trail starts a few miles from the campground, goes along the Colchester and Burlington waterfront and then takes the Colchester Causeway 3 miles across Lake Champlain to South Hero on Grand Island, the southernmost of a chain of islands that stretch up the lake to the Alburgh Peninsula. This is a rail trail that goes over huge marble blocks from the quarries in Vermont (discard, I presume).
A swing bridge on
the causeway that opened to allow boats through came down in the 1970’s and has been replaced by a bicycle ferry, that takes you across the gap (perhaps 20 feet) for $8 round trip. (Chuck is standing in the doorway if you can make him out.)
Once on South Hero, you can actually do a loop – if you are willing to take the on-road bike path and use the bridge on Hwy 2. We found even the regular roads on the island to be a bit bicycle unfriendly, though, especially as the main bicycle route, which has a wide bike lane, was being repaired. We wended our way through relatively quiet and very hilly side roads to detour around the construction, returning to the main route to get a dish of maple ice cream at a snack bar. (Maple flavored soft-serve ice cream seems to be a Vermont thing.)
We noticed on the bike trail maps that there is a hiking and biking trail through the John Roy Wildlife Management Area – off-road and parallel to the main street – so we decided to return on it. It turned out to be as rough as the mountain bike trail we followed in Gravenhurst – flat but lots of big roots and also possibly logs that had been put down to keep hikers out of the bog. Lots of mosquitoes, too – we felt that we did our bit for the food chain. However, it was pretty, and when we got back to the road we were past the construction.
Returning on the Causeway, we saw a number of wild minks running across the trail and along the marble blocks. No photos of the minks as they are too fast and too small – just us viewing them.
There are lots of bicyclists in Vermont, and no shortage of bicycle parking. Some of the bicycle stands are very imaginative, like this dinosaur stand near a playground on the Island Line Trail.
On Friday we decided to go into Burlington to do some sightseeing. A wrong turn took us to a small park on the pretty Winooski River.
When got to the downtown, we found that most of the main shopping area is a very nice pedestrian mall – Ithaca on steroids. It made for very nice walking and window shopping.
Continuing to the waterfront, we learned that there is a dinner cruise on Lake Champlain. Once we boarded, we discovered that we could have signed up just for the cruise, and ordered a good, but lighter dinner from the snack bar.
This would also have put us on the upper deck for the cruise. However, we did have a very good dinner buffet on the lower deck, where we stayed warm behind the large windows. The main dish was lobster, which Chuck does not like and I feel so-so about. However, they also had beef, which Chuck ate. I figured that since I had paid for lobster, and was headed to the east coast where I would feel obliged to eat lobster at least once, I might as well have lobster for dinner. It was nicely cooked, and in the end I had a second helping (i.e. a second lobster).
Dinner took up only about an hour of the 3 hour cruise, so we had plenty of deck time. All in all it was a lovely evening. The dockside restaurant was rightly lit up making a pretty sight as we docked.
Being right next to Lake Champlain, we of course needed to get the kayaks out on the lake. Fortunately, the campground was next to Malletts Bay, a large and somewhat protected cove. On Saturday we went for a long paddle and enjoyed the lake.
We headed off to Presqu’ile Park, which is on a peninsula jutting into Lake Ontario. It is full of bicycle trails, so we unloaded our bikes on the main loop and biked out to the lighthouse (and lighthouse museum) as well as the main loop. The lighthouse is pretty tall, and it was a bit tough to get a photo with the entire lighthouse in which
Chuck was big enough to see. 
Here he is sitting at its base and beside a model of the lighthouse in the museum. The lighthouse museum is on a spit of land that was apparently known for its warblers – we saw several without much effort, as well as swans and the ubiquitous Canada geese.
On the other side of the peninsula are fine sand beaches which allow swimming and kiteboarding. We went to have a look, and stayed to watch the kiteboarders. The water there is very shallow and surprisingly warm. (Off Toronto Island, where I occasionally swam as a kid, Lake Ontario is icy.) The wind was strong and steady. Up to 30 kiteboarders were in the water, zipping along at great speed. Some of the kiteboards are on hydrofoils – with enough speed, the surfer and board rise about 2 feet above the water surface, with only the hydrofoil in the water. As well, some people were doing jumps, lifting more than 10 feet into the air before descending to the water surface. It looks like great fun, and quite dangerous. I have no idea how you learn this sport – it seems like it would be a good way to get injured.
When large dark clouds appeared over the lake, we decided to head back to the campsite. It did not actually rain on us, but we had a rainbow and a very nice sunset. With our site on the hill after dark we had a terrific view of several thunderstorms which lit up the night sky behind the clouds.
In the afternoon, we headed out for the town of Picton, and Sandbanks Provincial Park. The town was a cute touristy town. The park was really hopping. We did not realize that we could go directly to the parking lot and get a sticker there. Instead, we spent almost half an hour in line, before deciding we would rather not pay the day fee (it was close to 4) and would park outside. (That was a mistake – we had to pay anyways, and I would rather have paid the facility we actually used.)
Once parked, we bicycled into the park. It is aptly named, with several very sandy beaches and lots of dunes. We bicycled around and saw most of the beaches. We could see why it is so popular – a great place to bring the kids for swimming and beach activities.
On Sunday, we decided to launch the kayaks into the bay between Presqu’isle Park and Brighton. This is a marshy area, with a lot of birds, particularly swans, and lots of marsh flowers. We had a nice paddle.
Lake Ontario is no longer as high as it was in May, but many cottages still had sandbags protecting their foundations or gardens. (These are the orange bags piled on the rocks.) I also spent an hour on the bicycle trail that goes along the shore.
Monday morning we needed to be in Gananoque (Ga-na-nok-kwa) at 8:30 a.m. for our appointment with RV repairs. We got up very early – our reward was a beautiful sunrise. We packed up and headed out in record time.
These are some of the oldest pre-Cambrian rocks exposed on the earth’s surface; millenia of erosion have worn them down to their granite cores. Any lake that is big enough has islands where mountains used to stand. Any hill that is big enough has a lake. One of our fellow campers works for a company that quarries and slices the granite for construction and this lovely polished slab outside his camper shows what it can look like when polished and sealed.
We debated whether to camp near the highway (or usual plan) or near a lake. The lake won out. It was a bit nerve-wracking to wend our way along the small roads to get to Silver Pines, but we do have a lovely view over Sparrow Lake. And we went kayaking before supper visiting several islands.
Sparrow Lake is bigger than it looks on the map, however, and there are lots of motor boats.
We started by having lunch at Tim Hortons, a Canadian donut store chain which is Canada’s answer to Dunkin’ Donuts. The chain was started in 1964 by hockey star Tim Horton, who died before it really became a huge business. Now there seem to be franchises on every corner in every Canadian town and city. The lunch food was very good, and Chuck enjoyed his dessert donut as well.
We then headed for the Gull Lake Rotary Park in Gravenhurt to launch the kayaks. The park has a band shell (behind Chuck in the photo) which is actually out in the lake. Gull Lake, which is the lake to the west of the highway, is very pretty, with many granite islands and rocky shores covered in forests.
I was reminded of the camp song “Land of the Silver Birch” whose lyrics include “still lake and rocky shore, I shall return once more”. Although I grew up in Toronto, I spent so many summers on lakes like this that it feels like a home-coming to be here.
The extent to which Canada has embraced cultural diversity is amazing. Fusion of local cuisine with the cuisine of many countries can be found everywhere. Gravenhurst is a small town, yet the park snack bar food includes (along with the traditional ice cream, hotdogs and hamburgers) shawarmas, falafel, samosas and my personal favorite menu item, butter chicken poutine. (i.e. I like the idea, it was too close to lunch to sample the poutine. Poutine is a French Canadian dish built in French fries, and usually includes at minimum, fries, gravy and melted cheese. Butter chicken is that creamy chicken dish served in north Indian restaurants.) We settled for ice cream, though.
On Tuesday, a glance at Wednesday’s weather forecast (bad) made us reconsider our plan to see the town, in favor of enjoying the good weather while mountain biking at Buckwallow Cycling Center. It came highly recommended on TripAdvisor and other searches. The staff member who met us recommended a number of easy trails. These trails may be easy for mountain bikers, but for us, on our touring bikes, they were pretty challenging. Although the routes were almost flat, there were a lot of tight curves, protruding tree roots, and steep (although very short) ups and downs over the rocky outcrops as above. 
After just over a hour, we were ready to pack it in. However, when we got back to the car, the attendant who had taken over asked us if we had seen any moose at the bottom of the trail. We decided to go back (using the easiest route) to take a look. Just a few feet from the trail there turned out to be a bog that was perfect moose and bird habitat. Alas, our efforts were rewarded only with a view of the vista and a lot of dragonflies. Still, we were happy that we went back.
We then went to Bracebridge, the other gateway town for the region to look around. Bracebridge also has a cute downtown, as well as a waterfall. With all the rain we have had recently, the waterfall was really roaring.
To celebrate our anniversary, we went to the Silver Pines Restaurant, for their specialty – fish and chips. It is deservedly well-known. Our westward facing window seat gave us a great view of the setting sun.
On Thursday, Chuck had a very brief phone meeting for work, after which we headed out to Elora Gorge. The gorge was cut by the Grand River, through a piece of the Niagara Escarpment. We started in the cute town of Fergus, which has built a short but pretty riverwalk along a low piece of the gorge and ended in the town of Elora,
which also straddles the river. Both towns were founded by Scotsmen, and Fergus in particular continues to play up the Scots connection, with Tartan on the bridge, a Scottish goods boutique and a chainsaw carving that resembles the Braveheart statue in Sterling.
We took a nice hike along the rim of the gorge in Elora Gorge Conservation Area. This is not as spectacular as the gorges in Ithaca, but is a very nice walk through a cedar forest. A popular feature is “Hole in the Rock” which is a pathway through a natural hole in the cliff. 
The trees have interesting roots that grip the cracks in the rock. You can take an inner tube through the rapids below. We were tempted, but our visit was cut short by an intense, although relatively brief, thunderstorm. We went into the town of Elora for ice cream instead.
Whether it is the season or the campground, it is very buggy here in the evenings. There are a few mosquitoes, but mostly it is gnats nipping at our ankles. This has impacted our picnic dinners. We are back to eating dinner indoors for the time-being.
Campgrounds have character. For example, as I mentioned there is a quilting group at Heron Point. At Indian Line, we had the hanging basket folks – most of the seasonal sites have gardens full of flowers. Here we have the garden statuary group! Garden gnomes appear to be particularly popular.
In the afternoon, it was a bit chilly, but things dried out. We took a walk along the Bruce Trail at Mono Cliffs Provincial Park. This lovely trail goes along the escarpment through old growth cedar forest, old apple orchards, secondary deciduous forest, abandoned fields, etc.
The view is not good – too many trees – but there is a large variety of plant life. Mushrooms were plentiful, including this tiny bright red mushroom and this nerf-ball sized coral mushroom.
Just before returning to the parking lot, we came across an amazing sight – a monarch butterfly tree, just like the photos you see o the trees in Mexico where they hang out in the winter. In this photo, the 3 specks are monarch butterflies. The tree branch was covered with dozens of butterflies (but this is impossible to capture on a phone camera). We had seen a lot of butterflies during our walk. But we were not expecting this sight, which is something I have never seen north of southern California.
On Sunday the sun came out. We took a short bicycle ride on the CP Rail Trail. This turns out to be primarily an ATV trail and is maintained by the local ATV and snow mobile clubs. The surface was a bit rough for touring bikes, and the straight flat trail is probably too dull for your typical mountain biker. The ride was pleasant enough, through primarily farms and a bit of forest.But if we come back, we will try some of the trails the border one of the little lakes nearby.
The wedding was in the evening in the Hockley Resort, which is in lovely Hockley Valley. The escarpment forms a sort of bowl here, so that you are surrounded by the forested hills. With the blue sky and perfect temperatures, it was a perfect setting.
Dan, the son of our friends Kathy and Salomon, and Caleigh got married in the garden. The service was beautifully done – a merger of Jewish and Christian, modern and traditional, with a lot of personalization. One element we particularly liked was that the JP had asked each of them to write a short piece about what they loved about their new spouse. This was really beautiful and something I think every married couple should do frequently, in keeping with my philosophy that we should focus on what we are thankful for. (We might even try it.)
Kathy and Salo (the folks on the right in the photo) and I were graduate students in Statistics together at U. of Toronto in 1978 (although I actually became friends with Kathy years earlier when the University of Toronto offered enrichment lectures to high school math students). I got quite a shock at the wedding to be greeted by another classmate, Jose, and his wife Lucia, whom I had not seen since I left the program in 1979. Once Jose graduated, they returned to their native Mexico, where Jose took up a number of important positions. Salo has family in Mexico and so he and Kathy visit there relatively frequently and have kept in touch.
By 4:00 I was checked into my hotel. With nothing to do until 6 or so, and with the weather clearing, I took a walk around the inner harbor, which is quite nice. There is a ship museum, which allows you to visit several ships, like this submarine, of various eras. I had planned to visit the Baltimore aquarium, but it was very crowded, with a wait until 6:15 for entry.
Instead, I walked along the harbor, toured this historic lighthouse, and walked through the Italian district. I also dropped off a prescription.
We decided to try a campground on Heron Point near Lion’s Head but on Lake Huron, rather than on Georgian Bay.
After winding along
We might be camping, but Game of Thrones still reigns in our household! Thanks to Chuck’s foresight in setting up our viewing options, we were able to view episode 2 with the rest of the world while watching the sun set through our RV window.
With the bad weather (temperatures in the mid 50’s, wind, rain), I thought there was a chance of a cancellation which would enable us to stay in the campground. But campers are a hardy lot – even the tenters continued to come in. However, we had some very nice chats with our hosts about the wonderful time we had in their hometown of Owen Sound, and in the end they moved some equipment that was blocking a small but usable campsite, and let us stay there until the end of our visit. To get the great view, we just need to walk a few yards to the picnic pavilion.
We decided to take a trip to Lion’s Head on the other side of the peninsula in the hope of getting away from the wind and the rain. Lion’s Head also lies on a small bay. It was amazing – the winds were much, much stronger.
As a result, the waves in the bay were huge. The bay itself is ringed by the high cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment. After watching the waves on hit the breakwater and lighthouse, we took a brief walk on the Bruce Trail to view the lake and cliffs.
The Bruce Trail (http://brucetrail.org/) is a hiking trail from Tobermory, at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula, to Niagara, a distance of some 600 miles. There are also about 300 miles of side-trails, such as the one we took in Owen Sound to reach Inglis Falls. The trail covers both public and private ground – establishing it needed some political goodwill – but the route has been continuous since about 1965. On the Bruce Peninsula, the trail provides some spectacular views. For the particular portion of the trail through Lion’s Head, the best views were on private parts of the trail and I am grateful to the owners who allowed right-of-way.
We had a beautiful sunset over the bay, as the clouds began to break. As darkness fell, electricity was restored and the lights went on in the cabins and RVs. Despite that, the campground is quite dark.
The day ended with a beautiful sunset.
We decided to go to Tobermory. It had been raining off and on all morning, but of course when we got to Tobermory the rain began in earnest. We decided to see the town, which is small and very touristy.
It has two small harbors – one which houses the large car ferry which goes to Manitoulin Island and the other which houses all the other boats and which is bordered by tourist shops and restaurants.
The Visitor Center has a very nice museum. I picked up Chuck from town and we went back to the lookout tower and to the museum together. The museum explains the natural history of the peninsula, as well as the establishment of Fathom Five National Underwater Preserve, which includes 21 (or is it 26?) shipwrecks. Due to the introduction of invasive zebra and quagga mussels, which are efficient filter feeders, there is little plankton in the water and the wrecks can be clearly viewed from glass-bottom boats or scuba diving. Interestingly enough, only 2 sailors died in all these wrecks, but several divers have died exploring the remains. We also climbed back up the tower for a look over the lake.
Our visit to the Bruce Peninsula ended with yet another beautiful sunset over Stokes Bay, with a flock of geese tranquilly paddling by and herons flying through. This picture was NOT photoshopped.
In my childhood, we used to make fun of the way that Americans put flags everywhere. No more. Perhaps it was due to the 150 year anniversary of Canada, but there were flags everywhere – on fence posts, front doors, pick-up trucks, and most notably, taking the place of the traditional hanging baskets of flowers on the main street lampposts of most of the small towns we passed through. A single small town yielded more Canadian flags than I used to see in a year – and that includes 1967, Canada’s centennial and the year that the maple leaf flag was adopted.
Owen Sound has a lovely civic park, Harrison Park, that has RV sites. We pulled in beside the Sydenham River, and near Weaver Creek, both of which flow through the park. 
Among its many amenities, the park has a nice restaurant (which we visited for supper), a small bird sanctuary, a historical park celebrating Owen Sound’s historical significance as a final destination on the Underground Railroad, links to the Bruce Trail (which runs 890 km from Tobermory to Niagara Falls along the Niagara Escarpment, with 400 km of side trails) and a swimming pool.
We thought it was obvious that we were in a forest and were surprised that certification would be needed to verify the fact. Actually the certification is for the management program for the forested lands.
On Thursday, after a torrential thunderstorm, we met Stephen in town for coffee and then went back to Harrison Park to hike. We took a branch path of the Bruce Trail to Inglis Falls, which was spectacular after the rain. It was a lovely walk through the woods and through Inglis Arboreteum – although a bit buggy in the damp weather.
In the morning, Stephen showed up by bicycle for a quick visit. After he left, we considered whether to launch the kayaks.
With our campsite right beside the Sydenham River, it was hard to resist trying out our (fortunately indestructible) kayaks on the small rapids that run the length of the campground. In fact, a lot of kids were going down on inner tubes or inflatable rafts. We both bounced off several boulders, as the water was quite shallow and very fast. However, these kayaks really are indestructible and no harm was down.
In the evening, the park had a First Nations event, featuring a drumming group and a film documentary about the first First Nations’ spelling bee team from Alberta. I cannot imagine the culture shock of the 3 children who won and participated in the national bee in Toronto. One of them made it into the final round – quite an amazing showing.
This is a history museum documenting primarily post-native settlement in the county, including a “village” made of up reconstructed buildings from the area – a small settler log cabin, a larger log cabin, a 1920’s house, and several other buildings including a barn, sawmill, garage (with old cars and trucks) and blacksmith shop. This iron stove was made in Brantford, the town where I was born.
He was very knowledgeable about the older vehicles on display, and had worked on some of the newer ones. Many of the buildings had knowledgeable docents suitably dressed in period clothing, but it was special to learn from someone who had actually experienced at least some of the life he was explaining.
Our last day in Owen Sound, a red squirrel found our bird feeder. For some reason, only one bird, a blue jay, visited our feeding during our entire stay. Normally, having a squirrel raid the feeder would not thrill me. However, under the circumstances, watching this cute little guy enjoying breakfast at our expense was a real pleasure.
This little gem is in the old train station on Owen Sound (the bay) across the sound from the big grain elevator. It has a riverwalk with interpretive signs, and a small exhibit space in the station.
Monday morning most of the bluegrass folks left, and the fairgrounds were much quieter. With so few people around, Rumple could have his walks off-leash, which he loved. The people who work on the grounds all seem to love dogs, and so our occasional encounters with staff were friendly.
We were intrigued by the horse trailers and RVs. I am sure that some participants stayed in hotels. However, there seemed to be two themes for RVs – large RVs pulling large horse trailers, and even larger RVs that are separated into living quarters for humans and quarters for horses. 
Since the horses moved into the horse stalls upon arrival (and I think some of the many dogs moved in with the horses) there was plenty of room for the people.
Since we were not involved, and did not know whether we needed tickets to watch, we just observed from afar, although I did take a few pictures of people exercising their horses. 
Although my own kids took riding lessons one summer, I was still amazed at watching young children work with these large horses.
Wednesday was a work day. I had a student meeting and Chuck went to work with Phil. As I was finished early, I visited the Children’s Craft Fair, which is always held on the first day of Arts Fest. I really only did a quick walk-through, however, as I biked off to meet Chuck at the music store.
We decided that it was silly to be camped at a horse show without going to see the horses, so we went over to have a look at what was going on at the show rings and barns. Primarily what we saw were obedience trials for the horses, either on lead or being ridden. 
While I am sure that hours of training are involved, these are not too exciting for the audience (at least for people like us) as each competition involves each horse and trainer going through the same routine of trotting, stopping, side-stepping, etc. At the events we saw, most of the participants were women, although the events seemed to be mixed gender.
After we watched for a couple of hours, we headed off to downtown State College to join our friends Susie and Phil for Arts Fest. They always stake out a spot near the stage on campus to meet with friends and family.
I meandered off to see the arts and crafts, and grabbed a bag of candied almonds en route. The arts and crafts were terrific as always. So were the nuts, except that one of them grabbed a filling which fell out.
When we entered the fairgrounds, we were told to arrive at the tents with lawn chairs at 1:00 to get a spot. However, on my early morning dogwalk, I discovered that there were signs instructing people to leave their chairs “in line” and return at 1:00 to set up. Here are our chairs in the line. Because of this, we got a very good spot in the second row of a tent. (With rain threatening, the first row did not seem like a great idea!)
The music started at 2:00 with the national anthem … of Canada. There was in fact, quite a large Canadian contingent (none of whom were flying Confederate flags as far as I saw). The US anthem was next.
And then the music began! Most days it went continuously from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Ryan kept encouraging people to spend some time jamming or go to workshops, but with continuous bands it was hard to find a break to do something besides listen.