Monday, August 13, 1984
It was still raining, so plan Q went into effect! Left at 8:00 to drive east out of Algonquin Provincial Park to follow PR 60, and kept running into fog banks. At Barry’s Bay we stopped at a bank and I changed another $80 to Canadian money. We continued, still running into fog banks, and it was still drizzling. We bought gas in Golden Lake where a guy with the local accent said the weather was a “bummer.” We took PR 41 towards Eganville. We crossed the bridge with a cute flag man, and stopped at an information booth, but no info on Bancroft. In Eganville, we found makeshift signs to follow to the Bonnechere Caves.
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| Bonnechere Caves brochure 1 |
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| Bonnechere Caves brochure 2 |
We had arrived at 10:55 and walked around a bit to see the rushing river over flat squared off rocks, and caves in the steep banks. We returned to a shed to examine stones with fossils. At about 11:10, a young guide came out to identify the fossils and explain about the caves. We were led to a door in the hillside to enter the caves. Dams blocked off water from a parallel caves. Rock formations, stalactites, and a couple fossils were pointed out. There was moss by the lightbulbs, and the bats have migrated south for the summer. The ripples along the wall felt smooth going downstream. The whirlpool effect was pointed out with water currents gouging out crevices in the wall. The present owner of the cave was also the first explorer of them. He rafted down and once when bumping the wall, he dropped his only flashlight in the water. We were given a demonstration of the pitch darkness he experienced. During the winter they flood the lower caves to save maintenance and keep out vandals. We exited and followed a path down across a stream to where an old mill once stood. We climbed the hill to see the hole where the owner first entered the cave. We used the restrooms here, where the toilets were ammonia filled buckets.
We stopped at a cute gift shop in Eganville, the Hanley’s Country Collection, but very small.
We continued down PR 41 and at the junction of PR 28, we stopped at another info booth, where I got no info, but did get a map of Ontario. We followed PR 28 into Bancroft and circled around a couple times to find an old mill, which was now an ARC workshop, no longer having anything to do with the mill. So we went to the Algonquin Art Gallery next to the Chamber of Commerce. We saw several silk paintings by Joyce Burkholder, who was a self-proclaimed feminist. The paintings were skillfully done, but as we also saw in the comments in the guestbook, she was an angry/sad/troubled female.
We had peanut butter sandwiches and fruit for lunch. The water in Kathy’s canteen was getting low, and we didn’t want to drink the camp water. We discovered a jug of water Kathy keeps in the car for her radiator, but we used that for our drinking water.
We went to the Chamber of Commerce for information on rockhounding, then used the restrooms down the hill, where the stalls had no doors. We drove backtracking down PR 28 to the Princess Mines for sodalite, but they required a hefty fee to rockhound. We parked along the road and headed into the hills. We meandered a bit, picking up rocks and examining them, throwing them on other rocks to break them, etc. Obviously a couple of amateurs!
We headed back to Bancroft and then north on PR 62 in search of other hunting grounds. The rock cut had signs stating it was illegal to climb here! We continued to Maynooth to stop at the Madawaska Art Shop, which had a large variety of very nice things, but expensive. We went next door to buy a couple caffeinated sodas to keep us awake on the drive back to the camp site.
Dinner that night was freeze-dried chicken and rice, with mushroom-flavored ramen noodles, and Gatorade.
Kathy liked to keep the garbage bag on the hood of the car when we drove for the garbage run. We tried our usual basketball slam dunk routine, but I was late in opening the garbage bin lid and it flipped open with a resounding bang surely heard throughout the park. We tried again with Kathy tossing the bag to me and I dunked it as she opened the lid. We took a hike to the marsh across the road, but couldn’t walk straight to it because of water. We had to walk all around and down the road. We stopped to gaze at our marsh, seeing frogs and birds. We walked along the woods and followed a trail that turned out to be a dead end, into a moose nest?! Saw frogs in the woods.
We returned to the camp site, and the kid from across the street came to invite us for drinks. We told him we don’t drink, but that didn’t bother him. We needed to clean up first, and went to shower at the comfort station. Kathy had a huge bug splatted across her shower stall. We returned to the tent to cover ourselves with insect repellent, and the kid came over to make sure we were coming. So we went to meet the guys; Ed (the twerp), Carl (the quiet one), and Bob, three Canadians from Toronto who were there for a week to fish. A bowling alley manager, an electronics apprentice, and an unemployed kid. The question of our age came up, and Kathy matter of factly said, “Thirty.” Oh, no! What a shock to the 19, 20, and 21-year olds! They wouldn’t have invited us over if they knew how old we were, but they liked having someone to talk to, especially from the U.S., which they put down. They kept drinking, and Ed and Bob got quite drunk. Ed wanted to teach me to swim, and he whispered in my ear that he wanted to slow dance. But he kept falling over in his broken chair and running off to pee. He and Bob went off to pee in the middle of the road, then ran into a tree on the way back. It was time to leave! Later Ed knocked on our tent to ask to come in, since he was making a bet. Hope he lost!
Tuesday, August 14, 1984
It was overcast this morning, so we decided to try canoeing. We got the canoe into the water and paddled off around the shore of Pog Lake to examine water lilies and look for the entrance of the Madawaska River. We found it and paddled up the river; all was very quiet. We then saw a swimming head, and tried to catch up with it. We got closer, but it dove. So we quietly paddled along, and saw the nose swimming parallel to us! He dove again, and we thought we had lost him. But then we heard a scurrying on the shore, and saw a huge beaver climbing out of the water onto the bank below some tree roots. We paddled in close to try for a photograph.
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| Beaver butt and a bit of tail |
We maneuvered the canoe around so Kathy could have a closer look. Nothing seemed to bother the beaver as he groomed himself. Then we noticed two other fat beavers in the same hollow, one lounging on the other. Wow! We watched for a while, and heard a little sneeze. We heard a beaver sneeze!
We paddled off to the Lake of Two Rivers, and started along one shore. I was in the front, warning Kathy of submerged logs and rocks, which were actually deep under water! Halfway, along, we heard thunder, and it began to look and sound ominous. We hightailed it back to Pog Lake, paddling as fast as we could. We heard more and more thunder, and then there was a light rain. We took time out only to marvel at a loon that had dived, and it was swimming just under the surface of the water, with its white markings shimmering eerily. Kathy told me there was a mosquito buzzing around my head, and I kept hitting my head under her direction until I got him! We beached the canoe, and now things didn’t look too bad. We contemplated going for a swim, but then more thunder and raindrops. We hurried to put the canoe back on top of Kathy’s car.
We drove to the Park Museum. Outside they had small pools, one with a snapping turtle and the other with several painted turtles. Inside were lots of stuffed wildlife. You could push buttons to hear the wolf howl, or different birds twitter. We tried to memorize the different bird sounds, but they seemed impossibly similar! We saw fish and snakes, and went into the theater for a nice slide presentation about the park. The museum was tiny and we were soon done. We drove out the west gate in search of moose. No success, even though the museum promised the 5-km marker was the best for moose-sightings! We continued out PR 60, turned down PR 35 towards Haliburton, and then on PR 21. We were looking for an arts school, but only found an elementary-looking school called a college, in the general area described. We drove into town, and I asked at the post office, and we were directed back to this “college,” which was closed up.
We headed west to Bracebridge, getting momentarily on NR 11, then exiting to take a back road into town. We made a pit stop for us and the car, and asked directions to the octagonal villa. We went into the town that appeared full of tourists for crafty type shops, then crossed the river, at bridge level on one side and into a very deep gorge on the other. There up on the hill we spotted the house. We followed signs around the top of the hill to reach it. Next to it was a museum in a little church.
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| Woodchester Villa octagonal house |
We entered the house, and no one seemed to be at the entrance to collect our $2 fee. We wandered around the ground floor and ran into a few other wandering tourists. It was decorated in Victorian style. There was a cute office and a square dining room. The sitting room appeared to be the back hall, and the parlor was gaudy. We took the stairs down to the kitchen and laundry rooms. We returned to the ground floor when a guide came down the stairs with a group of people. We paid our fee and got brochures.
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| Woodchester Villa brochure 1 |
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| Woodchester Villa brochure 2 |
Dinner was beef stroganoff and beef-flavored ramen noodles. It began to rain when we toasted the marshmallows, so we went into the tent to play backgammon. The deluge continued, and we began to notice that the floor of the tent felt like a waterbed! We tried trenching the tent (a little late!) and decided to go to the store for large plastic bags. Kathy asked the guys across the way if they needed anything from the store. Yep, matches, marshmallows, and milk. We went to the Lake of Two Rivers Store to get what they needed, but there were no plastic bags for us. We picked up a supply from the camp office. Coming and going we saw the eerie phenomenon of the storm cloud above us, but far away was the sun setting at its lower edge! Coming through the campgrounds, we kept seeing frogs in the road. I had to get out and chase them away so that Kathy didn’t run over them!
Tonight we slept in the car!
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