Restoule Provincial Park,
July 1-4, 2004
Restoule Provincial Park Homepage (opens in a new window)


There are two parts to this website - one is the story
I've sent to a bunch of people via e-mail, which you will find below, while
the other is a chronological picture guide cover large parts of the story
below, with annotations. It's up to you how you proceed, although I've
placed the link to the picture-story below the written story.

STORY BEGINS

Okay, I feel much better, I've finally had my first road/camping trip of
the year. :) My friend Kim was nice enough to plan the trip for us, and
managed to arrange for her friend Nic to come as well - I'm now
referring to Nic as my friend as well, as he's a really cool guy. :)

Anyways, I woke up early on the 1st, had my last shower and shave for a
few days, finished packing, had a hot breakfast and made tea. Then, I
strapped my backpack on my front, hooked my duffel bag on my back, with
my arms through the hand-straps, and realized I had forgotten to put on
my shoes first. So, placing my duffel on the radiator and telling it to
stay, I bent forwards, quickly realizing that my thermos mug, holding my
hot tea in the outside pocket of my backpack, was not waterproof.

Luckily, the tea was no longer scalding, so it was merely an annoyance
to have the tea dripping down on my leg as I biked all the way from my
place (at College & Bathurst) all the way down to Union Station (at Bay
and Front), in time to catch the 7:40 train to Oakville.

Walking onto the train platform I saw this guy with a huge MEC hiking
pack, sitting on a cooler. I made the incredibly short leap between the
image in front of me and the likely name of this soul.

"Nic?"

So, we chatted a bit waiting for the train, and then I spotted a Rany,
one of my friends from Oakville who works 6pm-3am shifts at a place in
Toronto. So, the three of us chatted all the way to Oakville, where we
wished Rany good luck on her walk home (in Oakville, buses do not run on
holidays), and we really meant it too, as she had helped us carry the
cooler off the train and out to the pickup area.

After repacking some bags and the cooler, we eventually got all of our
stuff, and ourselves packed (rather tightly) into Kim's Geo Tracker, and
headed across to the Tim's for breakfast and caffeine (for those who
lacked it). Then, we began the drive up to Restoule, while Nic's bag
constantly tried to work itself off the cooler and onto me. A couple of
times on the trip North it succeeded in doing so, as I vanished with a
"whoosh" sound and a grunt.

We drove up the 400 to Barrie, where we hooked onto Highway 11 bound
for adventure (with Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, Huntsville and a few other
places being intermediaries). Somewhere along the way, in the parking
lot for a Tim's, Nic's sympathy overwhelmed him, and he allowed me to
sit in the front to navigate, while he played rear view mirror (as the
bags and stuff obscured the real rear view mirror).

We eventually got up to South River, where we stopped for lunch in a
small round diner (the dining room was round - it looked like it had
perhaps been a tourist shop previously) that had a very well stocked bar
and good french fries. :) We also refuelled the Tracker and finished the
drive to Trout Creek, from which we headed West toward Commanda, and
ultimately Restoule. We wound down the various county roads that lead to
Restoule - most of which were the only roads, with County Road 534
actually ending at Restoule Provincial Park.

In all, the drive took about 5 hours with all of the breaks counted in.
This is important to remember, there may be a test later. :)

Anyways, we got to Restoule, found our camp site, set up our tents and
got the site ready while we put the beer in the cooler to chill. Upon
arrival, we were greeted by a bongo solo which turned into bongo
accompaniment to the greatest hits of the 80's, including some synthpop.
All while I got a black fly bite that caused my left forearm to swell a
wee bit (it looked pretty weirdly deformed). We also discussed plans for
the 2nd, deciding on taking one of the shorter hiking trails, as we were
expecting additional members to arrive sometime that day. Well, we had a
dinner of hotdogs (mine were veggie), which set the tone for Nic and
Kim's dinners for the weekend, one beer turned into another, cards were
played, and we ended up wandering down to the smaller beach a little
after midnight to marvel at the beauty of the triple moon (the nearly
full moon in the sky reflected off the water twice) and to show that 2
geologists and a social worker who have to rely on their constellation
identification skills will become VERY lost in the Northern parts of
Southern Ontario. We managed to find the Big Dipper that night, but I
think that was about it. We thought we found the North Star at one
point, but if that was the North Star, then all the maps truly are
correct, as it was directly overhead. :)

After a chilly night of trying to sleep, I awoke at 5:55am, to the sound
of songbirds singing, woodpeckers pecking, and someone snoring. I
wandered around for a bit, surprised at how bright it was for so early
in the morning, visited the outhouse and did what any sane person would
do at such an hour - I went back to bed. A bit before 9, I got up again,
started setting up the fire-pit for breakfast, and was joined by Nic. We
chatted for a bit, and finally Kim got up to join us. It should be noted
that, for as long as I've known her, Kim has never been a morning
person, so I was actually a bit surprised that she got up just from
hearing us chatting, and had absolutely no homicidal intent.

We had some breakfast and headed out for some fun in the great outdoors.
We took a short hike, had lunch on the larger beach on Restoule Lake,
and then played frisbee in the lake. Nic was the only one willing to
dive into the lake and get completely submerged, so he played in the
deep spot, and we occasionally threw a bit wide/long to/past him. :)
Completely unintentionally, of course... When we got back to the site,
Nic grabbed some reading time while Kim and I headed into Restoule to
see about getting some necessary supplies - Ice to keep beer cold,
Firewood to keep people and food warm/hot, and Marshmallows, just
because. :) We also stopped in at the local ice-cream parlour/gift shop,
where Kim got a really nice looking halter top for $5 (it looks really
nice, it's got a nice pattern and lizards on it), we grabbed some ice
cream and headed back in to camp.

Back at the camp, we realized that the people in the campsite across
from us almost never walked anywhere - they had this big red Dodge SUV
that they would drive everywhere, constantly. We saw that thing go in
and out of their campsite on an almost twice hourly basis at the peak of
their driving.

Around 9pm, our friend Tina arrived with her boyfriend Leo, who turns
out to live just around the corner from me. Good company and good times.
We stayed up late into the night chatting, and I acted as a guide for
Tina and Leo, showing them where the outhouse, comfort station (showers
and flow-toilets), and boat launch/dock were, we enjoyed the beautiful
sky and went to bed around 1am.

On Saturday, the 3rd, we had resolved to do a long hike - the Watchtower
Trail (named for an old abandoned fire watch tower, not the Jehovah's
Witness magazine), from which I've got some pictures that still failed to
capture the full beauty and breathtaking nature of the scenery. Before the hike
though, we realized that the beer and ice situations were critical, and
so Kim, Nic, Tina and Leo all piled into the Tracker and went into
downtown Restoule to grab some essential supplies (firewood, beer
[Sleeman's Honey Brown, yum] and ice) while I tried to cut hardwood with
a dull axe. Needless to say my efforts had little results. Once the
group had returned from town and we got all set, we headed off to do the
Watchtower Trail. We saw all kinds of cool stuff on the hike, grabbed a
lunch break on a stunningly beautiful cliff/lookout over Stormy Lake,
made our way back to the site to drop some stuff off, and then went and
passed around a football and swung on the swings on the smaller beach/in
the lake. Eventually, you almost forgot that the water was kind of
chilly and the sun was no longer directly on you... Almost.

Then, we went back to the site, had some dinner, talked around the
campfire and caught up on our drinking and raccoon scaring-off. Nic and
I stayed up past 1am trying to burn through a bunch of our firewood, as
we had a bit too much. But in the end the endurance of those logs to
burn overcame our endurance to stay up and monitor them, so we doused
the fire and passed out.

On Sunday (the 4th), I woke up early again, promptly went back to sleep,
and eventually got up around 8:30 to make the fire for breakfast. I got
it going pretty quickly, and actually had water boiling for tea and
breakfast by the time Kim joined Nic and I. I also boiled up some eggs
for us and we ate them while Tina and Leo slept.

Well, we packed everything up again, catching a couple of drizzles from
the sky, loaded up the Tracker again and headed off by 1pm. Apparently
Nic was still feeling a bit guilty for his bag assaulting me on the way
up, because he took the back seat for the whole trip. Of course, we
didn't know that my navigational abilities would be put to the test.
Remember the number of hours I told you it took us to get up to Restoule
from Oakville? Keep that in mind as I enter this part of the story/trip.

Well, we left Restoule around 1pm-ish, caught up to Tina and Leo on the
road to Restoule, and then passed them as they turned off to grab some
ice cream and a stuffed moose for one of Leo's relatives (he's from
England and will be going back there in a couple of months). We drove
East over to Trout Creek, and then got on Hwy. 11 going South.

We noticed that the traffic was a little bit heavier than it had been on
Thursday, but we weren't particularly bothered by this. We drove down to
Huntsville in this heavier (but still quick-moving) traffic, where we
stopped for lunch. As we were finishing up our lunch, I looked out the
window of the Harvey's Kim and Nic had grabbed their food from (I went
for Tim's for lunch) and saw a couple of familiar faces walking toward
us - it was Tina and Leo. We flagged them down and chatted with them for
a bit, and then it was time to head off further down Hwy. 11 toward
home. Well, we didn't get too much further before traffic got heavier
and slower. In fact, it got stop and go before we got to Bracebridge.

We decided that this just wasn't going to cut it, so we caught an
offramp and the road trip adventure began. I don't have the road atlas
with me any more (I highly recommend these things now, BTW) and the MTO
Official Roadmap of Ontario doesn't have all of the roads that we took
on it, so I can't tell you the exact route we took. Suffice it to say,
we meandered our way around cottage country on some absolutely gorgeous
roads, (passing the hydro station at Muskoka Falls, and the falls
themselves, where we took a break and saw some really neat scenery -
made by man and nature) finally winding up in Gravenhurst, where the
road atlas and road signs failed us.

We had gotten lost, and we knew it. What was worse was it looked like
there were other people trying to bypass Hwy 11, and a lot of the roads
were horribly backed up, in stop and go conditions.

We finally found the road we needed to take outside of Gravenhurst to
escape the insanity, and, thanks to unclear road signs, went the wrong
way, right into more stop and go traffic.

At this point, Kim was getting frustrated, as was I, and I wasn't making
it any better by giving complex driving directions. But, we did manage
to survive it and escape from Gravenhurst, a little bit frazzled, but
doing alright, thanks to my being able to firmly state "I am certain of
this, and if I'm wrong you can kill me later", even though I was not
very certain at all. :) That's right Kim, I wasn't all that sure we were
going the right way, and I was relieved as hell when I found out that we
were. :)

From Gravenhurst, we went East to Houseys Rapids, down to Washago where
we refuelled, and made our way down the East shore of Lake Couchiching,
past Casino Rama, and into Orillia. We took County Road 11 out of
Orillia to Midhurst, wove our way down to Angus/Camp Borden, passed just
North of Brampton and pulled into the Oakville Go Station around 9:30pm.
That's right, the trip back to Oakville took 8.5 hours, a full 3.5 hours
longer than the trip up to Restoule had taken.

We unloaded, Kim headed home to Dundas, while Nic and I headed back to
Toronto on the Go Train. When we got to Union station I decided I was
not up to riding my bike home, so I accompanied Nic on the TTC (he lives
on the part of Lippincott North of College, near Harbord), then got home
by around midnight. Surprisingly, I was still able to put some stuff
away before taking a shower (and become a little more human again) and
collapsing into bed.


Just a quick update to the story - apparently Kim was listening to Q107 on
Monday and one of the DJs "was at her cottage near parry sound on the
weekend and they were having similar trouble getting back, she said they
moved 20km in 5 hours. They ended up getting a hotel room (the last one in
the area) around 8 pm and they returned very early this morning."

So, I'd say that our 8.5 hours to get home was damn good.


And now, the annotated pictures!!!!

You can choose to follow the story by starting at "The Beginning..." and
following the links on each page to the next one, or you can jump to a
specific day of the adventure.

On each of these pages you will only see reduced-size versions of the
pictures (thumbnails). To get to the full picture, simply click on the
thumbnail. Just a warning, some of the pictures are quite large,
especially the two assembled panoramic pictures.

The Beginning...

Friday, July 2nd, 2004

Saturday, July 3rd, 2004

Sunday, July 4th, 2004




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