Saturday, May 3, 2008

Kenora to Whiteshell Provincial Park (Day 6)

I am a breakfast super-fan. Period. I would eat breakfast for hours if I could, just to have time to make more room for all the yummy things you can eat at breakfast. So, you can imagine my delight when I went to the breakfast lounge this morning to discover a make-your-own waffle station! HURRAH! And not just waffles, but a spread of cereals (including Fruit Loops!), fruit, muffins, toast, jams, bagels, cookies, juices and hot chocolate. Oh boy oh boy! Needless to say, I had a great breakfast!

After catching up the blog and finally getting the photos uploaded, Dan and I took a walk around the Kenora waterfront before leaving town. When had only a short drive in the car today just across the border into Manitoba!


I realize the distance between Kenora and Whiteshell Provincial Park (about 1hr west of Kenora), but both Dan and I agreed that it looked and felt like we were no longer in Ontario. The coniferous trees of Ontario change to huge forest of birch stands when you get into Manitoba. It was kinda nice to see deciduous trees for a change. And the deer! It was like you step over the Manitoba border and every deer in the province is waiting to check you out. In the first 20km inside the border, we must have seen about 100 deer. Crazy. We also narrowly missed making a fischer pancake of a little guy who we came upon who apparently thought the middle of a highway lane was a perfect sunbathing spot. We came to within metres of driving over him when he sprang to life and made a beeline for the ditch.


When we got to Whiteshell Provincial Park, we soon realized that it was series of resorts inside a provincial park. So, we ended up sneaking a tent spot at Caddy Lake Resort, where it seemed the majority of its seasonal users were RVs and cabins. It turned out to be a really nice spot with a neighbourhood of deer (obviously ongoing residents since every garden, shrub and flower pot around is shrouded in chicken wire), a nice little beach at the lake (complete with remaining crust of ice)



and a swanky bathroom with TP. Dan managed to stoke up a grand fire in the firepan, so we were able to sit and be toasty while the sun went down.



So toasty in fact, that I managed to melt a stylish streak of melted fleece across the palm some of my mitts ("what's that smell..."). Oops. At least it made my hands warm. Really, really warm.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

you were almost in my parents' back yard! LOL they live close to the park.

i spent much of my life in that part of manitoba...love it...and i'm glad you noticed the quick fade to prairie as you cross the border into it...the Canadian Shield instantly fades away along the highway - however, you could follow it on the angle across the province (as the Yellowhead Route Highway does) all the way to the Rockies.

It's pretty amazing...the Whiteshell has petroglyphs (I think that's what they're called) to be discovered too...