Day 2 & 3 - Chutes Provincial Park, Massey, ON

The dogs woke me up at 5:30 in the morning wanting to go outside, so I got up. Susan got up when coffee was ready and not a second before. We broke camp and were on the road by 9 sharp. What a difference a day makes and a few hundred miles north. No traffic yea. We found out the cause of the third traffic slow down/stoppage yesterday was caused by a bear. Stupid bear, that’s the north for yeah.

With a couple of pit stops along the way, we arrived at Chutes Provincial Park at 1pm.

We set everything up, Susan & Stuart(the boy) went for a snooze, Calusa, Charlie(the girls), and I with camera in hand went for a nice long walk. Chutes Provincial Park was established in 1963 and was named for the 60 meter log chute which was built at the main falls to direct logs downstream. Chutes PP consists of 109 hectare of land situated on Aux Sables River. There are a total of 130 campsites each with a picnic table and firepit. Many have 30 amp service. Water taps are located throughout the park. We chose site #4 in the Red Pine area, the site is large, it has hydro, and it’s close to the comfort station. I don’t do outhouses.

I see the poison Ivy is in full bloom, nice of them to point that out.  So are the “the trilliums” Ontario’s Provincial Flower.

Chutes PP has a 6.5km trail called Twin Bridges Trail. The trailhead starts at the falls where the old logging chute was once located. The trail then winds itself around the Aux Sables River. As I stood on the lookout platform just above the falls I was amazed at how loud and powerful this waterfalls was. Calusa wanted nothing to do with it while Charlie didn’t care one way or the other. You could feel the power of the falls throughout your whole body, it gave me goosies from head to toes. I’m hoping to get out on the trail tomorrow if the weather holds up.

Rivers in Northern Ontario have a long history in log transportation. In the winter from the late 1800 to the 1930s trees were cut then dragged to ice covered rivers to await the spring thaw. The swollen rivers including the Aux Sables River would be filled with logs. The logs would be loaded onto tugs and transported on the great lakes to prospective sawmills for processing.

The park has an enclosed pet exercise area which is an added bonus. Unfortunately it looked a little overgrown and I’m sure the dogs would come out covered in ticks. We passed on that one.

Trilliums everywhere some white some mauve.

The next day the weather was terrible rainy, overcast, and cool. That wasn't the worst part. I can walk in the rain and I love the cool weather, it was the mosquitoes. You couldn't go outside without being swarmed even with repellent on. Terrible little creatures. So we opted for a reading day.

Our friends arrived around 2pm. We let them get set up and settle in before the adult beverages started flowing. We did manage a walk to the falls when the weather broke and the rain stopped.