Headin' south

Having done our time at Lake Superior, it was time to head back. My brother in law headed out first, and we never caught up to him. As we came near to Georgian Bay, I suggested we go down that route. "All the provincial parks are there," I said.

"If we get split up, we have to stick to the plan," My wife said.

"But we don't have a plan!" I protested.

However I was surrounded by like-minded women, so straight across we went, continuing on the Trans-Canada Highway towards North Bay. When we crossed Sudbury, the devastated forests had an eerie look to them; years of nickel smelting had turned the whole area into a wasteland of sickly and broken birch trees. Almost no other trees could be seen. But it nonetheless looked pretty in a strange way, and we passed some rocky scrub that looked like good hiking spots. But the further east we got, the vegetation became the familiar vegetation of home - Eastern Ontario.

 Our timelines were similar to the trip to Superior, so we ended up in Sturgeon Falls, having never caught up with my brother in law (it would turn out he went down Georgian Bay because all the provincial parks are there, just as I'd supposed.) There are no provincial parks on Lake Nippissing, but I had been looking up campgrounds, and when we got there, my sister in law asked a gas station attendant about them. We got directions to a place called Cache Bay, and found a delightful, inexpensive campground with a french-accented owner.

Nippissing appears to be a shallow lake, and looks a lot like glades down south. In this particular spot, a long, narrow peninsula full of leafy trees and willows stretched out onto the water; it looked like some long forgotten scene out of my childhood imagination - some Lousiana bayou. The owner sold me some of the most inexpensive firewood I've ever bought in a campground, and we started a bright campfire. I played my guitar, and we stared up at the Eastern Ontario night sky.  As much as I love visiting far away places and wonder at everything these spots have, I have never seen a night sky like the ones in the countryside around here - the sky is like a planetarium, or some kind of panoramic telescope into the deepest universe. Stars, stars, and more stars... and every wispy cloud of the Sagittarius arm of the galaxy. The night was warmer too - the warm, humid nights of home.

Next... we make it to Bon Echo... and find out what happened to my brother in law.