2010 Trip 2: Perhaps a bit less challenging...

Silver Lake Provincial Park - May 2010

Headed out late Friday afternoon. Not a long drive, and the traffic was not bad at all considering it was a long weekend. Took us about 1hr, 45min to get here. Once again pleased with the way the SF pulls the Alto...at times as if it was not even there. Just the way it should be. Being the long weekend, we were definitely not the only trailer on the road...there was a whole line of us heading out Hwy 7.

Fairly busy here, lots of people checking in at the office. Our site is typical provincial park, well treed, picnic table, fire pit, etc... Backed the Alto in no problem, really getting the hang of that whole gig...nice. As we wanted power, the site choices were limited. Got set up pretty quickly. Warmed up the chili we brought and had some lovely post freezer burned ciabatta bread on the side...


Went exploring a bit...it is not a big park at all, perhaps only a little over 100 sites. Going to walk the whole park tomorrow to scope out the numbers of nice sites we may want in the future. Sitting in the Alto now, I can hear a bit of the highway at times...it is pretty close in some areas. May rent a canoe tomorrow, but not sure...not really a big fan any longer...once you've had a yak, it's hard to go back.

Great sleep...was not cold at all, a welcomed change from our last foray. Pretty overcast, has a serious look of rain this morning. Took a walk around the park, scoping out prime sites for the future. Talked to a really nice couple, who have been camping at provincial parks for years...and had done the same scoping of sites that we were doing, long ago. We talked about camping and trailering for a bit, they actually dropped over to see ours later as they were most curious. Decided to head into Perth...wander around a bit. Need to drop into Can Tire to pick up some sort of water container. We have one of those plastic collapsible ones to top up the fresh water tank when we do not happen to be connected to a water source. By the time I had that container full of water, it became totally unmanageable to carry...literally a bag of water. Anyone who owns one of these things knows exactly what I am talking about. Trying to now use this bag of water to pour into a little opening on the side of the Alto was a disaster...water all over the place. Hence the desire for a replacement.

Wandered around Perth a bit...a few funky little shops, as well as an excellent food store called FoodSmith's. All sorts of different products in there...with a strong slant towards the healthy and the unusual. Picked up a bunch of stuff...how could one resist? Also got a more suitable container for water at Can Tire...actually a red gas can, but they have the best spouts in them, which was a neccessity.

The day has cleared up and turned sunny and warm. Sweet. The Park has filled up even more now, lots more young people with tents and tunes...perhaps one of the reasons for the alcohol ban this weekend. Although I'm sure the enforcement is more rigorous this weekend, I think it is also a message not to outwardly display it. I'm basing this on the number of adults walking around
their sites with big travel mugs at 4:00 in the afternoon. Classic Dale moment this morning...as we are walking around the park, I see a couple of rangers in a car slowly cruising behind us, waiting for a moment to slide by. Just as they are right beside us, I turn to say hello to them, and at the same time, Dale says to me "When we are in Perth, I need to find a liquor store"...perfect timing dear.
As I was heading towards the comfort station, I spy a young woman who is almost there...
tall, big floppy hat, big sunglasses, tiny little bikini...looked like she was about to confidently strut off a Paris runway into this comfort station. What she failed to notice though, was that the little stickman on the door she was pulling open...was not wearing a skirt. By the time I got there, she was well ensconced in a stall. I commented to her as I walked by that it was nice of her to raise the fashion level in the men's washroom. She squealed in horror and was out of there pretty fast...

Fired up the Q and did up some burgers with a side of potato salad. Classic camp meal. Of course, Dale's famous G & T made an appearance...regardless of the ban. Walked down to the point after dinner to watch the sunset...soon joined by a man, anxiously trying to get a signal on his Blackberry.



this guy was trolling a tad too fast...

A little overcast this morning, with brief moments of sun as a teaser. Just chilled in the morning, made up some egg mcmuffins, cheese and some lightly fried hot calabrese...very yummy. Wandered around the park some more. In the afternoon we took a little drive into the town of Sharbot Lake. Quaint little community on the shores of the lake, but not really much there. Drove through the provincial
park on the way back, to scope out the sites. Nice, but not as nice as Silver Lake. It all seems very narrow and tight. The sites were almost on top of each other. Think we would book at Silver Lake again instead of trying out Sharbot.

Hung out a the beach and caught a few rays in the afternoon. Turned into a beautiful day. Not stinking hot, just real nice. Lots of people on the beach and a few brave souls in the water. A few more people stopped and asked to peek inside the Alto...once again we are getting a lot of looks as people walk by. Made up a couple of pre-dinner G&T's. Dinner tonight is Chris's ceasar salad with
Montreal chicken. Who said camp food is boring...


Walked down to the point to watch the sun go down, along with a bunch of other people with the same idea...not many clouds tonight so the sunset was not that stellar.


Dale on the precipice...


Woke up to the sun streaming in through the trees...fabulous. A huge change from our first excursion. No need for the little heater at all this weekend, and we really did not expect to use it at all. One thing we have become more aware of this weekend is water usage. With unlimited water in the city, one really has no awareness of how much they use. You hear the stats of personal water use in a day and I know I always think, that seems awfully high. We have a 60ltr water tank in the Alto. I filled it before we left Friday night, and it is now Monday morning, and I have probably put an additional 50ltr into it by hand with the recently purchased container. So to this point, that is about 110ltr over a little more that 2 days. Seems like a lot...and we are sort of careful with how we use water...but it still all adds up.

Started to pack things up, but want to hit the beach for some last rays. Dale was brave and went for a swim...I kept to the shallow end. Got everything squared away and pulled out around 1:00. Stopped at this cool burger and fries joint called Woody's, located just west of Carleton Place. Neat spot, all decked out very 60's style, with of course, the appropriate tunes. Excellent box of fries really hit the spot.

So our second foray was far better than the first...and served exactly the purpose...to get out of town and chill out a bit. Sweet.

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