The weather was fabulous indeed! An occurrence to be noted as it is somewhat a rarity at this park. In the past every visit we have encountered winds and storms rolling down the river.
Mosquitos and black flies are bastards…another fact to be noted. Wow, they were thick and hungry! The black flies are nasty as they are stealthy while chowing down on your neck like an alligator at a watering hole. Can’t feel them at all.
We had a great site on the edge of the water, which is always the best. Nestled under the trees gave us lots of shade, but there were some nice sunny patches to lounge in. No sun on the Alto solar panels, but that was just fine as this was the first off grid test of the new lithium battery setup.
Dale the brave, went into the water right after we got set up, a nice float to cool off. Fired up the Q for dinner, and watched the sunset.
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| smoke haze may have deepened the sunset...but we could do without the fires in the first place |
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| a very majestic pine |
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| an easy yummy dinner |
Knowing that this stretch of the Ottawa River has great sandy beaches, many of them with public access, we did a little research and found a super beach to launch the kayaks.
A short hop from Driftwood, we spent the afternoon paddling downstream towards Deep River. We eventually stopped at one of the other beaches, had a shore lunch, and soaked up the sun. On the way back we swam off the beach point where we launched…and the water was shall we say, refreshing.
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| weird panorama |
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| so very Ottawa Valley |
To try out the new lithium battery, we just went about our days, not thinking about conserving energy as we usually do on non-electrical sites. The Victron ecosystem provides all sorts of monitoring information, and all highly addictive. When new to lithium, the biggest hurdle to get over is the ingrained anxiety over draining a lead acid battery below 50% capacity. As the charge percentage gradually decreased, I found my mind still thinking about that old limit, not remembering I now had plenty of amps to utilize. In time the old mindset will soon fade away.
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| a bit of solar info for ya to chew on... |
On another beautiful day we paddled around our own shoreline, and then nestled the kayaks into the small island opposite our site, where we sipped on a cold beverage while watching the clouds float by up river. Pretty nice.
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| sandy shoe prints |
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| this little one lived on the site... |
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| cool at night, but Barley knows how to stay warm |
One thing that was a little disturbing was the state of the shoreline along the waterfront sites. We have noticed a deterioration of the shore over the past several years, and this year it was much worse. The brush and grasses are now quite thick, and have overtaken the sand beach. The beach has long been a draw for campers to come to this park. The now massive amount of driftwood and wood debris virtually clogs access to every foot to the shore. Years ago the shoreline was kept clean, grasses cut and only a minimal amount of driftwood was littering the beach. Now you forge through the grasses and step over the logjam to get into the water. Not very kid friendly water access for a young family on a summer vacation at the Park. Many other campers have also lamented about the loss of the beach.
Wondered if this a back to the earth mandate from the Ministry…a popular mantra these days, or is it just plain lethargy on the part of Park staff? I spoke to a nice young Park Warden that coasted by in his pickup truck, explained my thoughts to him, and bluntly asked him if there was a directive not to maintain the shoreline. He said he had not heard of anything coming out of the Ministry saying this, and also he said that he had not really thought about how this could impact a young families enjoyment of the Park. I do suspect though, he may never have actually walked the shoreline, given that over the last few years I have not witnessed Park Wardens actually walking around the park to talk to campers, they now tend to only drive. He did say he would bring up my concerns at their weekly area meeting, and I told him that it would be a good topic of conversation to initiate.
The entire time we were there the weather was fabulous, and amazingly the winds and rain of the ‘Driftwood Gods’ never paid a visit. Got in some good paddling, tasty BBQ, nice sunsets, and all around relaxin’
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