We had plans to start our three-hour trip to Algonquin around 10:00 a.m. And we actually got on the road around that time.
We took the back roads on this cloudy day. Steve & Esther caught a glimpse of a bear and cub crossing the road in the distance, but they were long gone by the time we got to them.
After most of the miles (uh, kilometers) were behind us, we made a stop in Barry's Bay to pick up some groceries. And Steve and I wandered across the street to The Baykery where we picked up some sweet treats.
I have been initiated into the Canadian tradition of butter tarts. Think miniature pecan pies with the same filling but without the pecans. Of course, some of them do have pecans and various other toppings. I tried a maple bacon butter tart that was pretty tasty. :)
Steve called the very friendly lady at The Baykery "evil" due to her sales abilities. :)
Now, while Steve and I were making a bank run and a bakery run, the gals were getting the groceries. We thought it was odd that they didn't make it back to the Jeeps before we did.
Well, Esther and Linda lost each other in the tiny grocery store. Apparently, they were going up and down opposite aisles and spent ten to fifteen minutes looking for one another. Esther called and texted Linda, but Linda left her phone in the Jeep. I finally had to go in and track Linda down and reunite them. It was one of those silly things that we laughed about the rest of the way to Whitney. :)
When we arrived in Whitney, we checked into our less expensive, but still overpriced, very basic hotel rooms. Our box springs squeaked pretty bad with any pressure applied to the bed, so we expected to be in for a long night.
Then we headed into the park. The East Entrance is just a few minutes from the hotel. We stopped and paid our entrance fee and then drove to the Visitors Center.
On Thursday nights in the summer they hold a "Wolf Howl" event where rangers do a talk on wolves and then they take people out where they imitate howls and try to get the park wolves to howl back. Unfortunately, they hadn't located the pack this week, so they canceled the event for tonight. But after hearing they have anywhere from 1,000 - 2,000 people at the wolf howls, we were okay with the cancellation. :)
We went into the theater and watched the park movie and then checked out the other exhibits. We stepped out onto the deck overlooking Sunday Creek, but it was misty and gray and we didn't see any wildlife, so we didn't stay out there long.
From the Visitors Center, we drove to the Rock Lake canoe launch to check out the put-in for our first day of paddling in the park. There is a nice parking area and dock for easy loading of canoes and kayaks.'
While we were there, we took a quick drive through the Rock Lake Campground. Yikes. The campsites were all right on top of each other. I didn't see any sites we could even get in, but after checking it out, it's not a place we would like to park anyway. Maybe some of the other campgrounds are a little more suited to larger rigs and have better spacing, but not this one.
After getting our bearings in the park, we returned to Whitney and went to dinner at The Mad Musher next door to the hotel. There, we made plans for tomorrow.
Tomorrow's temps are only expected to be in the 50s with gray skies but a lower chance of rain. With the cool temperatures, we were going to do a hike, but we determined from weather forecasts that there might be less rain tomorrow than on Saturday. So, we decided we would paddle tomorrow and hike on Saturday.
We had a plan. Now here's to hoping we have a good night's sleep for tomorrow's long, cold paddle. :)
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