Sunday, June 30, 2013

Laurel Creek Conservation Area St Jacobs ON


Up at the crack of dawn …  NOT !   We slept in till around 9:30 am.  Had our Cinnamon Buns that we bought yesterday at the St Jacobs Farmers Market.   Yummmmy.

4951 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - breakfast - cinnamon bun from St Jacobs Market

After eating that, we decided we better get out and do some walking.  There were a couple more Geocaches in the area that we could go and see if we could find.  The first one was in the Dignity Memorial Grove.  It is a peaceful place with a winding little path among the trees.

4966 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - Dignity Memorial Grove 4970 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - Dignity Memorial Grove

Oh here is the Geocache, hanging from a tree branch.

4978 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - Dignity Memorial Grove - Hanging Out in Memorial Grove Geocache

Now can you see it better ?

4979 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - Dignity Memorial Grove - Hanging Out in Memorial Grove Geocache

I reach in to remove it from the hanging basket it is in.  Then examine the treasures held within and sign the log book. 

4981 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - Dignity Memorial Grove - Bill found  Hanging Out in Memorial Grove Geocache 4983 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - Dignity Memorial Grove - Hanging Out in Memorial Grove Geocache

We finished our walk around the Memorial Grove.

4984 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - Dignity Memorial Grove

And then struck off in pursuit of another Geocache that was located within the park boundaries.  This one was along a pathway through the forest.  It was really buggy in amongst the trees, I pulled up my hood in an attempt to keep the bugs away.

4986 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - searching for the Septomaple Geocache 4987 Laurel Creek Conservation Area -Bill  searching for the Septomaple Geocache

It has to be around here somewhere, keep looking.

4988 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - Bill searching for the Septomaple Geocache

And I found it.  Quickly sign the book and lets get out of here and away from the bugs.

4989 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - found the Septomaple Geocache 4990 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - Bill found the Septomaple Geocache 4991 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - the Septomaple Geocache

Back at the Motorhome we have a light lunch and then we head out on a bit of a tour of the area.
There is an old covered bridge not too far from here that we want to check out.  It is Sunday today, so we saw lots of Mennonites out in their horse and buggies and dressed in their Sunday best, heading to or from church.

4993 On way to Kissing Bridge - Mennonite buggy 4994 On way to Kissing Bridge - Mennonite buggy

We found the old wooden bridge.  Formally it is called The West Montrose Covered Bridge, but unofficially it is known as The Kissing Bridge.

4998 West Montrose Kissing Bridge

This is the only remaining covered bridge in Ontario.  You can read all about it in the photo below.

5002 West Montrose Kissing Bridge

It is actually a very good day to be here because the Mennonites on their horses and buggies are using the bridge to get to their social events after church.

5003 West Montrose Kissing Bridge

Real horse meets Iron Horse.

5010 West Montrose Kissing Bridge

The old bridge was sagging a bit in the middle so Karen was kind enough to hold it up so that the bridge could carry the weight of the horses and buggies crossing over it.

5014 West Montrose Kissing Bridge 5015 West Montrose Kissing Bridge

This couple had pulled their kayak ashore just under the bridge and were enjoying a picnic lunch.

5016 West Montrose Kissing Bridge

The next stop on our tour today is the Village of St Jacobs.

5029 Village of St. Jacobs

Our first stop is Hamel Brooms.  This is a Mennonite shop that makes hand made corn brooms.  We bought one so that we can sweep our outdoor mats.

5031 Village of St. Jacobs

Then we browsed our way through Christmas in St Jacobs.
5035 Village of St. Jacobs

We could not walk past The Ice Cream Salon.

5050 Village of St. Jacobs 5052 Village of St. Jacobs

While we were enjoying our ice cream treat, I fired up the Geocaching app and discovered that there was a Geocache nearby.  So we headed off to find it.  It is somewhere hidden at the Ice Cream Caboose.

5071 Village of St. Jacobs - looking for Ice Cream Caboose Geocache

Trying to be stealthy and not attract any attention, I zero in on the cache location.

5072 Village of St. Jacobs - looking for Ice Cream Caboose Geocache 5073 Village of St. Jacobs - Bill found Ice Cream Caboose Geocache 5074 Village of St. Jacobs - Bill found Ice Cream Caboose Geocache

To celebrate the success of finding this cache we had to have a strawberry ice cream sundae, with fresh St Jacobs strawberries.

5078 Village of St. Jacobs -fresh strawberry ice cream sundae

We walked the main street of St Jacobs to burn off all those extra calories we just gained.

5042 Village of St. Jacobs 5047 Village of St. Jacobs

There are several murals throughout the village.

5057 Village of St. Jacobs 5059 Village of St. Jacobs

We enjoyed our afternoon wandering around the village, but it was time to head back to our motorhome.  I decided to try out our new broom.

5090 Laurel Creek Conservation Area  - Bill sweeping with new corn broom 5091 Laurel Creek Conservation Area  - Bill sweeping with new corn broom

I fired up the Weber Q and we had hamburgers for dinner.  After dinner I lit a fire and we had roasted marshmallows for dessert.

5101 Laurel Creek Conservation Area  - fire 5100 Laurel Creek Conservation Area  - Bill enjoying the fire 5104 Laurel Creek Conservation Area  - Bill roasting marshmallows

It was a very nice day, we walked about 8 KM today, burned off a lot of calories, only to put them all back on with 2 ice cream treats today.  Such is life.

To see all of our photos from today, you can click on this link to our FLICKR site.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Laurel Creek Conservation Area St Jacobs


We are awake and out the door early this morning. 

We want to get to the St Jacobs Farmers Market nice and early to avoid the worst of the crowds.

St Jacobs Market is only about a 10 minute drive from our base camp here at Laurel Creek Conservation Area.  After we got the car parked, we stopped to visit the animals at the market.

4763 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market 4769 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market

Posed at the entrance for a photo op.

4773 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market - Karen 4772 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market

And then into the madness that is the St Jacobs Market.  Although at this hour the crowds have not arrived yet, but they are on their way.  In another hour or so, this place will be packed.

4774 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market 4776 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market

Lots of items for sale outdoors and indoors.

4779 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market 4782 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market

We wandered around for an hour or so checking prices and then we came back to make our purchases.  We bought bed sheets for the house and the motorhome.  We bought delicious sweets like butter tarts and sticky buns.  We bought fruits and vegetables.

4784 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market 4785 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market

We put all of our purchases in the trunk of the car and then we bought tickets for the St Jacobs Horse Drawn Wagon Tours.

4795 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market - St Jacobs Horse Drawn Tours to Matthew Martin's Old Order Mennonite Farm 4793 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market - St Jacobs Horse Drawn Tours (Duke on right Mickey on left)

The tour today will take us to see a working Mennonite farm.  Along the way we passed by these horses out in the field.

4801 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market - St Jacobs Horse Drawn Tours to Matthew Martin's Old Order Mennonite Farm 4802 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market - St Jacobs Horse Drawn Tours to Matthew Martin's Old Order Mennonite Farm

We are on our way to visit the Mathew Martin Farm.  A very large producer of maple syrup in this area.

4809 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market - St Jacobs Horse Drawn Tours - Matthew Martin's Old Order Mennonite Farm corn crib 4883 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market - St Jacobs Horse Drawn Tours - return trip - looking back at Matthew Martin's Old Order Mennonite Farm

We got to learn how maple syrup is collected.  The old fashioned way was with taps and buckets, but the modern way now is with plastic hoses running from tree to tree and a pump located back at the sugar shack to suck all of the sap into the boiling room.

4828 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market - St Jacobs Horse Drawn Tours - Matthew Martin's Old Order Mennonite Farm - maple sugar bush tour 4834 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market - St Jacobs Horse Drawn Tours - Matthew Martin's Old Order Mennonite Farm - maple sugar bush tour

At the end of our tour, I bought some maple syrup, this will taste so good on my breakfast pancakes.

4856 St. Jacobs Farmers' Market - St Jacobs Horse Drawn Tours - Matthew Martin's Old Order Mennonite Farm - Bill with maple syrup

We got back to our motorhome just after noon hour and had a nice lunch.  Then we went for a walk around the campground.  There was a dragon boat team practicing out on the lake.

4890 Laurel Creek Conservation Area  - boat on Laurel Reservoir 4891 Laurel Creek Conservation Area  - boat on Laurel Reservoir

We walked around by the dam and got some pictures of the water flowing over the edge.

4894 Laurel Creek Conservation Area  - Laurel Dam from top 4898 Laurel Creek Conservation Area  - Laurel Dam from bottom

There is a nice little beach.

4906 Laurel Creek Conservation Area  - Karen at beach on Laurel Reservoir 4908 Laurel Creek Conservation Area  - Bill at beach on Laurel Reservoir

We decided to try our hand at Geocaching.  I have a Geocaching app on my iPhone so we went off in search of the first cache.  Geocaching is like a treasure hunt.  You follow the clues and the gps coordinates till you find the cache. 

This cache is hidden in this old rotted tree stump.

4909 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - afternoon walk - Bigfoot Geocache in stump 4911 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - afternoon walk - Bigfoot Geocache in stump

When you find the cache you can open it up, sign the log book and then you can take a little trinket, but only if you put in a trinket.  We didn’t have anything with us to trade, so we just signed the book and then re-hid the box for the next geocacher to find.  

This is a fun way to get out and explore parts of the campground that you would never explore otherwise.  The fun is in the chase and tracking down the hidden box full of goodies.  We will try to find some more caches after dinner.

4912 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - afternoon walk - Bigfoot Geocache in stump

Back at our campsite, there is a squirrel sitting at our picnic table.

4913 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - evening walk - squirrel on picnic table 4914 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - evening walk - squirrel on picnic table

I cooked us up some burgers on our Weber Q BBQ and then after dinner we went for another walk and searched for another geocache.

4915 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - evening walk 4917 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - evening walk - Boat Launch

We found it after following the clues and narrowing down the search area with the gps.  This one is hidden in a tangle of tree branches.

4920 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - evening walk - Geocache between Boat Launch & Beach 4921 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - evening walk - Geocache between Boat Launch & Beach 4922 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - evening walk - Geocache between Boat Launch & Beach

Karen wanted to try to find one on her own, so off we went in search of the next geocache.

4925 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - evening walk - Geocache sitting in a Pine Stand 4927 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - evening walk - Geocache sitting in a Pine Stand
4929 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - evening walk - Geocache sitting in a Pine Stand

We had fun finding these hidden caches and tomorrow we will go off in search of some more. 

To learn more about geocaching, go to the official geocaching website.  You can learn more and download the app onto your smart phone.  Then you too can get out and find your first cache.  

We probably walked a total of 8-10 KM today thanks to the St Jacob’s Market and our geocaching hikes.

Back at the motorhome we had an evening fire and roasted marshmallows.

4940 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - evening fire 4945 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - evening fire

To see all of our photos from today you can find them on our FLICKR site.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Laurel Creek Conservation Area St Jacobs


Today is the first day of our 2 month summer vacation.

We will be travelling to various locations around Ontario this summer in our motorhome.  Our first destination is the area around St Jacobs Ontario.

We set off from home around 10 am.

Karen is following in the car so that we have a vehicle with us to do some sight seeing.  You really need a car with you when you travel like this, otherwise all you see is the campground you are parked in.  Unfortunately we do not have the car set up for towing behind the motorhome yet, so Karen has to drive the car.
As you can see in the photos, it is raining as we head to St Jacobs.

4730 on route to Laurel Creek 4731 on route to Laurel Creek

This is the route that we took.

image_map

We prefer the more scenic, slower back roads when we travel.

4732 Crossland Rd on route to Laurel Creek 4733 on route to Laurel Creek

What is the hurry, we are on vacation and it is much more relaxing on these roads.

4735 on route to Laurel Creek

I have to pull over a bit to get past a horse and buggy.  You wont see a sight like this out on the 400 or 401.

4738 Hwy 6 on route to Laurel Creek - horse and buggy 4739 Hwy 6 on route to Laurel Creek - horse and buggy

Driving through the little town of Arthur ON.

4741 Hwy 6 going through Arthur on route to Laurel Creek 4742 Hwy 6 going through Arthur on route to Laurel Creek

We arrive at Laurel Creek Conservation Area where we will be staying for the next 4 days.

4744 turning into Laurel Creek Conservation Area 4746 Laurel Creek Conservation Area sign

Laurel Creek is one of several campgrounds in the Grand River Conservation Authority.

4747 Laurel Creek Conservation Area 4751 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - arriving at Gatehouse

We got checked in at the gate and assigned to our site. 

4753 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - Gatehouse

We are in site 62.  We got set up and settled in for the evening.

4762 Laurel Creek Conservation Area - site 62

To see all of our photos from today, you can find them on our FLICKR site.