Woke up at 9am this morning. We have to quickly eat breakfast and then get the motorhome packed up and unhooked. We are meeting our friends Peter and Janette a few miles from here at the Tim Horton’s for lunch. I had texted Janette at 9 when we got up and she told me they were just passing by Victoria Harbour ON. That tells me that they are on schedule for our 11am rendezvous and that I better get our act in gear if we were going to be at the rendezvous on time.
All packed up and stowed away we leave the Doe Lake Campground and Rizzort at 11 am. The whole campground is dug into the side of a very steep hill that over looks Doe Lake and the roads up to and down from the campsites are very steep and twisty. You want to make sure your vehicle has good brakes or you will be unexpectedly dropping in on your neighbours.
We turn left out of the campground onto Ferguson road and follow that to Hwy 11 North. We crossed over the same narrow bridge that we crossed a few days ago.
We turn onto Hwy 11 North and in 8 minutes we are at the Tim Hortons. We can see that Peter and Janette have beat us by a few minutes. They are parked and waiting inside for us to join them. You can see their rig parked to the right of the Valu Mart.
We had our lunch then Karen and I needed to top up our cupboards and fridge so we popped into the Valu Mart to purchase milk, bread etc. Peter and Janette also bought a few things and then we were on the road. They chose to follow us which turned out good for us as there were no rear end trailer shots in any of our photos as we continued North to Restoule Provincial Park.
Watch out for Moose. We are hoping to see a moose, just not in our grill.
You can see the wildlife fencing along the side of the highway. This is put up to try and keep the animals from getting onto the highway.
Every 1/4 mile or so there is a tunnel with an entrance at the fence opening and the tunnel goes under the highway, allowing the animals to pass safely to the other side.
We continue Northwards on Hwy 11.
Till we get to our exit at Hwy 534. Hwy 534 West will take us to the town of Restoule. The Provincial Park is a bit past the town.
Hwy 534 has many twists and turns and up hills and down hills. The pace is slow but very scenic.
We pass horses out in the field along the way.
We pass several deer crossing signs.
And then we saw a deer and a fawn on the side of the road. Fortunately they did not try to cross the road as we were going by.
We arrived at the 4 corner village of Restoule. There is a little general store and a restaurant. We turned right here and continued on the last few KM to Restoule Provincial Park.
The last few KM to the park was also very hilly with hairpin turns.
At one point there is a sign indicating a 23% downgrade. It didn’t seem to be that steep, my bigger concern was to share the road with the trailer coming up the hill.
We have made it to the Park Entrance.
We stopped at the entrance gate and showed them our site reservation. We have entered Bear Country.
We bought some firewood and some ice, got our necessary paperwork and we are on our way to our Site 404.
It takes us about 45 minutes to get set up. First we check the electrical outlet to make sure that there is hydro. You wouldn’t want to get all set up and then plug in to find there was no hydro. After checking the hydro, we put the wooden blocks under the jacks and lower the hydraulic jacks till the motorhome is level.
Then we extend the Dinette and Bedroom slides, pull out the patio awning and then finish up by putting out the ground mats, the BBQ, the chairs and outdoor tables. With that all done we can relax.
With that all done, we walked to site 494 where Peter and Janette are staying. Things weren’t going so well at their site, they were having troubles and had not gotten backed in yet. With a little bit of help from Karen and I, we helped them get backed in and set up. We had a couple of drinks to celebrate that success.
Peter and Janette BBQ’ed some sausages and hot dogs for all of us to enjoy for dinner and then we went for an after dinner walk down to the lake.
This is a beautiful little lake and Peter is excited for tomorrow so that he can get his rubber Zodiac boat launched and get out there and do some fishing.
Fall comes early this far north in Ontario, some of the leaves on the trees are starting to change colour already.
There is a trail that leads along the shoreline to the swimming beach area.
This is the swimming beach area. Janette and I stop for a rest while Karen takes more photos.
Back and Pete and Janette’s site, we enjoy some evening drinks around the campfire.
And then Janette teaches us how to make Smore’s. Apparently Smore’s are an essential part of the camping experience. Neither Karen or I have ever had one so we got our first taste.
To make a Smore’s you need 2 graham crackers, a piece of plain chocolate and a roasted marshmallow. Put the chocolate and the marshmallow between the 2 graham crackers and enjoy.. A bit messy, but very delicious.
Karen was tired around 9pm so she went back to our motorhome to sleep. Janette was also tired so she went to lay down in their 5th wheel trailer. Peter and I sat around the fire and enjoyed the evening and the fire. We had a few late night visitors drop by while we were sitting there. The pictures are not the greatest, taken with my iPhone camera, but you can make out that it was raccoons visiting us.
They were very bold and went right to the stairs to get into Peter’s 5th wheel till I got up and scared it away.
There were 3 or 4 of them and after scaring them away they stayed about 20 feet into the bush, probably hoping that we would leave so that they could come back and investigate the campsite for any tidbits that we may have dropped.
Eventually the raccoons left to go and check out other less guarded campsites. Peter and I finished up our drinks, made sure that the fire was out, said our goodnights and I wandered home.
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