Silent Lake
Sep 17-22
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Site 49, kinda tricky to get our little trailer in there around the trees, heaven help a larger trailer. Needed a lot of levellers. Right by a road, though little enough traffic going down there. Got the tarp up no problem; just as well, there are a lot of acorns falling from the heavens and you wouldn't want to get beaned by one. A very hilly park. Two bars on the cell phone and very shady. We had the whole loop sort of to ourselves the first couple of days which were rainy and warm (compared to the latter half of the trip).
On Tuesday several vehicles full of rowdy young folks showed up. Just as we were considering moving a warden came by to advise us they were shooting a training film about rowdy people and just bear with them for a couple of days. We did the Bonnie's pond and Lakehead Loop while they were shooting.
Wednesday was the big Lakeshore Trail (15k). Tough slog towards the end; definitely need inserts in the old hiking shoes.
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Thursday we rented a canoe to give the plantar fascia a chance to relax, whilst shifting the strain to the lower back. A two hour rental takes you all around silent lake. A weedy shallow spot connects up to a smaller lake or possibly bay to the south. Tried fishing but the camp store didn't sell dew worms and nobody was interested in fake bait.
Very pretty park and good hiking. Next time we'll try the 17k bike loop which, from the bits we did, is also a good hike though few vertical challenges. I wouldn't do this park in the regular season, the sites are pretty small. A thing to note - the warden here doesn't allow the return of unopened bags of firewood. First time I've run into this.