Mothers Day weekend at Presquile Provincial Park 2016

Up early with the birds & sunshine on Friday am, we were all set to head the short distance to Presquile Provincial Park from Picton.

We checked in early at 1030 and headed to our site 372 in the Trails End section.  We have camped in the High Bluff section in the past but Pete likes this section a wee bit better for bird watching.

view from our site:

 We quickly set up, bbq'ed some italian sausage for lunch and went for a walk out at the  tip of the park where  Ontario's second-oldest operating lighthouse and the original lighthouse keeper's cottage are.  Typically there is a lot of migrating birds out in this area.

Unfortunately this weekend was not a spectacular  bird watching weekend as it has been in years past. We wonder if the late start to spring has held the birds back too.  Regardless Pete enjoyed his bird watching time and managed to see some songbirds and other birds along the trails and trees.

 The park also didn't seem as full as in past Mothers Day weekends.  Lots of empty sites around us when normally it was quite full.  Friday night the weather held and we were able to enjoy a great fire.  We had neighbours come over and ask if we had any dry wood to help them start a fire - as we have encountered in the past, the wood they sell at the Parks is often wet and hard to start.  We bring cuts of wood from a pallet factory close to our house that has a scrap bin. We are thankful for that, as it always burns a clean, dry fire (and we aren't transporting any kind of invasive bug as the wood has been milled).  We gave them a box of wood and a wee bit later we saw the flames in the air and the cheer of "yay fire" from their kids! We were happy to make their night for them !!

 We awoke in the night to rain coming down. Between the rain and the waves crashing against the rocks, it was easy to fall back asleep. 

Morning came quickly and it was foggy.  We decided to head into the town of Brighton, a few km away from the park and have breakfast out and wander through a few stores, and stop at a few yard sales on the way.  By the time we finished breakfast, the sun was out so we headed back to the trailer to change and get ready to do a hike or two.

The first trail we did was one of our favourites:
Marsh Trail – 1.2 km, 30 minutes, loop, easy
This trail includes 800 m of boardwalk complete with two viewing towers and a teaching platform (great for picnics too!) that takes visitors into the marsh. Sixteen interpretive panels along the trail illustrate the story of the marsh and its inhabitants.  The boardwalk portion of the trail is barrier-free.

We then headed to our other favourite here:


Owen Point Trail – 1.6 km, 45 minutes, loop, easy
This trail offers excellent opportunities to see migrating shorebirds along the natural beach and distant views of the waterbird colonies on their island nesting grounds. The trail can be accessed from the south end of the beach or from the west end of High Bluff Campground.
To avoid disturbing migrating birds, the natural beach is closed to foot traffic between ice-out and ice-in, but the trail provides a number of lookouts allowing views of the entire shore. In addition, pets are not allowed into any of the lookouts on this trail at any time, but can be taken on the loop. To protect the nesting waterbirds, access to Gull and High Bluff Islands is closed from March 10 to September 10 inclusive. Gull Island can usually be accessed by foot after September 10 from Lookout #5 of the Owen Point Trail.

We then drove back to the trailer and grabbed Wilson and walked down along the water to the end of the High Bluff section.  This section, as usual, was quite busy with campers in the first few rows back from the waters edge. Nice to see everyone out enjoying the sunshine and fresh spring air.

Just as we were prepping dinner to BBQ the rain started.  So we ate inside the trailer.  Thankfully it didn't last too long and we were able to have another fire till the next downfall started (still had a 2 hr fire!!!)  Pete was playing with the wood when he was stacking the fire tonight!!!

We were impressed with the work the Park had done over the spring. They have put in a double fill/dump station so that 2 trailers can access at a time at either the fill or the dump sections (so essentially 4 trailers all at once).  So great to see .... if only more parks were able to do that!!!!  They also had leveled a lot of sites with new hard packed gravel to make it more flat for those pulling a trailer.  They were also working on putting new mulch on some of the trails in and around the campsites as well!! Park staff have been busy!!!

Sunday am was breezy but sunny. Another walk around and sadly packing up to come home!! We will be back next spring and hope the birdies are more out and about next spring than they were this spring!!!  None the less, we were happy to start our 2016 Camping Season!!!

http://www.ontarioparks.com/park/presquile

 http://www.friendsofpresquile.on.ca/