After staying up late the first night of our trip we slept in the next day. Besides Cynara, no one else woke up until around 11:00 a.m. It was closer to noon by the time we started "breakfast". And we didn't start our hike until 1:30 in the afternoon.
There were a few options for hiking. We picked the Etienne Trail System which had four choices. Out of the four we opted for the Nature Loop at 8.5 kilometres. Though we tacked on an extra 2.5 kilometres each way because we had to walk to the trailhead from our campsite because of the limited parking space there.
The day was nice for the most part. It wasn't too hot which was good. At the beginning it was mostly sunny with a few clouds. Though as the hike progressed we did get a bit of rain. Not enough to soak us, but enough to make the ground slipperier.
The rain affected Jonathan the most. Or more precisely, his pants. He said it made them too tight and hard to walk in. So he and Cynara took the short cut (Geology-Loop Yellow Trail) back. We continued on the Blue/Green Trail before deciding on the slightly shorter Green Trail Nature-Loop at the final split.
We arrived back at our campsite by around 7:00 p.m. Much earlier than the day before. We had plenty of time to cook dinner. This time in daylight.
I have to say, the firewood here was amazing the first two days. It lit so easily, it was magical. It was such a big difference from the damp wood up at Awenda on our previous trip. We had so much trouble lighting it there.
Dinner tonight would be similar to the previous day - pork shoulder and pork belly with sweet potatoes and veggies. We used the fire to cook all our food. No camp stove for this meal.
After we ate a few of us decided to go on the guided night hike. Along with a pretty large group of people, we met a couple of park staff at the visitor centre by the park entrance. They gave us an introduction of what we might see or hear and we set off in the dark.
We weren't supposed to use flashlights instead relying on our night vision and our hearing to detect certain creatures. Still, one of the small children on the tour kept turning her light on and chattering all night long disturbing everyone. I'm not sure why her parents brought her out.
We did see fireflies and heard some frogs croaking. No bats or owls to be seen. And no wolves were heard in the area (though we tried howling to see if they would respond). I don't think Emily or Ken missed much by not tagging along.
On the way back Peter and I dragged Cynara and Jonathan out to a different campsite to go to their beach to take night shots. We wanted a different vantage point to shoot the stars and Milky Way. We also did some night writing with our flashlights spelling out the name of the park. Sort of a tradition for us now.
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