Day 17 Quetico Provincial Park

 Just another day in paradise! The storms came in last night as promised, and it rained most of the night. This morning was dull and gray, but the rain had stopped and there was a promise of blue skies as the day progressed.

We all decided to stick together again today and try the Pickerel River Trail and surrounding area. Good choice! With the promise of clearer skies today, and the possibility of seeing the Bootid Meteor Shower tonight, we were also looking for a good place to view the night sky. We found both! The Visitor Centre is the start of the Pickerel River Trail, and he has a big open parking lot area not easily found in this wilderness park. More about stars later!

The trail is, for the most part, a boardwalk trail along the Pickerel River. It is also part of the Trans Canada Trail. We have hiked on the Trans Canada Trail many times, in every province, but it never ceases to amaze just how incredibly different the sections of this trail are from sea to sea. With the rain we had, the boardwalk was quite slick. I guess they have had this issue before because some thoughtful park soul covered the centre of the trail in chicken wire – a very effective anti-slip device! The trail was beautiful but was also dotted with signboards of insightful thoughts on nature. They were interesting enough that we stopped to reflect on each one as we meandered through the forest. Some quotes were offered by famous folks, some not so famous. I share them, so I don’t forget them, and frankly, because they are worth sharing!

Neither human artistry nor human science could improve a single square yard of this park. We cannot create a grove of pines, we cannot invent the flight of an eagle, we cannot send a soft rain across a lake at evening. Every plant and creature in Quetico is far more beautiful than anything ever crafted by human hands, and every change in the mood of the park is an instant in creation itself.

Wayland Drew (author of Willow)

What gives Quetico its special quality is a unique combination of past and present, history and geography. Here, preserved like a gilded fly in amber, is the Canadian Wilderness as the explorers and fur traders knew it centuries ago. The Canada that caught the imagination of Samuel de Champlain, the Canada that David Thompson surveyed and Alexander MacKenzie travelled.

Blair Fraser

I was born when people loved all nature and spoke to it as though it had a soul.

Chief Dan George

The Unnamed Lake – It sleeps among the thousand hills where no man ever trod and only nature’s music fills the silences of God.

F. G. Scott

How can you not be moved to introspection surrounded by the magnificence of nature, the soundtrack of the wild, and the wisdom of ages?

These Tree-clubmosses were so cool. They grew up in whorls, under the canopy of the other plants. It looked like a mini Dr. Seuss world!

Check out the chicken wire carpet. Such a great solution!

Pretty, pretty, pretty. Even in the grassy water there were reflections.

Wild columbine.

A painted turtle - there were loads of them here.

As much as hiking is our thing, just poking about in a place like this and discovering countless little treasures is also a wonderful way to spend time. We spent several hours just driving, and stopping, and wandering, and discovering lovely little treasures here. 

Admiral butterfly

A paradise for kayakers

So many different kids of dragon flies

May be hard to see but caught a duck flying over a loon!

LOVE this shot. LOVE this place.

So pretty everywhere you look.

Jonathan and Jenna did take time to hike the trail they missed yesterday. David and I set out on our own to hike another trail and ended up in another putter and poke situation which was just fine by me!

David said this little guy was on his way to choir practice, starting soon! 😂
 

Gonna be another beauty of a sunset!

Irises wildly scattered along our path

Late day sun is so pretty. It makes everything look very different than it did earlier in the day.

This guy was busily knocking on the door of the Teaching Place. Ain't nobody home dude!

As the sun finally set, stars began to appear, and we realized that we finally had a good night for star gazing. We went back to the visitor centre parking area, as planned, and we were the only people with that idea! Bonus! We spent the next couple of hours watching the fireflies play in the trees surrounding the clearing as the stars appeared in ever increasing numbers above. The Milky Way traveled slowly across the sky. The constellations appeared before us as they did before the ancient Greeks. We had Jonathan to enlighten us as to what was what, but it was all incredible. Jonathan and Jenna both saw meteors, David and I were looking another way every time. David and Jonathan discussed the vastness of the universe, and we were all in awe of the celestial show. Just before midnight, a park truck appeared and one of the young rangers drove through the parking lot to where we were. She stopped to check on us and when we explained we had come to watch the stars, she started to laugh. She was concerned we were homeless and wasn’t sure how she was going to help us! We all had a good laugh and she wished us happy gazing, and left us to it. A wonderful end to another wonderful day.

Not bad for a first try...with a cell phone...no tripod! Trust me, it was magnificent!