Yom Kippur Camping Trip

Yom Kippuer 5781 was like no other for us. Unfortunately, this year is mired in all kinds of changes due to Covid, which meant no synagogues were open and no gatherings allowed.
To add to this, Benjamin and Denise had a minor cold the week before which meant he could no go to school. With all this I decided that this Yom Kippur I will take Jacob and go camping away. I must admit that staying home with both kids while Denise is working and Benji sneezing sounded like a truer way to torture my soul, but I was going more for the introspective aspect of Yom Kippur.

Surprisingly there weren't a lot of spots around for camping, despite school being back. I was hoping to leave on the Sunday already (Yom Kippur was Monday) but couldn't find a good campground, so I just got things ready on the Sunday and we left Monday at noon. We went to Killbear Provincial Park, which I have heard a lot about but never had a chance to visit.

Honestly, we didn't have any specific plans or activities to do other than hang out and find some nice fall colors. The weather was supposed to be really nice. The drive as always was easy and beautiful, the leaves changing were spectacular and we got there in no time (well, 3.5 hours).

We got our tent up and went for a bike ride right away to the tip of the park called Lighthouse Point. There are tons of beaches in Killbear and we tested the water. Cold! Jacob enjoyed the sand, which was indeed very fine. We then did a little hike around the point and realized that there are a lot of nice rocks around. Jacob tried to make a game where you have to jump between rocks and that became the theme of this trip!

One of the most amazing things this trip was the amount and variety of mushrooms around. We always spot mushrooms when we go hiking in the trails around our city, but what we found here was on a whole new level! Jacob spotted this on the biking trail, and ever after we started taking pictures of mushrooms. I'll make a collage at the bottom.

We had a nice little fire for the evening and went to sleep. Jacob really enjoyed having more space this time, the tent is really large for only two people. We read our books, had a glow stick on and fell asleep. I was up half the night from being cold actually! It rained a bit and I couldn't be bothered going to the car to get the extra blankets and for some reason my sleeping bag wasn't warm enough.

Day 2 started great with a nice pee session. Jacob apparently, after having a whole camping trip under his belt, have a tradition of finding a peeing spot around the campground. It is indeed a tradition that has gone down the generations for probably some hundreds of thousands of years. :-D

We had a nice breakfast of eggs, hash browns and tea. Jacob was doing some art while I cooked. The plan for the day was going on a hike described as a shoreline exploration and as walking on geological features, Jacob speak for "rock jumping". The whole thing would take 3 hours one way. We started right from our campsite which was right by the beach and went along. It was so much fun!

The walk was indeed, as advertised, a walk along the shoreline on rocks. What was not advertised was the enthusiasm with which Jacob would stop and marvel at any crack, feature, rock, etc. along the way! Many of those rocks seem t be quartz-like inside and much of the time was spent trying to harvest some of the quartz by attempting to smash them. We only did half the way and it took us a long (but pleasant) time. For the way back we decided to cut into the interior trail (the same one we biked the night before) and walk in the forest. It was quite a long hike actually. We were tired and happy by the end of it.

After we got back I actually had a nap! Jacob was kind enough to read to me and I fell asleep in no time. He hung around the campsite doing who knows what. When we got up we wanted to go fishing but had no worms, so we took a little drive to the local store where we stocked up on s'mores supplies, campfire necessities, got a souvenir, ice cream. Oh, and we got worms as well.
We tried one of the spots fishing from the shore but there was really nothing there. On the drive back n I asked the girl working at the gate where she recommends going and apparently the better side is where the "blind bay" campground is. Unfortunately it was closed for traffic but she said we could just walk in. Well, we decided to move to this spot. Parked the car outside the access road, which was indeed blocked, and noticed the sign saying that it was closed for tree removals, dangerous to enter, no visitors etc. so naturally I packed the backpack with the rods, got on our bikes and rode in. It was a bit earie. Knowing that we are in bear country and no other humans around. We saw lots of deer coming all the way to the road and we did use our bells regularly. It was easy enough to find the way to the beach/boat launch and we did try to fish there but again, way too close to the shore. I didn't really want to stay there for too long, knowing that this is a completely untraveled and unvisited area, so we just head out. It was a good bike ride but I was a bit worried inside.

That night it was calling for far more rain, and it sure did. We did manage to have a nice fire despite the rain, but we didn't last that long and went to bed not too long after dark. I did bring the extra blankets in and had a much better time sleeping.

The morning was very wet... It was our last day (planned on coming home Tuesday night, Jacob would have already missed one day of school). Jacob seem to have been in a funk and was crying that he wants to stay longer, but wanted a cabin, etc etc. I did try to book an air bnb, but apparently I booked something way out of our way and luckily noticed it in time to cancel. Anyway, he eventually agreed to just have a nice day and head home after. We packed our stuff and by this point he just wanted to get in the car and get home... Last days are always shard for us. Well, there is a whole other hike I wanted to do! He eventually agreed to look at it and we embarked on it. I am so happy we did, it was a gorgeous walk through the fall forest to a view of Georgian bay. We noticed so many mushrooms, leaves and rock jumping! At the end Jacob asked if we can stay another night, but by this point the tent was down and I was in driving home mode.

As promised here is a gallery of mushroom pictures. It was spectacular!

We had a lovely short trip. I love spending time in nature with the boys!