BON ECHO CAMPING on Victoria Weekend May 2012

The Victoria Weekend in May of 2012 saw us heading to Bon Echo for a few days of camping.  We gathered up our gear and headed west, picking up my sister in Kingston along the way.  It was a hot sunny weekend, perfect weather for evenings by the fire and comfortable sleeping.  The days were quite hot but it allowed us to relax at camp and venture out along scenic trails by Lake Mazinaw.  The evenings brought beautiful sunsets which allowed photographers to hang out by the "Narrows" a narrow waterway joining both Upper and Lower Mazinaw Lake.  One afternoon, we rented a canoe to paddle out along the cliffs of Mazinaw Rock to view the pictographs.  This area is a favourite destination for painters and photographers. This 1.5-kilometre sheer rock face rises 100 metres above Mazinaw Lake, one of the deepest lakes in Ontario, and features over 260 native pictographs, the largest visible collection in Canada.  Mind you, the red dye of the pictographs are fading and therefore, difficult to make out the figures.  Nevertheless, it was great to be on the water.  Lots of song birds around, especially waking us up in the morning.  One evening, we had two baby raccoons checking us out and as we approached the sound of them in the dark to figure out what was there, they  made their way up a nearby tree.  We flashed our headlamps at them and we could then make out their eyes, shape and size.  We kept our light on them which made them anxious to get  out of the area.  They started down the trees so we backed away so that they could make their escape, which they did.  We saw woodpeckers and experienced a special treat when a pileated woodpecker came flying into camp looking for food in the dead trunks of trees lying on the ground.  We also did the hike up Mazinaw Rock.  For this hike you take the little shuttle boat across the lake to the dock at the base of the cliff, the start of the hike.  From there we climbed a series of stairs leading about 1km away to the top of the cliff, Mazinaw Rock itself.  Take a look at the video of the view atop this rock.  With the weather the way it was, we didn't want it to end but at least packing the tent was a dry experience for a change.