Turkey Point Provincial Park - September 30th to October 2nd

This is another one of those blogs written long after the fact. Getting around to it at last.

We had committed to a fund raising event at Hound Haven, near Simcoe, and decided to make a weekend of it. Not only were we going to have the hound with us, but this time we'd also have the small tadpole and her friend who had been persuaded to help out with the promise of some community service hours.

Turkey Point Provincial Park was located, very conveniently, just a few miles away from Hound Haven so we booked a site there and looked forward to the weekend.

Well, that was the week that the summer weather finally broke and in the days prior to the weekend, the rain came down copiously and we really doubted that the fund raiser would take place, or that we actually wanted to go. It turned out, though that both things actually happened and on wet Friday afternoon we found ourselves heading east again, on the same roads that had taken us to Selkirk in August.

We set off considerably later than we'd intended, meaning that in all likelihood we'd arrive at the campground in the dark; we were not wrong. Whilst it was still just a little light as we dumped our tanks and made our way into the woods to look for our site, but the heavy cloud and the leaf cover meant that it was indeed completely dark by the time we found our pitch. A word of advice when booking into these places; don't always believe the park staff when they tell you best way to the site. Had I followed the given instructions I would surely have become bogged down and wedged in between tightly packed trees because she routed us down a footpath!

The site itself defied description, especially in the dark, as it was an odd shape and the power pillar/fire pit combination was all wrong. The ground underfoot was wet mud and as soon as we'd worked out how best to position, we did a quick set up and retired indoors for supper, mud-caked shoes having been left outside.

There was only one other camp site occupied that I could see, and they were in a tent. It was cold but, as the night drew in the rain came to make things worse and, not unsurprisingly they were packing up to leave  the following morning. That night the rain came down in tropical proportions, and even the hound found a low hanging bush to hide under as she did her nightly business before bed. Not a great start to the weekend.

Saturday started slightly better as it wasn't actually raining. The fund raiser was on and we headed up there, prepared for a wet day. As it happened, there was no more rain that day and, even if Martha's yard was a tad soggy, a great day was had by all the people and Sight Hounds that attended. Even the community service girls enjoyed it (picking up poop all day) because they were awarded a huge number of hours towards their High School Diploma.

It was raining again in the night and really throwing it down as we drove (yes, drove) to the comfort station for our showers. Walking would have got us just as wet as if we'd been in the shower. This was another park that was poorly provided for in terms of facilities but, as ever, the showers and whatnot were excellent in their quality. Because we drove over there, we also saw all the other campers, clustered together in an alternate camp loop that I couldn't see through the trees.

Anyway, that was that for the weekend. The girls had kind of fallen out a bit so it was earbuds in for the trip home and whilst it didn't rain while we were packing up, it certainly did on the drive. I guess that's what happens with camping in October.

So, only a three star review for Turkey Point. Poor directions, very odd site and sparse facilities; not sure that we'll be back there in a hurry.

That was our final camping trip of 2016, and a bit of a sad way to end it. I may yet do an annual review but, in the meantime, here are some photos: