Bears and cars, fear and learning in Muskoka

15 October 2015

Over a coffee Commando told me about his run all around the streets of Gravenhurst and how he’d found a nice place down by the lake and I told him about my hike on the trail and how I’d got lost, found another amazing fungus and been a bit worried about bears.
“There is a bear in the woods,” Commando said, “didn’t you see it?”
“Seriously?!” I gasped.
“Yes, it’s down by the lake,” he smiled, “I’ll show you if you like.”
“You are kidding me, right? It wouldn’t still be there now anyway would it?”
“This one would, come and see,” and he took my hand and led me outside.

We were half way down the wooden steps when I saw the bear, but it didn’t scare me. This was one bear that was most certainly not going to hurt me. In fact he was holding a welcome sign and he was carved from a tree, maybe one of the Muskoka pines that had died. Goodness knows how I’d not seen him before, I must have been so focused on the lake and looking for a trail. We walked right down to the lake and, for posterity, took photos of each other standing on one of the jetties. The sky across the lake was grey, clouds rolling in. Showers were forecast but, in the opposite direction, towards Gravenhurst, the sky was still blue.

“Time for brunch,” Commando said. “Let’s take a walk to Tim Hortons. There’s another bear near there you know?”
He was becoming obsessed with that place and with trying to frighten me about the bears. As it happened I’d already seen the bear he was talking about. It was standing on the grass by the turning for Tom Hortons in the middle of a fish fountain and it was also a sculpture. The day was rapidly turning into the story of the boy who cried wolf, or in this case, bear. Hopefully it wouldn’t end the same way.

Over brunch Commando asked me more about my trail walk.
“So, did you climb up at the mosaic thing by the road where the funny stone man is?”
“The Inukshuk? No, I didn’t know you could get up there that way. I got on the trail well before that, by a little layby.”
So, on the way back we went to have a look. The mosaic turned out not to be a mosaic at all but a picture made of coloured stones and next to it was a sign explaining a little more about the Inukshuk. It turns out each arm points in the direction of a different community and the number of stones in each leg show how far away that community is. Commando was right about a path onto the trail too although I hadn’t noticed a way down when I was at the top and I was curious about where it came out.
“Shall we go up there and have a Look?” I asked, hoping he’d say yes.
“How far is it?” He asked suspiciously. “Maggie is coming over later remember?”
“Not far to the place I started off, although it’s a bit of a climb down the rocks,” I said.
“Ok then, but no falling and breaking anything.”

We did climb up to the trail. Commando enjoyed the views and I did manage to get down without breaking my neck. We also made it back to the motel long before Maggie arrived. In fact, by the time she did we were both half asleep again and the weather had taken a turn for the worst. Those clouds had rolled over and it was raining. Maggie had a couple of surprises up her sleeve for us too. First she had cousin Jen with her, all the way from Vancouver. It was great to catch up with her. The other surprise was slightly nerve wracking, at least for Commando. Maggie had brought her car over for us. Thankfully, only Commando was insured to drive it.

The idea was that we could drive ourselves to Toronto the next day and we’d have the car while we were there which would mean we could visit Niagra. It all made sense but Commando was more than a little worried about driving on Canadian roads in an unfamiliar automatic car. For once he knew exactly how I always feel about driving. Maggie suggested we drive out to Huntsville, the largest town in the Muskoka region, so he could get used to the car and gave him a few tips about driving Canadian style, such as you are allowed to go through a red light when you turn right. Commando didn’t look convinced and we spent a long time drinking coffee and poring over maps, although there was a sat nav in the car. This may have been procrastination, not that I blame him.

When we went out to the car it was pouring with rain, probably not the best of conditions for driving a car on Canadian roads for the first time. For a while Commando fiddled with all the knobs and buttons, familiarising himself with the car, then he set the sat nav and, with a deep breath, started the engine. Of course I had every confidence in him, which is more than he had in himself. The traffic was light and, as you’d expect, the Canadian drivers were polite and forgiving of mistakes and slowly he began to gain confidence. In about half an hour we’d arrived at Huntsville and, with the windscreen wipers swishing, we looked around for somewhere to park.

We found a quiet car park on West Street and parked up with a sigh of relief. We’d made it there in once piece. The rain was still falling sporadically as we wandered up to Main Street  where we strolled in the rain looking into the windows of interesting places like the Quilt Shop, Muskoka Jewellery and Algonquin Outfitters where there were outdoor clothes of every kind. Perhaps, if it hadn’t been raining, we’d have gone further and explored the Algonquin Provincial Park or walked a little further to Fairy Lake. As it was, we had no plan but we found a little park, Town Dock Park, on the waterside and went down to explore.

We walked along the wet boardwalk with the rain pitter pattering into the water beside us. Only an English couple would be mad enough for to go roaming about in the rain on a Thursday afternoon so we had the place to ourselves. The park was pretty, even in the rain, with half barrels planted up with the last of the summer flowers and little beds filled with brilliant red autumn foliage and interesting seed heads. The jetties were empty of boats but, in the summer, this must be a hive of activity.

When the rain began to seep through our clothes we left in search of coffee and a snack. Brunch seemed a long time ago. We found a little cafe called Schat. It looked promising and the name made us smile, better still, it was mostly empty so we went inside. It turned out to be a good choice, one of Muskoka’s finest artisan bakeries, or so it said on the leaflet we picked up, run by a fourth generation Dutch baker Piet Schat and opened in 2010. Commando chose a butter cake with pecans and some warming soup while I went for carrot cake and a grilled cheese and ham sandwich. Of course there was coffee too.

Then it was time to go back and find the car, which turned out to be slightly harder than we’d expected. First we were looking in the wrong car park and neither of us could quite remember what it looked like. After a little bit of wandering about in a slight panic wondering how we’d explain to Maggie that we’d lost her car, we stumbled upon it in the car park next to the one we’d been looking in. Whew! Then Commando had to drive back to Gravenhurst. By the time we turned off Highway 11 onto Bethune Drive the rain had stopped and he was saying he liked driving an automatic so much he might get one.

When we came to Gull Lake Park he turned off.
“This is the park I was telling you about,” he said by way of explaination, “the one I ran through this morning.”
We parked up and walked down towards the lake shore. Maple leaves were tumbling across the path in the breeze and everything looked fresh, washed by the rain. We stood on the jetty and looked out. Patches of deep blue sky and scudding dark grey rain clouds reflected in the rippled water where trees dipped their autumn leaves adding to the colour.

Further along the shore there was a little platform on the lake edge surrounded by ochre and white striped screens. Every Sunday evening in summer Gravenhurst’s Music on the Barge plays here and townsfolk bring their lawn chairs to sit and watch as the sun goes down. We walked along to have a closer look at it but, of course, there would be no band to see so we had to imagine.

We had a dinner date with Maggie, Alan, Marina and Jen so it was time to leave the park and freshen up. The path up through the park towards the car park was made of blocks printed with names and, at the top, we stopped for a moment to look at the colourful autumn foliage one last time. This would be our last day in Gravenhurst, tomorrow we’d be off to the big city with a marathon ahead of us.