The best runs

 ..are the ones that have no purpose at all.

Heck, this one almost didn't happen!

We had camping reservations at Darlington Provincial Park for Civic Holiday weekend, and - after more than 3 weeks without our car while waiting for a new oil pan after a tow truck driver cracked ours, then getting it back Friday night - our "check engine" light came on while driving the 5mins home from a trailhead at which I'd run on Saturday morning. She seemed to be running fine, though, so we loaded her up anyway and headed east into grey clouds. 

By coincidence, our campsite number was the same as the one we'd had at Six Mile Lake..

It was raining lightly when we arrived, and continued while we set up camp, stopping almost as soon as we'd got fully set up. It was basically supposed to rain for the entire weekend, then clear up for Monday, so we'd brought Tank's kayak and my paddleboard, and I'd brought some run kit but wasn't sure if I'd bother to use it. 

We thought we might just spend Sunday day-drinking in the Chowhouse
(If it looks like there are bubbles all over the campsite that's just because there are, in fact, bubbles all over it)

We actually got a nice dry spell for most of the evening - it did start to rain again close to midnight, but we'd had a lovely fire by then, and I was getting tired anyway. We brushed our teeth and rolled into the tent just before half past midnight, and suddenly the skies opened in a punishing deluge! It was followed by two more through the night, for a total of what had to be at least 15-20mm of rain.

When we awoke, however, on the day that was supposed to be a complete washout..

Well HEY!

We weren't sure how long it would last - the weather forecast was calling for showers or thunderstorms basically at any moment up until 7pm or so - but we determined we'd take advantage...in the laziest way possible, by sitting around and drinking a pot of coffee on our couch.

While not wearing pants.
It's a rule.

I was feeling a bit beat up - when we'd camped on Canada Day weekend, we discovered that one of our (14 year old) Thermarest sleeping pads no longer held air. I hung onto it while we waited for the replacement I ordered, in case the new one didn't arrive prior to our motorcycle camping trip. Somehow, when packing for this trip, I managed to grab the wrong one of the old ones...as I discovered getting into bed Saturday night (the new pad is Tank's). So, rather than 2" of plush comfort between me and the ground, I'd had more like 1/4" of compressed foam: less than one of the old Zotefoam/Insulite pads. I could have easily shaken that off 20 years ago, but now that I'm past 40? Well, I was definitely feeling it. I attempted to assuage the effects with more coffee, and pancakes.

If you've never used pancakes to make bacon & egg sammiches, you really should.

Then MOAR BUBBLES

Tank bursting my bubble - good thing I had lots more!

It was now almost 1pm, and we hadn't had a single drop of rain - as a matter of fact, the sun had come out intermittently. When reading about the park I saw they only had a handful of trails, none of which was longer than about 2.5km...but upon looking at the park map, I saw that they could all be linked up fairly easily to make a 6 or 7km meander around the park from our campsite.

Our site - #136 - is circled in green

I mean, what did I have to lose? Running is honestly my favourite way to explore any park or natural area, and if there were any really spectacular bits then I could take Tank our for a hike on them later on. So, on with kit and shoes, and off I went.

I figured - when packing - that if it was going to rain the whole time, I'd bring my own rainbow

I started out with the Robinson Creek Trail - closest to our campsite, and up and down its namesake.

The stream was definitely not intermittent after the previous night's rain

Sunshine!

Pretty little footbridge to cross the creek for the return journey

Back downstream

It was a little muddy in places, but that gave me an excuse to walk - not that I was necessarily waiting for an excuse, as I had all day to explore if I wanted. I left Robinson Creek behind and trudged up a long crushed-gravel hill to the park store, past which I found the next section of trail.

I love the signage!

This trail had quite the mix of surfaces and sights - some more muddy patches, some grassy bits, some open field and some shady canopy.

Lush foliage

I quickly came upon the Pioneer cemetery, which was a bit less than I expected.

Am I the only one who thinks one gravestone does not really a "cemetery" make?

I'm also a little disappointed by the historical plaque that stood nearby:

Since Indigenous people had lived in the area for thousands of years before Samuel Burk ever set foot in Canada, I'm gonna say they probably weren't the first people to live on the park's land.

Winding away through the woods, the trees opened up and the trail turned skyward.

Reaching toward a patch of blue..

As I hiked my way up, I came to the lookout I'd seen marked on the park map.

This is more like it!

From atop the picnic table, I could see over the forest all the way down to Lake Ontario.

I grew up sailing on the lake, and had visited Darlington many times from the water side

A downhill trail beside the lookout platform plunged back into the woods again.

I chose not to go up to the Waterfront Trail section, as it followed the road through the park

A few more undulations brought me into a stand of pines, where I found a very impressive old tree. I couldn't help myself - I had to go for a bit of a clamber.

This is as far as I could get before the 10 second timer went off on my phone's camera

I wasn't much past the giant pine tree when the Burk Trail ended at a T-intersection with the McLaughlin Bay Trail.

Sign me up!

 It started out quite promising..

Despite the rain, there wasn't much mud and almost no mosquitoes!

I soon ended up on a road past a large field and picnic shelter, though.

I'd joined the Waterfront Trail anyway as I headed west

Consulting the map - which I'd torn out of the park tabloid and stuck in a zipper baggie to keep it from dissolving in my sweat-soaked skirt pocket - I saw that I'd need to make a left at the gate (the Waterfront Trail would continue beyond as a footpath) and hook up with another bit of trail off to the left of the driveway down to the parking lot by the fishing nodes. Before I found that, though, I saw a trail off to the right..

You're damn right I took it.

As I meandered down toward the shoreline, I found sure evidence of the prior night's weather.

Who needs dry socks anyway?

I tried turning left at a fork, but came to a dead end at the shore almost right away - probably someone's fishing spot. Heading back and taking the right fork, I found another parking lot, and a big wooden archway.

The light makes it difficult to read "McLaughlin Bay Wildlife Reserve" on it

I had seen this place on the map next to the park when I was looking for trails in the area - I knew it had some, but not very much. I wasn't sure if I should check it out, as I'd told Tank I'd probably be about an hour and this would likely make me later than that, but decided that I might as well take the opportunity while it was in front of me.

This map - handily posted in the archway - showed there wasn't enough trail to make a dedicated trip on another day worthwhile

The way in - straightforwardly named the Darlington Trail - was wide open.

And pleasantly lined with wildflowers

Turning left off the end brought me to the crushed gravel "Beaton Path" - the main, lollipop-shaped loop I'd seen on the map.

There was still a lot of intermittent cloud, and I tried to keep my ears pricked for any gusting winds or other signs of an impending storm

Off to the right - not too far in - I found an old wooden gate with an inexplicable gopher on it.

There were what looked like letters formed of sticks on the gate-thing, but they were too broken and missing pieces for me to work out what they said

There was a lovely lookout over a marsh in behind it.

Still no bugs!

Then I spotted a bear..

Turns out he was friendly, though.

Trotting on a bit further, I came to the loop of the Beaton Path, and took the right-hand fork.

Expecting to go counter-clockwise, then head back the way I'd come

There was a mix of sun and shade - I was grateful with the heat of the sun that I'd brought a bottle of water with me!

*panting*

I came to an intersection that was marked "Oshawa Trail" and "Cool Hollow", so I went down that way, as I was definitely game for anything cool at this point. As I was about to pass a bit of singletrack through a grove of tall bushes, I suddenly heard waves lapping at a shoreline.

I had to duck a bit to get through..

I was rewarded with a lovely shingle beach on the lake!

Score!

It was tempting to go for a wade, but I didn't want squelchy shoes for the way back, as I was basically at my furthest point from the campsite...and about 6km in. It was time to start heading for "home", which I did with intermittent views of McLaughlin Bay itself.

I saw a couple of people paddling out there, and figured I'd be one of them tomorrow.

I tried taking the actual Bayside Trail so I could run right along the shoreline, but it rapidly became an overgrown mess.

I've had enough hives on my legs from traipsing through this stuff already this summer, thank you

So I noped out of that, and stuck to the Oshawa Trail back to the Darlington Trail, then through the mud again to emerge back at the road. This time I found the trail off to the left!

Back in the park!

The first bit gave a lovely view of McLaughlin Bay, looking across to the Wildlife Reserve.

Seeing the shoreline from the other side

Some grassy doubletrack brought me eastward, closer to the beach area.

Pleasantly soft underfoot

I found another side trail, and decided to follow it, even though I was getting very low on water.

I figured it would lead to the beach..

..which was a pretty good guess.

Things got a little uncomfortable for a bit after this. Being in the day use area of the park, I saw a water tap near a group of guys playing frisbee, and figured I'd fill my bottle. No good - the tap was shut off, as were all the others I saw in the day use area as I tried to navigate a huge crowd of people and the paved pathway past all of the various beach access points. 

I eventually found the embrace of the forest once more

I was just about at 9km - half again as much as I'd expected to run - as I crossed Robinson Creek again on another pretty little footbridge.

At the southern end this time

That brought me back into the campground, with just a few hundred metres of the campground trail to traverse before emerging on the road up the hill to our campsite.

With just one last little bit of mud here and there

So I ended up getting a pretty thorough look at the park and environs, particularly for a "lazy day" on which I wasn't sure I'd run!

If you can call that pace "running"
(Garmin data is here)

I did eventually get my dip at the beach.

This was plenty deep enough - that water is COLD!

We didn't end up getting a single drop of rain all day

I did spend the rest of the day being lazy after all..

Ummm recovery?

And on Monday - after packing up our campsite - we got our paddle in on McLaughlin Bay on an absolutely beautiful afternoon.

I loved being able to share this with my sweetheart

We even found a tiny channel out into Lake Ontario

It was just barely deep enough for the fin on my board

So much nicer than the crowds at the beach!

We paddled the whole bay, plus a bit on the open lake, before heading back to the launch to extract and get on the road home.

Such a lovely day

Definitely a much different weekend than we anticipated, but in all the best ways!

I'll take sunshine and adventure over rainy and lazy almost any time!

At the same time, Tanker had an amazing afternoon of just lounging around our campsite while I was out exploring, so it suited both of us perfectly. I'm grateful that we could each enjoy our time in the park in our own ways, and also be able to share some of its loveliness.