During our latest Mashkinonje day hike, we came upon a flooded dry meadow which we had to circumvent. Once back on the right track, we looked behind us to take pictures.
As we were standing there, I heard a splash but didn’t see anything. I mentioned it to Marc and was surprised when he told me he hadn’t heard anything. Still, he was the one who spotted rings in the water. A few seconds later, he pointed to an area not too far from the rings.
“Do you see that beaver?”
I did. Can you?
(Hint: Look directly above the dead centre of the image above.)
At first, though, I thought it was a muskrat. Marc laughed and said that its head would be way smaller if that was the case. Oh! Fine then… Lol.
We watched for what seemed like forever, but it didn’t move.
“Maybe it’s just a branch?” I ventured.
Marc said that might be possible.
Unconvinced, I looked down, fiddling with my camera.
“There, it’s gone!” Marc exclaimed.
I looked up and saw Marc pointing at rings growing in the water.
We searched the water’s surface for a little while longer, but it appeared that was it for this barely beaver sighting.
Here’s a close-up of the beaver in case you don’t believe me (winky face). The photo’s a bit blurry, but you get the idea.
See the beaver now? Much better, eh!
So the lessons learned from this barely beaver sighting are:
- Don’t ever doubt you’re looking at a beaver!
- Don’t ever doubt you’re looking at a beaver if you’re hoping to take a nice photo!
- Don’t ever look away while you’re looking at a beaver!
- Don’t just play with your camera; use it!
We hiked the beautiful Coastal Trail at Mashkinonje Provincial Park yesterday. At the bridge, we tried to connect to the Atakas trail. The markers led into the water, so we followed the pink ribbons up to the ridge, but could not find any blue arrows anywhere anymore….where did we go wrong? We ended up back tracking on Coastal Trail to Lapin and back to the car….
Any suggestions? Thanks!
That sounds about right — this area isn’t well-marked at all! We lose the trail almost every time, but at least we know where to look for it… If you’re connecting from the Coastal Trail to Atakas, then you would follow the trail to the right around the meadow. From that hilltop where you can see the yellow sign in the water, the trail first leads down into a gully, then back up another small hill, and finally back down to the edge of the meadow. From there, the trail skirts along the edge of the meadow until it re-enters the woods, from which point on it’s well-marked again. Following those pink ribbons should get you up the second hill, so from there just head down to the edge of the meadow and keep going to the right until you find your way again. Hope this helps!!