The only problem we had with food was on the 3rd night when a squirrel (chipmonk?) climbed onto our hung pack, chewed it's way thru the pack to get at some salted sunflower seeds and the seeds on some bread we had. I don't worry about bears but I've had problems with squirrels and racoons climbing and otherwise managing to get at the pack and spoil/eat some food.
This park is loaded with beaver dams. Hike up high and you'll find them. Go down low and you find more.
This time, due to construction at the Mitchell Creek bridge, we set our paddles in the water by Mitchell Creek and headed for campsite 8 on Birtch Lake. It's perhaps a slightly longer paddle than leaving from Kingsform Dam; but it involves much less driving over twisting and windy roads.
There are, of course, lots of beaver dams on this hike too.
From the Moulton Gorge Lookout we continued to the portage to grab a canoe ride back.
On the way to campsite 4 we passed this tree growing out of a crack in the rock.
This fungus was growing on a tree in our campsite.
Sunset pictures on our last night.
While at campsite 4 we, ever night, took a paddle out to see what animals we could see. There were some pretty carefree beavers that didn't mind us and we were able to watch one chewing on a small tree trunk. I was amazed at how quickly the teeth cut thru the wood.
Here we did a daytrip to campsite 5 at the end of Big Salmon Lake. A hiking trail goes to the top of the redish cliffs for a wonderful view down the lake. This campsite also has a large sandy beach that would be excellent.
There were lots of beaver dams on this hike. It had a nice rolling terrain with many scenic spots - espically the cliff-top view out onto Big Clear Lake.
Just behind campsite 4 is a short trail leading to this pond.
We left campsite 4, canoed to the portage to Labelle Lake (rated easy, 1 small hill, 490m) and then canoed to the short portage that took us to Big Clear Lake (rated moderate, 1 hill, 190m). Then we paddled to campsite 13 and swam there for a bit before continuing to the end of the inlet where the viewpoint, which we hiked to the previous day, is.
The trip out was easy going; but the trip back involved a lot of headwinds and some very small whitecaps. It definately made for harder going.
