I don’t know what happened to all the rain bands on the radar last night, but every one of them missed us! We woke up to a dry tent!

I was up a few times overnight. My tonsils are really sore and we’re making me prone to snoring in almost every position. I also heard a raccoon chittering away right behind our tent. Good thing Cathy slept through that!

We got to put away a dry tent! So I celebrated by having a bowl of cereal, with milk, and fresh raspberries and strawberries in it!

Once we were on the road, it rained. Thanks for waiting until the tent was put away!

Jana had mentioned something polar bear related in Cochrane. I thought she was just talking about the polar bear statue on the side of the road that I could remember.

But Cathy googled and there is an actual polar bear sanctuary there now! So we went!

When we were paying the entrance fee, we were told there are two resident polar bears but we wouldn’t be guaranteed a chance to spot both. Or even either of them. but that there was also a little pioneer museum and a snowmobile museum on site too.

We made it at precisely the right time to listen to one of the polar bear attendant’s care talk. That was pretty interesting! All about how they are really just fat eaters but to keep them at their 1200 pound range (!) they feed them fun things in the sanctuary too, like a whole watermelon a day, each!

After the talk we went outside and saw only a groundhog.

And then bam! Right over there… it’s a polar bear!!

We were so close to this polar bear, I had to FaceTime Jeff and show him. He asked if we were in a zoo or a ball diamond. Hahaha he must have seen the fencing.

That bear was Henry.

And then we passed Ganuk’s enclosure and he was out too!!

How fortunate are we!

We saw some of the other sights.

And then got to see Henry again!

I peaked at the snowmobiles too. They have over 100 in their collection!

We had lunch at Harvey’s in Cochrane. First Harvey’s we’ve seen maybe! There were just two guys working. One working at the counter and drive through and the other doing all the cooking. Poor guys! That wasn’t fair to them. They were way behind and it took forever but it was just as good.

Then we were heading south for Kirkland Lake!

This is a special town for me. I came here a few times as a kid. I first swam near here. We saw Back to the Future when it came out in the movie theatre here on a summer family camping trip.

And then I was a Junior Ranger for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources in the summer of 1992. I lived nearby in the Ranger Camp in Esker lakes Provincial Park.

That summer was life changing. To get into the program, you had one chance because it was only open to you in the year you turned 17. I was in a camp with 21 girls, mostly from Toronto, for 8 weeks. It was a sudden culture shock, being a country farm kid and suddenly being mixed with all of the worldly girls from Toronto.

I had to suddenly learn to be more independent. We had to get ourselves up and to the kitchen for breakfast on time. We worked most days doing portage and trail maintenance, park maintenance, tree thinning, picnic shelter painting, and we took tours and had talks all about our natural resources and trapping and forestry and even a fish hatchery.

I had the most valuable summer of my life. I learned the value of being a hard worker with a work ethic. I made dozens of new best friends. And I gained a real appreciation of northeastern Ontario that led me to the forestry degree I sought later on.

I came back to Kirkland Lake for two summers after that too, also employed by the Ministry of Natural Resources. I lived in a college dorm for those summers, in town.

It was great to be back in Kirkland Lake. Some parts haven’t changed at all, but some have! The bus station has moved. The MNR doesn’t have the same compound. And the college residence building was sold.

We stopped at a grocery store so I could hit the pharmacy for some sore throat lozenges. I grabbed some Buckley’s too in case this sore throat develops into something more.

Then we were off for Esker Lakes where I had reserved a site for two nights!

I’m back in Esker!!

Some parts of the park are so burned into my memory and they haven’t changed at all. Other parts I don’t even remember!

We set up the tent and bought some firewood and an ice cream from the gatehouse. An awesome girl named Bri was working the gatehouse and she helped fill me in on all the latest park changes!

Then we explored the park!

A beaver dam let go and both beaches and the playground are under water!

A friend from back in the 90’s is now the park warden here at Esker! He worked park maintenance back in 1992. We haven’t kept in touch much, but I told him I was coming and he stopped by on his rounds tonight and said, “You want to see your old Ranger camp? Let’s go!”.

The Ontario government axed the Junior Ranger program a while ago. It’s such a shame. That program changed lives for decades!! Most of the camps were demolished or have fallen into total disrepair.

Not Esker! My friend Jen’s company from Thunder Bay uses it to run a similar program for indigenous youth for 6 weeks of the summer.

Tonight just happened to mark a break between those youth leaving and a tree planting program that starts tomorrow so there was only staff around.

What a surreal opportunity to be back where I was a Ranger in 1992! Now I had been here again in 1993 and 1994 when I was working up here, but not since.

Some of it is identical! The Bat Cave and the Hilton are here still. The Swamp, the cabin I lived in, has been replaced. And the kitchen building is new, but in the same spot.

Here’s Bearcat and I down on the dock.

He told me about all the changes. And showed me things I had no memory of. Did we have a beach volleyball court between the Swamp and the Hilton? I don’t remember it but it’s been in photos back to the 60’s?

Did we use a fire pit back by the rec hall? Not that remember.

The cabin that was Jane’s, our foreman, is getting some updates.

And this one is the old rec hall.

What a day!!

Good night!