Komoka Provincial Park: The Other Side Of The River

Yesterday, I decided to make yet another foray to my newest favourite place to run trails and headed off to Komoka Provincial Park.
   Once again, I decided to bite the bullet and pay to use their new parking lot. There were already a fair number of cars there so the new fee doesn't yet seem to be scaring people away. This time, however, I brought along a $5 bill, only to discover that there is no way to use bills in the new parking machine---it's either coins or plastic. I had neither of these but fortunately there was a family in the parking lot who graciously wrangled up $5 in change in exchange for my bill. Whew!

Some of the scenery near the beginning of the trail. The pond
is way off in the distance

   The temps were near 30C and I suspected that my little armband water bottle would not be enough.so my plan was to run east as far as I could and then turn back toward the parking lot. At this point I would take advantage of the brand new washrooms they've installed, re-fill my water bottle, and then head west. 
   By the time I got back to the parking lot, my bottle was empty and I was congratulating myself on my amazing re-hydration plan---right up until I discovered there was no running water in the washrooms. All there was was a toilet seat in one corner of the concrete room which then emptied into a pit down below. Basically an outhouse (but the best kind of outhouse in a tornado!) 
   At this point, already tired from my hilly run and the prospect of no more water, I decided to call it a day and started to leave the parking lot, for home.
At the last minute, though, I remembered that there was another entrance to the park 2 or 3 kilometers away and thought that I would at least go and investigate.

Getting closer to the pond now, but not much protection from the sun!

   Komoka Provincial Park is intersected by the Thames River, with the much larger part of it being south of the river. I headed off to the part of the park north of the river. Shortly after crossing the bridge, I came to the other entrance. It, as well, had a parking permit machine but fortunately I still had tons of time left on my stub. 
   There only seemed to be two different trails to follow so I picked the one right in front of me. It soon had me out in a fairly open area, walking alongside a huge pond (almost a lake) which I think at one time had been part of a quarry. Komoka is rather well-known for its handful of little lakes. I walked for several minutes and ran across a couple and their dog, who assured me there was quite a bit of trail left.

Better view of the pond---quite pretty!

   I walked until I got to the far end of the pond and then I began to run into "NO TRESPASSING" signs. The signs were a little vague about what parcel of land they actually referred to so I kind if ignored them (and planned to feign ignorance if it became somehow an issue). At the end of the pond was this gravel roadway which ran more or less at right angles to the path I'd been on. The path also ended there so I headed off to my left, walking.
   I forgot to mention that when I got to this new area of the park I had just decided to hike it, rather than run anymore. Water, at this point, was still an issue and I was really only interested in a little exploration. As I walked, the sun beat down even harder on me. The part of the park I normally run in is very shaded but in this new section, there seemed to be very little tree cover. I had forgotten sunscreen to top it all off and I very quickly became uncomfortable. I decided to head back.

Feeling less wanted, all of the sudden

   When I got home, I got on the laptop and did a bit of a satellite exploration of this part of the park. One of the things I discovered was that gravel road I'd been walking on actually had a name---it was called "Queen Street". I can only imagine that at one point it had been much more well-traveled because, honestly, it was just a wide gravel path. The satellite images didn't make this new section of the park seem like I'd want to spend a lot of time running or hiking there but it might be good for one more go-round, we'll see! 

This was "Queen Street"...

Interesting plant life along the way

   

Very pretty!