Parks #2 & 3: John E. Pearce Provincial Park & Port Bruce Provincial Park

Parks #2 & 3: John E. Pearce Provincial Park & Port Bruce Provincial Park

Date: Monday October 14 2024 (Thanksgiving Monday) 

Site: Day use Hiking Trails and Beach

Party: 3 Cats and some of their litter

[Erin, Amanda & Vickie with Wes (8), Malcolm (8)  and Lily (10) and “the lovebirds” Theresa (16) and Noah (17)]

 

First off we need to address the complete and total irony of our name “3 Cats”   It came about because I have been (self) addressed as an “indoor cat” for a long time. What started as a joke has turned into what we are now calling ourselves….here’s the irony.  Vickie (City cat) is super duper allergic to cats.  I’m talking end of life, cannot breath, eyes swelling to the size of cantaloupes allergic to cats. City Cat: This goes for most of the outdoors and most animals as well!

Also we aren’t as dexterous as cats, nor do we have 9 lives, and I certainly cannot lick my own butthole….

Anyway, the next two Provincial Parks on our list.  We knew that we wouldn’t get many parks completed this fall since we literally started this project in September, but we wanted to visit a few closer to home ones that are closed after Thanksgiving.   Enter John E Pearce Provincial Park.   Located on the banks of Lake Erie, on the west end of Elgin County (south of Dutton) we have a day use only park that is great for easy hiking, wildlife spotting and it has a museum.  The Backus Page House Museum exposes visitors to “a day in the life” of an 1850’s rural Victorian lifestyle, with gardens and barns and all sorts of colonial tools.  While the Museum was not open for our visit we did walk around the property and enjoy the gardens and relieved ourselves in the (you guessed it) outhouses (ugh).

Side note, I love a good quilt block on the side of a barn and this park had one!

We hiked both the Spencer trail (twice because we entered the exit) and the Wetlands story trail.   Both were fairly easy - the Spencer trail did have some inclines (or declines depending on your route) and lots of potential tripping hazards with roots and such, but overall we hiked with ease.   We put in approx 5.5 km walking in and around the park.

There is a lot of opportunity for wildlife spotting and this park is apparently a great “birding” park should that interest you, including Bald Eagles, which are quite plentiful in this area.  We however, did not see any, likely due to the volume with which we traveled.  We saw snails.   And a rogue chicken. Country Cat here… Important to note that Indoor Cat had us looking at a Bald Eagle in a tree, that after a full 5 minutes of us looking at it with our obviously poor eye-sight, we discovered it was just a tent caterpillar city. NOT a Bald Eagle, binoculars are now in our daypacks for future outings, so this does not happen again.

We could not access “33 meter cliff overlooking Lake Erie” as advertised on the Ontario Parks website, as it was fenced off.  We suspected erosion played a part in this no longer being a safe viewing option.

After a snack and some hydration we headed east towards our second destination for the day, the village of Port Bruce and home of Port Bruce Provincial Park.

This Provincial Park is day use only as well.  It’s a beach.   Yep.   About 200 Meters of pebble (not sandy as advertised) beach.  The kids had a great time skipping stones and searching for beach glass. Planning to return next summer to swim!

There really isn’t much to share about Port Bruce.  It's a great spot for a daytrip to have a picnic and dip your toes in Lake Erie.  Take beach shoes, and chairs because that beach is definitely NOT sand.  There is a 4 plex of toilet stalls, unfortunately they were closed for the season so I can’t tell you if they are the infamous plastic poop chutes or actual flushables (I suspect the former).  There are also plenty of picnic tables under the trees and an ice cream shop beside the parking lot.

Both of these parks were super easy day trips for us.  The young ones had a great day and were well worn out by the end of it. I dare say that skipping rocks and finding beach glass was the highlight for my litter.

Oh gosh I almost forgot!!   Both of these parks are totally FREE.   Yeah I know!  FREE.  

Our next park visit is scheduled for end of November, but between now and then we will be documenting some of our prep like budgeting/planning/taking stock of our personal supplies/buying hiking shoes…..and trying to figure out how to smuggle oat lattes into Doe Lake Guide Camp for City Cat next summer…..