a peek inside the fishbowl

Happy Friday!

Click here for part one of this post about our road trip to Arnprior.

So we left Macnamara Nature Trail and decided to continue our journey. We had no plan, no schedule, no nothing, which is how we ended up at a tiny beach down the street from the trail entrance. A lone picnic table on a stretch of grass was nothing to write home about so I consulted the interwebs and saw something about a local park. I wasn’t able to find much about it quickly enough but we decided to forge ahead anyway after I read the magic words: SNACK BAR and BEACH.

Robert Simpson Park (at the end of 400 John St N. in Arnprior) is located where the Ottawa and Madawaska Rivers meet. It was only a five-minute drive away from Macnamara Trail and – SURPRISE – totally worth the visit.

Robert Simpson Park is very well maintained. There’s ample parking and plenty of green space, picnic tables, a small playground, a splash pad, a guarded beach, and a snack bar and washrooms. Basically, everything a family needs to hang out for an afternoon in the summer! Woot!

I was so taken aback that I only took minimal photos, so you will have to imagine stately trees and soothing shade, well-tended lawns, pretty flowerbeds, families spread out with blankets on the grass, older folks playing bocce, and kids scooting around on their bikes.

This is a glimpse of the beach. Note there are two levels of parking. The lower level makes the beach area easily accessible for those with mobility issues:

There’s a large covered gazebo at Robert Simpson Park too, which is where we shifted ourselves when it started to rumble and thunder. It would have been really cool to see the storm roll in, but it skirted us and the rain never did come. We did, however, have a pretty view of the water and the boats floating by while we waited:

It was mostly peaceful there. Mostly. I wrongly thought we’d left all the bugs behind us on the trail, but I was mistaken. This geedee moth WOULD NOT LEAVE ME ALONE even though I stank of bug spray. Was it playing chicken or what? It came close to fluttering up my shorts a number of times. Gah.

After awhile the girls had been in and out of the water and in and out of the splash pad and done cartwheels all over the park and Mark and I had just had the Best Coffee Ever, so it was time to finally pack it in.

Sidebar: I’m fascinated by menus for some reason. I always picture my grandkids reading them in disbelief. (“What’s a POGO and why was it only $2.00 grandma?”) Of note, there was homemade pulled pork to be had at the snack bar. Oh well. Next time!

Speaking of menus, I sent out a tweet about being in Arnprior and within seconds there was a change of plan. Mostly because of this tweet from local food writer Paula Roy:

@missfish oooh – are you going to Wes’ Hot Chips while there?

— Paula Roy (@paulajroy) August 4, 2014

So that’s how we ended up at Wes’ Hot Chips, en route back to Ottawa:

… with a large one of these to share:

Conclusion: twitter didn’t lie and the fries were pretty darn good. It was a great way to end a good trip to Arnprior.

Maybe next time we visit we’ll poke around the main strip. What else is good to see and do in Arnprior?

We were itching for something to do with the kids in Ottawa and we wanted it to be free, or very close to it, so we decided to ignore our recent experience(s) with mosquito-infested hikes and find a new trail to try, this time closer to home.

Mark did a bit of research and we settled upon the Macnamara Nature Trail in Arnprior. It’s a fairly easy trail (only 4km) and not too far from Ottawa.

This trail has an interesting history. Unlike many bigger area trails, this one is actually on private land, owned by Nylene Canada Inc., a supplier of nylon “to the automotive, packaging, wire and cable, injection molding, roto molding and carpet industries.” In fact, you drive right past the Nylene parking lot in order to reach the trail (which may be puzzling if you are looking for a more remote starting point). It’s part of a protected area that was explored and named after Charles Macnamara, who lived in Arnprior from 1881 to 1944. According to the Macnamara Field Naturalists’ Club (which was named after him), Charles was a naturalist and photographer who documented “wild orchids, birds, beavers, springtails (tiny soil insects, one of which bears his name), and the natural history of the Arnprior area” and his photos provide one of the “best available visual records of the early Canadian lumber industry.” I thought that was pretty cool.

While were in the trail parking lot sorting out our backpacks and divvying up the water supply, a fellow who was getting into a pick-up truck parked next to us told us the bugs were “really bad” on the trail. And so, we did the only thing we could do, we doubled up on the Muskol and ventured forth, feeling optimistic (or maybe it was just me) that it couldn’t possibly be as buggy as the trails we experienced at Presqu’ile recently.

We were right, and it turned out to be a lovely stretch of trail that was quite kid-friendly.

Sidebar: if you’re on a hike it helps to know what you’re looking at, which is why we enjoy interpretive trails so much. At Macnamara there were supposed to be trail guides at the start, but there weren’t any to be had when we were there. I really recommend printing one before you head out or downloading it in PDF format and loading it on to your phone. It’ll make the trip a lot more interesting for everyone, because there are definitely things to see that could use some explanation.

For example, the trail passes by an abandoned lime kiln:

It also passes a not-too-tall lookout overlooking a marsh, where we stopped to eat our lunch (see pic) because it was virtually bug-free. (Yay!)

Macnamara Trail alternates between easy dirt trails (sprinkled with wood chips in soggy parts) and boardwalk. I like how the cattails were encroaching here:

Other points of interest included tall trees with crazy burls, mossy escarpments, and walking ferns, the name of which refers to its method of propagation. (When a frond touches the ground it starts a new fern, hence making it appear as though it’s “walking” through the woods.) The same area also featured a startling amount of historical porcupine poop. (Kids sure love poop stories eh? It never seems to fade. See labelled photograph here.)

There were a lot of neat species of fungi and interesting deadfall along the trail too. As for critters, it was CHIPMUNK CITY in there. I have never seen so many. We should have kept a count. As we walked we made up names for all of the different chipmunk neighbourhoods we passed by: Black Pond, Fern Hill, Birch Towers, Soggy Bottom, Marshy Way… fun stuff.

What you need to know about Macnamara Nature Trail:

• Macnamara Nature Trail begins on McNab Street in Arnprior. Look for the Macnamara Trail parking lot on the right after the entrance to the Nylene Canada plant, which is at 200 McNab St., Arnprior)
• Bring bug spray, snacks and water. Kids are never too young to carry an appropriately-sized backpack!
• Want to take it up a notch? Pack a picnic. There are a few park benches along the trail, or do what we did and eat at the lookout.

After our hike we decided we needed to find a spot to rest and take in a bit of scenery, preferably bug-free. More on that tomorrow.