fark stories

6th Annual Father-Daughter Camping Trip - Pinery Provincial Park

This event is one of the most anticipated events of the year as the famous father-daughter camping trip took place at Pinery Provincial Park. Every year we hold this event on the 2nd weekend in September and it has become a really fun tradition for all the families. This was the second time we'd been to the Pinery and the girls were looking forward to exploring the dunes and getting in some swimming.

The Trek to the Beach

Dunescape

Climbing the Dunes is Tough on the Calves

On Saturday we played a rousing game of Jailbreak. In this game the fathers were the jailers and the girlies were the jailbirds. We also went on a
bike and hike to the Riverside Trail. Here we were intrigued to find the park rangers doing bird banding in order to understand the migratory patterns of some of the birds at the Pinery. The rangers had set up nets near the shore of the Ausable River which runs through the Pinery. The nets were light nylon nets. Once the birds flew in they would drop into a safe nylon pouch. We met 2 volunteers who were extricating the birds from the nets and taking them to be banded and measured.

This kept the girls very intrigued for the better part of an hour as the bird experts measured their wings, body fat and identified their type. There were Thrashers, Warblers and a little bird called a Wilson which when held on its back would remain stationary. Sarah Farquhar tested this out when the little Wilson was ready to be released, the ranger put the bird into Sarah's hand on its back. It stayed there resting for 1/2 a minute. What a thrill for Sarah to hold this little yellow bird for that long before letting it go.

Caroline Practices Kayaking

Daddy This Water Is Cold!

Brianna Enjoys Playing In The Waves

Girls On Film

Sarah Fee Relaxing On the Beach

Mary Tries Body Surfing

Beach Beauties

Pablo Doing Yoga

Ghost Stories

One of the annual traditions at the father daughter is for each family to come up with a blood-curdling ghost story. Although this year was the best yet as each family had to research and come up with the best ghost story they could think of. Jim Kerr had us all on the edge of our seats with a thrilling rendition of Stephen King's "The Shining".