We returned to the car to continue our journey. On the way out of town, we stopped at the town pumping station to refill our water jug. With no AC, and the car turning into a mobile broiler, it seemed prudent to have fluids on hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 10th broke clear and sunny, so we were of a mind to partake of some of Wasagaming’s fine beach action. We hitched up our wagon and headed downtown, if it can be called that in a town that’s only 3 blocks long. Wasagaming in Riding Mountain National Park is cute and picturesque in a … Continue reading Beach, Baby, Beach<\/span> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thosejohnstonkids.ca\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/P7100476a.jpg\")
<\/a>The beach was pleasant, although the man-made strip of sand had a curious crunchy texture to it, as if it was a mixture of sand and plain old dirt. I guess there isn’t a lot of fine beach sand in the Canadian Shield, even at its margins where we were. The shallow water, while not warm, was bearable enough to enjoy. We caught and inspected many crayfish, which I was happy to see. The waters around Cape Croker were filled with them when I was a boy, but you don’t find them much any more. Acid rain all but wiped them out, I think.<\/p>\n<\/a>After our swim, we enjoyed a beavertail and a walk about. The nice thing about resort towns is that nobody is doing<\/em> anything particularly important. I like it that people pause and look around rather than always looking straight ahead, as they do in the city.<\/p>\n<\/a>There’s a short wetland hiking trail just outside town, within easy walking distance. The visitor centre loaned out dip nets for kids to pull little live things, snails and bugs and such, out of the water to look at. We had our own net already and went to check it out. It was quite a hot day, so it wasn’t a brisk hike. The trail was actually wooden, constructed on floats, and wound throughout the wetland area. It was neat, but although our net was ever at the ready, we didn’t see a sign of life in the water. Too many kids dip netting off the boardwalk perhaps. Pausing to shade ourselves in a little floating gazebo, we did salvage a floating Bud Light can, so the walk was not totally fruitless.<\/p>\n