It’s the first long weekend of the summer, May “two-four” and for the first time in a couple of years the weather is cooperating. It’s supposed to reach a high today of 19 C with nothing but sunshine. The wind we had yesterday that brought three-foot swells has virtually disappeared leaving an eerie early morning calm on the lake. It’s amazing how a body of water the size of Lake Huron can change so quickly and bring with it another new look. I swear, every beautiful sunset, every shade of blue on the horizon and every shoreline is as unique as each grain of sand on the beach. Today’s sand, flattened by yesterday’s waves is smooth and hard, ideal for walking. These could be my favorite mornings on the beach. The little waves that remain are quietly lapping on the shore. I don’t even want to turn on my IPOD this morning. I will just walk and enjoy the peace and quiet and reflect back on how great our life has become and how this little town has altered it.
This will be our fifth summer of living in the Bend on weekends and our sixth summer of enjoying one of Ontario and Canada’s best kept secrets. We have always loved our beaches and hope to retire to one (or two) of them in a few years. In Florida we like Cocoa, Daytona, Clearwater but our favorite is Caladesi Island. Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head are great beaches in South Carolina. Wasaga is considered one of the nicest beaches in Ontario but the drive through or around Toronto would put anyone off. Port Dover and Turkey Point on Lake Erie are closer and easy to get to but nothing compared to the Bend. We now consider the Bend’s beach one of the best of them all and it was hidden in our own back yard all along.
I discovered Huron Bend on an outing for work. Fergie, my boss at Norris Electronics picked it out for a getaway after a huge systems project was completed in 2002. He had visited the Bend a couple of times over the years and thought it had lots to offer for a mid-week getaway. There was some golf, boating, a parachute club, drag strip, playhouse and even a beach, Fergie said. It seemed like an odd combination to me at the time but as we would learn, it just adds to its charm. The work outing was a reward for our team’s hard work and a chance for us (our project team) to cut the systems umbilical cord of our two hundred employees back in Grandview. Maybe Huron Bend had to be a hit because we were so worn out from all the hard work and pressure we had been under for the better part of a year but I have since seen the Bend win over just about everyone who sets foot in the town or walks its beautiful beach for the first time.
The get away worked perfectly for everyone involved and the employees back home survived without us watching over their every move. For me, the trip was much more than a chance to relax after a year as leader of our project. It opened my eyes to what has become the perfect place to escape every weekend of the summer, our own little paradise. The drive is less than two hours from our home in Grandview with no traffic whatsoever heading primarily west and slightly north while most of the traffic out of Grandview is heading east to Hamilton and Toronto. The drive is through some of the richest, scenic farmland in Ontario and even more beautiful and relaxing on the backcountry roads which is almost always our chosen route. On that first visit for me the older guys (including me) played golf while the younger ones took some Sea-Doos out on the lake. Although the Bend is just a bit north of home it still has the quaint feel of a Northern Ontario town and with its proximity to the lake, similar weather as well. On our second day of golf we were chased off the course by a severe thunderstorm that came in off the lake out of nowhere and disappeared just as fast. I could not remember the last time I saw a torrential downpour like we experienced that afternoon, there were little lakes of casual water on the golf course when we went back out. The water was gushing out of the rain gutters when we pulled our golf carts up to Pinewood Resort where we were staying. Within ninety minutes it was over, the sun was shining again and we were back on the golf course.
The highlight of that trip to the Bend for me was that first walk on the beach from the Pinewood Resort to the downtown strip where we had a few beers at the Lazy Lizard overlooking the beach. I was in awe of the beautiful soft sand, the shoreline and natural but fragile dunes that have been part of this scenery for thousands of years. The water was refreshing but clean and the kilometer walk to the main strip in town along the beach was breathtaking. To think I had never been here before and barely knew it existed made the place that much more incredible. It was early June and not overly busy that late in the afternoon. I decided that night I had to bring my wife Marie back as soon as possible to show her this perfect little place.
We booked a weekend package at the Pinewood two weeks later. Marie was just as impressed as me but as we were having our first dinner in the Pinewood’s log dining room, the sun set right in front of our table that overlooked the private cottage road down to the beach. It was just a fluke we ended up at the window table on the west porch of the restaurant that night, overlooking the practice putting green and road to the lake. It would have also been one of just a few nights the sun would set on that angle. The Lake Huron sunsets are incredible. I have read National Geographic has our sunsets listed in their top ten in the world. We were absolutely hooked on Huron Bend from that day forward.
We spent three weekends that summer splitting time between The Pinewood and the Sandy Dunes lodge but soon discovered you couldn’t wait for the weather to make your bookings. We ended up making more day trips than overnighters that first summer when all the accommodations would be booked solid every weekend.
We spend two weeks in Florida every spring and after our Florida getaway in 2003 I was watching the Masters when I saw John Daly interviewed from his RV bus. Here was this 300 pound giant personality in a mobile home he would use to get from golf tournament to golf tournament and then live in once he arrived instead of the customary house or hotel. I started to think maybe that could be the key to our retirement, a mobile home we could move from Huron Bend to Florida every year. The next Saturday morning I was doing some maintenance at work and listening to our radio station on my telephone. I heard about an open house at a local RV center in Grandview and thought - why not? I knew why not - Marie - but I was still curious. I drove out to the RV center and was amazed at what I saw. These gorgeous, efficient, little homes on wheels had windows everywhere and tastefully furnished. They were “Park Model” trailers, not as mobile as Daly’s bus but about one-tenth the cost and they didn’t require any fuel because you wouldn’t move them once they were towed into position. My mind was racing as I drove home to wake Marie before they closed the sales office. How would I get her out there without telling her what I wanted to show her? She was coming off a night shift and still half asleep when we rolled into the car for what was supposed to be a surprise. As soon as I pulled into the parking lot of the RV center she told me to turn around. I said, “I just want you to see how roomy and tastefully decorated these things are”. She gave me that look … but at least I had her opening the car door. At the end of it she was just as impressed as I was and we left there with some ball park pricing and a lot of enthusiasm. I never thought for a minute that the next weekend we would end up with our own trailer in the perfect setting just six kilometers south of our beach at the Bend.
The following week we started to do some research and found a couple of trailer parks in the Huron Bend area. The Huron Pines trailer park had the best website and I recognized the name from some literature somewhere. Our plan was to maybe one day purchase a trailer from our local dealer in Grandview and have it moved to a park in the area of the Bend. The Huron Pines Park website also had many new models for sale in addition to about thirty or forty used ones already on lots. The price on the used models was considerably less than the new ones and we thought we should try to have a look at them; it might give us a better idea about the whole concept. We weren’t sure if the parks would even be open but we wanted to take a look at the parks from the outside at least and decided to drive up the next weekend. On the Friday night before we left we even printed off the ten used trailers at Huron Pines that we thought might be the best to look at if we could somehow walk into the park. Saturday morning brought spring showers that put a damper on the Huron Pines Open House, which we found out about as we did a drive by all the parks. Huron Pines Park was looking like the best of all the parks when we returned to find we were the only visitors at the Open House, thanks to the weather. We were completely spoiled with the entire staff at our service. Not only were we going to be able to see some of the used trailers up close, we could go into anyone we wanted. We spent the next two hours touring the ten trailers we had picked out from the website and a few others. When all was said and done we fell in love with the trailer Marie first picked out from home and it was half the price of the other trailers that made our short list. Reality started to kick in and we had to get away to discuss this first. Despite having two free coffees and muffins at the open house we drove down to Tim Hortons for another coffee and a chance to abandon this whole idea before we went too far. We talked and walked a bit in the rain before driving back to look at the trailer again. After another trip downtown and our fourth coffee we came back again and made an offer on our little dream home away from home in our own little paradise.
We didn’t have a clue about the lifestyle we were embarking on but after four years of this we still love every minute of our time up here. When I got back to work after purchasing our trailer the guys at work had all sorts of technical questions for me (they were obviously much more familiar with the lifestyle than we were). What kind of water do you have and what kind of toilet, is it chemical? “I don’t know, I turned on the tap and it worked and the toilet flushed water, I think” was my response. I had to call the park management later that week to find out we were on city water and had our own sewer system which was another bonus. With the help of all our neighbours and new friends in the park it only took us a couple of weekends to have most things figured out.
Each weekend is like a mini vacation for us and if anything it’s getting better and better. Marie is working this weekend so I am on my own – it’s that way every third weekend. I rolled in early yesterday getting my chores done before I headed down town. Our trailer is on a picturesque lot about sixty feet wide by eighty feet long with a beautiful lawn and gardens and several mature trees. The trailer is positioned parallel to the road and looks like a little cottage with a good size front lawn. The newer trailers have to be positioned perpendicular to the road because of recent changes to the fire code but ours has been in position for over fifteen years, as have most of the trailers on our street making it one of the prettiest little streets in the park. I have to cut the grass, load up the bird feeders, open windows and fire up the hot water heater. Our Friday night tradition is to head to the Victorian pub for its piano bar, happy hour and off track Barry’s betting booth. All of my favorite things rolled up in one quaint little bar – horse racing which has been in my blood since childhood, great live music, excellent food and beer (all reasonably priced) and a staff who treat you like family. Forgetting the beach and everything else we love about the Bend this little pub/restaurant is one of our many favorite venues in town. I went for a walk down the strip before going to the Victorian. There are probably about fifty little shops and eateries on the half-kilometer strip down to the beach, each one with its own character and charm.
The atmosphere is party-like every weekend but it gets a little crazy on a long weekend and it’s fun just taking it all in. We have permanent year round residents and the regular weekenders like ourselves but every weekend there is a new crowd of young visitors rolling in. As much as this is party central for a lot of kids we have never seen any serious trouble. The OPP station is right beside the rowdiest bar in town and the police are mainly kept busy with open drinking that overflows the rental cottage properties on to the streets but all in all everyone has a good time without causing any serious trouble. Last night when I was walking down to the beach, I saw a car do the loop at the bottom of the strip and stopped to let five crowded passengers out. As the five piled out of the car, the trunk popped and two more girls crawled out of the trunk with their high heels and miniskirts. You don’t see that everyday back home but it’s typical of some of the crazy things you see in the Bend on weekends. They probably drove up from the Pinery, one of the finest Provincial parks in Ontario – it’s directly across from our Huron Bend trailer park. Behind the “girls in the trunk” car is a motorcycle pulling a wagon with a golden lab wearing WWII pilot’s goggles – it’s Kelley, a regular in town. Since we have lived in Huron Bend we have lost two of our three cats back in Grandview (from old age) but all the unique, friendly dogs of Huron Bend have replaced them (not to mention, the chipmunks, squirrels and rabbits at the trailer). Kelley is just one of the many special dogs our granddaughter Katarina has catalogued in a spreadsheet – “the dogs of Huron Bend”. I keep telling Marie and Kit (Katarina) that we get to enjoy all of the benefits of owning a pet here in the Bend without any of the responsibility although Marie will never tell me how much money she spends on peanuts and bird seed every week for the chipmunks, squirrels, and birds.
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I managed to win enough on the races last night to pay for my food and a couple drafts, a big tip for Lindsay the bartender and a late night ice cream from John’s Dairy Delight store before I went for one last walk on the boardwalk. We call it a boardwalk but it’s really a cement path along side the beach that stretches from the building that houses the change rooms and washrooms down to the pier and lighthouse. I could see a commotion down by the shoreline as some shadows were peeling off their clothes to go skinny-dipping in the moonlight. It was just your typical Friday night of a long weekend at the Bend. The line up at The Annex (the younger bar attached to the Victorian) stretched around the corner by time I got back to my car. I waved to Chuck the bouncer on the way by, he makes John Daly look pint size but he is really a gentle giant. We will go to The Annex early on a Saturday or Sunday night to see Brian Jones warm up the crowd before the big bands roll in. Chuck always (always) asks Brian (the human juke box when he is not playing his original stuff) to play “Freebird”. Eventually Brian will give in and do a brilliant rendition of the Lynyrd Skynyrd tune. As a bit of a joke now when we are down at the Pinewood listening to Brian and the crowd starts to get out of control with their requests, I will usually shout out “Freebird” as a tribute to Chuck and give Brian a little comic relief, he just shakes his head. Brian is busy playing many different venues but he is the headliner at the Pinewood every other weekend and in our opinion the best entertainment in the Bend, maybe the province, maybe the country. Huron Bend is just loaded with local musical talent, kids that flip burgers during the day and play the clubs at night, Brian is kind of an icon and leader of that group who doesn’t have to do anything more than perform for a living now.
I am three kilometers into my walk this Saturday morning and haven’t seen a footprint on the beach. It’s early – just after 7:00 am. I saw one sleeping bag way back on the beach and Sassy the collie who comes down from her cottage but never wanders any further than fifty yards up and down the beach from her owner’s property. Sassy is another one of the four-legged characters of the Bend. She never barks and always greets everyone with a gentle touch of her wet nose, her tale wagging one hundred miles an hour. I still don’t know who owns her but we checked her tag after seeing her running loose the first few times. Her tag says Sassafras but I call her Sassy and her tail wags even faster when I call her by that name.
I am coming up to the Water Treatment center, which doubles as a day park, a nice way to make the infrastructure more environmentally friendly. I sometimes turn here if I want to limit the total walk to six kilometers but today I am ready to go a full ten or twelve kilometers. About three hundred meters past the park I can see what looks like a large log bobbing in the water. The kids will some times drag some of the big driftwood logs out into the water where the waves will eventually wash them back in. As I get closer it looks less and less like a log. It’s about twenty feet out in the water and just rolling slightly back and forth.
“Oh my god” it’s a body.
I wade out to the body and see it’s a girl on her side on the second sand bar. Her leg is snapped like a twig and barely hanging on to her torso. There are cuts and scrapes all over her naked body, which is partially stiff. I rolled her over to pull her into the beach when I saw her bruised face – it was Sam. My stomach flipped and I don’t know how I kept from vomiting. I pulled her on to the beach and grabbed my cell phone, which was in the sand where I threw it when I went into the water. My hands were shaking so bad I could barely dial 911 and told the dispatch where I was and what I had found. This was the first time I had seen a dead person outside of a casket but I knew she was dead before checking for a pulse or breathing and I couldn’t do anything to help her. My first aid training would be useless here. It was still cool enough for me to be wearing a sweatshirt so I took it off to cover as much of her as I could. I noticed a sloppy looking tattoo on her arm that looked like it had been infected. Even through the bruises on her face you could see her natural beauty like so many of the beautiful girls that call Huron Bend their home in the summer. I started to cry, it seemed like hours but within two minutes I heard the sirens coming through the park.
