Manitoba - Day 6

I'm no wizard but don't consider myself a total dolt when faced with modern technology. Having said that the lighting system in this house is a nightmare. The lighting is staged in scenes with several functions per switch plate. It's all digital which I suppose is more efficient but the problems, yes that's plural, are numerous. To start with the buttons themselves serve many functions. It is not a simple matter of on/off. As a matter of fact normally it is on and only on, rarely does pressing the button again turn the lights off. And therein lies the problem.

When I entered the bedroom last night I turned on the light. No problem – why should there be? Well, that was just the beginning, that was the launch of the oncoming nightmare. I pushed the same button to turn the light off. Nothing. Push it again. Again nothing. So what do you do? Naturally you try one of the other 7 buttons on the switch plate. The first alternate I tried turned on every light in the entire house. Whoa! 

There were lights everywhere – there's about 60 light switches in this cabin. Accent lighting, sconces, potlights, overhead lighting and even lights I didn't know existed. New, improved, innovative advances are not always a good thing.

Today we chose to explore the other park in the region, Hecla Provincial Park, the one we made the mad dash through upon our arrival two days ago. It was another beautiful day so we were eager to be on our way.

The Grassy Narrows Marsh Boardwalk is a series of trails, not all on a boardwalk, ranging from 1.3 kilometres to 34 kilometres. We selected a few that totalled about 4 kilometres, knowing it was liable to get a little warm and/or wet throughout the process. The first stretch was a frog cacophony to end all others. How can such tiny animals make so much noise? A short boardwalk was closed but we walked along it anyway to soon discover why it was closed as it totally collapsed into the bog. The Bittern Trail followed the dike back to the road ending at the parking lot and a good safe boardwalk traversing the marsh. 

The Gull Harbour Marina lies at the northern end of the island and that was reason enough to travel there. The marina was an odd sight being May with no boats in the water yet due to the propensity of ice still in the lake. That made it a little chilly even though this was the hottest day we've had since our arrival in Manitoba.  

If there's a BBQ on site you can bet I'll use it. Perfect with a glass of wine - can't beat it to top another wonderful day!

Tomorrow we head west to Riding Mountain National Park for three nights. I'm sure our cabin there will not rival our palace in the woods here...but I'll bet the lights will be easier to operate.

😎