I should have stayed in Winnipeg

So after I finished up my errands in Winnipeg, I went back to Oak Hammock to try to bird a little bit.  The wind was making things very difficult.  There were some storm clouds coming in fast too.  Out on the marsh, there isnt much cover for a person to take shelter in.  Fortunately, the people at Oak Hammock put up a gazebo that came in quite handy.  Within 5 minutes of my arrival at the marsh, I was hiding under the gazebo as it stormed, and then hailed quarter inch balls of ice!  Freaky weather, but for some reason, I feel like Ive heard it through the grapevine that the midwest is somewhat prone to freaky weather like this.

Hail

It was almost 5, so I decided to move a bit further west, to St. Ambroise PP on the shores of Lake Manitoba.  This park boasts a sandy beach that has nesting Piping Plovers, a federally endangered shorebird, amongst other cool birds.  The drive out was productive bird-wise, as a found a Ross's Goose in a flock of common Canada Geese.  This was a new bird for me!  This was my last good fortune for the day. 

The road to St. Ambroise PP

Approaching St. Ambroise and the lakeshore, the road turned to dirt.  No big deal.  Then debris all over the road.....OK....then huge rock boulders blocking any further travel to the park.  Ends up high water levels had much of the park flooded.  But where to camp!  Go back an hour and a half to Winnipeg?  No sir.  "Push west!", I said.  Back, on highway 1, the trans-canadian highway, there was an enormous thunderhead forming directly over the road.  I could see it from nearly 30 miles away.  When I was only 5 miles away, I was scared.  I turned off a side road heading to a campground maybe 20 miles down the road.  But the storm seemed to follow me, and it was dark, and I had little clue where I was going.  I decided to just stick to the highway and plow through the storm.  It ended up not being too bad.  Made it through, and found a campground, Rivers Provincial Park in western Manitoba, rolling in around midnight.

Trans-canada Highway....pre storm

The campground was out on the prairie and for some reason it reminded me of a slasher movie like  The Hitcher.  Needless to say, falling asleep wasnt so easy.  After all was said and done, staying in Winnipeg would have been better.