Camping at Bon Echo

For the long weekend we went camping at Bon Echo Provincial Park with friends from Toronto. It's between here and there, under 2.5 hours of driving if all goes well. For about the second time ever, we hit bad traffic in Ottawa on the way out, slowing down our trip by a whole half hour.

We had reserved the site in April, and already then there weren't many left to choose from. Fortunately the spot we got was in a great location and very private. They had their trailer and we had our tent. Here are the kids relaxing by the non-fire.


Yes, the non-fire. The wood they sell in these parts tends to be very green hardwood, not exactly ideal for burning. We hardly managed to get a crackling fire with a decent flame the whole weekend. Grumble grumble.

The electrical cord on our friends' trailer happened to drag on the road for half the drive up, leaving them without trailer brakes or lights. A quick trip to Home Hardware and a bunch of fiddling later... tada! Yes, I know, is it really camping when you can run to the store to fix or replace stuff you broke/lost/forgot??


Bon Echo is well known for its massive cliffs. There was talk of the existence of Indian petroglyphs (carvings) on the cliff walls, but apparently they're merely pictographs (paintings/drawings). What a letdown. We did see a couple of red splotches, but I'm quite confident I could have produced the same by squishing a ketchup packet in the general direction of a rock.



One day we rented a couple of canoes so we could see the famous cliffs up close. Despite no cool Indian art, we did enjoy the rest of the scenery.


A stop during the canoe trip.


After canoeing got boring, a couple of us traded them in for a two-person kayak. I've never been in a kayak, and it turned out to be quite fun, albeit a tad wet. Still no idea how to steer one of those things... the only solution seems to throw one person overboard; I guess I'll have to try a single next time. Yeah no pictures... forgot my ziplock bag at the campsite.

Carrie and Merced were the water rats. I think I touched the lake once... do I get a ribbon or something?



We spent a full day at the beach. Fun for some I suppose. On the bright side (haha!), I got some sun. Lobstery forehead is peeling as I type. The beach is quite nice with good sand, but it's not terribly big. It helps to stake one's spot there early in the day.



Tomorrow we're off to BC for three weekends. Maybe when we get back I can pull out my snowboard! YAY! Let's face it, summer's as good as over.