Camping

We took our first camping trip of the year this past weekend. The place: Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park, which is about 300km west of Ottawa and north of Algonquin Park.

The Canada Day holiday didn't really make for the traditional long weekend, but we turned it into one anyway. Three couples made our way up Thursday and stayed until Sunday afternoon.

Last fall, Carrie and I had bought a massive 13-person mansion of a tent, upgrading from the little dome tent we've used forever. 13-person is hardly an exaggeration; this thing is huge! We didn't quite realize it when we bought it, and we hadn't set it up yet before now. So the 17'x21' dimensions (minus some cutouts) mean that this baby can't be set up just anywhere. (Although I think I can leave some wings down to save space... yes, this building has wings!)

Three wings to be exact: two side rooms and a mud room, centred on a main square room, together forming a T-shaped tent.

Oh, and I can stand in it (probably the clincher when we decided to buy). At the centre it's 6'11". I can't remember the last time I stood upright in a tent... at least without pulling up all the corner pegs. What a luxury!

Of course all my tarps are too small to go under or over this thing, so we're waiting for a good rainfall to test the waterproofness. It did rain a little bit on Thursday, and all six of us took our chairs into the monster tent and sat around quite comfortably.

The tent was like one big Tetris piece, fitting nicely between some trees.



We got to the site first and set up our stuff. I didn't take many pictures, so I don't have a shot of all the tents set up (the camera remained elusive amongst all our junk).



On the drive up I noticed the car was sitting rather low so I took it easy. The considerable number of beverages and ice didn't help. Neither did the table I managed to cram in. Nor the various appliances we took just because we could (the bane of having an electrical site).

I wanted to take firewood but Ottawa is a regulated area, from which firewood of any kind may not be transported. Since firewood is ridiculously expensive at the parks, it's a good idea to hunt around locally for wood. My brother-in-law and I did the same last year while camping in Alberta and got a load of free wood that way.

As we neared the park on the drive up I kept an eye out for homes with firewood piles. Once we'd emptied the car later on, one of the guys went with me and we drove just five minutes before seeing a stack of wood on a front lawn. We drove in and asked for $10 worth of wood, please. We struck a deal with the homeowner who looked less than sober and smelled like pee. But we're not the discriminating sort when there's a good deal to be had, so we filled the trunk and the back seat with enough wood to last the weekend. That amount would have cost over $50 at the park.

We all had a great time sitting around, enjoying the mosquitoes and the sun. We hit the beach a couple of times. The first time we had the dog along and had her on the sand and without a leash; on top of that we may or may not have been enjoying a few cold ones. The park warden caught us and could have had a heyday with all these infractions but merely warned us on all counts. The personnel were fantastic overall, genuinely friendly, apparently liking their jobs; I don't think I've ever been to a campground where all the employees were quite this congenial. A real treat indeed.

Mosquitoes weren't the only critters we enjoyed. Aside from the occasional chipmunk appearance, we discovered a massive insect in our campsite. A bit of research leads me to believe that this is a giant water bug, also known as a toe-biter. Apparently a delicacy in Thailand. Not to judge or anything, but EWWWWW gross! Consider yourselves judged, giant water bug eaters!



We tackled a couple of hiking trails. The one we did on the last morning was done without any bug spray, as we'd run out of the stuff the night before. Not pleasant. I happen to attract bugs fairly consistently; it seems to have something to do with dark hair (maybe I should go grey). I've discovered that, apart from simply not stopping to let the bugs land, covering head and ears does wonders for one's sanity in such a situation. Perhaps I'll pack my toque next time.



Next camping trip: next weekend. Yay, I don't even have to pack away all the gear! Sister and her family are camping near Ottawa and we'll join them for a couple of days.