TRIP LOG - Presqu'ile Provincial Park, May 19-20, 2014

Our usual Victoria Day Weekend plans got cancelled this year.  We normally take the Monday and Tuesday nights to go camping but this year, because of school issues, we couldn't take the second night.

We decided to still do a night, and originally were going to go canoe camping, probably at Kawartha Highlands.  It's not too far to go, and we could get to a campsite after a 20 minute paddle, then I started thinking about Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park...we were all set to go there when the night before I thought I'd see what sites were available at various parks for the night.  As luck would have it, our favourite site at Presqu'ile was available so we threw everything into the boler and headed there instead.

After a late start (having to reorganize everything that was in packs, then having wiring issues with the trailer lights...) we got to the park around 2 in the afternoon.  We were all starving, so we made lunch right away then it started to rain while we ate.  Lunch wasn't anything special, though it's one of the kids favourites.  Macaroni with canned tomatoes.

After lunch, Chris had a nap while the kids and I played various games from our rainy day fun box. Around five, the rain died off so Chris decided we should drive down to the lighthouse.  Then he took off with the dog while i got the kids ready.  We sat in the car waiting, not knowing where he was going or if he'd maybe decided not to bother with driving and ran to the light house instead.  He came back after ten minutes and we headed out in the car.

As soon as we got there, it started to sprinkle a bit.  We figured we could still take some photos so we kept moving towards the lighthouse.  Then the sky opened up and it started to pour like crazy.  We made a dash for the little covered shelter behind the lighthouse and watched the rain on the lake.  The water is such a range of blues here that it's quite pretty.  Then Chris noticed a rainbow, and a few minutes later, it became a double rainbow.  None of the pictures really pick up the second one, because it was really faint, but the main rainbow seemed to light up the water at each end. It really is easy to see why people could think they are made from magic.

Dinner that night was an adaptation of a recipe off the back of a Minute Rice box.  I'd made it all up ahead of time (substituting lentils for the ground beef) and dehydrated it since we'd originally planned to go canoe camping.  It turned out really well, and the whole pot got eaten up with no left overs for the dog.

We had a quick fire that night, and the kids and Chris toasted marshmallows.  Squatch's shoes had gotten soaked from playing down at the water, so we tried to dry those out a bit, but it didn't really work too well.  After the fire was out, the kids and Chris played some cards while I made up the beds then we all read for a bit and went to sleep.

I got up early the next morning and Biscuit and I walked all over the park for two hours.  Did I mention that when we first arrived, the site next to us had a Boler on it?  I talked to the man who owned it for a few minutes that morning.  We often see a Boler or Trillium on a trip, but to have one right next to us, on a mid week, off season trip when the park was pretty much empty was really cool.

Breakfast, once everyone got up, was oatmeal with coconut, Craisons and brown sugar for Chris and I, and cold cereal for the kids.  We also had tea and hot chocolate.

Packing up was depressing, because it ended up being such a beautiful day.  Such a short trip, but a good one.  It was just nice to finally be out camping.

Trip Log: Silent Lake Provincial Park, July 1-2, 2014

This was just a quick over night trip, unfortunately.  A few days before, we'd gone to Silent Lake for a day trip with my parents, just to have a picnic and let the kids swim.  The kids loved it there and decided they wanted to go back right away.

We arrived around 2pm, and picked out a site in the Granite Ridge Campground.  We'd stayed in the Pincer Bay Campground before and wanted to check out the other area.  After setting up the tent, Chris and the kids drove down to the beach and I walked Biscuit down to the canoe launch near our site.  From there, we followed the Lakeside Trail to the Pincer Bay beach, where I watched them swim and jump off the floating dock from a shady little rocky shallows.  The floating dock was one of the kid's favourite parts of this trip.  No other parks that we've been to have them, and none of the beaches we go to do either.

Once we got back to the site and I set up my new clothes line. SEA TO SUMMIT LITELINE CLOTHESLINE is meant more for backpacking or canoe camping, but I really wanted to try it out.  It worked REALLY well!  It attaches easily to trees by looping around and clipping back onto the rope.  The centre section of the line is two ropes and a bunch of black beads that you can use to squeeze the corners of things like dish towels.  It got pretty windy and nothing blew away.  I'll be honest, I didn't think it would work very well, and I figured I'd have to take a few clothes pegs with me.  I'm so glad I was wrong.  It's also small, comes with a little carry pouch that's attached so it doesn't get lost, and would be perfect for canoe camping or backpacking.

Supper that night was penne with chunky vegetable tomato sauce.  I'd dried the sauce, and it was fine, tasted like it had before I dried it, but next time, I'll do the vegetables and sauce separate.  I think it would have come back better.  While dinner was cooking, we ended up eating banana wraps because we were all so hungry.  These are just whole wheat tortillas with either peanut butter, Nutella or chocolate peanut butter, wrapped around a banana.  It was sort of like dessert before dinner.

While I washed dishes, Chris took the kids down to the canoe launch to fish.  They didn't have so much as a nibble, but blamed it on the fact they couldn't fish from the dock.  A group of guys were sitting there drinking and chatting, so Chris took them a little further down shore to a rocky outcrop.  Biscuit and I came down after we finished cleaning up, and watched for a while, and we saw a HUGE garter snake.  It must have been 3 feet long at least.  It slithered into the crack in the rock, then poked its head out to watch us.

We had a fire for a while until the mosquitoes got bad, then we went into the tent and played a round of Crazy 8s and then a round of Yahtzee.  By around 11pm, we turned out the lights and fell asleep watching fireflies flying all around our tent.  At any given time there were about half a dozen.

The next morning, I got up early (didn't have my watch) and took Biscuit for a walk.  We saw a deer while on our little walk, then we crawled back into the tent and slept until about 9.  Everyone got up then and I made coffee (in my new GSI Ultralight Java Drip), oatmeal and made my first attempt at baking in the reflector oven.  We didn't have much wood so we couldn't get a good hot fire going, but I managed to make some kind of cinnamon roll that wasn't actually rolled.  It was tasty, once we finished cooking the bottom on the propane stove because it was taking so long with the piddly little fire we managed to make.

Since I was distracted with making the cinnamon layered pancake thing, I overcooked the 10 grain hot cereal I was making for Chris and I.  The kids decided to call it slop...though it wasn't really sloppy, more like how I imagine it would look if you course-chopped a few kinds of rice then cooked them.  Another problem I'd had was I took only the kitchen stuff I planned to take for canoe camping...and now realize one pot and no mixing bowl probably won't work.  The Bisquick came in a pouch that made 6 biscuits so I used that but it wasn't really big enough.  Maybe if I'd taken an extra Ziploc bag it would have been better.

By noon we were packed up and headed back to the beach so the kids could have one last swim before heading home.

Silent Lake Provincial Park is a beautiful park.  The sites are hit and miss, some are wonderful, some are just really small, but the beaches are wonderful, the privacy is mostly good, and there's enough to do to keep the family from getting bored.  We did hear highway noise at night, and there's no park store to buy things you might have forgotten, but it's still definitely a place we will go to again.

Trip Log - Restoule Provincial Park - August 5-7, 2012

I just realized I reviewed Restoule Provincial Park, but didn't do a proper write up of our trip.

Chris's sister and her boyfriend were joining us for this quick two night camping trip.  We were meeting up at Chris's parents house north of Huntsville the day before for their annual family reunion/party thing.  In the past, a lot of Chris's family would show up and sleep in the back field in tents, there'd be a lot of burgers grilled and various types of alcohol consumed.  It's toned down a lot in recent years.   There's still lots of burgers and booze, but each year the number of people camping out in the back yard has fallen.  This year, there was us, Chris's sister and a cousin from the states who brought their little trailer. (It should be noted that the following year, it was just us...Everyone else would rather crash on whatever section of floor they can find inside...)

So since we were already going to be so far north, and Keri had to go back to Petawawa after the trip, we'd head further north and not make her journey any longer than necessary.  Restoule seemed like a good choice.

Chris's dad was upset we were leaving.  He didn't understand why we were going somewhere else to camp when we could camp in his back yard for free, but we had already made reservations (and nobody at Restoule suddenly remembers household maintenance they need help doing since two strong young men are there...)

I felt kind of bad for Matt, Keri's boyfriend.  He'd been having stomach issues the whole day before but swore he was good to go.  He's military, and has a lot of skills in the camping department, so I think it was kind of a let down doing front country camping, and he didn't even get to use his stove or gear because we had all our big car camping stuff.  He did start the fire and impressed the kids by doing it the way they always see in Youtube videos - with birch bark, twigs and a sparker.

The beach at Restoule kinda, well it kinda sucked.  Water levels might have been low and there were fire bans in a lot of nearby areas, so maybe it would be better with higher water levels.  The water stays shallow for quite a ways then drops down to sticks and mush.  Luckily for us it was a little chilly for swimming anyway so we didn't feel like we were missing out.

Dinner was foil roasted potatoes, little pork chops and vegetables.  We had banana boats for dessert.

Keri and Matt only stayed one night.  Matt wasn't sure he'd be able to stay the full time, so we kind of expected it.  They stayed long enough to do a hike with us (The Fire Tower Trail which was awesome but definitely bring good shoes...flip flops are not appropriate as I found out)  and left after lunch.

It was kind of sad for the kids I think.  They really like having other people camp with us. I don't really remember what we did or ate for meals after they left.  Probably spaghetti for supper and cold cereal for breakfast.

I'm not sure where the pictures from this trip are.  I'll try to dig them up but I don't think there were many.  Next time we go camping with Matt and Keri, we are going to canoe camp...we just have to get them a canoe for their upcoming wedding!

Trip Log: Balsam Lake Provincial Park - August 20-21, 2013

This was just a quick one night trip with the Boler.  Bubbie wanted to bring her friend camping with us,  so we just picked a spot fairly close to home, and brought the kids bikes.

For a last minute trip, we obviously didn't have a lot of choices as far as sites go and ended up with one of the back sites in the lakeshore area.  It was fairly close to the bathroom and the park store, so we figured it would be fine.  We'd actually put a lot of thought into picking a site.  Since Bubbie and her friend would be in the tent, while the rest of us were in the Boler, she was worried about being too far back in the bushes (not really a huge issue in Balsam) but since her friend is used to back country camping, Bubbie also didn't want to look like a giant wuss being out in the open.

Mostly, the kids just rode their bikes around.  Balsam is great for that.  There are so many roads through the campgrounds you can ride all over, and the kids had fun making their own little routes.

Supper was spaghetti, and maybe salad or garlic bread.  I honestly can't remember.  Only two memorable things stand out about this trip.  First, Squatch had some issues with his bike, and ended up getting left behind.  The girls showed up without him, and had no idea where they'd lost him. Bubbie and her friend had to go look for him, on their bikes while Chris and I went on foot.  I had a minor panic over him disappearing, but it all got resolved with no problem.

Second memorable thing was sometime in the night, I could hear the people across from us talking.  The grandparents had brought their two grandsons, and they had two tents.  One of the tents was a pup-style tent, and I guess the grandfather and one of the kids had slept in it, while the other kid was with the grandmother in the dome style tent.  For whatever reason, they didn't have the pup tent zipped closed all the way, and the grandfather woke up to an animal nosing around his face.  He figured it was a squirrel and swatted at it.  Turned out it was a skunk.  They ended up spending the whole night showering and washing bedding and clothes.

Oddly enough, none of us smelled anything.  Usually if a skunk sprays 10 feet from you, you notice.  I picked up a hint of it in the morning, but not very strong.  We woke up to a bunch of sleeping bags drying over the side of their truck's box.

We had spam hash and eggs for breakfast, did some more biking, then headed home.  The kids had fun, Chris got to relax a bit, and I was just happy to be out camping.   We didn't take too many pictures, but the ones we did take...well Bubbie's friend doesn't like having her picture taken I guess and she deleted most of them.

Day Trip: Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park - June 10, 2014

Chris and  I went for a little spin in the canoe to check out the campsites on Bottle and Sucker Lakes in Kawartha Highlands.  I offered to keep Squatch out of school for the day (Bubbie was on her class trip) but he very responsibly declined stating he didn't want to miss track and field practice.  While it was nice to spend a day with just Chris and I in the canoe, it also meant we had a schedule, making sure we got back to be there at bus time.

We still had lots of time to explore, checking out most of the sites on Bottle Lake, and the ones we hadn't been to on Sucker.  Some are clearly emergency sites (the little island one on Sucker Lake for example) but there are some really nice ones.  The one we were really eager to check out had people on it, though I think they were just out for a day trip as well, as we saw no tents or gear, just them and a canoe on the beach.

Kawartha Highlands isn't remote, or secluded.  There are cottages scattered throughout the park (with a few being on Bottle Lake across from some of the campsites) but we did manage to see some wildlife.  A few loons on Bottle Lake, a lot of seagulls on Sucker, and a garter snack on the portage back to the car.  Say what you want about seagulls being annoying birds, but baby seagulls?  So cute!  There were a small cluster of the birds on some rocks off shore on Sucker, and about three were babies.

The mosquito population was very healthy (for them...not us) on the portages, but we didn't notice any on the campsites we got out to explore.  It could be that we only got out at ones that had a fairly open look to them.  Anything that was very closed in, we didn't get out to explore.

We didn't end up eating our lunch until we got into the car.  It was just nibble-y stuff like trail mix, dried fruit and crackers with hummus.  Last week I made up a bunch of hummus (three types - roasted red pepper, everything, and lemony) and dried them for camping lunches.  We took one of the packets I'd made up, and it rehydrated beautifully.  Unfortunately, the lemony hummus is rather mild, and the only crackers I had were not a good match to it. Ah well, I'll pick better crackers next time.

All in all, a good day out, with a little bit of sunburn here and there, and a just a few fly bites.  Not really any pictures though.  I kept forgetting I had my camera, and the ones I did take (of the baby seagulls) we weren't close enough to get any decent shots.  Next time...maybe we can go back this weekend!

Another Moose Spotting Trip - May 3, 2014

This weekend was supposed to be spent camping at Rock Lake.  As anyone following the annual ice out news is probably aware, Rock Lake's opening was delayed.  Our back up plan was to stay at Mew Lake, but the weather didn't look promising at all, in fact, the whole week prior to our planned trip had been rain, rain and more rain.

After finding two small leaks in our Boler, we decided it would be best not to risk it.  We hoped it would only rain lightly, but nothing is ever certain.  It turned out, Saturday was a pretty wet day.  We did, however, manage to get up and do a drive through looking for moose.

As per usual, we stopped at Henriettas for some pastries and did our drive through.  Spotted 3 moose this time.  One at km 2, one at the little clearing across from the Pog Lake campground entrance, and one that was way back in the bush (can't remember the km mark) which was really hard to spot.

Lunch at the visitor's centre a quick pop into the Opeongo road to look for ducks and then we headed home.  Kind of a let down after spending months looking forward to a weekend of camping, but I suppose even a brief visit is better than a day spent watching television.

Total moose for 2014 - 11

Ultra low budget camping - Part 2 - The Opposite Extreme

You can't talk about low budget camping without exploring just how much money it's possible to blow on a one week trip.  This is just for fun, and not anything I would actual do in real life, but there are probably people out there that do.  Glamping is pretty popular now a days.  We've stayed in yurts before, and talk about one day renting a cabin, but I don't know that we ever will.  Maybe a back country one for a night.  I did a quick look into renting an RV for a week, and it was well over a thousand dollars, before you add in any kilometres and gas.

A while back, I was reading a forum discussion about how Ontario Parks are raising their rates this year.  Someone mentioned that they don't count the cost of buying food for their trip because they would have had to eat at home anyway.  This is true, but not entirely.  The types of food you buy for a camping trip are often vastly different from what you'd buy for a normal meal at home.  I know we don't have anywhere near as much junk food at home as we do when we go camping.  We don't usually buy cookies, chips, and we almost never buy cans of pop for at home.  We also do a lot of vegetarian nights at home, but we often find that when camping, chopping a lot of fresh produce is awkward so we take bagged salads or canned veg.

Okay, but this is your vacation.  You don't want to be scrimping and starving yourself just to stay on budget.  Steaks and beer for everyone! (Not the kids obviously.)  Lots of people do a big dinner for their first night out, whether it be a car camping trip or a back country adventure. Steak seems to be the popular choice. If it was me, I'd do a big beef roast in the dutch oven, baked potatoes, vegetables, maybe even yorkshire puddings in the reflector oven (I'd be willing to temporarily abandon my attempts at a vegan lifestyle for a yorkies and gravy...)  For lunches, lets load up on sausages, burgers and hot dogs, for breakfasts, eggs, pancakes, french toast, and bacon.  Dinners can be big pots of stew, grilled ribs,  pork chops, baked potatoes, and lets not forget desserts.

So a weeks worth of camp food, with this kind of mind set, you can imagine just how high the food budget would be.  Then add in buying bags of firewood, marshmallows, Jiffy Pop, chips, pop, cookies and other snacks, and there's no surprise a week of camp food can run more than double what it costs to feed those same four people for a week at home.

But this is kind of an extreme example.  I doubt any but the most die hard carnivores would eat a week of dinners that went like this - roast beef - pork chops - ribs - burgers - steak - baked ham...not to mention the amount of cooler space you'd need. And ice!  Ice can get pretty expensive when you buy it from the parks, especially if the park is far from the nearest town.

So let's see what we can do to have an enjoyable trip without depriving ourselves or blowing a months worth of grocery budget on 6 nights worth of food.

Just for fun, what's the most expensive camping trip you've ever taken?  What made it so expensive?  What was the most expensive camp meal you've ever made?