Ultra Budget Camping - part 1

I've read lots of blogs and watched lots of videos on Youtube on ultra light camping.  It's a pretty hot topic, and yes there's lots of people out there posting ideas on how to make your own gear out of items that are incredibly affordable alternatives to expensive options you'd find in an outfitter.  Making a twig stove out of an IKEA cutlery stand for $4.99 rather than spending $70-100 for a Vital Stove or BioStove for example.  Sure you have to put a little effort into it, and it won't charge your cell phone, but still, for $4.99...

Anyway, the point of this post wasn't to talk about making cheap gear.  On a recent trip to my parents, I was flipping through a book called Wildly Affordable Organic. In the introduction the author talks about how she decided to do what is called a Food Stamp Challenge.  This is where you try to feed yourself for a week on the amount of money a person in the US, in a low income situation would get in food stamps - on average $3 a day per person.

The point of the challenge (and the documentary called Food Stamped) is apparently that it's impossible to eat a healthy diet and not starve on what you can buy for that amount of money.  The authors of the book disagreed and set about to prove you can eat a healthy, satisfying diet on such a little amount.  I thought, "huh, lets see if I can plan a menu for the four of us, for a week, using that as my budget."  Turns out it wasn't that hard, but I have a good supply of things like rice, beans and lentils on hand.  Still, using the flyers and picking sale items to help decide our menu, I managed to put together a weeks worth of healthy food.

Then I got to thinking about how to incorporate a tight budget into our camping trips.  Chris's biggest complaint is that I spend too much on food for each trip, and he's not wrong.  Even when I have 95% of the things we need already on hand, that last shopping trip always ends up being stupidly expensive.  We walk through the aisles, filling a buggy with chips and cookies, 4 types of granola bars (because we can't ever agree on one kind we all like), a case of water (even though we brought a big jug...because little bottles are easier to take on hikes...and yes we packed our reusable ones, but sometimes the water is kinda dirty looking and we'll probably use the big jug for cooking...yeah, I know.  We can talk ourselves into anything.) By the time we've left, we've gotten enough stuff for a few extra days worth of camping...and none of it ever gets used.  The packaging gets all mangled...sometimes wet, and usually anything inside gets crushed a bit.

I've never been too good at sticking to a menu...

With the economy the way it is, it's getting harder and harder to take a family vacation, and even when we can afford a week of fun, it's probably not going to happen more than once a year.  Some things we can't really control - gas prices for example.  Towing the Boler to Pog Lake in Algonquin last year cost us $160 in gas, round trip. But in other areas, you can totally pinch pennies and make your trips fun without draining the bank account or running up your credit card.

Maybe I'm greedy, but I want to get as much fun packed into our summers as possible.  See, if I can make sure our camping trips are inexpensive, I can convince Chris that we can take more of them each year.

So this is going to be a series of posts exploring how to have a week long camping trip for as little money as possible.  We'll see how just how cheap we can manage to make a 7 day/6 night camping trip for a family of four. I'd love to hear your ideas, advice or stories about how you budget a camping trip.

Easter Weekend Moose Spotting trip to Algonquin

Spring has finally decided to make an appearance!  It's slow going though, at least in Algonquin.  Our trip for the first weekend of May will probably be cancelled.  The park has had to postpone the opening of Rock Lake campground until the second weekend of May because of a slow melt and iced up lakes. Sad, but it's one of those risks you take when you camp in the spring.

Easter weekend was beautiful, weather wise, at least for the most part.  We had hoped to go and camp at Mew Lake for the weekend, but Dad didn't want to dig their trailer out of the snow bank (that was his excuse...he just doesn't like camping in the cold)  So we just did a drive through, stopped at the visitor's centre, and had a picnic.

Usually we stop at the Tea Lake Dam picnic area but it wasn't open, so we drove a few hundred meters down the Opeongo Road and stopped at the Costello Lake Picnic Area.  There was a few good sized snow banks, and lots of mushy spots, but the weather was nice.  Mum had precooked some mini burgers at home, and we just heated them up using her BioStove with the grill attachment.  That, along with some celery with peanut butter, chips and goodies from Henrietta's Bakery in Dwight made a perfect lunch.

Hooded Merganser seen in southern inlet of Opeongo

We saw 4 moose during the drive.  For the most part they were far enough back into the bush to make it hard to photograph them.  While at the visitor's centre, the kids had a lot of fun trying to photograph the birds at the bird feeders.  They saw Downy woodpeckers, common grackles, evening grossbeaks, blue jays and possibly a pine siskin.  Unfortunately, a couple of people were either let through the lower exit or found their way around the building and got super close to the feeders with their huge lenses, managing to scare away all the birds.  You'd think they could have gotten good shots with those big lenses without having to get to within 4 feet of the birds themselves...

On Monday, Chris was off work, so we did another drive through with him.  It was rainy so we didn't really get to do the picnic thing, but we went through the visitor centre displays, something we hadn't done in a few years, then continued our moose spotting.  It had started out with a bang.  Upon entering the park, we spotted a cow moose with a yearling calf at KM 2 and thought we were going to see tons.  We didn't see anymore until we passed the Sanitation Station.  Just past the road in a little pond, we spotted a big bull moose but he was too far back to get a good shot.  On the drive back west, we spotted a moose at KM 29 but Chris didn't stop to let us take any pictures.  It was drizzling and the moose was kind of tucked behind a few trees, so not the best for photographs.

We spotted lots of turkeys on the second trip, and only one Blue Heron, where as we saw at least 4 Herons on the Saturday.

All in all, not a bad weekend of moose spotting.  Despite the slow spring thaw, there wasn't a lot of snow in Algonquin, (that we could see anyway) and we left feeling cautiously optimistic that they might change their mind about opening Rock Lake for the weekend of May 2nd - 4th.

Waiting for Spring!

Squatch hates spring.  Not sure why, cause right now, I'm thrilled to be able to take the dog out without bundling up in full winter gear every half hour.  It's been a pretty brutal winter, and I'll admit, we really didn't get out to do much.  There were a few trips to a local park to walk the dog, and one trip to Algonquin to cross country ski (Chris and the kids skied, I walked the dog around the Logging Museum trail three times.)

I was starting to think the weather would never warm up.  March break started with a -22 morning, but two days later, it's +10 and beautiful out.  Gotta love march, eh? Of course, this morning I woke up to a blizzard, and tomorrows supposed to feel like -17 so maybe spring isn't as close as I'd thought.

Still, it's only a few weeks until we can hopefully head to Algonquin for a few nights for our birthdays...provided we can get the trailer out from the snowbank it's been partially buried in all winter. Also, it's about time I started preparing dried meals for our canoe camping adventures this summer...whatever they may end up being.  I'm really not liking not having anything planned,  So far for this year we have one trip booked and the rest of the summer is up in the air.

I know a lot of canoeists have already spent a month preparing their camp meals for this coming season, and I'm hoping to start next week once the kids are back to school.  This task has been made both easier and more difficult by the fact I recently decided to go vegan (or mostly vegan...I'm easing my way in since it's kind of expensive to get some of the vegan alternatives to a lot of products we use all the time.)  Why easier and harder?  Well, easier because pretty much any meal I might want to make should dry easily with no meat to worry about, and harder because the rest of the family is not so thrilled with the idea and are still determined to eat meat.  Not sure how that's going to work, vegan meal for me with smaller portions for them as sides to go with something else?  Meh, as long as there's no tofu, Chris will eat it, and to be honest the kids aren't really big meat eaters anyway...they just think they are.

2014 Resolutions

I guess it's a few days later than most people write up their New Years Resolutions, but to be honest I wasn't going to actually make any this year.  Then I started thinking about it, and decided I should.

So let's get the cliche one out of the way.  I want to get into shape.  Yes I want to look better in a bikini, and yes, I'd love to fit into the size 6 "goal pants" I bought on the clearance rack at Old Navy.  But my real reason is so that I can handle the longer hikes, portages and steep hills without falling into a huffing, panting mess at the end.  I don't need to be able to sprint up the hills like Chris, but I'd at least like to make it up them without feeling like my knees aren't going to give out.

The whole family has a goal of doing more canoe camping this year.  As much as we love our Boler, we are really eager to get away from the crowds and noise of front country camping.  Last year, Bubbie brought her friend along for a quick one night trip to Balsam Lake PP.  She was a bit embarrassed because her friend goes crown land camping with her dad, and let's face it, Balsam Lake isn't exactly on the same level.

Shoot Video!  I go on every trip planning to shoot video so I can make trip logs, but I just always forget, or only remember a few times and end up with not enough footage to make it worth while.

Explore new places!  We tend to go to a spot, have a great time, and then go back over and over again, I'd especially like to check out Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands PP and the Noganosh/Island Lake areas.

Train the dog!  Ugh!  When we got him, I'd already read that Australian Cattle Dogs were for experienced dog owners, but we've had dogs all our life so I figured no problem.  He's a stubborn little brat though and tests me on everything daily.  I still haven't taught him not to drag me down the road, not to chase cars and he barks at me for no reason that I can figure out...all friggin' day.  So, yes, training Biscuit is a goal.

Day Trip: Algonquin Provincial Park - November 16, 2013

With some decent weather finally making a day of hiking possible, we headed up to Algonquin on Saturday hoping to do the Whiskey Rapids trail.  This trail suffered damage during the flooding this spring, and only opened a week ago.  We were really curious about how much the trail had changed, and if there would be any signs of just how high water had gotten.

The plan was to hit the visitor centre first, ket the kids spend their gift certificates, then hit the Tea lake Dam picnic area, cook up some hot dogs on mum's BioStove.  She'd bought this in the early summer and hadn't had a chance to try it out.  Then we'd do the trail and head home.

Unfortunately, when we were paying for our things at the gift shop, the lady working there told us Whiskey Rapids was closed again because of flooding.

What?  We couldn't believe it!  After all summer of wanting to check this out, it closes again after only a week.  We couldn't help but laugh.  Unsure what to do, and with the trails having a bit of ice on them, we decided to play it safe and just do the Spruce Bog Boardwalk trail.  Kind of a a let down, but it was better than sitting at home watching the kids play video games.

On the way to Tea Lake Dam, we saw two moose!  We hadn't expected to see much in the way of wildlife.  It was a cow and her baby.  On the way through the park earlier in the day we saw a six point buck.  Biscuit barked a few times, not crazy barking but the little woofs he let out made the moose raise their heads, giving us better photo opportunities.  I should say it gave everyone else photo opportunities.  I was seating in the middle of the back seat, holding the dog.  No matter where I tried to move, there was either

Once we got to Tea Lake Dam, we hunted for dry sticks, which wasn't easy.  Thankfully, the BioStove lights easily and it takes hardly any time to get enough heat going to cook some hot dogs on the grill attachment.

All in all, it was a great day.  The temperature dropped pretty low by the time we ate, but otherwise, it was a great day.

Christmas Holiday Fun

Yikes!  Has it really been more than a month since I last posted?  I know every year I always feel like Christmas has snuck up on me, but this year was way worse than usual.  Between the kids school projects, after school activities, baking for school parties and everyone getting a nasty cold, we didn't even start our holiday shopping until last week.

Usually by mid November I've got a list of holiday baking I want to do, at least some gifts bought, and a list of things to do while the kids are home from school.  This year I got nothing done.  No planning, no lists, and no ideas.  Of course it didn't help that the kids wouldn't tell me what they wanted.  It's a sad thing when they've reached the age where nothing in the Sears Christmas Catalogue appeals to them.

I had also hoped to have a list of outdoor related gifts to write about, but the truth is, it's kind of depressing for the kids to get gifts they can't use for five months, so the hammock tents I wanted to get them, while cool, wouldn't have been all that fun for Christmas morning.  Plus, I just get a little panicky when I think of them not being in the tent with me...

So, while I had hoped to be able to buy lots of camping related gifts, I didn't.  We got the kids new inflatable camp pillows from MEC, and they got nice sleeping pads from MEC from Chris's sister.  My parents got me a reflector oven, which I'm so excited to try.  I almost came directly home from their house and started a fire in the driveway but it was -20 and all the wood we had was buried under 2 feet of snow.  I guess I'll settle for watching videos and searching up recipe ideas.

And as for planning fun stuff over the holiday?  After two days of freezing rain, it's not looking like we'll be going anywhere.  Chris didn't really get any extra days off either, and lets face it, it's been pretty darn cold to be out on long hikes or flying down the hill on a snowboard. There's free public skating at the local rec centre for at least one hour a day (except christmas day and new years day) We took advantage of that a few times and are hoping to get up to Algonquin for a day before school starts up again.

End of season thoughts

I hate to admit it, but I think our camping season is over.  I may be able to convince Chris to do a trip to Mew in the Boler in November, but I won't be holding my breath.

While I was going through the trip logs, adding links to the Log page for easier navigating, I started thinking about the summer as a whole.

1) We went on a fair number of trips this summer!  Yay us! 11 camping trips is pretty good.  We also managed to camp at least once a month, for 8 months straight.  That's pretty good for us.  I'm really proud of us for taking the chance on the early spring excursion, even though it seemed crazy to be camping with snow on the ground.

2) We didn't do as much hiking this year.  Though we did some trails while camping, there were less day trips.  I had planned to do a lot of picnicking but that didn't really happen.

3) All but one of our trips was front country!  This was the biggest bummer because we all really wanted to go back country canoeing this year.  So why didn't we?  Well, we had booked a lot of trips early in the spring, and those took up a lot of Chris's time off.  The trip with our friends is an annual thing we don't want to give up, and my mum and I have so much fun planning trips, it was hard not to get all excited about booking them.  Here's the thing.  By mid February, I'm getting antsy, and I want to be assured of some camping time being locked down.  Booking early means WE ARE GOING.  While the thought of crown land camping, or going somewhere that doesn't require a reservation (unmaintained provincial parks) is very appealing, there's that niggling worry in my mind that if we haven't booked it, and paid for it, something small will come up and we will cancel or postpone the trip and it just won't happen.  It's easy to say this summer we are going to do this canoe route and this one...but unless we actually put it on a calendar and lock it down, it doesn't happen.

So what can I do to avoid this?  I think being prepared is the best thing to do.  Having food already for a back country trip will ease the stress and reduce the excuses. It can be surprisingly expensive to shop last minute for a camping trip.  I suppose you could always go with a few boxes of instant oatmeal for breakfast, KD for dinner, and granola bars for lunch, but I want to eat real food out there...not just garbage.  So that's one of my goals over the winter, have enough dehydrated trail meals made up and hidden away in the freezer so that all that's left to do for a trip is pack the food into our barrel.  It would be much easier to do spontaneous short trips if there wasn't days of preparing dried food to do before we could leave.

4) I really want to do at least one long trip next year.  Short trips are fine, but it seems like so much effort and time goes into planning them, and you don't get all that much actual camping time.  I am hoping next year to do a week long trip to Achray, giving us lots of time to get to all the things we wanted to do this year.  Is there much difference between planning and packing for a long trip and for a short one?  Other than maybe more clothes, and a bigger menu, I guess not.

5) We tried a fair bit of new things with our food this year.  We did a lot of spaghetti last year, but this year we tried nachos, experimented with spam, cooked a turkey dinner and made a variety of pre made dinners for the night of our arrivals.  Oddly enough, when I asked the kids what their favourite camp dinner was from this summer, Bubbie's response was spaghetti. She says there's something so much better about eating spaghetti when camping..Squatch's was the Spam hash.

It's kind of sad to be cleaning out the boler, packing up the gear and putting away things for the winter. I've been putting it off but there's no denying it's cold and yucky outside.  I guess it's time to pull out the snowshoes and skis and make sure everything still fits.