Another RPod Adventure

Last week we went to another of the St Lawrence Parks campgrounds, this time we were at Mille Roches (thousand rocks). It's at the other end of the Long Sault Parkway from the first two we've stayed at. 

My site wasn't the greatest, it was pretty open, next to a maintenance building and right on the road, if I had backed into the site my firepit would have been behind the trailer and so would have the picnic table (but I could have moved that); so I decided to just park the trailer on the site parallel to the road.  That way I had privacy especially with the RDome and my view was of the tree line or some other campsites down the road.

My youngest sister and her husband had the large corner site next to me. It was a decent site even though it was on a corner. It was shaded and had trees that made tarping the firepit easy.  The tarp provides extra shade and protection from any rain. We didn't get any rain this trip but it was stinking hot and humid. My other sister and her husband were across the road just down from me. 

Looking toward J&J's trailer

Looking the other way to M&S's site and the bathhouse.

This campground is on two islands connected by a causeway, we were on the first island, the second island only has unserviced sites and single service 15 amp sites and while it has two washrooms all the showers for the campground were in a building near to where we were camped. 

One day I drove to Cornwall to walk the trail by the old canal.  There was no shade on the canal and no breeze either. I think we might have walked a kilometer before turning around and heading back.

While there wasn't a beach in the campground, many of the unserviced sites are on the water. I walked around the campground to see if any of them had a spot where I could take the dogs swimming and was lucky to find a nice little spot not too far from our campsites that wasn't even a campsite where I could take them.  I took them swimming three times. I'm sure Liam thought I was trying to drown him. The second and third time I took them swimming I took each of them out individually so I could use two hands to help Liam. I would hold the back handle on his lifejacket until he stopped trying to climb out of the water, then I would let him swim back in.  I think he was getting the idea. Teddy actually swims rather well with those skinny legs of his.

We were at the campground from Monday to Friday. There was a forecast for rain for the Wednesday, but every day it kept getting pushed back and we had no rain while we were there. The heat wave finally broke Thursday evening and we were able to pack up on Friday in cooler weather. We again enjoyed some great meals, beautiful sunsets and, while we didn't need them for heat, campfires.

Butter Chicken Pizza

My youngest sister, her husband and I have another camping trip planned for next week. It's to another of the St Lawrence Park campgrounds but this one is not on the parkway. I'm sure it won't be as hot as already you can feel fall in the air. 

RPod Adventures - Parks of the St Lawrence

Last week we had another camping trip to the Parks of the St Lawrence; this time to Woodlands Campground which is on the other side of the road, just down the Long Sault Parkway from McLaren. My youngest sister, her husband and I had camped at this campground last year so we had picked sites along a tree line near the bathroom facilities where we hoped there would be less traffic. There's only an open field across from our site which during one week in August in non COVID times, it goes to the dogs as a local kennel club hosts a show here in this field.

I actually got the trailer backed into the site myself with some guidance but then my brother in law tweaked it as the trailer wasn't exactly where I wanted it. I put up my garden flags this time, one that one of my sisters bought for me a few years ago and one that I just recently purchased through Amazon.

 

It was really hot and humid on this trip. There were thunderstorm watches nearly every afternoon. We were lucky and only had our first dinner rained out, mostly we heard thunder and saw heat lightening but had very little rain. We went swimming a couple times but as there is no dog beach or boat launch in the park, I couldn't take the dogs swimming. I did manage to take them wading a few times. 

One day I took the dogs to the Crysler Farm Battlefield near Upper Canada Village, a historical museum. If you're ever visiting here, dogs are allowed in Upper Canada Village but they can't go into the buildings. Although once when I was there with the dogs, one of the staff told us we could go into the barns as long as the dogs didn't disturb the animals. In the past if you were camping in one of the St Lawrence Parks you could get free passes but this year, they're not doing that. I think because you have to book a timed ticket online so they don't have too many people on site. The battlefield made for a nice walk although you had to avoid the goose poop.

Looking at geese

On the St Lawrence

The mighty St Lawrence

On Friday, a friend brought out her puppy to visit us. Sam is from the same breeder that Liam comes from and my friend also has Beckett's litter sister Hannah and two other Shelties. One of the other campers near us had four of her Shelties there too so we had a bit of a Sheltie palooza going. 

We were at Woodlands for four nights from Tuesday to Saturday. Many months ago, when we booked the campgrounds, we didn't know if the showers would be open so we only booked for four nights so our time at the campgrounds seems to go so fast.  If we had known the showers would be open we might have booked longer trips. Even though it was hot and humid, we still enjoyed really nice meals and campfires in the evenings. We each plan a breakfast and a dinner, one dinner, either the first or last, is kind of pot luck. On this trip, the potluck meal was the last dinner with everyone contributing to naan bread pizzas. 

 It was another nice camping trip and we're off to do another St Lawrence Park again on Monday.