Summer Travels

This summer, we're staying close to home for our camping trips. We've already had two trips and have two more booked. 

The first trip was to Murphy's Point Provincial Park. We went there the week of Victoria Day weekend. The week before was nice weather as was the week after but the week we went, it was very cold. Luckily it wasn't too wet; there was only one day where it rained most of the day. We did have a campfire each night though. We all had pull through sites, so I was able to get in my site by myself. 

Podrick and Strider

I did need help getting the awning up. My brother in law can get the rope up higher and tighter than I can.  The power posts were quite far away. My sister had to borrow an extension cord from me and I had to use one as well. I was camping with two of my sisters, their husbands and another couple, friends of one of my sisters. 

This was the first trip out with Strider, other than bringing Podrick home from storage. Everything seemed to be working fine, a new converter was installed last year but I found at the end of the trip that the battery still wasn't charging when the trailer was plugged in.

One sister and her husband bought a bigger fifth wheel last year as they live out of it for two to three months and found the smaller fifth wheel to be tight especially when they have their grandsons to visit. That trailer was most welcome on this trip as we ate every meal in the trailer. It was just too cold or wet to eat outside. The weather did keep the bugs down.

In the glamping trailer

Even though the weather wasn't great, we did get in a couple walks to two old homesteads that are in the park. If it had been later in the summer, there is also an old silver mine you can visit.

And it's still a good camping trip when you set up in the dry, pack up in the dry and have a campfire every night!

Last week my youngest sister, her husband and I went to Bonnechere Provincial Park. It's one we hadn't been to before but it's only about a two hour drive from my place. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere though. I arrived before my sister and her husband did. I had planned to try and back into my site myself but when I saw how tight the road was and that there was a big tree that I would need to get around I knew that wasn't happening. I went back out the waste disposal site and messaged them to see when they'd arrive. I walked the dogs and then went to the dump station while waiting for them. It turned out to get into my site, you had to come the other way down the camp road.  There happened to be someone parked in my sister and brother-in-law's site so they had to book another. They ended up taking mine and I took the site that they had just booked. My brother-in-law still backed me in as this site is on the passenger side. I did get everything set up myself, even the awning.

We had much better weather here. It still wasn't really warm but we didn't get much of the rain that had been called for. We ate outside for every meal. The first day we just hung around the campsite. We did do the FIT trail. It's not an exercise trail but stands for Footprints In Time. That evening we also saw the Strawberry Moon rising over Round Lake. The picture doesn't do it justice, the moon really was strawberry red.  The next day we drove into Petawawa; it's about a 40 minute drive. We went to Centennial Park and then to the Dog House Brewery.  

The next day we drove into Pembroke, again another 40 minute drive. They have a series of art murals throughout the downtown area and a nice waterfront park on the Ottawa River.

City Hall

Again we ate well and enjoyed a campfire every night. This was our last night's meal, Italian sausage and Corn and Tomato Gnocchi. The Gnocchi side dish is done in a foil pack with white wine, butter and red pepper flakes served with Parmesan and fresh basil. I had bought Gnocchi filled with Asiago cheese. It definitely was a do-over side. 

We are off again next week, all of our trips are booked Monday to Friday. I noticed this past week the campground got busy on Thursday night as people got a jump start on the weekend. 

I did pop the GFCI plug on my trailer and so far have not managed to get it to reset so for now I have no outlets that work. I'll have to bring extension cords on the next trip until I can get Podrick back in for service. Oh well, we managed without electricity when tent camping.

RPod Adventures - 2021

This year while we are still in the pandemic I decided that I would just stay in the province of Ontario.  It was hard making reservations as we were in lockdown and it seemed like everyone wanted to go camping.  You had to be online early in the morning the day the sites opened for booking or you would lose out.  We made reservations staring after the May long weekend.  The first reservation had to be cancelled as we were still under lockdown, so no camping at Bon Echo this year. We changed the dates of our Algonquin Pog Lake trip, then cancelled those dates after booking later dates at the Algonquin Lake of Two Rivers campground.  Well, my youngest sister and I cancelled our reservations, another sister and her husband kept their reservation and made it a ten day trip.  When the province lifted the lockdown, my youngest sister, her husband and I got in a short trip to Silver Lake Provincial Park.

None of us had been to Silver Lake, it's right on Highway 7 through Ontario so we thought it might be noisy at night but it wasn't bad at all.  We were only there for three nights. We had nice pull through sites. I had my brother in law pull my trailer through the wrong way so that we would be facing each other.  

My sister and I went to a conservation area near by that had a Lady Slipper colony. We were lucky to find that they had bloomed a bit early this year. I don't think I had ever seen so many Lady Slippers.  The pictures don't do it justice. The dogs were allowed on the boardwalk which due to COVID was supposed to be one way but some people walked it in the wrong direction.  

The whole boardwalk is only a little more than 400 m so we walked it twice and also stopped to do a short lookout trail at the same conservation area.

We had fairly good weather; the only problem was Gypsy Moth caterpillars. They were everywhere, you had to watch where you sat so as not to squish them. Many of the trees had most of their leaves eaten by these voracious little critters. It always sounded like it was raining under the tarp due to leaf litter and falling caterpillars. 

There's a nice little beach in the park. We didn't go swimming though as it was rather cool. There's also a rather nice little boardwalk trail through a marsh that connects the campground loops. 

Our next trip after a two day stop at home for a shower and groceries was Algonquin Park at the Lake of Two Rivers campground. This trip would see another of my sisters and her husband join us. Since they were already camping nearby, they arrived first but I wasn't that far behind them. Again I had one of my brother in laws back me in as the space was a little tight and I wanted to be in my site on a angle.  We ended using my site the most as the fire pit was the easiest to tarp. 

We did a couple hikes and couple fairly easy walks in Algonquin. One trail was right across from the campground so we were able to just walk down the highway a bit to get to the trailhead. Another hike was on the Lookout trail, this wasn't a long hike but the ascent and descent were rather steep. We also went to the Logging Museum and the Spruce Bog boardwalk, both easy walks. 

The photos above are all at the Logging Museum. There is a small indoor display which was also open but with COVID they had to limit the number of people inside. 

The Spruce Bog boardwalk is another easy walk. We saw a mother grouse with her chicks. The chicks were all down on the ground while mum warned us off.

From the top of the Lookout Trail, we could see the Lake of Two Rivers off in the distance. Algonquin park is huge, there are many campgrounds right on the Highway 60 corridor but there are plenty of campgrounds in the interior of the park as well as backcountry campgrounds. At the campground where we were, there was a restaurant, camp store and gift shop located just outside the campground right on the highway, so that made getting ice and anything else we had forgotten rather easy. The campground also had a good beach and even a small dog beach. Again we didn't go swimming as the weather was rather cool; one night it was very cold, single digit temperatures in late June.  The only problem we had, other than no potable water in the campground, was that we had power surges, which blew out my Keurig coffee maker and the 30 amp circuit breaker on my sister's little trailer.  I'll have to invest in a surge protector, but they're rather expensive. I replaced my Keurig and I'll just remember to unplug it when it's not being used for now.

Anyway, that's the first two adventures of this second COVID summer. I'm off to Presqu'ile Provincial Park for the next adventure.

Vacay - Part 1

We started our vacation with an agility girls camping weekend the last weekend of July at Bon Echo Provincial Park. It's about a 3 hour drive from my place just far enough that you feel you've actually gone away. There was only three of us this year but we still had 7 dogs. We got quite a few comments like "are those all your dogs".

Camp site

We had pretty nice weather. It poured rain one night but we were lucky it started after our campfire and ended before I got up for breakfast. We did one rather strenuous (for me anyway since my calf still wasn't 100%) hike. The trail was all rocks and roots so it was hard to walk comfortably as I wanted to make sure I didn't pull or twist anything.  Afterwards back at the trail parking lot, we read the definition of moderate difficulty, it said not for the elderly, young children or people with lower limb injuries.

On the boardwalk

Marsh

View from the trail

Very steep path to the lake (no I didn't go down)

Bon Echo also has a dog beach that is off leash. It is not at an out of the way location but between two of the beaches for the humans. It also had a big grassy area and that was nice as I could have a good game of Frisbee with Beckett.

The dog beach

Keltic stole all the treats

Beckett wading

I think we're out far enough, Mum

Oh all right just a little further.

The bridge to the dog beach

It was just the right way to start out our summer vacation. Relaxing and enjoying good food and good company.

Mazinaw rock 

A Shelties favourite way to swim

Keltic on the Rocks