Paddler's Guide to Happy Camping

Back From Ontario Parks Tour

• Posted on July 9, 2008 at 2:45 PM
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Ontario Parks is where the action is

Hello. I'm finally back from my Ontario Provincial Parks Tour (sponsored of course by Explore Magazine...and MEC, Eureka and Ontario Parks).

How naive. Here I thought it would be a relaxing time traveling from park to park, giving presentations in the evening, giving camp demos in the morning, and then spending the rest of the time driving backroads to get to my next destination and sitting by the fire with my dog Bailey, taking in what our provincial parks have to offfer. Wrong. How naive can a guy be. I had more misadventures happen to me on this trip then any remote canoe trip I've ever been on.

Algonquin was my first stop. I camped under a Scotch pine plantation and had the nasty experience of asking rowdy campers beside me to keep the noise down a dozen times, and then had to call in the rangers with their big flashlights and thick ticket book. But I did get to spend some quality time with some friends I knew from Peterborough, and took full advantage of their fancy trailer and all the fancy things that went along with it (beer cooler was one). We were all nestled together in the over-used Pog Lake Campground. Then it stormed just minutes before my evening show and we all raced to the main center, listening to the hurricane winds blow trees down and hail the size of marbles dent away at our vehicles parked outside. I ended the eveing by going back to my site and realizing I had left the tent fly open. Everything was soaked, so Bailey and I slept in the truck.

Second stop was Samuel de Champlain. I love this campground. Always have. The only thing wrong on my trip here was that it was still storming out, bugs were bad, Bailey had to defend our campiste from a family of snarling raccoons, and a past student I had the misgiving to fail last year at the college I teach at on a part-time basis staggered into my campsite to confront me about his past mark. It was an uncomfortable situation all around.

Next was Restoule Provincial Park. I like this park because no one seems to go there. Of course, having no one show up for my show because of that was the only thing I thought could go wrong. But that wasn't it at all. In fact, I had a record audience. Problem was my computer shut down a couple minutes before the show (virus initiated by too much porn watching I . guess). I add-libbed and it seemed to be okay. But I spent five hours in Sudbury the next day trying to get my computer fixed (a big thanks goes out to the computer god, James Cameron, of Retone Catridge Services for saving the tour). While they fixed the computer, Bailey and I went walking around Sudbury, where I was harassed by some youth who were shirtless and wearing saggy pants (they wanted my camera) and after a narrow escape I then witnessed a man take a poop beside the bus stop sign.

Killarney was my last stop, and it was still raining. Good news was the only time it wasn't was during my evening presentation.

Rain or not, I still hung around the next day to take in a meal of fish and chips at the red and white bus downtown Killarney. Yum!

Besides the bad weather, bugs, computer virus' and Mr. Poopy Pants at the Sudbury bus station my tour was a great success. After all, I did manage to visit some of my all-time favorite provincial parks in Ontario, meet some interesting people along the way, and also spread the good word on wilderness values to a whole lot of campers while I was at it.

I can't wait to see what happens next year.