After telling my idea to my sister, Anika, we had decided to join forces and see all of Canada's provincial parks throughout our life time. We decided to call ourselves the Provincial Parkers. Crazy idea? Maybe. Unrealistic? Possibly. Going to try anyway....definitely.
Of course on my first venture out it began with a rocky start. To begin with, Anika had to work and couldn't come with me. My partner had deserted me already and we hadn't even begun yet. I thought about taking someone else but everyone else was busy. My parents just got back from a trip out to the East Coast and my daughter is the black sheep of the family in that she is the only one of us who absolutely hates camping (Gasp! I know, right! ). Not to be defeated, I looked at this as an opportunity to do something I have never done before. I went camping completely and totally ALONE! I didn't even bring my dog with me. Although, there were some points where I wish I had.
So where to start? Let's set the scene for you. Well, my family has been frequenting the near by campgrounds for years so I wanted to venture out a little further away from home. It's the first week of September so not all the campgrounds are open for the season any longer, and of all weekends, this is one where there is a Magic Card Tournament going on that I wanted to play in (yep, I play MTG too). So I browsed the internet trying to find a location that is both not too far away, but not too close, and is still near a city that I can duck into for a few hours to play Magic on a Saturday and then duck back out to camp. After about an hour or so of browsing I think I have come up with the perfect site.... Bass Lake Provincial Park just on the outskirts of Orillia Ontario. A quick check of the web has indicated that I can pop into the IronHold, that is only about 5 - 10 minutes away, on Saturday to play cards for awhile. Plus, my parents have told me that this is the camp site that they went to on their honeymoon (See, I told you our family is a family of campers). So Bass Lake it is......
Of course on my first venture out it began with a rocky start. To begin with, Anika had to work and couldn't come with me. My partner had deserted me already and we hadn't even begun yet. I thought about taking someone else but everyone else was busy. My parents just got back from a trip out to the East Coast and my daughter is the black sheep of the family in that she is the only one of us who absolutely hates camping (Gasp! I know, right! ). Not to be defeated, I looked at this as an opportunity to do something I have never done before. I went camping completely and totally ALONE! I didn't even bring my dog with me. Although, there were some points where I wish I had.
So where to start? Let's set the scene for you. Well, my family has been frequenting the near by campgrounds for years so I wanted to venture out a little further away from home. It's the first week of September so not all the campgrounds are open for the season any longer, and of all weekends, this is one where there is a Magic Card Tournament going on that I wanted to play in (yep, I play MTG too). So I browsed the internet trying to find a location that is both not too far away, but not too close, and is still near a city that I can duck into for a few hours to play Magic on a Saturday and then duck back out to camp. After about an hour or so of browsing I think I have come up with the perfect site.... Bass Lake Provincial Park just on the outskirts of Orillia Ontario. A quick check of the web has indicated that I can pop into the IronHold, that is only about 5 - 10 minutes away, on Saturday to play cards for awhile. Plus, my parents have told me that this is the camp site that they went to on their honeymoon (See, I told you our family is a family of campers). So Bass Lake it is......
So I pack up my car and prepare to head out. The plan is to leave on Thursday and go back home on Monday. Unfortunately, while loading the car, I pull something in my back. Great! Hadn't even left the drive way and already I am a hurtin' unit. I'll be fine once I get going though...right? Off we go!
A few hours later and one wrong turn, I finally arrive at about 4 in the afternoon. I pull up to the office and walk up to the building to find.....no one. Not a single soul. Instead there is a sign saying that from Monday to Thursday you can put your money in an envelope and deposit it in the slot in the wall. But hey, Friday there will be staff there from noon until about 5 pm. Hmmmm..... this is new to me. But then, I don't usually go camping in September so, maybe this is normal. Then the next surprise. The website has stated that the camping fees for a non-electrical site are $29.50 however, the sign on the wall says the fee is $38.42....That's a mighty big jump in price. Luckily I have cash on me and reluctantly I put my money in the envelope and deposit it in the slot in the wall.
I pick up a map of the park and head off to choose a site.
The sites were all fairly dark and shady in under the trees. Great if it's the heat of the summer, but at the beginning of fall, well, it makes for a bit of a chill. many of the sites were right along the edge of the road that you traveled on to get there, with only a couple trees and a fence in between. I was not looking for the sound of cars and the sight of head lights for my camping experience. Most of the sites are on a slanted incline and you can see where the rain water from the previous day has traveled down hill and into the sites. I can't guarantee it's not going to rain so I look for a site that is relatively level. I finally settle on site number 137. It is close enough to the bathrooms and the water and the site is large and somewhat level and it's just the right distance away from the other campers... not too close and yet not too far away from every living soul (although, would that really be such a bad thing?)
I begin to set up my tent. Now this tent is a great tent. It's large and it's roomy and it's fairly easy to go up....if there are two people. But when there is only one of you and one of you has a bad back, well... a 3 minute job became about a 45 minute job. So here I am, tired and sore and getting hungry and getting cranky and it's becoming darker (because the sun is having a hard time getting through the trees) when along comes a truck with two guys and a dog and they are towing a boat behind them. And where do they decide to make camp? Yep.... right beside me. There are tons of empty sites everywhere, but they have to choose right beside me. And the dog jumps out and immediately starts barking at something or other. All I can think is "great... I hope they aren't the party type of campers and I hope the dog isn't going to be one of those barkers" (my dog will bark at an occasional stranger but for the most part is a pretty quiet old thing). Turns out, I am in luck. The dog quiets down and the guys are the quiet peaceful type campers too.
The sites were all fairly dark and shady in under the trees. Great if it's the heat of the summer, but at the beginning of fall, well, it makes for a bit of a chill. many of the sites were right along the edge of the road that you traveled on to get there, with only a couple trees and a fence in between. I was not looking for the sound of cars and the sight of head lights for my camping experience. Most of the sites are on a slanted incline and you can see where the rain water from the previous day has traveled down hill and into the sites. I can't guarantee it's not going to rain so I look for a site that is relatively level. I finally settle on site number 137. It is close enough to the bathrooms and the water and the site is large and somewhat level and it's just the right distance away from the other campers... not too close and yet not too far away from every living soul (although, would that really be such a bad thing?)
I begin to set up my tent. Now this tent is a great tent. It's large and it's roomy and it's fairly easy to go up....if there are two people. But when there is only one of you and one of you has a bad back, well... a 3 minute job became about a 45 minute job. So here I am, tired and sore and getting hungry and getting cranky and it's becoming darker (because the sun is having a hard time getting through the trees) when along comes a truck with two guys and a dog and they are towing a boat behind them. And where do they decide to make camp? Yep.... right beside me. There are tons of empty sites everywhere, but they have to choose right beside me. And the dog jumps out and immediately starts barking at something or other. All I can think is "great... I hope they aren't the party type of campers and I hope the dog isn't going to be one of those barkers" (my dog will bark at an occasional stranger but for the most part is a pretty quiet old thing). Turns out, I am in luck. The dog quiets down and the guys are the quiet peaceful type campers too.
Finally I get my tent up and I think that if only I can get a fire started and eat something and sit for awhile, my back might ease up on me. So the first thing I am going to need is some wood for this fire. Knowing that the parks frown upon people gathering wood from the forest floor around the campsites (only makes sense....imagine hundreds of people scrounging up wood every season. The forest floor would be picked bare in no time) I figured it would be best to buy some wood somewhere. Well, the entrance had a ton of wood but no one to buy it from but hey, the map says there is a Park Store at the other end of the Park so maybe there is a staff member down there manning the store. I hop in my car and head on to what is supposed to be a store. Only, it wasn't. It was a building of some sort and it was right beside a pretty and scenic river. But it was boarder up and there was no firewood for sale anywhere. So, now what? Well, I don't have much of a choice but to gather some kindling and some wood up. I get some nice dry stuff and throw it in my car and drive it back to my site. I figure, for the amount of money I just paid and there is no staff and no wood to buy, I may as well get something for the price of the stay.
By now, I am looking forward to a nice hot cup of tea. Just got to get me some water. I take a container and go to the sign that shows where the water tap should be. But of course, because it's Murphy's Law and all that, there is no tap. (Yet another reason why I shouldn't of had to pay the crazy price to camp here). I remembered that the night before I froze bottles of water to use as ice in my cooler. Perhaps some of those had melted enough to use some water from those. I am in luck... I have just enough to make some tea. Yay! So I put my fire making skills to work and quickly had my supper and my tea.
I am tired now and it's starting to get cold and my back is just killing me what with the loading of the car and cooler and putting up a tent and gathering wood. I head off to the restroom (which just so happens to be a comfort station). Murphy is at it again.... I forgot to pack toothpaste. Oh well, I will go into town tomorrow and get some. I wanted to drive out to see the Wye Marsh tomorrow anyways. The comfort station itself was pretty dismal and not overly clean. Not the worst I have seen, but definitely not the best either. It showed that there was no staff on site to keep it clean.
So here is where the camping alone thing became a little bit scary. I take an Advil and I crawl into my nice cozy sleeping bag and get settled in. My parents had lent me this little cot like thing that keeps you up off the ground and helps to keep you warm and dry. There is only room for one so if you are planning on snuggling up with your honey then this is probably not for you. For me though, it was perfect and it was going to help my back tremendously compared to a hard tent floor.
By now, I am looking forward to a nice hot cup of tea. Just got to get me some water. I take a container and go to the sign that shows where the water tap should be. But of course, because it's Murphy's Law and all that, there is no tap. (Yet another reason why I shouldn't of had to pay the crazy price to camp here). I remembered that the night before I froze bottles of water to use as ice in my cooler. Perhaps some of those had melted enough to use some water from those. I am in luck... I have just enough to make some tea. Yay! So I put my fire making skills to work and quickly had my supper and my tea.
I am tired now and it's starting to get cold and my back is just killing me what with the loading of the car and cooler and putting up a tent and gathering wood. I head off to the restroom (which just so happens to be a comfort station). Murphy is at it again.... I forgot to pack toothpaste. Oh well, I will go into town tomorrow and get some. I wanted to drive out to see the Wye Marsh tomorrow anyways. The comfort station itself was pretty dismal and not overly clean. Not the worst I have seen, but definitely not the best either. It showed that there was no staff on site to keep it clean.
So here is where the camping alone thing became a little bit scary. I take an Advil and I crawl into my nice cozy sleeping bag and get settled in. My parents had lent me this little cot like thing that keeps you up off the ground and helps to keep you warm and dry. There is only room for one so if you are planning on snuggling up with your honey then this is probably not for you. For me though, it was perfect and it was going to help my back tremendously compared to a hard tent floor.
I play Harvest Moon until about midnight on my DSi that I brought along with me because I knew that the evenings would be boring and lonely without much light or anyone to talk to. Then eventually I fall asleep.
It was about 4 am when I was awoken from my sleep by a sound I had never heard before in my life. It sounded like a long dog howl but by the end of the howl it sounded like it had turned into a loon call. This howling went on over and over....and it wasn't far away. It sounded like it was on the road right near my site and it was moving. It seemed to be travelling along the road (which encircles about 3 of the 4 sides of my site). I am sure the other campers must have heard it too, (there were campers on sites 7, 9, 136 and 142) although I didn't hear any indication that anyone else was awake out there except me. It was loud and it went on for at least a half an hour. I wondered why the dog next door didn't bark or get upset by it at all. Maybe he slept through it. I wasn't all that bothered by it. I just figured it was a fox or a coyote. I grew up in the country and had heard foxes yipping in the night before, but this was different. I just figured that it's not like I know every sound a fox or a coyote makes so I am not going to say for sure what it was, just that it was very different. Nope the scary part came after that...
It was about 4 am when I was awoken from my sleep by a sound I had never heard before in my life. It sounded like a long dog howl but by the end of the howl it sounded like it had turned into a loon call. This howling went on over and over....and it wasn't far away. It sounded like it was on the road right near my site and it was moving. It seemed to be travelling along the road (which encircles about 3 of the 4 sides of my site). I am sure the other campers must have heard it too, (there were campers on sites 7, 9, 136 and 142) although I didn't hear any indication that anyone else was awake out there except me. It was loud and it went on for at least a half an hour. I wondered why the dog next door didn't bark or get upset by it at all. Maybe he slept through it. I wasn't all that bothered by it. I just figured it was a fox or a coyote. I grew up in the country and had heard foxes yipping in the night before, but this was different. I just figured that it's not like I know every sound a fox or a coyote makes so I am not going to say for sure what it was, just that it was very different. Nope the scary part came after that...
So at about 4:30 a.m. I went back to sleep. To sleep, perchance to dream...to dream a very vivid dream. One of those dreams where when you wake up you wonder if it was real or not. I dreamt that a man had crawled into bed with me and was snuggled up beside me. Not in my sleeping bag, just on the cot with me. When I turned over to see who it was, they were gone. It was still dark out and I went into a deeper sleep and I remember dreaming some more, but those dreams felt like dreams and I don't even really remember them. When I woke up in the morning at about 8:30 am the birds were singing and my back wasn't bothering me as much and I turned over and looked over and saw...... my tent door was partially open. Not partially as in a couple inches but partially as in a couple of feet. Yep, someone really had been in my tent last night. So now I am officially creeped out. There was no way I was staying alone in this park with no staff and a creepy person on the loose.
I immediately got dressed and packed everything up and headed for town. I didn't even stay to make breakfast. I grabbed something at Tim Horton's and decided what my next move would be. I could go home... but I just got here, and I had all these plans. I will have to switch campgrounds. I had browsed the internet for quite some time before I picked out Bass Lake so I knew of about 3 or 4 other campgrounds that I could choose from that were not too far off the beaten path. Maybe I could even do a campsite hop and go from campground to campground. I decided that I would follow through on my trip to the Wye Marsh and spend the day there. It was about a 40 minute drive from Bass Lake Provincial Park and if anyone was stalking me they would have to follow me there first. I would make a more concrete decision on where I wanted to stay at the end of the day. I spent about a half an hour in Orillia and then headed off to Midland to the Wye Marsh. I was confident that no one was following me and so I relaxed and enjoyed the rest of my day.
So the moral of the story is....if you are camping alone, only camp at a Provincial Park where there is staff on site. I thank the Lord that He was with me that night.
Next Blog - My visit to the Wye Marsh.
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