Tubing Down The Rapids At Samuel De Champlain Park

Our annual Chicks In The Stix camping trip had a little twist this year.  Normally we gather together at Driftwood Provincial Park each July.  We always book months in advance in the middle of winter on the very first possible day that we are allowed to reserve a site. However, when we went to book our sites this year, the entire park was literally sold out within 3 hours. And I mean the entire park. Not a single site left. So, we were not able to get a site there. This meant that we had to get creative and find a different spot to gather. So, we opted to go to Samuel De Champlain Provincial Park instead. It meant that some of the Chicks had to travel quite a bit further to join us. Not ideal, but there was nothing to be done about it. But as parks go, Samuel De Champlain is a good one.

We were very excited to go camping. This year I was bringing a friend, Danielle, who is originally from Jamaica and had never gone camping before. All the things that we take for granted on a camping trip will be experienced and seen anew with fresh eyes. I was more excited to see Danielle camping for the first time than I was for myself to be camping. 

We pulled up to the office in the van, all prepared to sign in, and were surprised to find the office completely empty! Instead there was a sign outside the office telling us that if we had a reservation, we could go straight to our campsite and that additional vehicle permits could be purchased at the park store. Apparently they were trying something new this year where you "pre-register" online with the names of the people who will be on your site. Not every provincial park was doing this. I guess it was being piloted here. It was a bit confusing. Especially since this was the first I was hearing about it. I hadn't pre-registered and I didn't remember my password for my account. And what about those who don't even have a phone with them? That is a bit of an assumption on their part. And what about the paper permits for the posts?

We had to pick up some wood at the park store anyways, so we stopped in there before heading to our site.
The staff told us that we did not require a paper permit for the post on our site. But they did give us one for the additional vehicle. Since I didn't know about pre-registering, I gave them the names of the people at our site. 

Soon enough we were on our way to the camp. We had sites # 75 and #76 . It felt strange to not see that permit paper on the post.

The sites were across the road from each other instead of beside each other this time. We were a stone's throw away from the comfort station.

When you have an big group of girls, it doesn't take long to get all the tents setup. The best part was that there were zero bugs bothering us. My cousin, Shelli, had brought a concentrated garlic spray that she sprayed all over the sites (apparently you can get this at Canadian Tire I am told). It is supposed to keep mosquitoes away from about 350 feet from where you spray it. So, either this stuff really works or we got really lucky, because we didn't have any bug problems the whole time we were there.

Or perhaps it was because we had damselflies, like this Pond Spreadwing, and dragonflies to catch all the bugs for us.

In no time at all we were able to just pull up a chair and sit and relax. So far, Danielle was just loving it!

Every year we give the girls little gifts. This year, I bought them wooden heart candleholders with some fake candles to go in them. I got them from 1Man1Garage on Etsy.  We had fun assembling them and hanging them on the trees.

They looked beautiful as they glowed in the trees once it started to get dark. 

That evening we built a fire and sat under the wooden heart lights.

Then, we gave Danielle a stick to roast her first ever marshmallow!

And what would a first camping experience be without trying your hand at making S'mores?  We brought out the graham crackers, the chocolate, and the tinfoil and we got her to make one. It turned out perfect!

And Danielle found her new favourite camping treat! She liked them so much that she said she was going to try to make them at home. We warned her that it wouldn't be the same at home. (And she told us later that it really did not turn out well at home at all, and she agreed that it truly was better at camp). 

The next morning, all the ladies gathered around the fire for breakfast.

Shelli and Anika went across the road to make coffee in the coffee maker. (Yeah....we cheated. We were more glamping than camping). 

We asked Danielle how she slept for her first night in a tent. She said that she slept good but that she was not happy with the birds that woke her up in the morning. We told her those were crows and that they were like the "roosters of the forest". When you hear them, then it's time to get up!

She did, however, really like the Blue Jays. 

And, boy did we have a lot of Blue Jays around our site. Normally you see one or two at a time, but we had about 7 or 8 of them all at them same time. 

After breakfast we all started to get ready for the day's main event. One thing that Samuel De Champlain Park has going for it that Driftwood Park does not, is some rapids that you can go tubing on. Everyone was so excited (and maybe a bit nervous) to get on a tube and go floating down the river.  But we had to prepare for this by blowing up all the tubes. And with ten of us in the group this year, it meant blowing up ten tubes.

It took some time, but eventually we got all the tubes blown up. We were ready to go!

The rapids were only a short walk from the campsite. The water looked scarier than it actually was. The water itself was only up to our thighs. However, this meant that with the water so low, when you went over the rocks you would sometimes bump your butt on them. We had actually seen a bunch of 8 and 9 year old kids going  down the rapids earlier that morning. So, if they could do it then we could do it. The water was a bit cold but not too bad. 

One by one we climbed in with our tubes. We decided to go down in three groups. Anika and Shelli went first and ended up way ahead of us. Then it was me and Julie and Charlene next, followed by the rest of the girls in the last group. Each group had tied their tubes together. This was both good and bad. It meant that we stayed together. But it also meant that sometimes you got tangled up and stuck on the rocks. The last group of girls got stuck like that and they ended up falling behind the rest of us. Despite getting split up, we had such a great time! There was a whole lot of laughter and a whole lot of squealing!  We were not the only ones going down the rapids. It was actually a fairly popular past time. There were many groups, and couples, and kids floating right along with us or right past us. 

We got split up from some of the girls so we had to go looking for them. This meant going down the rapids a second time. (At least that was our excuse!)

Eventually we all made it back to camp. Some of us had bruises and some of us had gotten water up our nose, but it was all worth it and we were all in good spirits. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and just enjoying each others company.

Once it got dark, Emily broke out the glow sticks! We all got ourselves adorned with glowing jewelry fashion. (Who said that glow sticks were for kids?) 

And we made glow stick lanterns to go with our wooden tea light hearts. 

We sat around the fire and had great conversations about things like "If you could have a Super Power, what would it be?"  

The next morning we had to pack up to go back home. Of course, we are already talking about what we are going to do at next year's Chicks In The Stix gathering. All good things come to an end and that is the end for this years adventure. But not before we pose for a group photo with our matching T-shirts on! 
(Oh...And Danielle says she is addicted to camping now! So she will definitely be back next year!)