News & Photos - August 2007
The Adventure Begins!
Current Location: Site 235, Bronte Creek Prov. Park,
Oakville, Ontario
Dates: July 31-Aug 8, 2007
Services: E; Cost: $32.75; Nights: 8
I got rather lucky with this park. Since the August long weekend is
coming up, most parks have been completely booked several months ago.
However, each park has a few first-come-first-served campsites. By
arriving on Tuesday morning, I was able to get one of those sites
before the weekend crowd arrived. It's out in the grassy field area,
which (while rather hot) is good, as I don't have to worry about
hitting a tree when reversing into the site. Surprisingly, despite its
close proximity to Toronto, there were actually a few empty campsites
on the long weekend.
As of Thursday Aug. 2, I'm officially “homeless”; my
trailer (and my P.O. Box) is the only home I've got.
The weekend was spent doing errands around town, and seeing a few
people, including Erkan (my former boss at Nortel), an avid cyclist
who biked in from the other end of Oakville in the 32°C heat to
see me!
Current Location: Site 98, Darlington Prov. Park,
Oshawa, Ontario
Dates: Aug. 8-10, 2007
Services: E; Cost: $32.75; Nights: 2
I headed over to Darlington Prov. Park this morning. I've been there
before; it's not great, due to noise from Highway 401 and an active
freight line. Fortunately, my site was close to the lake, and away
from the highway.
This really isn't a “destination” park, it's just a place
to stay for a night or two.
Got my satellite Internet system!
Date: Aug. 9, 2007
Knowing that there wasn't enough space in the Lindsay parking lot, I
left my trailer back at Darlington, and drove the truck up to the
satellite Internet store in Lindsay. Although they were rather busy
today, they did have everything ready to go, and I spent an hour
setting it up and testing it out in their parking lot. The system seems
to work as promised, and wasn't too difficult to set up.
You win some, you lose some...
Current Location: Site 55, Edgewater Park,
Picton, Ontario
Dates: Aug. 10-12, 2007
Services: E/W/S; Cost: $34.98; Nights: 2
I didn't make any reservations at any of the Ontario Parks campgrounds
for this weekend, and gambled on finding a first-come-first-serve site
at Sandbanks Prov. Park. Not surprisingly, this is a very popular
park and when I arrived at 1pm on a Friday, there were no more sites
available. So, I'm staying in a commercial campground for the weekend,
then heading towards Cornwall, likely staying at one of the St.
Lawrence River Parks, before entering Quebec early next week.
I'm really not impressed with this place. It has laneways that are too
narrow, and too many trees near the corners. I was unable to make a
sharp left turn due to a large stump in the way, and had to spend
several stressful minutes trying to back up a steep hill enough to turn
the other way, make a U-turn on the main county road, and approach my
campsite from a different direction. When I got here, I couldn't find
any site numbers! I'm not even 100% sure if I'm in the right campsite!
It also doesn't have 30-amp service, meaning that I can't run my air
conditioner. Oh well, it's just for 2 nights. It does have WiFi
Internet access, so I don't need to spend 20 minutes setting up the
satellite dish. Lesson learned: next time, I'll only pay for one night,
and if I like the site once I'm parked and set up, I'll go back and pay
for a second night.
Current Location: Site 39, Ivy Lea Park, Ivy Lea, Ontario
Dates: Aug. 12-14, 2007
Services: E/W; Cost: $33.92; Nights: 2
Today, I arrived at Ivy Lea Park, near Gananoque. It's right under
the bridge to the USA, but has enough trees to block most of the noise
of the transport trucks. As I was unhitching the trailer, a staff
member drove past on an ATV, with a utility trailer in tow filled with
garbage, perhaps from cleaning out a campfire area. Suddenly realizing
that some of the debris had caught fire and was billowing white smoke,
she parked and started trying to put out the fire with her shovel. I
dashed into my trailer and got my fire extinguisher, but by the time
that I returned, she and another staff member had already put out the
fire on the trailer.
Although the rest of the day was hot and humid, shortly after dinner
it started pouring rain, with thunder in the distance. I sat outside
under the awning, enjoying the sound of the rain on the awning while I
planned my route to Quebec. Rather than briefly crossing into New
York at Cornwall, then back into Quebec at Dundee, I'll continue on
Highway 401/20 until Highway 201/132 at Salaberry-de-Valleyfield.
This route should almost totally avoid the Montréal area, and its
complex highway system. It's too far to drive to the park at Rimouski
in one day, so I'll need to find a commercial campground along the way.
Fortunately, I have a directory of Quebec campgrounds, plus two
large USA/Canada directories, so this shouldn't be a problem.
Weather permitting, tomorrow I will take the Boldt Castle boat tour; I
took a similar Thousand-Islands boat cruise back in 2002, but post-9-11
heightened security meant that no stops at Boldt Castle were permitted
at the time.
Boldt Castle, Heart Island, New York
Dates: Aug. 13, 2007
Today, I did the Boldt Castle tour via the Gananoque Boat Lines cruise
of the Thousand Islands. The main castle is 6 stories high, from the
basement with a swimming pool and food storage, to the opulent main
level with its library and ballroom, the second floor with bedrooms for
the Boldt family and their guests, the third floor with additional
guest bedrooms, the fourth floor with staff bedrooms, and a tower
(closed for renovation). Once construction stopped in 1904, the castle
started deteriorating due to weather and vandalism; the Thousand
Islands Bridge Authority (who now owns the castle) has restored about
half of it to its original state. Many rooms are completely closed
off; others are stabilized (e.g. new watertight windows installed) but
otherwise unmodified.
I also visited the Skydeck on Hill Island, on the Canadian side of the
bridge to the USA at I-81. It has a unique vantage point to view both
sides of the border, and many of the islands in the area.
Current Location: Site 108, Glengarry Park, Lancaster,
Ontario
Dates: Aug. 14-16, 2007
Services: E; Cost: $28.62; Nights: 10 (see
below)
This is one of the nicest campsites that I've been at so far. It's
huge -- about three times the area of my former property in Milton; a
grassy field on the south and west sides (handy for getting a good
satellite signal), with trees on the north (shielding some of the
highway 401 noise) and east sides. Since I had a lot of personal
things to do (bank account reconciliation, email backlog, etc.), I'm
going to stay here an extra few nights... likely until Sunday, when the
Montréal-area traffic should be light enough for me to attend to
get to the south shore of the St. Lawrence.
St. Raphaels Church Ruins
Dates: Aug. 17, 2007
I saw this POI on my map, and decided to drop by since it was on my
route up to the RV dealership in Alexandria. This church was built in
1821 by Scottish immigrants; the wooden roof caught fire in 1970 and
completely burned.
A Major Set-back
Current Location: Site 101, Glengarry Park, Lancaster,
Ontario
Dates: Aug. 16-24, 2007
Services: E; Cost: $28.62; Nights: 10 (see
above)
On Thursday night it was raining heavily, but with very little wind, so
I had my awning up. A freak gust of wind hit and one of the metal
struts holding up the awning snapped! I dashed out in the rain and
managed to wrangle the awning back down, but I've had to put in an
insurance claim for new awning hardware. Unfortunately the insurance
agent, claims adjuster and inspector are taking a long time processing
my claim, so I'll likely be stuck here for another few days.
Current Location: Site 57, Camping Du Chenal-du-Moine,
Sainte-Anne-de-Sorel, Quebec
Dates: Aug. 24-26, 2007
Services: E/W; Cost: $31.90; Nights: 2
Finally, I'm on the road again! After a series of delays with my
awning repair (including a repairman who installed the wrong part),
everything is now fixed. I'm in Quebec at a commercial campground
about half-way between Montréal and Trois-Rivières, but on
the south side of the St. Lawrence.
This is a rather unusual campground; first, it's road frontage is
very small; the property is about 10 times as deep as it is wide,
which makes for a rather unusual campsite layout. It also appears
that whomever built it was a bit over-optimistic about how many
campers would visit; the back third (intended for tents or trailers
not requiring any hookups) is all overgrown with weeds, and the
washrooms in that area are boarded up. The remainder of the campground
seems to be maintained, with rather large sites that have their
driveways properly angled. As with many commercial campgrounds, it is
mostly occupied by seasonal campers (people who leave their RV here for
the entire summer), so it is busy on weekends but quieter during the
week.
Today, I'm packing up and heading to another commercial campground
in Beaumont. After dropping the trailer at the campground, hopefully
I'll have time to cross the river and see the Montmorency Falls just
east of Quebec City.
Current Location: Site 31, Camping Carol, Beaumont,
Quebec
Dates: Aug. 26-27, 2007
Services: E/W/S; Cost: $34.19; Nights: 1
Another day, another campground! I had assumed from the description
of this campground that it was right on the St. Lawrence river, but
it's actually on the top of a huge cliff overlooking the river. The
view across to Île d'Orléans was beautiful; they had a
lookout area with wooden seats where you could sit and watch the river.
A block down the road was a very steep driveway which descended the
cliff to provide access to the cottages and river below. I took a few
sunset photos here, and walked along the beach for a while.
Since I lost a fair amount of time in Lancaster due to the awning
repair, I decided to only stay one night. Early Monday morning, I
went out to see Montmorency Falls in Quebec City, then spent 3
hours driving to Parc Bic near Rimouski. The falls themselves were
taller than Niagara, although not nearly as wide. The park was
extensively developed, with a cable car taking people to the top of the
falls, a pedestrian bridge over the top of the falls, and a long series
of staircases leading down the other side. If you're ever in the area,
this park is definitely worth a visit!
Current Location: Site 19, Camping de l'Anse, Rimouski,
Quebec
Dates: Aug. 27-30, 2007
Services: E/W/S; Cost: $29.63; Nights: 3
After a 3 hour drive from Beaumont to Bic, I arrived at Bic Provincial
Park and was told that they have a “no pets” policy in all
their parks; even cats who stay in a trailer are not welcome. So, I'm
staying at a commercial campground nearby in Rimouski, and driving into
Bic (without the cats or the trailer) to see the area.
The landscape is noticeably different from Beaumont; the St. Lawrence
is about 50 km wide at this point, salty, and has tides. At Beaumont,
it was just 6 km (split into two channels by the Île
d'Oréans) and fresh water. As well, the mountains here are quite
large (requiring the roads to weave in between the valleys) with steep
sides.
Just west of Bic is the village of Saint-Fabien-de-Mer, a one-street
town squeezed between the river and the mountains. It was filled with
quaint homes and cottages that have very picturesque views out each
window.
There was a nice sunset in Rimouski on my last night there.
Current Location: Site 38, Camping Au Bord de la Mer, Cap-Chat,
Quebec
Dates: Aug. 30-Sept. 3, 2007
Services: E; Cost: $25.00; Nights: 4
After passing a huge wind turbine farm with signs offering a guided
tour, I decided to find a nearby campground, park the trailer, and
return for a tour the next day. I got really lucky with this
campground; by staying for 2 nights, I get a reduced rate, which means
that I can camp right on the edge of the St. Lawrence River for less
than what most other commercial campgrounds charge for a basic site.
This campground is also close enough that I can drive into Parc de la
Gaspésie (where I originally intended to camp, until I found out
that they do not accept any pets) for hiking. There's lots to see in
this area, including some fine sunsets over the river each evening.
