Every summer we have taken our vacation at the end of August and are usually camping Labour day weekend, so it hasn’t quite sunk in yet that I am not going to work tomorrow. I (Kim) retired Aug 31st and had a great send-off but a very emotional couple of days saying goodbye to friends and colleagues after 33 years at the City of Ottawa. Even more difficult was saying goodbye to close friends and our family. We left Ottawa on Sep 1st with mixed emotions. It was a quiet drive for a while.
August 4 we had picked up our new Grand Design travel trailer and parked it at Wesley Clover Park campground in Ottawa for the month while I finished my last days of work. I went back and forth from condo to trailer, packing and sorting our belongings into trailer pile, storage pile, and toss pile. We officially moved out of the condo Aug 20 and our belongings were shipped to Chilliwack and put in storage. Chris was able to test everything on our new trailer and install the extras we purchased to make life a little easier on the road. The site we had was wooded and private, but the mosquitos horrendous for August in Ottawa. Wesley Clover is very close to Ottawa and most campers are in and out after visiting the city for a day or two. Its a basic campground with decent facilities, the bathrooms could use some updating, but there is a store and laundry. The only thing missing is a pool for the really hot days, which was most of August.
Leaving Ottawa September 1st, 2018
We got up eary to pack the trailer and hitch up. Being newbies, it takes a while for us to do everything, even backing up to the trailer and lining things up, but that will get easier as we go along (I hope). First stop on our trip was Samuel de Champlain provincial campground near Mattawa. It’s a 4 hour drive from Ottawa and the perfect distance for our first drive with the trailer.
Our site, #204, was noted as one of the staff favorites at the gate. It’s a very large site which could easily have a group of 4 tents or so. The campround is off the Hwy enough so that it is quiet and is situated along the Mattawa river with beaches and good amenities. Our site had electric 15 amp hook-up, so good thing Chris has purchased an adapter. We passed the water fill station on the way in, and realized, being newbies, that we should have checked at the gate if there was water on our site. We were not going to turn around at that point and we are used to tent camping anyhow, so we decided to make do for one night. Lesson learned again… I think there will be quite a few of these in the next couple weeks. I tried backing into the site and after a few attempts, turned that task over to Chris. Need some practice there for sure. After a quick set up we had some dinner and got a good nights rest.
Pancake Bay, Lake Superior, Ontario
Sep 2nd we are up early to head to Pancake Bay provincial Park on Lake Superior. We will be staying for 2 nights ($113.83), being our 29th anniversary, we will take some time to enjoy a beautiful campground. We’ve been before and know how gorgeous the area is. Its a 6 hours drive on the Trans Canada Hwy. We had not really set up the last night, so we just had to hitch up and go. The hitching up took a few minutes as we tried to line up the truck and trailer. Again, we hope it will get easier as we go along. It’s a gray day as we get going and doesn’t really get sunny all day as we drive through North Bay, Sudbury and finally to Sault Ste.Marie where we stop at the WalMart to stock up. Busy, busy with back to school shoppers but the WalMart has a full grocery section. On to Pancake Bay which is another 45 minutes or so. The drive went very smoothly.
At Pancake Bay we check in at the gate. Again the site has only electric hook up and we are told the water station is at the other, far end, of the campground and it would be a tight place to turn coming back to go to our site, so we decide to make do again with portable water for 2 nights. I guess we will be doing this a lot. The site #122 is a drive through, YAY!! Across the ‘beach road’ from our site is a few steps to Lake Superior and gorgeous golden sandy beach. We set up and it’s Happy hour and a taco dinner.
The morning brings sunshine and a great day for the beach. After a good lie-in, we got the bikes out and went to explore the campground. There is a nice day use area at one end, and great tent sites at the other along with a dog beach area and a large comfort station with nice shower facilites which we made use of. Then off to the beach for some sun and swimming. The water is ‘refreshing’ meaning a little cold so I only waded in a bit. Chris jumped in though. The horizon stretches forever. Other than the noise of traffic it’s peaceful and relaxing. The campground is right off the hwy.
Dinner tonight is going to be pulled pork done in our Instant Pot which is turning out to be a great purchase. One-pot meals definitely make life easier on the road.
Tomorrow we are off again. Where to we do not yet know.
Yeah, sounds like your first few days went well. Hope the rest of your trip is as good. Enjoy!
It’s been great so far. What an amazing country isn’t it?