2013 Trip 10: a spectacular autumn weekend

Murphys Point - Sept 2013

Friday
Close to the end of the season now, we are heading out for the second weekend in the row. The weather for the entire weekend is forecasted to be sunny and warm, around 70F. What a bonus compared to last weekend. It is a short drive here, and we have booked a nice site.

As I have mentioned before, this park is very heavily treed, and as such, is pretty dark. This time we reserved one of the sites closer to the lake, a little more open, so it should be brighter than previous visits. Late getting out of work today, so late getting on the road. We arrived well after dusk, not totally dark, but enough to need the headlamps to help set up. The site is pretty level, and although a little short on privacy, we will benefit from the additional light. I suspect we will always try to aim for a spot along this little stretch, as the others we have been on can be too gloomy.

Bit of a problem with the electrical outlets. When I tried to use the 30 amp, I found that the plug had been installed upside down. The blades are generally at the bottom, where the wire enters. The 30 amp plugs are quite large, including the wire, so it is not as simple as just flipping over the plug like you could on a toaster plug. The cover of the outlet, once lifted, prevented me flipping the plug. Without electricity our weekend will not be as comfortable so in the dark I looked to figure out a fix.  Approaching the issue now armed with a screwdriver, I was able to slide the hinge pin of the cover and this allowed me to remove it completely. Once out of the way, the outlet became useful again. Naturally, the cover will go back on when we leave. This issue will make it on the comment card as I'm sure we are not the only ones that have experienced this problem at this site.

The temp is dropping so we fired up the heat pump, which took the chill off quickly. Camping in the shoulder season, it is nice to have the electrical, because we now know the load on the battery for lights and heat can be significant.

Saturday
Nice clear skies when we woke up. A little cool, around 50F, so we used the furnace to heat the Alto up. The move to the larger output model was a good one, as it made the trailer very comfortable in about 40 minutes. This is quite reasonable, especially if you are without electricity, Slow heat always beats out no heat. Overhead this weekend are the sounds of flocks of Canada geese flying south, making their crescendo geese calls as they go. Guessing that they are taking advantage of the sunny warm weekend to make their head start, not unlike as we humans do.

Heavy mist over the lake this morning, Dale went outside to take some photos.

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2013 Trip 9: a learning experience...

Lac Philippe, Gatineau Park - Sept 2013

Friday

Looks to be an overcast rainy weekend and we are heading out to a campground we have never been to before. Lac Philippe, in the NCC (National Capital Commission) run Gatineau Park, is only about 45 minutes from downtown Ottawa.  It has a great little lake for paddling and a nice beach, and it has also a large campground.

We have paddled Lac Philippe many times, but have never checked out the campground. Upon arrival we see that it seems to be quite well run, offering the usual amenities such as comfort stations, a little camp store, boat rentals and yurt rentals for those who do not have tents or trailers. 

Being in September there are only a few fellow campers here, and as luck would have it, the row of sites where we have our reservation, there is other trailer right beside us. With only three of us in this part of the campground we want to be spread out so we went back to the camp office to change our reservation to another site.  A little extra running around, but well worth not being on top of your neighbour if you have the option. Dale had the Alto all set up by the time I got back, and Barley was glad to get into the trailer, talking a lot to make sure we knew he had not been fed yet.

We are in the trailer area, which consists of two rows of back-in sites, each with about eight spots. The rows are well separated by treed hills, so there are no campers visible either at the rear or to the front. The upper row backs onto the main camp road, so the lower area is preferable. Each site is angled, which makes all the sites off-set from each other creating privacy between trailers.  We have not seen this design in other campgrounds, probably because it does takes more space to create lesser sites, and in a private campground, that would reduce resulting revenue.

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2013 Trip 8: a river runs through it...

Bon Echo - Sept 2013

Friday:
Long weekend, sweet. Headed out a tad early to beat the traffic. Bon Echo is about 2 1/2 hours from Ottawa, but a nice drive down Hwy 7. Traffic was moving along nicely, which was a bit surprising given it is a long weekend. The fact that it is forecasted to be a rainy weekend might have made a difference.
Some serious dark clouds when we pulled in, but they held off. Our friend Sandra arrived earlier in the afternoon and was well set up by the time we arrived. Nice big site, with reasonable privacy. Got backed in and set up, the awning made an appearance as it really feels like rain is on the way.

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2013 Trip 7: hard to get better than this...

Driftwood PP - Aug 2013

Friday:
Heading to Driftwood PP, what may very well be now our favorite place to camp. If you can snag a site on the water, it is indeed an idyllic place. Luckily, we have done just that. Our site is awesome, with the perfect combination of sun, shade and trees, as well as a great view.

There are a handfull of sites along this stretch, in reality, any of them would be perfect.

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2013 Trip 6: how much heel is too much heel???

Sandbanks PP, Aug 2013

Friday:
Off to Sandbanks this long weekend, our must have yearly trip to probably the best beach in Ontario, and a fabulous surrounding area. Travelled Hwy 7, 15 through Smiths Falls, then briefly on the 401 until we caught the 49 into Picton which is the main town in Prince Edward County, an island in Lake Ontario..

Fair amount of traffic for a Friday morning, but like us, many have added a day to the long weekend and are already on the road. Made a slight detour off the 15 to Newboro, as there is a big general store located there called Kilborn's, and general store might be the wrong term, as it has clothing, shoes, kitchen stuff, specialty foods etc, so it is not general in the normal definition.  It is a destination store for people who love to check out country roads and shops along the way.

Sandbanks will be hopping this weekend, and there is already a lineup to sign in, and it is only early afternoon. We are in a new area this year, closer to the secondary "campers" beach. Only a few real trailer sites in our little section, mostly spot for tents to sit on the top of a ridge. Our site is pretty large, with the trailer spot nice and level, and offers the option to choose the amount of shade you want as it is nestled under some large cedars. We only backed in a bit under the cedars, since we need the sun for the solar as this is a non-electrical site.

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2013 Vacation Day 15: Saturday...and heading home

Well, another vacation draws to an end. We have been very fortunate that the weather for the most part has been excellent. The big storm predicted to follow the afternoon event did not happen. It must have gone around us. This morning the sky is overcast, but the clouds were high and the sense of rain is not really that strong. We got things squared away, hitched up and pulled out around 9:00. Had some rain on the way home, but nothing crazy.

Covered a lot of are on this trip, saw a lot of scenery and got in some good visits with relatives. Overall, a nice vacation.

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2013 Vacation Day 14: Friday...serious R & R

Pounded down the rain again last night, with heavy thunder and lightning, as a big storm rolled right over the Adirondacks. It made for quite a light show in the trailer, with the sound of the rain on the roof, soon followed by the thunderous roar. Although we are very cozy inside, you cannot help but feel for the campers on the ground in tents...storms like this can make for a miserable time.

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2013 Vacation Day 13: Thursday...a 4 state marathon drive

Huge thunderstorm last night, with tons of rain, and with lightning that was more sheet than bolts. The entire sky would ignite like a flashbulb, followed by a series of loud thunder cracks that would shudder all around. It was quite impressive. This went on for a few hours until the storm front moved through. It was all clear when we got up, which was a relief considering the big drive we had today.

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2013 Vacation Day 12: Wednesday...relaxing and exploring

Serious chillin' this morning, as it is one of the few mornings where the plan is actually no plan. Worked a little on the blog, a nice shower to freshen up, then we headed into Bar Harbour.

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2013 Vacation Day 11: Tuesday...taking a shortcut

Up and out early to catch the ferry. We stayed hitched up last night, which greatly reduces the time to get going. Gassed up before reaching the terminal, and even though we arrived an hour early as requested, there were already a huge number of vehicles lined up waiting to load.

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