Jan 08 2009
Winter camping 2008/2009 - Mostly successful
We did indeed end up camping for 4 nights over the new year period. We took some friendly ribbing from friends ranging from “You guys are insane!”, to “It’s not really camping when you’re staying in a hotel room on wheels!”, but we took it all in stride.
The trip to MacGregor Provincial Park ended up taking significantly longer then I had expected. I was hoping for about 4 hours, but after a few stops including one for fuel, groceries, and a rather frustrating stint stuck behind a slow moving road salter who apparently couldn’t see (or didn’t care about) the 2 kilometers worth of traffic backed up behind him, we made it there in about 5 hours.
The problem with having arrived later then anticipated was that we ended up being forced to setup camp in the dark. That’s bad enough in the summer, but in the winter it was a whole new level of challenge. Thankfully that went well and before long we were comfortable in the trailer and preparing dinner.
After dinner I took a small trek through the campground to familiarize myself with the area, but trying to learn a strange campground’s layout (and MacGregor is a bit curious to begin with utilizing a “clover” layout with a center ring road) I figured I’d leave the exploring until the next day. The Campground host Frank popped by to say hello and ensure we were OK, and then we were alone.
Not knowing anyone, and being rather tired, we watched a bit of TV and crashed early.
The next few days were an adventure:
- Questionable weather. Yes, it’s winter and we expected winter weather, but it was constantly overcast and windy most days. It was ironic (and rather frustrating) to wake up to beautiful sunshine, comfortable temperatures, and calm winds on the day we needed to depart. Regardless, considering it was 10c and raining only days before our arrival (which would have been a disastrous muddy mess for camping) I shouldn’t complain.
- A questionable hydro situation. Collectively, the at-capacity (for the small section that was open) crowd managed to blow out the parks hydro system on new years eve. It was questionable because the breaker that apparently popped was designed to feed two other similarly-sized loops that were closed for the winter. Yes, we were probably all drawing quite a lot of hydro, but what happens in the summer when the other two loops are open and AC’s are going wide-open? If the winter camping program is to be expanded as discussions seem to indicate is possible, Ontario Parks is going to have to ensure that the parks hydro systems are up to the load.
- A great new years eve celebration held by several members of the “Winter Warrior” club who are regulars at MacGregor. It was great fun and I finally got put faces to names of many people who I had talked to online for quite some time.
- Plenty of enjoyable social interaction. Campers are of the friendly sort at the best of times, and winter campers tend to be the really hard core amongst them, and as such, even friendlier. Not once did I go out for a walk and not end up stopping at someone’s campsite for a chat, some of which lasted hours.
- The trailer performed admirably for not being entirely designed as a winter-capable unit. As with any RV of it’s sort (read as: Designed for summer and poorly insulated) it was difficult to heat even with 30 amps worth of electric heaters running taking the load off the furnace, and was fairly drafty, but overall it was comfortable. It did take a while to sort out the best way to spread the load on the trailers electrical system - who thought it was smart to wire an entire 30′ trailer with 10 plugs in various places with only two circuits?
- The fresh water supply and sewer situations did require some creative handling, but with the help of many pointers provided by those who have done this sort of thing before, it all went remarkably well for the most part.
It was temping for me to stay another day although I think the rest of the family had reached the point of being ready to head home. Add to that a freezing rain alert for Sunday, and it was clear that Saturday was going to be the day we had to head home, which we did.
The trip home was punctuated by a stop at the east Toronto Apple Store (where Apple service shined yet again, but that’s another story for another blog entry) and then me getting the trailer stuck quite well at it’s parking spot after unloading it at home.
Will we do the winter camping routine again this year? I doubt it - it was fun, but it was also a considerable amount of work above and beyond summer camping.
Next new years? I hope so.
Photos: (Updated Gallery)