February 3, 2025 • 41 mins
They love nature and they're committed to their goal of camping at ALL of Ontario Parks' operating parks!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hello and good day.
(00:01):
Welcome to the Super GoodCamping podcast.
My name is Pamela.
I'm Tim.
And we are fromsupergoodcamping.com.
We're here because we're on amission to inspire other people
to get outside and enjoy campingadventures such as we have as a
family.
Today's guests are a couple ofcampers from here in
southwestern Ontario.
They're big fans of nature andapparently each other.
They do most of their camping ina canoe, a nice shiny new one,
(00:22):
and they're working their waythrough Ontario's provincial
parks.
Tim and Thomas have enjoyedhanging out with them and
watching presentations at theToronto Outdoor Adventure shows
and spend a day working on theirpaddling certification, Tim and
I had a lovely dinner with themon a backyard patio here in town
during a torrential downpour.
Please welcome Nate and Jen fromCouple of Campers 905 on
(00:42):
Instagram.
SPEAKER_04 (00:44):
Hey! Hi guys!
SPEAKER_01 (00:49):
It's been about less than 24
SPEAKER_00 (00:51):
hours.
Yeah, so we just hung out withthem at the Hamilton Outdoor
Adventure Expo.
SPEAKER_02 (00:58):
We did too, and then And then we, we actually didn't,
we didn't even get to chat withyou guys at all last night at
the after thing.
SPEAKER_00 (01:05):
You were at the other end of the table.
It was full.
It was
SPEAKER_03 (01:08):
definitely,
SPEAKER_02 (01:09):
yeah, it was full.
There was a good, there was agood turnout.
It's next year.
It'll either be in that backroom or it'll be somewhere that
doesn't have a band.
SPEAKER_00 (01:17):
Not to despair to the live band, but it was a
little loud for trying to talk.
You guys were right out theretoo by the speaker.
SPEAKER_02 (01:23):
Yeah.
And deaf old guy with backgroundnoise like that.
I just sat back and smiled.
So one of the things I noticedabout your Instagram is that
you're paddling, you're tryingto paddle I don't know all of
them because that's a lot ofparks, but a whole bunch of the
(01:45):
Ontario parks.
What's behind that?
SPEAKER_01 (01:48):
So we've learned that there are non-operating
provincial parks and then alsooperating provincial parks.
So our goal is to overnight campat all the operating provincial
parks.
So there's about 115 of those.
So I think we've only got about12 officially.
SPEAKER_04 (02:06):
Yeah, 12.
Because
SPEAKER_01 (02:07):
we've done different ones before we got married or
before we met, but those don'tcount.
So they have to be donetogether.
And we have the rest of ourlifetime to check off that
bucket list of Ontario parks.
SPEAKER_00 (02:19):
That's awesome.
And so is it just back countryof Ontario parks or front
country camping as well?
SPEAKER_03 (02:25):
Yeah, we're kind of doing it all.
We're kind of doing some frontcountry car camping on one side.
Then we also get into the backcountry camping.
Jen had a little bit more of abackground in back country
camping.
So she kind of pointed us in thedirection of a lot of the nice
parks and things we can do.
SPEAKER_00 (02:41):
So how did you get into backcountry camping, Jen?
SPEAKER_01 (02:44):
My mom.
My mom took, I have twobrothers.
So we did a couple trips withher when we were young, like 12.
I was 12.
So they would have been youngerthan me.
And she took the three of usthrough Algonquin, through Acre.
And then I did a couple tripswith her as I got older.
You know, when you're a teen,you're kind of like, I don't
want to hang out with my mom.
That's not cool.
(03:05):
But then when I got older, Iwent on a number of trips with
her, Algonquin, French River.
We just like to hang out backthere in the quiet and sit in
the sun and go canoeing and justenjoy nature together.
So that's where I got thebackcountry experience from.
SPEAKER_02 (03:21):
And you dragged Nate kicking and streaming into that?
UNKNOWN (03:24):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (03:25):
Yeah.
He was more of a car camper whenI met him and had never been in
the backcountry.
And our first experience, he cantell you about.
SPEAKER_03 (03:34):
Yeah, our first experience was kind of rough.
Jen took me into Algonquin forour first trip ever, my first
backcountry trip ever.
and immediately just downpouringrain.
Like, great way to start, right?
You start off on the wrong foot.
It was actually Ralph Bice Lakein Algonquin.
So that was our first kind ofbig backcountry trip.
(03:55):
And we did the paddle, we madeit to the site.
We got lost along the way, butwe figured it out.
But yeah, just kind of the wholetime there, it didn't stop
raining.
We just experienced it was, Ithink it was two days.
SPEAKER_01 (04:07):
Yeah, it was just a quick Friday to Sunday, and
there was a huge storm thatweekend.
It was in September, so it wasalso a little chillier.
UNKNOWN (04:14):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:14):
And it was still, you know, my first time without
my mom.
And she was kind of like the onethat always did everything.
So it was a learning curve forboth of us.
But we stayed dry and wesurvived.
We were supposed to do a littleloop through Daisy and then just
back out.
But because of the winds, we gotstuck on the little peninsula
island site that we were on.
SPEAKER_00 (04:35):
Well, that's awesome.
And you survived and you stayedtogether.
Yeah.
And he wanted to come back.
SPEAKER_03 (04:41):
It was a learning experience.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (04:43):
It can only get better after that, right?
SPEAKER_00 (04:46):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_03 (04:47):
That's all that happens.
It
SPEAKER_00 (04:49):
builds character.
It builds resilience.
It builds bonds, teamwork.
It's awesome.
SPEAKER_02 (04:56):
Very cool.
So what are some other, sothat's the first.
You've had some successfultrips.
Share one of those.
SPEAKER_03 (05:06):
Yeah, a bunch.
So just this past summer, wejust did Massasauga Provincial
Park.
We did a huge loop through that.
I think we did, what was it?
Almost 70 kilometers.
SPEAKER_01 (05:16):
Yeah, it looks a lot bigger than it is.
As you look at the big map ofthe park and we did, we started
at, I think it's three-leggedlake entry point.
So we started there and just dida big, loop all the way down to
the bottom and then back up sowe're like oh that's gonna be so
far but it only ended up being60 to 70 kilometer loop and like
we took a whole week to do it weweren't rushed we just enjoyed
(05:39):
our time there and got to seeall the different things like
the massasauga park is prettycool because there's different
hiking spots but they're onlyaccessible by boat so if you go
to algonquin and there's allthose hikings on highway 60 but
uh this park you there'sspecific ones within the water
that you had to canoe to, to getto.
So that was, those were prettycool.
SPEAKER_03 (06:02):
Not a lot of people around, which was nice.
It's really only the boatersthat are making their way out
there, whether you're in a motorboat or canoe.
So you really get that, thatfeeling that you're on the trail
almost by yourself.
If, if not just one otherperson, it was, it was really
neat.
SPEAKER_01 (06:14):
I think we worked by ourselves cause it was, it was
September, first week ofSeptember.
So everybody had gone back toschool, back to work, kind of,
Back to the routine.
So that's when we typically liketo go when it's quieter.
And I think we were the onlyones that hiked the one trail.
There was nobody else out there.
So at the time.
SPEAKER_02 (06:30):
Cool.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, that's part of Itake that Labor Day weekend and
afterwards into account for alot of our trip planning because
I don't I don't want to be outwith the throngs of people and
stuff.
SPEAKER_01 (06:45):
Yeah.
Yeah, and the Massasauga ispretty busy during the summer,
like all the motorboat actionand Georgian Bay.
So we didn't really even see toomany motorboats throughout the
week there.
We woke up one morning, therewas some guys fishing in the
little bay that we were stayingat, but otherwise, honestly...
Yeah,
SPEAKER_03 (07:03):
it was
SPEAKER_01 (07:03):
perfect.
We picked the right spots toothat we weren't around a lot of
other people as well.
SPEAKER_02 (07:09):
Sweet, and nice sights and stuff?
SPEAKER_01 (07:10):
Yeah.
The only one that we could havedone without would have been...
Would have been the channel,which was near a marina.
I can't remember which marina.
But it was the southern marinathere.
Heath's Place, maybe?
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
So there's like a channel therewith some sites.
And you get a lot of boat actionback and forth through there.
(07:33):
So that was pretty loud and busyeven during the week.
UNKNOWN (07:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:37):
And
SPEAKER_00 (07:38):
do you guys do fishing?
SPEAKER_03 (07:39):
No, we don't.
No.
So Jen and I both don't, we bothdon't eat fish.
So it's, it's kind of a hardsell for us.
Like we've talked about, I thinkwe're going to get into maybe
just a little bit of like sportfishing, like for fun kind of
thing.
But unfortunately we don't eatit.
We wish we did because I can seethe value in going out and
paddling and catching your ownfish and cooking your own
(08:00):
dinner.
But yeah, It's just not in thecards for us.
SPEAKER_01 (08:04):
Not yet.
And then, yeah, because youdon't have to carry as much food
because you just eat fish.
Exactly.
And by day
SPEAKER_02 (08:09):
six, fish is really, really freaking good.
I
SPEAKER_03 (08:13):
can imagine.
I can see
SPEAKER_01 (08:15):
it.
Maybe we can learn how to scalea fish and suffer through it.
So what do you take for food?
Well, typically our backcountrytrips are just like kind of
weekend stuff.
So we actually bring a lot ofjust fresh food that we can
cook.
This year we did our firstdehydration meals on our own.
(08:37):
So we got a dehydrator and wedid a couple of meals that way.
But it's mostly the dehydratedstuff after day two or three.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_03 (08:45):
you can only get the steak or the chicken kind of
first night meal.
Steak maybe second night, youknow, and then it starts to get
a little iffy.
So yeah, this past year we did,we bought a dehydrator.
We made some, we did butterchickens.
We did a nice butter chickensauce in the dehydrator.
And to our surprise, it turnedout great.
For our first run, we weren'tkind of expecting it to all come
(09:07):
together.
But yeah, we were verysuccessful with our dehydrated
meals this year.
SPEAKER_00 (09:12):
Awesome.
Was that your own invention, thebutter chicken?
Or was it like, was it acookbook?
SPEAKER_01 (09:18):
we just kind of did the basics so just you know we
cooked up some chicken we'relike you know how long you have
to dehydrate chicken and howlong you have to dehydrate sauce
so so we see sometimes you canjust like dehydrate it all
together but like we were new sowe kind of just did it all
separately and then mashed ittogether in the back country
because we had a bunch ofchicken and some chicken went
with rice some chicken went withthe butter chicken so we did
(09:41):
different things we like chicken
SPEAKER_02 (09:44):
Chicken's good, and it's actually really easy to do
in the dehydrator.
You just kind of shred it up,spread it out.
It dries easily.
There's not lots of oils andstuff like that to worry about.
SPEAKER_01 (09:55):
Let me do front country camping.
We purchased a Camp Chef oven,and then it also has a stove on
top.
We don't rough it when we're inthe front country.
We're still like minimalized.
Like we don't bring a wholebunch of stuff like you see out
there because it is kind ofoverwhelming sometimes and you
(10:17):
want to keep it simple.
But we do have the nice littleovens.
We've done lasagnas, steak subs.
SPEAKER_03 (10:24):
Biscuits.
SPEAKER_01 (10:25):
Biscuits, cookies.
We cook some cookies, brownies.
So anything you do in an oven,you can do in that baby.
And
SPEAKER_00 (10:32):
what does it run on?
What kind of fuel does it run
SPEAKER_01 (10:34):
on?
Just a pound propane tank.
Or you can like hook it up to abigger propane.
To the full size.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (10:40):
Yeah, we don't skimp when we're front country either.
I mean, I carry, I've got aColeman barbecue that we carry.
We do the, we've got no bugs on,but we've had a dining tent, you
know, all screened in becausesomebody's a magnet for
mosquitoes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm happy to take...
If it fits in, I don't care.
(11:00):
I don't have to carry it.
SPEAKER_03 (11:02):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (11:04):
There's only so much we can fit in the Prius, though.
SPEAKER_02 (11:07):
That's true.
That's a slightly smallerpayload, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (11:10):
The giant cooler takes up probably half the
backseat.
SPEAKER_02 (11:15):
Cool.
So you said most of yourbackcountry experiences are
shorter, two-day, three-daydeals.
Do you do any longer ones?
And then what aboutfrontcountry?
Are you able to expand...
to bigger trips, like a week orsomething like that?
SPEAKER_03 (11:31):
Yeah, so we've definitely put on plans to kind
of do a week-long backcountrytrip this year.
We're looking at the KorthaHighlands.
So yesterday while we were atthe show, we were actually kind
of picking a lot of people'sbrains on routes and ideas and
just suggestions.
So that's kind of one of our bigtrips planned for this year
where we're actually hoping tospend– I think we're looking
(11:55):
probably seven, eight days thatwe're going to get out there and
get the boat out and enjoy sometime.
Sweet.
It's a great park.
You'll love it.
You'll love
SPEAKER_01 (12:03):
it.
Yeah.
We did six days in theMassasauga.
So I think that was...
Well, we've done like five onthe French River before as well.
But typically that's like once ayear where we get like that week
off to go do something.
Otherwise, it's kind of longweekends.
But this year we actuallyhave...
two one-week trips so we'regoing to do front country for a
(12:25):
week and we're going to split itup between Lake St.
Peter and Bonnechere so we'regoing to do those two over the
course of like seven eight daysand then the second week
vacation we'll do the KawarthaHighlands for the seven ish
depends on when we want to comeout
SPEAKER_02 (12:44):
that's I like I I wouldn't be adverse to doing
shorter trips.
Pamela and I are doingbackcountry trips again.
She's doing backcountry tripswith me again, and they're
shorter ones.
We did a three-day at Massasaugalast year.
We're going to do a four-day.
Won't be surprised it'sMassasauga again, just because
it's pretty easy access for us.
(13:04):
It's not a long drive oranything like that, and it's
also pretty easy access into thepark itself, so we'll probably
do that.
My My jam is kind of like eightdays of sweet spot for me where
jump in the canoe with the kidand just bugger off.
Take a bunch of really heavystuff, make him carry it.
UNKNOWN (13:25):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:25):
Excellent.
So tell, tell me about yourshine.
I know it has a couple ofscratches on it now.
How did you, how did you go fromrenting canoes?
If you were doing backcountry tospanky new one?
SPEAKER_01 (13:37):
Well, we've been very blessed with supportive
family and saving and just beingsmart.
So, you know, obviously rentinga canoe is very expensive when
you want to go for a week.
It can get pretty pricey.
So if you look at, you know, ifthat's something we want to
always do is be back countrygoers, like renting a canoe all
(13:57):
the time is going to be prettyexpensive.
So just to kind of bite thebullet right now and invest in a
great canoe, that's going tolast us 30 plus years, you know,
if we take care of it and thatsort of thing.
So that's, we made the decisionto invest in a Swift and it's
beautiful.
Every time we canoe and paddle,we're just like in awe of its
(14:20):
capabilities and just how easyit is and Love it.
SPEAKER_03 (14:24):
We get a lot of compliments on the trail, that's
for sure.
SPEAKER_01 (14:27):
It's a Kevlar?
Expedition Kevlar.
I didn't like the look of theinside of the Kevlar canoes, so
I wanted the Expedition Kevlar,which is stronger.
It's a little bit heavier, butour canoe still came in 41
pounds at 17 feet, so it's greatfor us.
(14:48):
It's a fantastic canoe.
SPEAKER_02 (14:51):
Yeah, we're about the same.
It's not expedition, but it's 17feet and it's 40 point
something.
SPEAKER_03 (14:59):
It's kind of the perfect weight.
You don't feel like you'rebogged down carrying the canoe,
but you still know it's there.
It's not going to fly off yourshoulders on a strong wind or
you're able to...
You're able to really control itstill, I find.
SPEAKER_02 (15:13):
Yeah, Thomas doesn't complain very
SPEAKER_03 (15:15):
much.
Yeah, I guess I'm talking to thewrong guy.
SPEAKER_02 (15:20):
I can tell you it took me, because our previous
one was a big 90, probably90-something pound fiberglass,
and two guys carrying it.
Sure, you're making a sweat, butit's fairly easy to carry.
getting, trying to figure outhow to get the balance with the
yoke and stuff on the, the new,the Kevlar one was a, was a
(15:41):
challenge for me to, to, causeyou're changing things.
I'm used to it.
Like it, it can't, it can'tfloat when it's the fiberglass
one, because somebody is at theother end.
Well, now it's really easy to,it doesn't take much of anything
of an adjustment on you.
And it starts going up at thefront or heaven forbid, it's
coming down.
You're like, so that was a, thatwas an interesting challenge
(16:04):
that I, didn't see coming.
I hadn't, I hadn't noticed thatanybody else was, had run into
that because all the other, youknow, the YouTubers and that
sort of jazz, they're alreadyexperienced at doing that.
So it's no big deal for them.
SPEAKER_01 (16:16):
Yeah.
They make it look pretty easy.
And I know they got some kind ofrigs too, like with the ropes
that help, um, pull it up anddown.
We haven't added any of thatstuff yet.
I don't mind.
Like I carry the canoe.
I don't mind having my arms upso far.
Maybe it'll get a littleannoying after a while, but, um,
you know, I put one arm downhere, one arm down there.
You try to balance it with nohands, see how far you can get
(16:39):
till it, till it wobbles.
SPEAKER_02 (16:41):
Yeah.
I think I got about six stepsbefore it wobbles.
SPEAKER_01 (16:45):
and like, Nate, look, take a video and then I'll
see you with no hands.
SPEAKER_02 (16:49):
So are you specifically going to stick to
Ontario Parks?
Are you going to do any sort ofCrownland camping at any point?
Do you have any plans to doother things?
SPEAKER_03 (16:58):
I think Ontario Parks is kind of where our heart
is.
I think that's kind of wherewe're set.
We just, we enjoy, again, someof the amenities are available
even in some of the smallerparks.
We just like to, I just thinkhaving that, that access to a
shower sometimes, or even let iteven, even so be a drop toilet,
at least something still therethat you can, you can use.
(17:21):
So I think, I think those aresome poles for us.
And
SPEAKER_01 (17:25):
like, we don't have unlimited time and we really do
want to get all the parks offthe list.
So that's, You know, for thenext 30 years, I think that's
three parks a year.
So if you don't plan itstrategically, like we might
only do one park a year and thenthe next year we got to hustle
our butts and oh, we need to dolike five now this year.
So I think we have enough on theplate with those because, you
(17:47):
know, we're busy with work andour volunteer things.
So there's only so many hours ina day and weekends in a year
that you can get out.
Crownland I hear takes a lot of,you know, research and and work
first, and I don't think wereally have the time to put into
that.
SPEAKER_02 (18:05):
Yeah, it certainly does on land.
I'm not an expert by a long,long stretch.
My understanding is paddlingcrown lands and finding sites is
much easier because as you'repaddling, you're scouting, and
you'll see that opening.
You'll go, oh, yeah.
That's a campsite.
You know that that's a campsite.
(18:26):
So it's a quick pop in.
I mean, you're not going totravel as far in a day probably
until you become experienced atit because you want to check out
the site and go, yeah, no, Idon't want to be here.
This is not my sort of thing.
I don't want to deal with allthose grills over there and
stuff like that.
So you'll move on to the nextone or whatever.
I'm hoping we're, uh, We weretalking to Jerry and Shay last
(18:50):
night.
I'll edit that part out.
And we're talking about tryingto get together and do a trip.
And we're thinking about goingdown through Point Grandin.
There's a giant island when youcome out of Grandin into
Georgian Bay.
And it's got like 25 sites onit.
(19:13):
So it's like...
Cool, because that gives us,depending on what time of year
and how busy it is, but it givesus a lot of choice on finding
the right ones for us.
SPEAKER_01 (19:23):
Yeah.
Like we noticed when we werelooking at the Kawartha
Highlands roots, we're trying tofigure out this deer bay creek
that goes down towards LowerBuckhorn.
But when you come out of LowerBuckhorn, I think it's Wolf
Island Provincial Park maybe,but there's some crown camping
sites there and maybe we'llcheck one of those out on the
(19:45):
way out if that's where ourroute ends up.
But yeah, like we're not againstit.
Like if we had the time to...
to look into something likethat.
Like we for sure would be a partof it, like no problem.
We're actually talking with Natelast night, Muskoka Nate, not
sure what his last name
SPEAKER_02 (20:01):
is.
Nate Smith, but Nate Muskoka.
SPEAKER_01 (20:02):
Yeah, so he was chatting with us about Crownland
and where we go up in mystepdad's, some property up
north.
He said there's lots ofCrownland around there.
So I was like, oh, well, maybethat's something we can look
into.
SPEAKER_02 (20:15):
Yeah, for a guy that works for Ontario Parks, he does
an awful lot of Crownlandcamping.
SPEAKER_01 (20:21):
when
SPEAKER_00 (20:23):
you mentioned non-operating parks would you is
that on your radar as well to dosome of the non-operating parks
SPEAKER_03 (20:28):
we do uh so we do check them out in the sense of
like we'll go for hikes and andkind of walk through them um but
from my understanding i believeyou keep there's you're not able
to stay at non-operating parksso it's just uh really it's just
a day use for any time that Wecan, but there's even like some
in our area here, like there'sShort Hills.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_01 (20:48):
there's only Short Hills Provincial Park, which is
all we knew of thenon-operating.
You can't camp overnight there.
So we just assumed you couldn'tcamp in the other ones, but you
can camp like the Crown Land insome of the non-operating parks.
SPEAKER_04 (21:02):
Oh,
SPEAKER_02 (21:02):
you can?
SPEAKER_01 (21:03):
Yeah.
Well, QE2 is
SPEAKER_00 (21:04):
non-operating, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02 (21:06):
Yes.
But you can camp it.
It's just, it's a free for all.
You can't.
So sorry, Thomas and I, was thatlast year or year before?
SPEAKER_04 (21:14):
Year
SPEAKER_02 (21:15):
before.
Year before.
We did a week in QE2, what isit?
QE2 Highlands?
I don't know.
Wildlands.
Wildlands, yeah, maybe.
Wildlands.
Something.
Nice park.
Plenty of campsites, but it's afirst come, first serve.
You can't book them, you can'tanything.
You set out, you start paddling,you look for a site, you look
(21:37):
for another site, you keeppaddling.
We ended up having to blow offour last day because we were
doing an up and then back downdeal.
So we camped our way up, hungout for a couple of days and
came down figuring we would, doa hard paddle through and camp
in the sort of last lake beforeour exit lake.
(22:01):
And we got down there andpaddled around every single
site, including in through thewater that's that deep.
And we're dragging and we getthere and it's taken too.
So we ended up having to justkeep on going because there was
nowhere to camp.
SPEAKER_01 (22:16):
Yeah.
So that's, I guess maybe, youknow, we like the certainty of
knowing even like some parkshave moved to the site specific
booking and Algonquin still lakespecific.
So it's nice to know at leastwhen you get to where you're
going, there's going to be aspot.
So that's more like a nicecomfort for the back country.
SPEAKER_02 (22:36):
Yeah, for sure.
And I'm totally in agreementwith the amenities.
I mean, even, you know,something like, again, back
country, because that's my jam.
something like a Thunderbox ingood repair.
SPEAKER_04 (22:49):
That's
SPEAKER_02 (22:49):
not going to happen on Crown land.
It's whoever chooses to takecare of it or doesn't take care
of it, right?
So real crap.
Real crap.
No
SPEAKER_00 (23:01):
pun intended.
No
SPEAKER_02 (23:03):
pun intended.
Well, there's an interestingone.
So you mentioned that Algonquinis still lake.
You book by lake.
I think that actually changesthis year.
I think they're changing it tobooking sites.
SPEAKER_01 (23:14):
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (23:16):
Yeah.
I know there's Kevin Callen dida, did a little report recently
at one of his blog posts and he,I don't, he didn't say he was
disheartened, but he soundedlike he was disheartened about
just how hardcore they're inFrench river.
It went used to be two weeks.
You had up, up to two weeks fromwhen you wanted to go to book
(23:38):
and you book by zone.
That's just this year goes tofive months and books by site as
well.
That one's a...
Well, if you've done the French,right?
Again, crapshoot.
All you need is a windy day.
There's no way you're getting toyour site.
So what, are you going to stayon the site that you're on?
(23:59):
Windbound is a thing thathappens when you're anywhere
near Georgian Bay.
How does that play out withyou've got to move to another
site and you can't?
SPEAKER_01 (24:09):
Maybe everybody is then...
staying on their side.
SPEAKER_02 (24:14):
I suppose they're told.
SPEAKER_01 (24:15):
Nobody's advancing.
They're all staying.
SPEAKER_02 (24:20):
Well, yeah, but is it like my idea of windbound
might be different from youridea of windbound from, you
know, Nate's idea of windbound,right?
SPEAKER_01 (24:29):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (24:30):
I don't
SPEAKER_01 (24:31):
know.
The trip that my mom took us onwhen we were kids, we actually
had to piggyback somebody else'ssite there in Algonquin because
we didn't get as far as shehoped with three rowdy kids.
Somebody was gracious enough tolet us camp off to the side and
just for the night until wecould get to the site that we
were looking for the next day.
SPEAKER_00 (24:53):
That's ambitious to take three kids.
Were you all in one canoe?
SPEAKER_01 (25:00):
No.
So, uh, two younger brothers.
So the youngest was with my momand somehow I was in a canoe
with, uh, my other, my otherbrother.
And I don't know how we like gotfrom A to B because like, I
don't recall knowing anythingabout canoeing at that point,
but, uh, I was in the stern andsomehow we made it from point A
(25:21):
to B and here
SPEAKER_00 (25:24):
we are.
Didn't capsize.
No, I remember
SPEAKER_01 (25:27):
my brother sitting in the front and like, he was,
you know, he was probably likenine, maybe nine or 10.
It was like bouncing with thewaves.
I'm like, I don't think you'resupposed to do that.
I'm like, sit down.
But we were younger and youknow, it was all fun.
You don't really know the fearof things at that point.
So.
SPEAKER_02 (25:44):
You mentioned having a cat.
Do you, do you ever take the catwith you?
No,
SPEAKER_01 (25:48):
no, no, no.
He, uh, He's a special littleboy.
He's got diabetes and he's hadsome serious surgeries.
So he's a handful to take careof.
So he doesn't really.
SPEAKER_03 (26:01):
He's a house cat.
He
SPEAKER_01 (26:03):
used to run wild, but now he's tamed to the
indoors.
So you
SPEAKER_00 (26:10):
adopted him as a rescue?
SPEAKER_01 (26:13):
uh we took him from my brother a long time ago he
moved to an apartment couldn'thave cats so my mom and i took
him and then when nate and i gotmarried nate and i took care of
him and he wasn't alwaysdiabetic he was uh just the last
couple years he was diagnosedwith that so
SPEAKER_02 (26:30):
last two years three years yeah that's poopy
SPEAKER_01 (26:35):
yeah he's on and he's gotta take insulin shots
it's you know
SPEAKER_02 (26:40):
And he doesn't have that thumb to push the depressor
on.
Exactly,
SPEAKER_01 (26:44):
yeah.
Got to do it for him.
SPEAKER_02 (26:46):
You mentioned Acre at Algonquin.
Have you done other ones in thepark?
SPEAKER_03 (26:54):
Yeah, so we actually did, what was that?
Probably just a year before wegot married, we went with Mark
in the park.
Yeah, yeah.
Mark Rubino.
So we watched the Rogersspecial.
We loved it.
I think it kind of sparked alittle bit of a backcountry bug
(27:15):
in me on top of kind of what Jenhad already ignited.
So we actually reached out toMark and we booked a trip.
So Mark kind of put everythingtogether.
He put a map together.
He gave us three or fourdifferent road options.
You pick kind of the challengethat you want.
And yeah, we took off on thattrip.
And that was on Kiosk Lake.
(27:37):
So that was kind of my firstexperience of the north end of
Algonquin and seeing that sideof the park.
Beautiful, beautiful trip.
Great kind of challenge for me,really getting into the
backcountry feel with theportages, with the large paddles
through huge lakes.
We did a
SPEAKER_01 (27:56):
3,000-meter portage on the first day?
Yeah.
No, second day.
It was the first thing, I thinkit was coming off of, what was,
anyways, it was the second daystarted off with a 3,000
kilometer or 3,000 meterportage.
(28:18):
But it was relatively flat.
There was a hill, massive hillat the beginning, but then
relatively flat the rest of theway.
So he really showed us a lot ofdifferent things.
SPEAKER_03 (28:27):
Yeah, it was challenging for sure.
Definitely.
It kind of got the blood pumpingfirst thing in the morning,
which is, which is good for afull day of paddling.
Like when you have a full day ofpaddling ahead of you, you're
kind of, kind of good to get theheart rate up right away and get
going.
SPEAKER_00 (28:41):
And Tim mentioned in the intro that you guys did some
paddling certifications.
Are you planning to do any morecertifications this year?
SPEAKER_01 (28:48):
Not this year.
So we did the Orca basiccanoeing one to three.
It's like, we don't, ever planto do solo canoeing.
And if we do, then we'll dolevel four at that point.
But we talked about doing the,the tripping one, the Orca
tripping course, just to, youknow, get that official
(29:08):
perspective.
And obviously we don't knoweverything.
So we would obviously learn somethings from that course and just
enjoy learning more about it,but not this year.
It'll be maybe next year.
SPEAKER_03 (29:22):
Yeah, probably next year, I think, with everything
we got, the trips we got plannedand just kind of some stuff here
on the home front that we'retaking care of.
It's just I think it's probablya next year thing.
We're also interested in likebackcountry first aid, getting
just kind of a background inthat in case it's always just
Jen and myself or a small groupgoing.
(29:44):
So it'd be nice to kind of havethat that background.
Heaven forbid something happens.
You just want to be able to.
to have that protection.
I'm kind of accident prone, so Ican see myself kind of managing
to, uh, to hurt myself.
So I think it's kind of a, maybesomething to help myself.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (30:04):
Or coach somebody else through fixing whatever,
whatever's messed up on you.
I absolutely agree.
Um, that if you, if you checkout the Oh, what was the name of
the company?
There was one at the Hamiltonshow that does wilderness first
aid.
If you run into any, if you wantto try them out, if you want any
(30:26):
other, Thomas and I did one lastyear.
I'd be happy to set you up withthem.
Okay.
It's a long course, man.
Just so you know, it's 48 hours.
It's like two full weekends.
We literally went and camped fora weekend, came home for a week,
went back out and camped foranother weekend.
It's fantastic.
I know...
I know how to not die now.
And the scenarios that theywork, once they, so they give
(30:49):
you, they teach you a lot of,what's the right term?
Basic skill stuff.
And you do practice it, but whenthey put it into a scenario
where you have to dredge upwhatever it is and then actually
act on it, that's the win.
That's what makes it stick,makes it all sort of gel
together.
It's a...
(31:10):
It's a really good course.
It's interesting.
It's a lot of work, but it's areally good course.
SPEAKER_01 (31:15):
I think that is also incorporated into the ORCA
tripping program, like thecourse that they.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_02 (31:23):
I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (31:24):
Yeah, I think when we were looking at it, like it
shows you all the topics theycover and it's like an intro, I
think, to the wilderness firstaid.
So cool.
But definitely something we wantto look into because, again,
we're.
maybe a little accident prone.
So just to take care of, youknow, Nate's a bigger dude than
I am.
So like what happens if I got tocarry this guy out of the
SPEAKER_02 (31:46):
bush, right?
We'll be back for you, honey.
SPEAKER_01 (31:50):
Hold that.
Stop the bleeding.
Don't take it off.
SPEAKER_02 (31:55):
Yeah.
And if they, if they have to copto you, cop to you out, it can
be pretty expensive if they godidn't need to.
SPEAKER_04 (32:03):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (32:04):
That's excellent.
It's yeah.
You know what, being able to be,you're away from all the
amenities that we live with allthe time.
So being able to be moreself-sufficient in that and be
safer in that, I don't see thatthere's any downside to that at
all.
yeah
SPEAKER_01 (32:23):
yeah because we you know we want to do part of the
operating parks are likewabakimi woodland caribou so
before we try to go dobackcountry there like we want
to make sure we're obviouslyequipped with the knowledge the
experience the tools everythingyeah before oh yeah like we're
fine we can just go do thisright now it's like no like we
need to realize we need to learnsome things before we go in the
(32:46):
wilderness like super wildernessyeah yeah
SPEAKER_02 (32:49):
bracket more experience too because there's
you're going to be you're goingto be bushwhacking at some point
where it says there's a portagethere is not yeah well and on
that note have you at least inpart because I have been taking
a lot of suggesting about ithave you thought about taking
(33:10):
any whitewater courses like evenjust to gain a little experience
because you get into certainlyin woodland caribou but I think
I think in spots in Wabakimitoo, you're going to run into
it, right?
Depending on what time of year.
SPEAKER_03 (33:23):
We've definitely talked about it.
I think it's something that isgoing to come up on our radar.
It's kind of inevitable.
I think like you just touched onwhere you're going to run into a
situation where
SPEAKER_04 (33:34):
there's
SPEAKER_03 (33:36):
rapids, there's swifts, there's...
you know, whitewater where youhave to actually react and be
able to react.
So I think it's something thatwe're going to start looking
into ourselves just to, just to,again, equip ourselves with
those tools to be able to, tohandle the situations.
SPEAKER_01 (33:51):
Cause even looking at some of the roots in
Algonquin and even the KawarthaHighlands, there's the
Mississauga river, I think.
So like that's considered awhite water river and like,
well, there's portages aroundthe crazy parts, but there's
still some other parts thataren't like, there's no portages
around and you're going to haveto paddle through that.
(34:11):
So we're like, again, like let'snot bite that off before, you
know, we're aware of how to, youknow, read the water and the
rocks and you know, what doesthat mean?
SPEAKER_02 (34:21):
Yeah.
And know how to know thestrokes, how to, how to, as you,
as you're reading, it's like, sothis one needs to be back
paddling.
You got to be able to, whoever'sin the, in the stern has to be
able to tell whoever's in thebow, what the hell they're
doing, all that sort of jazz.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm terrified, but I think I'mgoing to do it.
We're doing, we're doing a threeday with Greg from organic boat
(34:45):
shop in the fall in on Spanishriver.
And it's going to involve some,some not smooth water.
So
SPEAKER_01 (34:52):
yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
Nice.
Yeah.
We saw that, saw that posted andsomething, if you continue
offering that in the future,it'd be a good, a good little
weekend to be a part of.
SPEAKER_02 (35:03):
Yeah.
Well, I, we, we tend to not, wetend to trip as family members.
We, in one way or another, notreally do a lot of outside of
our, that circle.
I keep thinking it would be, itwouldn't be a bad idea.
And I probably really enjoyeddoing it with guys that have
more experience.
Folks, it doesn't, I don't, it'snot
SPEAKER_04 (35:24):
a
SPEAKER_02 (35:24):
guys versus girls thing.
I mean, people that know how todo stuff like that better than I
do.
Right.
That's I'm going to, because allmy stuff is largely other than
taking, taking courses, paddlingthe Orca courses with Greg, you
know, most of everything isself-taught.
I'm sure that they taught me howto read maps back in scouts, but
you know, other than that, Ifigured it out on my own, which
(35:47):
means I don't, I haven't got itall figured out.
So if I can watch guys who dothat sort of stuff all the time,
I, you know, I'm learning morestuff.
I'm going to be better at doingwhatever.
It'll be easier.
Thomas will be better at it.
He'll be able to carry moregear.
He's
SPEAKER_00 (36:04):
only
SPEAKER_01 (36:04):
going to get
SPEAKER_00 (36:05):
stronger as he grows.
That's
SPEAKER_02 (36:07):
what I'm saying,
SPEAKER_00 (36:08):
right?
He better be done growing by
SPEAKER_02 (36:10):
now.
UNKNOWN (36:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (36:12):
It's payback for having fed him for 23 years or
whatever.
Because the Sherpa I'd have tohire would be cheaper than
having fed him for that manyyears.
All right.
Tell us what parks you've beento.
SPEAKER_01 (36:29):
So they've kind of been all over.
We don't have a system as tostarting here.
It's just kind of...
You're looking at the map andwhat feels right, kind of.
SPEAKER_03 (36:41):
It fits into a timeframe too, you know.
We can't always travel the fourhours to go to the Muskokas.
SPEAKER_01 (36:48):
Our first thought was to get all the Northwestern
parks done while we're young andcan drive out there and like not
worry about it.
But it's a haul.
It took about probably 23 hours.
We went to Rushing River, whichis like, It's by Kenora, so
super northwest Ontario.
(37:10):
So we've done Rushing River.
We did Sue Narrows while we wereup in that corner.
We wanted to do Caliper Lake,which is all those three were
kind of together, but it wasclosed while we were up there,
so that was a bummer.
Because, again, you drive...
a day's worth, and then the parkwas closed.
But there was a supercell thatwent through, and a bunch of
(37:31):
tall pines were down.
And thankfully, nobody was hurt,but, like,
SPEAKER_03 (37:35):
everything
SPEAKER_01 (37:36):
was crushed.
Like, it was nuts.
SPEAKER_03 (37:37):
Fences were knocked down, everything.
Yeah, it was crazy.
What
SPEAKER_01 (37:40):
we've done around, like, Lake Huron, we've done
McGregor Point, more on the eastside, Murphy's Point, Turkey
Point down here by us inNiagara, Algonquin.
SPEAKER_03 (37:52):
Restool.
We
SPEAKER_01 (37:54):
did a rest
SPEAKER_03 (37:55):
stool.
How did you like a rest stool?
Loved it.
Yeah.
Great.
Yeah.
We, we hit it at a, I think wewere there for a week.
Yeah.
We were there for a week and wehit perfect week of weather.
It was a sunny, hot, couldn'tbeat it.
It was, I think it was like oneof the hottest weekends of this,
of the summer.
So it
SPEAKER_02 (38:13):
was kind of.
Sweet.
No, I just, I keep thinking weshould do a front country up
there.
SPEAKER_01 (38:18):
And they have backcountry sites at Restool as
well.
So we did a lot of, they have abunch of paddling routes.
So we did as well, a 22kilometer route.
day trip, like, out and about.
And, yeah, they have some littlebackcountry sites you can, you
know, have your lunch on or stayfor the night.
Who else has...
SPEAKER_03 (38:39):
Well, there's another one.
SPEAKER_01 (38:40):
Oh, where else?
Oh, Mikisu.
We went to Mikisu in the fall,and that was beautiful.
They have an 18-hole frisbeegolf.
Cool.
Yeah, a couple hiking trails,and it was beautiful.
It was beautiful in the falltime.
And there was a lot of...
Empty sites for tents.
Obviously all the trailer sites,electric sites fill up, but
(39:02):
there wasn't too many tenters.
So that's a pretty nice park inthe fall time.
French River, Algonquin,Massasauga.
SPEAKER_02 (39:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (39:11):
So slowly chipping away at the block.
SPEAKER_02 (39:16):
That's great.
That's a nice rounded group ofplaces to go.
All kinds of, you know, variedflora and fauna.
SPEAKER_01 (39:25):
Mm-hmm.
UNKNOWN (39:26):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (39:26):
Yeah, and every park is different.
You know, what's your favoritepark?
It's like we have a great timeat all of them.
I mean, I don't know how you cannot have a good time camping.
You know, like Kevin, happycamper.
Like it is what you make it.
So we love every park that we'vebeen to so far.
Maybe there'll be one that we'relike, eh, we don't need to go
back to that one.
(39:46):
But so far, we would go back toall the ones that we visited.
For Tim,
SPEAKER_00 (39:50):
that would be Sybil Point.
SPEAKER_01 (39:53):
We haven't, I've, I've been there as a kid, but we
haven't been there together.
SPEAKER_02 (39:57):
Don't, don't go in the summer.
It's just, it's, it's insane.
It was, it was not, was not, itwas not a Tim experience for
sure.
Lots of people.
I'm glad that people are gettingout and taking their kids and
stuff, but like the day use, itwas a zoo.
It was a beach that wasabsolutely jammed with people,
(40:20):
cars filling the parking lot,cars all the way down the road,
nobody driving, the actual speedlimit in the park.
Everything was just so worn thatwhen it rained, everything just
turned to mud because there's somany people cutting through
sites and stuff like that.
Great.
So our kids were shorter.
So great
SPEAKER_00 (40:41):
kids
SPEAKER_02 (40:41):
programming and like tie-dyeing shirts and doing
historical things and stuff likethat.
That was fabulous.
But it's too busy.
It's not like I can stay homeand have that much traffic
cutting through my yard orwhatever, right?
Yeah.
UNKNOWN (40:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (40:57):
Well, good tip.
We'll hit that park up inSeptember when the kids are
going
SPEAKER_02 (41:01):
back to school.
Yeah, that's the one for you.
SPEAKER_00 (41:05):
That's it for us for today.
Thank you so much to our guests,Nate and Jen from Couple of
Campers 905 on Instagram.
Please do check them out andcheck us out on Instagram while
you're there.
You can also find us on all theother social media.
We're on Twitter, Facebook,Instagram.
We're on YouTube and Blue Sky.
And if you want to talk to us,you can email us anytime at hi
at supergoodcamping.com.
(41:27):
That's H-I atsupergoodcamping.com and we'll
talk to you again soon bye bye
Hello and good day.
(00:01):
Welcome to the Super GoodCamping podcast.
My name is Pamela.
I'm Tim.
And we are fromsupergoodcamping.com.
We're here because we're on amission to inspire other people
to get outside and enjoy campingadventures such as we have as a
family.
Today's guests are a couple ofcampers from here in
southwestern Ontario.
They're big fans of nature andapparently each other.
They do most of their camping ina canoe, a nice shiny new one,
(00:22):
and they're working their waythrough Ontario's provincial
parks.
Tim and Thomas have enjoyedhanging out with them and
watching presentations at theToronto Outdoor Adventure shows
and spend a day working on theirpaddling certification, Tim and
I had a lovely dinner with themon a backyard patio here in town
during a torrential downpour.
Please welcome Nate and Jen fromCouple of Campers 905 on
(00:42):
Instagram.
SPEAKER_04 (00:44):
Hey! Hi guys!
SPEAKER_01 (00:49):
It's been about less than 24
SPEAKER_00 (00:51):
hours.
Yeah, so we just hung out withthem at the Hamilton Outdoor
Adventure Expo.
SPEAKER_02 (00:58):
We did too, and then And then we, we actually didn't,
we didn't even get to chat withyou guys at all last night at
the after thing.
SPEAKER_00 (01:05):
You were at the other end of the table.
It was full.
It was
SPEAKER_03 (01:08):
definitely,
SPEAKER_02 (01:09):
yeah, it was full.
There was a good, there was agood turnout.
It's next year.
It'll either be in that backroom or it'll be somewhere that
doesn't have a band.
SPEAKER_00 (01:17):
Not to despair to the live band, but it was a
little loud for trying to talk.
You guys were right out theretoo by the speaker.
SPEAKER_02 (01:23):
Yeah.
And deaf old guy with backgroundnoise like that.
I just sat back and smiled.
So one of the things I noticedabout your Instagram is that
you're paddling, you're tryingto paddle I don't know all of
them because that's a lot ofparks, but a whole bunch of the
(01:45):
Ontario parks.
What's behind that?
SPEAKER_01 (01:48):
So we've learned that there are non-operating
provincial parks and then alsooperating provincial parks.
So our goal is to overnight campat all the operating provincial
parks.
So there's about 115 of those.
So I think we've only got about12 officially.
SPEAKER_04 (02:06):
Yeah, 12.
Because
SPEAKER_01 (02:07):
we've done different ones before we got married or
before we met, but those don'tcount.
So they have to be donetogether.
And we have the rest of ourlifetime to check off that
bucket list of Ontario parks.
SPEAKER_00 (02:19):
That's awesome.
And so is it just back countryof Ontario parks or front
country camping as well?
SPEAKER_03 (02:25):
Yeah, we're kind of doing it all.
We're kind of doing some frontcountry car camping on one side.
Then we also get into the backcountry camping.
Jen had a little bit more of abackground in back country
camping.
So she kind of pointed us in thedirection of a lot of the nice
parks and things we can do.
SPEAKER_00 (02:41):
So how did you get into backcountry camping, Jen?
SPEAKER_01 (02:44):
My mom.
My mom took, I have twobrothers.
So we did a couple trips withher when we were young, like 12.
I was 12.
So they would have been youngerthan me.
And she took the three of usthrough Algonquin, through Acre.
And then I did a couple tripswith her as I got older.
You know, when you're a teen,you're kind of like, I don't
want to hang out with my mom.
That's not cool.
(03:05):
But then when I got older, Iwent on a number of trips with
her, Algonquin, French River.
We just like to hang out backthere in the quiet and sit in
the sun and go canoeing and justenjoy nature together.
So that's where I got thebackcountry experience from.
SPEAKER_02 (03:21):
And you dragged Nate kicking and streaming into that?
UNKNOWN (03:24):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (03:25):
Yeah.
He was more of a car camper whenI met him and had never been in
the backcountry.
And our first experience, he cantell you about.
SPEAKER_03 (03:34):
Yeah, our first experience was kind of rough.
Jen took me into Algonquin forour first trip ever, my first
backcountry trip ever.
and immediately just downpouringrain.
Like, great way to start, right?
You start off on the wrong foot.
It was actually Ralph Bice Lakein Algonquin.
So that was our first kind ofbig backcountry trip.
(03:55):
And we did the paddle, we madeit to the site.
We got lost along the way, butwe figured it out.
But yeah, just kind of the wholetime there, it didn't stop
raining.
We just experienced it was, Ithink it was two days.
SPEAKER_01 (04:07):
Yeah, it was just a quick Friday to Sunday, and
there was a huge storm thatweekend.
It was in September, so it wasalso a little chillier.
UNKNOWN (04:14):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:14):
And it was still, you know, my first time without
my mom.
And she was kind of like the onethat always did everything.
So it was a learning curve forboth of us.
But we stayed dry and wesurvived.
We were supposed to do a littleloop through Daisy and then just
back out.
But because of the winds, we gotstuck on the little peninsula
island site that we were on.
SPEAKER_00 (04:35):
Well, that's awesome.
And you survived and you stayedtogether.
Yeah.
And he wanted to come back.
SPEAKER_03 (04:41):
It was a learning experience.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (04:43):
It can only get better after that, right?
SPEAKER_00 (04:46):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_03 (04:47):
That's all that happens.
It
SPEAKER_00 (04:49):
builds character.
It builds resilience.
It builds bonds, teamwork.
It's awesome.
SPEAKER_02 (04:56):
Very cool.
So what are some other, sothat's the first.
You've had some successfultrips.
Share one of those.
SPEAKER_03 (05:06):
Yeah, a bunch.
So just this past summer, wejust did Massasauga Provincial
Park.
We did a huge loop through that.
I think we did, what was it?
Almost 70 kilometers.
SPEAKER_01 (05:16):
Yeah, it looks a lot bigger than it is.
As you look at the big map ofthe park and we did, we started
at, I think it's three-leggedlake entry point.
So we started there and just dida big, loop all the way down to
the bottom and then back up sowe're like oh that's gonna be so
far but it only ended up being60 to 70 kilometer loop and like
we took a whole week to do it weweren't rushed we just enjoyed
(05:39):
our time there and got to seeall the different things like
the massasauga park is prettycool because there's different
hiking spots but they're onlyaccessible by boat so if you go
to algonquin and there's allthose hikings on highway 60 but
uh this park you there'sspecific ones within the water
that you had to canoe to, to getto.
So that was, those were prettycool.
SPEAKER_03 (06:02):
Not a lot of people around, which was nice.
It's really only the boatersthat are making their way out
there, whether you're in a motorboat or canoe.
So you really get that, thatfeeling that you're on the trail
almost by yourself.
If, if not just one otherperson, it was, it was really
neat.
SPEAKER_01 (06:14):
I think we worked by ourselves cause it was, it was
September, first week ofSeptember.
So everybody had gone back toschool, back to work, kind of,
Back to the routine.
So that's when we typically liketo go when it's quieter.
And I think we were the onlyones that hiked the one trail.
There was nobody else out there.
So at the time.
SPEAKER_02 (06:30):
Cool.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, that's part of Itake that Labor Day weekend and
afterwards into account for alot of our trip planning because
I don't I don't want to be outwith the throngs of people and
stuff.
SPEAKER_01 (06:45):
Yeah.
Yeah, and the Massasauga ispretty busy during the summer,
like all the motorboat actionand Georgian Bay.
So we didn't really even see toomany motorboats throughout the
week there.
We woke up one morning, therewas some guys fishing in the
little bay that we were stayingat, but otherwise, honestly...
Yeah,
SPEAKER_03 (07:03):
it was
SPEAKER_01 (07:03):
perfect.
We picked the right spots toothat we weren't around a lot of
other people as well.
SPEAKER_02 (07:09):
Sweet, and nice sights and stuff?
SPEAKER_01 (07:10):
Yeah.
The only one that we could havedone without would have been...
Would have been the channel,which was near a marina.
I can't remember which marina.
But it was the southern marinathere.
Heath's Place, maybe?
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
So there's like a channel therewith some sites.
And you get a lot of boat actionback and forth through there.
(07:33):
So that was pretty loud and busyeven during the week.
UNKNOWN (07:36):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:37):
And
SPEAKER_00 (07:38):
do you guys do fishing?
SPEAKER_03 (07:39):
No, we don't.
No.
So Jen and I both don't, we bothdon't eat fish.
So it's, it's kind of a hardsell for us.
Like we've talked about, I thinkwe're going to get into maybe
just a little bit of like sportfishing, like for fun kind of
thing.
But unfortunately we don't eatit.
We wish we did because I can seethe value in going out and
paddling and catching your ownfish and cooking your own
(08:00):
dinner.
But yeah, It's just not in thecards for us.
SPEAKER_01 (08:04):
Not yet.
And then, yeah, because youdon't have to carry as much food
because you just eat fish.
Exactly.
And by day
SPEAKER_02 (08:09):
six, fish is really, really freaking good.
I
SPEAKER_03 (08:13):
can imagine.
I can see
SPEAKER_01 (08:15):
it.
Maybe we can learn how to scalea fish and suffer through it.
So what do you take for food?
Well, typically our backcountrytrips are just like kind of
weekend stuff.
So we actually bring a lot ofjust fresh food that we can
cook.
This year we did our firstdehydration meals on our own.
(08:37):
So we got a dehydrator and wedid a couple of meals that way.
But it's mostly the dehydratedstuff after day two or three.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_03 (08:45):
you can only get the steak or the chicken kind of
first night meal.
Steak maybe second night, youknow, and then it starts to get
a little iffy.
So yeah, this past year we did,we bought a dehydrator.
We made some, we did butterchickens.
We did a nice butter chickensauce in the dehydrator.
And to our surprise, it turnedout great.
For our first run, we weren'tkind of expecting it to all come
(09:07):
together.
But yeah, we were verysuccessful with our dehydrated
meals this year.
SPEAKER_00 (09:12):
Awesome.
Was that your own invention, thebutter chicken?
Or was it like, was it acookbook?
SPEAKER_01 (09:18):
we just kind of did the basics so just you know we
cooked up some chicken we'relike you know how long you have
to dehydrate chicken and howlong you have to dehydrate sauce
so so we see sometimes you canjust like dehydrate it all
together but like we were new sowe kind of just did it all
separately and then mashed ittogether in the back country
because we had a bunch ofchicken and some chicken went
with rice some chicken went withthe butter chicken so we did
(09:41):
different things we like chicken
SPEAKER_02 (09:44):
Chicken's good, and it's actually really easy to do
in the dehydrator.
You just kind of shred it up,spread it out.
It dries easily.
There's not lots of oils andstuff like that to worry about.
SPEAKER_01 (09:55):
Let me do front country camping.
We purchased a Camp Chef oven,and then it also has a stove on
top.
We don't rough it when we're inthe front country.
We're still like minimalized.
Like we don't bring a wholebunch of stuff like you see out
there because it is kind ofoverwhelming sometimes and you
(10:17):
want to keep it simple.
But we do have the nice littleovens.
We've done lasagnas, steak subs.
SPEAKER_03 (10:24):
Biscuits.
SPEAKER_01 (10:25):
Biscuits, cookies.
We cook some cookies, brownies.
So anything you do in an oven,you can do in that baby.
And
SPEAKER_00 (10:32):
what does it run on?
What kind of fuel does it run
SPEAKER_01 (10:34):
on?
Just a pound propane tank.
Or you can like hook it up to abigger propane.
To the full size.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (10:40):
Yeah, we don't skimp when we're front country either.
I mean, I carry, I've got aColeman barbecue that we carry.
We do the, we've got no bugs on,but we've had a dining tent, you
know, all screened in becausesomebody's a magnet for
mosquitoes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm happy to take...
If it fits in, I don't care.
(11:00):
I don't have to carry it.
SPEAKER_03 (11:02):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (11:04):
There's only so much we can fit in the Prius, though.
SPEAKER_02 (11:07):
That's true.
That's a slightly smallerpayload, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (11:10):
The giant cooler takes up probably half the
backseat.
SPEAKER_02 (11:15):
Cool.
So you said most of yourbackcountry experiences are
shorter, two-day, three-daydeals.
Do you do any longer ones?
And then what aboutfrontcountry?
Are you able to expand...
to bigger trips, like a week orsomething like that?
SPEAKER_03 (11:31):
Yeah, so we've definitely put on plans to kind
of do a week-long backcountrytrip this year.
We're looking at the KorthaHighlands.
So yesterday while we were atthe show, we were actually kind
of picking a lot of people'sbrains on routes and ideas and
just suggestions.
So that's kind of one of our bigtrips planned for this year
where we're actually hoping tospend– I think we're looking
(11:55):
probably seven, eight days thatwe're going to get out there and
get the boat out and enjoy sometime.
Sweet.
It's a great park.
You'll love it.
You'll love
SPEAKER_01 (12:03):
it.
Yeah.
We did six days in theMassasauga.
So I think that was...
Well, we've done like five onthe French River before as well.
But typically that's like once ayear where we get like that week
off to go do something.
Otherwise, it's kind of longweekends.
But this year we actuallyhave...
two one-week trips so we'regoing to do front country for a
(12:25):
week and we're going to split itup between Lake St.
Peter and Bonnechere so we'regoing to do those two over the
course of like seven eight daysand then the second week
vacation we'll do the KawarthaHighlands for the seven ish
depends on when we want to comeout
SPEAKER_02 (12:44):
that's I like I I wouldn't be adverse to doing
shorter trips.
Pamela and I are doingbackcountry trips again.
She's doing backcountry tripswith me again, and they're
shorter ones.
We did a three-day at Massasaugalast year.
We're going to do a four-day.
Won't be surprised it'sMassasauga again, just because
it's pretty easy access for us.
(13:04):
It's not a long drive oranything like that, and it's
also pretty easy access into thepark itself, so we'll probably
do that.
My My jam is kind of like eightdays of sweet spot for me where
jump in the canoe with the kidand just bugger off.
Take a bunch of really heavystuff, make him carry it.
UNKNOWN (13:25):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (13:25):
Excellent.
So tell, tell me about yourshine.
I know it has a couple ofscratches on it now.
How did you, how did you go fromrenting canoes?
If you were doing backcountry tospanky new one?
SPEAKER_01 (13:37):
Well, we've been very blessed with supportive
family and saving and just beingsmart.
So, you know, obviously rentinga canoe is very expensive when
you want to go for a week.
It can get pretty pricey.
So if you look at, you know, ifthat's something we want to
always do is be back countrygoers, like renting a canoe all
(13:57):
the time is going to be prettyexpensive.
So just to kind of bite thebullet right now and invest in a
great canoe, that's going tolast us 30 plus years, you know,
if we take care of it and thatsort of thing.
So that's, we made the decisionto invest in a Swift and it's
beautiful.
Every time we canoe and paddle,we're just like in awe of its
(14:20):
capabilities and just how easyit is and Love it.
SPEAKER_03 (14:24):
We get a lot of compliments on the trail, that's
for sure.
SPEAKER_01 (14:27):
It's a Kevlar?
Expedition Kevlar.
I didn't like the look of theinside of the Kevlar canoes, so
I wanted the Expedition Kevlar,which is stronger.
It's a little bit heavier, butour canoe still came in 41
pounds at 17 feet, so it's greatfor us.
(14:48):
It's a fantastic canoe.
SPEAKER_02 (14:51):
Yeah, we're about the same.
It's not expedition, but it's 17feet and it's 40 point
something.
SPEAKER_03 (14:59):
It's kind of the perfect weight.
You don't feel like you'rebogged down carrying the canoe,
but you still know it's there.
It's not going to fly off yourshoulders on a strong wind or
you're able to...
You're able to really control itstill, I find.
SPEAKER_02 (15:13):
Yeah, Thomas doesn't complain very
SPEAKER_03 (15:15):
much.
Yeah, I guess I'm talking to thewrong guy.
SPEAKER_02 (15:20):
I can tell you it took me, because our previous
one was a big 90, probably90-something pound fiberglass,
and two guys carrying it.
Sure, you're making a sweat, butit's fairly easy to carry.
getting, trying to figure outhow to get the balance with the
yoke and stuff on the, the new,the Kevlar one was a, was a
(15:41):
challenge for me to, to, causeyou're changing things.
I'm used to it.
Like it, it can't, it can'tfloat when it's the fiberglass
one, because somebody is at theother end.
Well, now it's really easy to,it doesn't take much of anything
of an adjustment on you.
And it starts going up at thefront or heaven forbid, it's
coming down.
You're like, so that was a, thatwas an interesting challenge
(16:04):
that I, didn't see coming.
I hadn't, I hadn't noticed thatanybody else was, had run into
that because all the other, youknow, the YouTubers and that
sort of jazz, they're alreadyexperienced at doing that.
So it's no big deal for them.
SPEAKER_01 (16:16):
Yeah.
They make it look pretty easy.
And I know they got some kind ofrigs too, like with the ropes
that help, um, pull it up anddown.
We haven't added any of thatstuff yet.
I don't mind.
Like I carry the canoe.
I don't mind having my arms upso far.
Maybe it'll get a littleannoying after a while, but, um,
you know, I put one arm downhere, one arm down there.
You try to balance it with nohands, see how far you can get
(16:39):
till it, till it wobbles.
SPEAKER_02 (16:41):
Yeah.
I think I got about six stepsbefore it wobbles.
SPEAKER_01 (16:45):
and like, Nate, look, take a video and then I'll
see you with no hands.
SPEAKER_02 (16:49):
So are you specifically going to stick to
Ontario Parks?
Are you going to do any sort ofCrownland camping at any point?
Do you have any plans to doother things?
SPEAKER_03 (16:58):
I think Ontario Parks is kind of where our heart
is.
I think that's kind of wherewe're set.
We just, we enjoy, again, someof the amenities are available
even in some of the smallerparks.
We just like to, I just thinkhaving that, that access to a
shower sometimes, or even let iteven, even so be a drop toilet,
at least something still therethat you can, you can use.
(17:21):
So I think, I think those aresome poles for us.
And
SPEAKER_01 (17:25):
like, we don't have unlimited time and we really do
want to get all the parks offthe list.
So that's, You know, for thenext 30 years, I think that's
three parks a year.
So if you don't plan itstrategically, like we might
only do one park a year and thenthe next year we got to hustle
our butts and oh, we need to dolike five now this year.
So I think we have enough on theplate with those because, you
(17:47):
know, we're busy with work andour volunteer things.
So there's only so many hours ina day and weekends in a year
that you can get out.
Crownland I hear takes a lot of,you know, research and and work
first, and I don't think wereally have the time to put into
that.
SPEAKER_02 (18:05):
Yeah, it certainly does on land.
I'm not an expert by a long,long stretch.
My understanding is paddlingcrown lands and finding sites is
much easier because as you'repaddling, you're scouting, and
you'll see that opening.
You'll go, oh, yeah.
That's a campsite.
You know that that's a campsite.
(18:26):
So it's a quick pop in.
I mean, you're not going totravel as far in a day probably
until you become experienced atit because you want to check out
the site and go, yeah, no, Idon't want to be here.
This is not my sort of thing.
I don't want to deal with allthose grills over there and
stuff like that.
So you'll move on to the nextone or whatever.
I'm hoping we're, uh, We weretalking to Jerry and Shay last
(18:50):
night.
I'll edit that part out.
And we're talking about tryingto get together and do a trip.
And we're thinking about goingdown through Point Grandin.
There's a giant island when youcome out of Grandin into
Georgian Bay.
And it's got like 25 sites onit.
(19:13):
So it's like...
Cool, because that gives us,depending on what time of year
and how busy it is, but it givesus a lot of choice on finding
the right ones for us.
SPEAKER_01 (19:23):
Yeah.
Like we noticed when we werelooking at the Kawartha
Highlands roots, we're trying tofigure out this deer bay creek
that goes down towards LowerBuckhorn.
But when you come out of LowerBuckhorn, I think it's Wolf
Island Provincial Park maybe,but there's some crown camping
sites there and maybe we'llcheck one of those out on the
(19:45):
way out if that's where ourroute ends up.
But yeah, like we're not againstit.
Like if we had the time to...
to look into something likethat.
Like we for sure would be a partof it, like no problem.
We're actually talking with Natelast night, Muskoka Nate, not
sure what his last name
SPEAKER_02 (20:01):
is.
Nate Smith, but Nate Muskoka.
SPEAKER_01 (20:02):
Yeah, so he was chatting with us about Crownland
and where we go up in mystepdad's, some property up
north.
He said there's lots ofCrownland around there.
So I was like, oh, well, maybethat's something we can look
into.
SPEAKER_02 (20:15):
Yeah, for a guy that works for Ontario Parks, he does
an awful lot of Crownlandcamping.
SPEAKER_01 (20:21):
when
SPEAKER_00 (20:23):
you mentioned non-operating parks would you is
that on your radar as well to dosome of the non-operating parks
SPEAKER_03 (20:28):
we do uh so we do check them out in the sense of
like we'll go for hikes and andkind of walk through them um but
from my understanding i believeyou keep there's you're not able
to stay at non-operating parksso it's just uh really it's just
a day use for any time that Wecan, but there's even like some
in our area here, like there'sShort Hills.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_01 (20:48):
there's only Short Hills Provincial Park, which is
all we knew of thenon-operating.
You can't camp overnight there.
So we just assumed you couldn'tcamp in the other ones, but you
can camp like the Crown Land insome of the non-operating parks.
SPEAKER_04 (21:02):
Oh,
SPEAKER_02 (21:02):
you can?
SPEAKER_01 (21:03):
Yeah.
Well, QE2 is
SPEAKER_00 (21:04):
non-operating, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02 (21:06):
Yes.
But you can camp it.
It's just, it's a free for all.
You can't.
So sorry, Thomas and I, was thatlast year or year before?
SPEAKER_04 (21:14):
Year
SPEAKER_02 (21:15):
before.
Year before.
We did a week in QE2, what isit?
QE2 Highlands?
I don't know.
Wildlands.
Wildlands, yeah, maybe.
Wildlands.
Something.
Nice park.
Plenty of campsites, but it's afirst come, first serve.
You can't book them, you can'tanything.
You set out, you start paddling,you look for a site, you look
(21:37):
for another site, you keeppaddling.
We ended up having to blow offour last day because we were
doing an up and then back downdeal.
So we camped our way up, hungout for a couple of days and
came down figuring we would, doa hard paddle through and camp
in the sort of last lake beforeour exit lake.
(22:01):
And we got down there andpaddled around every single
site, including in through thewater that's that deep.
And we're dragging and we getthere and it's taken too.
So we ended up having to justkeep on going because there was
nowhere to camp.
SPEAKER_01 (22:16):
Yeah.
So that's, I guess maybe, youknow, we like the certainty of
knowing even like some parkshave moved to the site specific
booking and Algonquin still lakespecific.
So it's nice to know at leastwhen you get to where you're
going, there's going to be aspot.
So that's more like a nicecomfort for the back country.
SPEAKER_02 (22:36):
Yeah, for sure.
And I'm totally in agreementwith the amenities.
I mean, even, you know,something like, again, back
country, because that's my jam.
something like a Thunderbox ingood repair.
SPEAKER_04 (22:49):
That's
SPEAKER_02 (22:49):
not going to happen on Crown land.
It's whoever chooses to takecare of it or doesn't take care
of it, right?
So real crap.
Real crap.
No
SPEAKER_00 (23:01):
pun intended.
No
SPEAKER_02 (23:03):
pun intended.
Well, there's an interestingone.
So you mentioned that Algonquinis still lake.
You book by lake.
I think that actually changesthis year.
I think they're changing it tobooking sites.
SPEAKER_01 (23:14):
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (23:16):
Yeah.
I know there's Kevin Callen dida, did a little report recently
at one of his blog posts and he,I don't, he didn't say he was
disheartened, but he soundedlike he was disheartened about
just how hardcore they're inFrench river.
It went used to be two weeks.
You had up, up to two weeks fromwhen you wanted to go to book
(23:38):
and you book by zone.
That's just this year goes tofive months and books by site as
well.
That one's a...
Well, if you've done the French,right?
Again, crapshoot.
All you need is a windy day.
There's no way you're getting toyour site.
So what, are you going to stayon the site that you're on?
(23:59):
Windbound is a thing thathappens when you're anywhere
near Georgian Bay.
How does that play out withyou've got to move to another
site and you can't?
SPEAKER_01 (24:09):
Maybe everybody is then...
staying on their side.
SPEAKER_02 (24:14):
I suppose they're told.
SPEAKER_01 (24:15):
Nobody's advancing.
They're all staying.
SPEAKER_02 (24:20):
Well, yeah, but is it like my idea of windbound
might be different from youridea of windbound from, you
know, Nate's idea of windbound,right?
SPEAKER_01 (24:29):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (24:30):
I don't
SPEAKER_01 (24:31):
know.
The trip that my mom took us onwhen we were kids, we actually
had to piggyback somebody else'ssite there in Algonquin because
we didn't get as far as shehoped with three rowdy kids.
Somebody was gracious enough tolet us camp off to the side and
just for the night until wecould get to the site that we
were looking for the next day.
SPEAKER_00 (24:53):
That's ambitious to take three kids.
Were you all in one canoe?
SPEAKER_01 (25:00):
No.
So, uh, two younger brothers.
So the youngest was with my momand somehow I was in a canoe
with, uh, my other, my otherbrother.
And I don't know how we like gotfrom A to B because like, I
don't recall knowing anythingabout canoeing at that point,
but, uh, I was in the stern andsomehow we made it from point A
(25:21):
to B and here
SPEAKER_00 (25:24):
we are.
Didn't capsize.
No, I remember
SPEAKER_01 (25:27):
my brother sitting in the front and like, he was,
you know, he was probably likenine, maybe nine or 10.
It was like bouncing with thewaves.
I'm like, I don't think you'resupposed to do that.
I'm like, sit down.
But we were younger and youknow, it was all fun.
You don't really know the fearof things at that point.
So.
SPEAKER_02 (25:44):
You mentioned having a cat.
Do you, do you ever take the catwith you?
No,
SPEAKER_01 (25:48):
no, no, no.
He, uh, He's a special littleboy.
He's got diabetes and he's hadsome serious surgeries.
So he's a handful to take careof.
So he doesn't really.
SPEAKER_03 (26:01):
He's a house cat.
He
SPEAKER_01 (26:03):
used to run wild, but now he's tamed to the
indoors.
So you
SPEAKER_00 (26:10):
adopted him as a rescue?
SPEAKER_01 (26:13):
uh we took him from my brother a long time ago he
moved to an apartment couldn'thave cats so my mom and i took
him and then when nate and i gotmarried nate and i took care of
him and he wasn't alwaysdiabetic he was uh just the last
couple years he was diagnosedwith that so
SPEAKER_02 (26:30):
last two years three years yeah that's poopy
SPEAKER_01 (26:35):
yeah he's on and he's gotta take insulin shots
it's you know
SPEAKER_02 (26:40):
And he doesn't have that thumb to push the depressor
on.
Exactly,
SPEAKER_01 (26:44):
yeah.
Got to do it for him.
SPEAKER_02 (26:46):
You mentioned Acre at Algonquin.
Have you done other ones in thepark?
SPEAKER_03 (26:54):
Yeah, so we actually did, what was that?
Probably just a year before wegot married, we went with Mark
in the park.
Yeah, yeah.
Mark Rubino.
So we watched the Rogersspecial.
We loved it.
I think it kind of sparked alittle bit of a backcountry bug
(27:15):
in me on top of kind of what Jenhad already ignited.
So we actually reached out toMark and we booked a trip.
So Mark kind of put everythingtogether.
He put a map together.
He gave us three or fourdifferent road options.
You pick kind of the challengethat you want.
And yeah, we took off on thattrip.
And that was on Kiosk Lake.
(27:37):
So that was kind of my firstexperience of the north end of
Algonquin and seeing that sideof the park.
Beautiful, beautiful trip.
Great kind of challenge for me,really getting into the
backcountry feel with theportages, with the large paddles
through huge lakes.
We did a
SPEAKER_01 (27:56):
3,000-meter portage on the first day?
Yeah.
No, second day.
It was the first thing, I thinkit was coming off of, what was,
anyways, it was the second daystarted off with a 3,000
kilometer or 3,000 meterportage.
(28:18):
But it was relatively flat.
There was a hill, massive hillat the beginning, but then
relatively flat the rest of theway.
So he really showed us a lot ofdifferent things.
SPEAKER_03 (28:27):
Yeah, it was challenging for sure.
Definitely.
It kind of got the blood pumpingfirst thing in the morning,
which is, which is good for afull day of paddling.
Like when you have a full day ofpaddling ahead of you, you're
kind of, kind of good to get theheart rate up right away and get
going.
SPEAKER_00 (28:41):
And Tim mentioned in the intro that you guys did some
paddling certifications.
Are you planning to do any morecertifications this year?
SPEAKER_01 (28:48):
Not this year.
So we did the Orca basiccanoeing one to three.
It's like, we don't, ever planto do solo canoeing.
And if we do, then we'll dolevel four at that point.
But we talked about doing the,the tripping one, the Orca
tripping course, just to, youknow, get that official
(29:08):
perspective.
And obviously we don't knoweverything.
So we would obviously learn somethings from that course and just
enjoy learning more about it,but not this year.
It'll be maybe next year.
SPEAKER_03 (29:22):
Yeah, probably next year, I think, with everything
we got, the trips we got plannedand just kind of some stuff here
on the home front that we'retaking care of.
It's just I think it's probablya next year thing.
We're also interested in likebackcountry first aid, getting
just kind of a background inthat in case it's always just
Jen and myself or a small groupgoing.
(29:44):
So it'd be nice to kind of havethat that background.
Heaven forbid something happens.
You just want to be able to.
to have that protection.
I'm kind of accident prone, so Ican see myself kind of managing
to, uh, to hurt myself.
So I think it's kind of a, maybesomething to help myself.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (30:04):
Or coach somebody else through fixing whatever,
whatever's messed up on you.
I absolutely agree.
Um, that if you, if you checkout the Oh, what was the name of
the company?
There was one at the Hamiltonshow that does wilderness first
aid.
If you run into any, if you wantto try them out, if you want any
(30:26):
other, Thomas and I did one lastyear.
I'd be happy to set you up withthem.
Okay.
It's a long course, man.
Just so you know, it's 48 hours.
It's like two full weekends.
We literally went and camped fora weekend, came home for a week,
went back out and camped foranother weekend.
It's fantastic.
I know...
I know how to not die now.
And the scenarios that theywork, once they, so they give
(30:49):
you, they teach you a lot of,what's the right term?
Basic skill stuff.
And you do practice it, but whenthey put it into a scenario
where you have to dredge upwhatever it is and then actually
act on it, that's the win.
That's what makes it stick,makes it all sort of gel
together.
It's a...
(31:10):
It's a really good course.
It's interesting.
It's a lot of work, but it's areally good course.
SPEAKER_01 (31:15):
I think that is also incorporated into the ORCA
tripping program, like thecourse that they.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_02 (31:23):
I don't know.
SPEAKER_01 (31:24):
Yeah, I think when we were looking at it, like it
shows you all the topics theycover and it's like an intro, I
think, to the wilderness firstaid.
So cool.
But definitely something we wantto look into because, again,
we're.
maybe a little accident prone.
So just to take care of, youknow, Nate's a bigger dude than
I am.
So like what happens if I got tocarry this guy out of the
SPEAKER_02 (31:46):
bush, right?
We'll be back for you, honey.
SPEAKER_01 (31:50):
Hold that.
Stop the bleeding.
Don't take it off.
SPEAKER_02 (31:55):
Yeah.
And if they, if they have to copto you, cop to you out, it can
be pretty expensive if they godidn't need to.
SPEAKER_04 (32:03):
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (32:04):
That's excellent.
It's yeah.
You know what, being able to be,you're away from all the
amenities that we live with allthe time.
So being able to be moreself-sufficient in that and be
safer in that, I don't see thatthere's any downside to that at
all.
yeah
SPEAKER_01 (32:23):
yeah because we you know we want to do part of the
operating parks are likewabakimi woodland caribou so
before we try to go dobackcountry there like we want
to make sure we're obviouslyequipped with the knowledge the
experience the tools everythingyeah before oh yeah like we're
fine we can just go do thisright now it's like no like we
need to realize we need to learnsome things before we go in the
(32:46):
wilderness like super wildernessyeah yeah
SPEAKER_02 (32:49):
bracket more experience too because there's
you're going to be you're goingto be bushwhacking at some point
where it says there's a portagethere is not yeah well and on
that note have you at least inpart because I have been taking
a lot of suggesting about ithave you thought about taking
(33:10):
any whitewater courses like evenjust to gain a little experience
because you get into certainlyin woodland caribou but I think
I think in spots in Wabakimitoo, you're going to run into
it, right?
Depending on what time of year.
SPEAKER_03 (33:23):
We've definitely talked about it.
I think it's something that isgoing to come up on our radar.
It's kind of inevitable.
I think like you just touched onwhere you're going to run into a
situation where
SPEAKER_04 (33:34):
there's
SPEAKER_03 (33:36):
rapids, there's swifts, there's...
you know, whitewater where youhave to actually react and be
able to react.
So I think it's something thatwe're going to start looking
into ourselves just to, just to,again, equip ourselves with
those tools to be able to, tohandle the situations.
SPEAKER_01 (33:51):
Cause even looking at some of the roots in
Algonquin and even the KawarthaHighlands, there's the
Mississauga river, I think.
So like that's considered awhite water river and like,
well, there's portages aroundthe crazy parts, but there's
still some other parts thataren't like, there's no portages
around and you're going to haveto paddle through that.
(34:11):
So we're like, again, like let'snot bite that off before, you
know, we're aware of how to, youknow, read the water and the
rocks and you know, what doesthat mean?
SPEAKER_02 (34:21):
Yeah.
And know how to know thestrokes, how to, how to, as you,
as you're reading, it's like, sothis one needs to be back
paddling.
You got to be able to, whoever'sin the, in the stern has to be
able to tell whoever's in thebow, what the hell they're
doing, all that sort of jazz.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm terrified, but I think I'mgoing to do it.
We're doing, we're doing a threeday with Greg from organic boat
(34:45):
shop in the fall in on Spanishriver.
And it's going to involve some,some not smooth water.
So
SPEAKER_01 (34:52):
yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
Nice.
Yeah.
We saw that, saw that posted andsomething, if you continue
offering that in the future,it'd be a good, a good little
weekend to be a part of.
SPEAKER_02 (35:03):
Yeah.
Well, I, we, we tend to not, wetend to trip as family members.
We, in one way or another, notreally do a lot of outside of
our, that circle.
I keep thinking it would be, itwouldn't be a bad idea.
And I probably really enjoyeddoing it with guys that have
more experience.
Folks, it doesn't, I don't, it'snot
SPEAKER_04 (35:24):
a
SPEAKER_02 (35:24):
guys versus girls thing.
I mean, people that know how todo stuff like that better than I
do.
Right.
That's I'm going to, because allmy stuff is largely other than
taking, taking courses, paddlingthe Orca courses with Greg, you
know, most of everything isself-taught.
I'm sure that they taught me howto read maps back in scouts, but
you know, other than that, Ifigured it out on my own, which
(35:47):
means I don't, I haven't got itall figured out.
So if I can watch guys who dothat sort of stuff all the time,
I, you know, I'm learning morestuff.
I'm going to be better at doingwhatever.
It'll be easier.
Thomas will be better at it.
He'll be able to carry moregear.
He's
SPEAKER_00 (36:04):
only
SPEAKER_01 (36:04):
going to get
SPEAKER_00 (36:05):
stronger as he grows.
That's
SPEAKER_02 (36:07):
what I'm saying,
SPEAKER_00 (36:08):
right?
He better be done growing by
SPEAKER_02 (36:10):
now.
UNKNOWN (36:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (36:12):
It's payback for having fed him for 23 years or
whatever.
Because the Sherpa I'd have tohire would be cheaper than
having fed him for that manyyears.
All right.
Tell us what parks you've beento.
SPEAKER_01 (36:29):
So they've kind of been all over.
We don't have a system as tostarting here.
It's just kind of...
You're looking at the map andwhat feels right, kind of.
SPEAKER_03 (36:41):
It fits into a timeframe too, you know.
We can't always travel the fourhours to go to the Muskokas.
SPEAKER_01 (36:48):
Our first thought was to get all the Northwestern
parks done while we're young andcan drive out there and like not
worry about it.
But it's a haul.
It took about probably 23 hours.
We went to Rushing River, whichis like, It's by Kenora, so
super northwest Ontario.
(37:10):
So we've done Rushing River.
We did Sue Narrows while we wereup in that corner.
We wanted to do Caliper Lake,which is all those three were
kind of together, but it wasclosed while we were up there,
so that was a bummer.
Because, again, you drive...
a day's worth, and then the parkwas closed.
But there was a supercell thatwent through, and a bunch of
(37:31):
tall pines were down.
And thankfully, nobody was hurt,but, like,
SPEAKER_03 (37:35):
everything
SPEAKER_01 (37:36):
was crushed.
Like, it was nuts.
SPEAKER_03 (37:37):
Fences were knocked down, everything.
Yeah, it was crazy.
What
SPEAKER_01 (37:40):
we've done around, like, Lake Huron, we've done
McGregor Point, more on the eastside, Murphy's Point, Turkey
Point down here by us inNiagara, Algonquin.
SPEAKER_03 (37:52):
Restool.
We
SPEAKER_01 (37:54):
did a rest
SPEAKER_03 (37:55):
stool.
How did you like a rest stool?
Loved it.
Yeah.
Great.
Yeah.
We, we hit it at a, I think wewere there for a week.
Yeah.
We were there for a week and wehit perfect week of weather.
It was a sunny, hot, couldn'tbeat it.
It was, I think it was like oneof the hottest weekends of this,
of the summer.
So it
SPEAKER_02 (38:13):
was kind of.
Sweet.
No, I just, I keep thinking weshould do a front country up
there.
SPEAKER_01 (38:18):
And they have backcountry sites at Restool as
well.
So we did a lot of, they have abunch of paddling routes.
So we did as well, a 22kilometer route.
day trip, like, out and about.
And, yeah, they have some littlebackcountry sites you can, you
know, have your lunch on or stayfor the night.
Who else has...
SPEAKER_03 (38:39):
Well, there's another one.
SPEAKER_01 (38:40):
Oh, where else?
Oh, Mikisu.
We went to Mikisu in the fall,and that was beautiful.
They have an 18-hole frisbeegolf.
Cool.
Yeah, a couple hiking trails,and it was beautiful.
It was beautiful in the falltime.
And there was a lot of...
Empty sites for tents.
Obviously all the trailer sites,electric sites fill up, but
(39:02):
there wasn't too many tenters.
So that's a pretty nice park inthe fall time.
French River, Algonquin,Massasauga.
SPEAKER_02 (39:11):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (39:11):
So slowly chipping away at the block.
SPEAKER_02 (39:16):
That's great.
That's a nice rounded group ofplaces to go.
All kinds of, you know, variedflora and fauna.
SPEAKER_01 (39:25):
Mm-hmm.
UNKNOWN (39:26):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (39:26):
Yeah, and every park is different.
You know, what's your favoritepark?
It's like we have a great timeat all of them.
I mean, I don't know how you cannot have a good time camping.
You know, like Kevin, happycamper.
Like it is what you make it.
So we love every park that we'vebeen to so far.
Maybe there'll be one that we'relike, eh, we don't need to go
back to that one.
(39:46):
But so far, we would go back toall the ones that we visited.
For Tim,
SPEAKER_00 (39:50):
that would be Sybil Point.
SPEAKER_01 (39:53):
We haven't, I've, I've been there as a kid, but we
haven't been there together.
SPEAKER_02 (39:57):
Don't, don't go in the summer.
It's just, it's, it's insane.
It was, it was not, was not, itwas not a Tim experience for
sure.
Lots of people.
I'm glad that people are gettingout and taking their kids and
stuff, but like the day use, itwas a zoo.
It was a beach that wasabsolutely jammed with people,
(40:20):
cars filling the parking lot,cars all the way down the road,
nobody driving, the actual speedlimit in the park.
Everything was just so worn thatwhen it rained, everything just
turned to mud because there's somany people cutting through
sites and stuff like that.
Great.
So our kids were shorter.
So great
SPEAKER_00 (40:41):
kids
SPEAKER_02 (40:41):
programming and like tie-dyeing shirts and doing
historical things and stuff likethat.
That was fabulous.
But it's too busy.
It's not like I can stay homeand have that much traffic
cutting through my yard orwhatever, right?
Yeah.
UNKNOWN (40:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (40:57):
Well, good tip.
We'll hit that park up inSeptember when the kids are
going
SPEAKER_02 (41:01):
back to school.
Yeah, that's the one for you.
SPEAKER_00 (41:05):
That's it for us for today.
Thank you so much to our guests,Nate and Jen from Couple of
Campers 905 on Instagram.
Please do check them out andcheck us out on Instagram while
you're there.
You can also find us on all theother social media.
We're on Twitter, Facebook,Instagram.
We're on YouTube and Blue Sky.
And if you want to talk to us,you can email us anytime at hi
at supergoodcamping.com.
(41:27):
That's H-I atsupergoodcamping.com and we'll
talk to you again soon bye bye
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