Our 2020 Camping Trip at The Massasauga Provincial Park

The next wave lifted the far side of the boat, dropping my side of the boat a touch closer to the water’s surface than I was comfortable with. I continued to grip the dock and looked out at the waves. They certainly weren’t the biggest waves we’d faced in a boat. Not even close, to tell the truth. But they were big enough and tight enough that I knew we were in for a choppy ride. What a way to start our annual camping trip at The Massasauga Provincial Park. 

Darrell had parked the car and made his way back to the dock with Panda and Erza (two of our dogs) apprehensively walking alongside him. It was the first camping for both of them, and the first trip anywhere for either of them without Jack, our 13 year old Australian Shepherd who serves the role of security blanket for the other dogs. He stayed home since we knew the weather forecast wasn’t great. 

We had chosen a new campsite this year, site 501 at the northern tip of Blackstone Harbour. Blackstone is where most people access The Massasauga and many boat/paddle right on out to further sites, as we had in the past. But there is plenty of good fishing in Blackstone and being closer to the launch in case of bad weather seemed like a good idea this time around. With the wind howling across the lake when we launched, I thought this was a smart idea, but we still had to venture into some unknown areas of water while dealing with the waves, and our GPS didn’t have any contour mapping for the part we were fishing. 

Our awesome Lund Rebel got up on plane no problem, despite the combined weight of the two of us, the two dogs, and a whole bunch of fishing and camping gear. When the boat travels on plane it’s really riding on top of the water instead of going through it, making for a drier ride. However, when the depth finder suddenly showed the lake bottom coming up, Darrell slowed us down and I, who was not behind the console, got absolutely drenched. 

Getting drenched wasn’t at the top of my mind though, as I looked around and enjoyed the scenery. For the second year in a row we had managed to come when the fall colours were putting on a spectacular show. The orange, gold, and red punctuated by clumps of green pines was beautiful. Combine that with all the rock and it’s the perfect picture of “wilderness” even though the area tends to be busy.

We approached the point that marked our campsite and I was pleased to see the other two sites in the area were still vacant. I love it when there are fewer people around and though those sites had been booked when we booked ours in August, the weather forecast surely made them reconsider. The dogs had been sleeping for most of the short boat ride, but woke up when we slowed down by the site. Since it was our first time visiting this spot, we only had the pictures on the reservation site to go by. The site was nothing like what we had assumed and I had a bad feeling that the weekend wasn’t going to go well if this was where we were staying.

A tent pad had been built out on the rock point. Beautiful on a warm, calm, summer’s day I’m sure, but not a good spot on a weekend that called for wind and rain followed by cold temperatures. Finding a good spot to pull the boat up was another issue, as everywhere appeared to be rock with no soft landing area. We could even see the thunder box (aka toilet) from shore, which didn’t seem ideal. With the gloomy weather forecast hanging over our heads, this first look at the site wasn’t reassuring and we even started joking about moving on to find a better site.

After a couple of tries we finally found a good spot to land the boat. You can tell it’s a good spot when your boat doesn’t ram against the rock shoal before reaching shore. There was even a perfect tree to tie to boat to. A good solid one that wouldn’t move with the strong winds. 

Our first walk around camp wasn’t encouraging. We followed all the trails we could find, through the forest of oaks and pines, but still didn’t see an ideal tent pad. Shelter was going to be needed with 50km/h winds and constant rain being called for the following day. After a bit more looking and thinking, we decided the best thing to do was use the rock walls as shelter and put our tent in an area that would leave us a few rocks and roots to sleep on. 

Whenever it’s time to set up a tent I get a flashback to the couple of times my family went camping when we were kids. I remember trying to find all the right poles to fit in the right spot and build it all up. Something was always missing and it was always a headache (though my dad seemed to enjoy the process). It never fails to amaze me these days how easy it is to pitch a tent. Pull it out of the bag, lay it out of the ground, clip together the pieces of each support that are attached by elastic, attach the supports, put the fly on, and done. It takes minutes and is so easy that I never dread the task. The most difficult part was finding soft enough spots to put the pegs in the ground. Tree roots and rocks aren’t easy things for a peg to get through. Fortunately, Darrell’s handy and creative when it comes to this task.

Erza and Panda were having fun exploring the site while we moved on to setting up the canopy tent we would cook our food under. I can’t imagine how interesting it is for them to sniff so many new things. I kept finding Erza standing on the rock point, just looking out over the water and sniffing the air. Panda stayed a little closer to us. He’s not as big on adventuring and would rather know where I am at all times. He’s my protector.

Once the tents were up and gear unpacked, we realized that the site would work quite well. We had shelter from the wind thanks to those stunning rock walls that had ferns and lichen and moss and so many other neat things growing on them.  And the trees would provide at least some protection.

By that point the wind had calmed down and the lake had laid right down. The waves we went through at the beginning were gone. It was perfect conditions for an evening of fishing so we jumped into the boat and headed for a spot we had been wanting to return to since last fall. We did a little bit of casting and then decided it might be better to cover more ground by trolling and see if we could figure out what all the fish were that we had been marking at 30ft. There were a few other boats out, taking advantage of the beautiful evening.

A few other campsites were occupied by people looking to take advantage of that last camping trip of the season before the park would close in a week. There’s something different about fall camping. The weather is more unpredictable than in the summer. There’s a good chance you’ll be wet and cold at some point. But you’re rewarded with stunning views, no bugs, and a far less busy place to be. Although we tend to suck at fall fishing, I do love fall camping. 

My attention was caught by Darrell jumping up in his seat and I saw the bend in his rod. “Fish on,” he yelled. The fish seemed to have weight behind it, but the lack of head pumps and nothing rushing to the surface to jump meant we knew what he had – a walleye. It’s always exciting to get a fish, especially on the first day of a trip, and after a quick picture it was released back into the water. The dogs didn’t even get up to look at it. Clearly Jack hasn’t taught them all his ways when it comes to fishing. Jack would have been clambering all over us to have a look at that fish.

We returned to camp in the dark, had turkey stew for dinner, and headed for bed. The rain had already started and the wind was picking up. I wondered what was in store for us the following day. My phone was completely shut down for anything other than pictures, but now and then I would turn my data on to check the weather forecast and each time I did it looked worse and worse. 

The dogs settled in like they were pros at sleeping in a tent, even though it was a first for each of them. We crawled into our new sleeping bag that we had purchased after some super chilly nights on last year’s trip. Our usual sleeping bags are rated down to about 10 degrees celsius. Even with a bunch of other blankets and wearing our winter clothes, that wasn’t warm enough on nights that were below zero. The new sleeping bag, a double, is rated for -3C and the difference was apparent immediately. I laid in the warmth of the sleeping bag and listened to the rain fall for what seemed like hours before I finally fell asleep.

Sunday morning started with light rain and though the wind was picking up, the water didn’t look rough yet. After hot cereal for breakfast and a tea, we got suited up, put coats on the dogs, and headed out in the boat. With the wind and the rain we figured it would be best to troll and see if we could find active fish. I didn’t want to be far from camp in case the weather got worse, so Darrell humoured me and we didn’t head too far. I did manage to catch a decent pike in about 10 FOW and had fun reeling it in. I love pike. Even the small ones attack a bait with so much gusto and they put up a nice fight when hooked. This one swam away beautifully after we got it unhooked.

We stayed out for another hour or so, but by that time we were all getting soaked through our outer layers and Panda was looking pretty miserable about it, so we headed back for camp and the dryness of the tent.

Then it was all about the wind and the rain. The rain would let up at times, but never fully stop. The wind was just howling though. Thank goodness for the rocks that gave us shelter. We ended up having to drop the canopy tent all the way down, to the height it stands when you’re putting it away. That drastically reduced the amount of wind blowing through and still left us plenty of room to sit at the picnic table.

We spent the day alternating between the tent, the canopy tent, and standing out in the rain fishing from shore. The weather had the pike biting and I caught another one and lost a couple, while Darrell had one hit like a freight train and then slice his line and take his lure. He had a couple of other fish take a swing and it was nice to have fun fishing while stuck on shore.

I don’t think I was truly dry at all that day. Even when I got my wet outer layer off, everything just felt damp. We had no good place to hang the clothes to dry, since nothing was staying put outside in the wind. I settled for placing things under the door of the tent and hoping the breeze at ground level would help them dry.

This is the part where I give a huge shout out to the Woods Cascade 4 tent that we bought a few years ago. It’s not the most ideal tent for cold weather camping because of its design, but that thing stood up in all the rain and wind and kept us dry. I was so impressed. What a fantastic tent it has turned out to be. Our old tent would have been soaked right through before the end of Sunday. 

With the weather refusing to let up, we headed to bed early and hoped for calmer skies when we woke up.

Monday morning dawned cold, drizzly, but without the wind. What a relief to be rid of those 50km/h winds! Erza let us know it was breakfast by sitting on top of us and giving us kisses. She’s incredibly cute and annoying when she’s hungry. All four of us followed the path over the rock point to get to the food bin and grab breakfast. The food bins are one of my favourite things about camping at The Massasauga. Instead of having to hang your food in the trees to keep it away from bears, you can store them in these big green bins that many sites now have.

An early morning fish left us with nothing to show for our efforts, but I was happy that my outer layers were now largely dry and the rain had stopped. The dogs seemed much happier too. We explored some more water and marvelled at the craziness of Georgian Bay. You can be in the middle of a lake but all of a sudden find yourself in 4 feet of water (FOW). Then you can be trolling only feet from shore and be in almost 40 FOW. It’s absolutely fascinating to see how much the lake bottom changes. We looked at the cottages and picked out the ones we loved and talked about how great it would be if we could ever make that happen. That’s a long ways off of ever happening!

We headed back to the site for lunch and to pack up camp and load the boat. Site 501 ended up being a pretty awesome place to spend a few days. I wish it had been drier so we could have explored more, but that’s the chance you take whenever you go camping. It was mid-afternoon by the time we fished our way back to the boat ramp. Another camping trip in the books. 

While I’m always glad to head home to the rest of the animals and a nice hot shower, I hate leaving. A part of me stays anywhere we go camping. The various spots we’ve camped and fished in the Georgian Bay/Moon River/Parry Sound areas always feel like home to me. It’s where I would choose to spend a lot more of my time if I could. It’s where I feel most relaxed. When we’re up there I find myself wanting to read and write. I want to cast a line and take an afternoon nap in the boat. It amazes me how long it takes to settle back in at home after only a 3 day trip. Maybe one day I’ll find a way to make more time up there a reality. Until then, I’ll cherish these camping trips that aren’t always perfect, but are always an adventure full of memory-making moments.