A Last Minute Trip to The Massasauga

As the calendar inched towards the end of July I found myself with an upcoming Friday off of work and couldn’t think of a better way to spend a 3-day weekend than going camping. I had a week to get plans made and I knew that I wanted to head back to The Massasauga Provincial Park, but finding a campsite was going to be a problem. I checked on the Friday. Nothing. Saturday, nothing. Sunday, same thing. But on Monday there was one site available and I grabbed it. Woohoo!

Darrell and I set about getting things packed and making plans for all the animals. It’s never easy to get away but always worth it. The dogs knew something was up since it had only been a few weeks since our last camping trip and they were thrilled. To be fair, I was just as thrilled. I couldn’t remember the last time we had gone camping twice in one year.

Friday morning came and we all loaded into the car for the drive to the park. The sun was shining and the forecast looked great for the day. We ended up with campsite 321, which is in the Islandscape group of sites that we usually stay in, but further north than normal. We hadn’t ventured out this way before and it was fun to see new sights. Of course, it was near impossible to know exactly where we were in such a different area, and I was thankful for the park’s paper map that helped us find our location on the GPS.

When you’re anywhere on Georgian Bay, but especially in an area like The Massasauga, it’s usually easy to tell the “locals”. They’re the ones flying through channels that leave a very small margin for error. We were the people who took it slow in unfamiliar water that didn’t have a wide channel.

We eventually made it to our site and were happy to find an awesome site that was well-sheltered and across from a major channel where all the bigger boats travelled. Boat-watching is a favourite past-time and we saw so many big, beautiful boats travel by. In fact, site 321 soon became one of our favourite sites that we had stayed at. The only downside to it was that the boat was somewhat exposed and would scrape on rock if a big wake made it to us.

After setting up camp and having an early dinner, we headed out for some fishing and had fun catching a bunch of bass and a few pike. The pike were on the spinnerbait bite but the bass were loving a white curly-tail grub on a jighead. We each caught a bunch of fish and watched as the sun sank in the sky. We headed back to camp and got ready for bed, knowing that the rain would be rolling in the next day.

On the second day we got going as early as we could to get some fishing in before the rain really started. We headed for an island not far from the campsite and were surprised to find that the small bay in behind was actually the main throughway since it was the only place deep enough to run some of the bigger boats through. We got into more bass and worked our way around the bay. I was hitting up every patch of deep weeds I could find in the hope of a crappie bite, but I didn’t find any of them.

We continued fishing and got into more pike and bass, but the rain began to fall late morning and it wasn’t long before we headed back to the campsite. The dogs don’t mind getting wet when they choose to jump in the lake, but they aren’t huge fans of getting wet in the rain. The rest of the day was mainly spent under the shelter of our canopy tent, where we made food, read books, and watched the world go by. I love days like this when camping. They force me to slow down and do nothing.

Continuing in the vein of our first camping trip, the rain came with a rainfall warning and boy did it come down heavy! Fortunately, this site drained well (unlike our last site), so it wasn’t a problem. We fished from shore and I caught a single pike. We didn’t have another bite at all.

The rain cleared up for the last day and we spent as much time on the water as we could. There was a secluded bay tucked in behind the point of an island and we went ALL the way in to explore. I kept thinking we would have to stop because it was getting shallow, but there was enough of a channel to keep us going. The fishing wasn’t awesome in there, but it was such a beautiful place to just hangout in. If you haven’t spent much time in areas like this on Georgian Bay, you’re really missing out. It’s fascinating to see the rock, and the trees, and the way everything works together. It’s a feast for your eyes and it’s good for the soul.

Before we knew it the trip was over and we were back in the parking lot, getting ready for the drive home. It’s never long enough, but it was an awesome, unexpected trip and just the break we needed. After the years where farming kept us tied to home, it’s been amazing to get out more this year. Camping is one of the best ways I know to relax and I look forward to it each time we’re lucky enough to go.