3rd Annual Fall Trip To The Massasauga

A couple of years ago we came to the end of a hard farming season completely burnt out, had about $100 to spare, and desperately needed to get away. That was when we decided a fall camping trip to The Massasauga Provincial Park was the perfect quick getaway. This year marked our third annual fall trip, this time with all 3 dogs, an extra night, and a somewhat rainy forecast.

Coming less than a week after our last camping trip, we were on a time crunch to get everything dried, organized, and re-packed before we left on Friday. There were some tense moments leading up to our departure and I learned that I should never book back-to-back trips if we’re using the same gear for both trips and there’s rain during the first one. All the more reason to look into getting a roof top tent for the truck as we get more into overlanding!

Thanks to some delays, we were later leaving on Friday than we had planned, but that worked out perfectly to stop at a local bakery and pick-up some chicken parm sandwiches for lunch.

Our overall goal for this season was to spend more time fishing and camping. Considering this was my third trip of the year, and Darrell’s fourth, to The Massasauga alone, I’d say we succeeded. We’ve been to the park so many times lately that it feels like we could do the drive with our eyes closed.

Visiting the park in the fall is such a different experience than in the summer. There’s no firewood for sale, you self-register, and the parking lot is almost empty. There’s also the fall colours to enjoy, even in a year like this where the LDD (gypsy moth) damage was pretty bad and many trees lost their leaves ages ago.

After trying a site in Blackstone last year, we returned to the Islandscape for this trip, staying at site 315. We had scouted some sites in the summer, trying to figure out which would be best. We look for a site where you can’t see other campsites (keeps the dogs from barking), preferably doesn’t have a tent platform in the only good spot for a tent (my back can’t take it, I need the tent on the soft ground instead), has a good spot to land the boat, and is fairly sheltered. After our first trip this season, we also started looking for places where drainage isn’t an issue near the food bin (if there is one) and the privy (thunderbox/toilet/etc). 315 met all of our requirements and once we got there, we completely fell in love with the site. There was room for the dogs to run without trampling the sensitive areas, and lots of trails to follow, as well as a good amount of dead trees to harvest for firewood.

We got camp setup fairly quick; pitching the tent, securing a tarp over the tent, and arranging a tarp over the cooking area. Then it was time to hit the water for the late afternoon/evening bite. We weren’t far from a spot we’ve caught crappie in, so of course we headed there to start. There weren’t any bites from crappie, but a few small pike came out to play, biting on a Berkley Power Nymph and some spinnerbaits. The bite wasn’t hot, but it never is for our fall trips. We aren’t the best fall anglers. Both of us thought a jerkbait might be the ticket but Erza was sitting on the rod locker that contained those rods and she didn’t want to move.

Dinner on the first night was Pizza Pasta from OTG Meals. It was perfect for a quick meal that involved nothing more than boiling some water, pouring it into the package, and waiting. Pizza pasta was surprisingly tasty and I’ll be adding it to the list to order again.

I constantly check the weather forecast when we’re somewhere we have cell service. I don’t know why I do. It’s always wrong. The forecast was calling for light rain, about 1-3mm that night. We left the cover off of the boat since it shouldn’t get too wet and we headed to bed.

It poured rain all night.

I actually enjoy the sound of rain on the tent, so despite wondering what we would wake up to, I slept really well that night.

The bilge pump on the boat ran for quite some time in the morning. The wood for the fire was soaked. The tent even had a damp corner. At least once we were up and moving the rain had stopped.

Darrell managed to get a fire going for breakfast, using paper from a notebook I had brought as fire starter. It took time for those flames to get going and we had a long, slow breakfast cooked over the fire. Taking a long time for breakfast is a rarity for us. We’re normally trying to get in the boat and start casting as soon as possible. This was a nice change.

We made bannock for the first time and immediately decided it had a permanent place in our camp food lineup. It’s so easy to mix the dry ingredients up at home and it takes up so little room in the food bag. A bit of butter on it and it’s delicious! Bacon and homefries also had their turn in the cast iron pan over the fire and we decided we were too full for the eggs.

Darrell started collecting more firewood and storing it under the tarp for that night’s fire. As he was dragging the last piece over it started raining again.

The rain didn’t seem like it would be too heavy so we grabbed our lighter rain jackets and headed out. Boy was I wrong! The skies opened up and even the beautiful rock cliff we were trolling by couldn’t brighten up the background. I had a large jerkbait out and caught a small pike, but it hardly made up for the rain. The dogs were not impressed and stayed in the middle of the boat under the bimini top. I got soaked through in no time and after an hour or so we called it quits and headed back to camp and dry clothes, waiting out the rain by alternating between reading and napping. Unfortunately, on the way back to camp we banged the prop off a rock. Add a few more dings to that prop. It’ll be getting refurbed this winter.

Around mid-afternoon we emerged from the tent and I went to grab the Oreos because we hadn’t had lunch yet and I was starving. I sat at the picnic table and watched the loons that were across the bay from our site. There were three of them there at one point and one even made me smile by singing and calling. Loons are my favourite birds. They symbolize my favourite places and there’s no sound I love more than listening to them, especially as I’m falling asleep.

We eventually made wraps for a proper lunch and headed out in the boat. The sun made a brief appearance and the temperature was dropping noticeably. We casted and trolled a variety of lures with no luck, but there was a pretty good snag which always gets the adrenaline going until you realize it isn’t a fish. Just when we were deciding to head in for dinner, Darrell looked at the sky and said, “That’s very dark. When we’re we supposed to get rain again?” No sooner were the words out of his mouth than it started to pour again. At that point the dogs were giving me the “Seriously?” look.

But really, if you have to sit through pouring rain, sitting on an island in Georgian Bay, looking out at the backdrop of rock and windswept pines really is the place to do it.

Darrell managed to get the fire going (he had stored away some birch bark and it made all the difference) and we had steak and baked potatoes for dinner. This was the perfect trip to change up our usual meals and try some other things when we spent so much time stuck at camp. Steak while camping is basically perfection.

At that point we talked about whether or not to head home the next day (a day early). We were there for the night but if it rained all day the next day, would we stay for the following night? Camping during the rain is fine for a night or two, but at some point your gear becomes soaked right through and doesn’t dry, your dogs are a bedraggled mess that don’t look like they’re having fun, and you start feeling exhausted. Especially when it’s cold. We figured we would see what the morning brought.

After a nice clear break in the middle of the night, I woke up at 3am to the sound of pouring rain. Goodie. We stayed in the tent longer than normal that morning and didn’t come out until 7am. It was still raining but the loons were out swimming around and our friendly great blue heron flew by, so I couldn’t complain about the scenery. The heron spent a lot of its time at camp and didn’t seem to mind the dogs. We were clearly in it’s home.

The rain stopped and we had beautiful sunshine! That perfect, turn your back to it and warm yourself up kind of sunshine. It was amazing!

We headed for a bay that’s been good to us in the fall for fishing. It has vegetation that persists longer than other areas and gets about 10ft deep, with deeper water not far away. It was slow. So slow that I caught my first bass on a Tennessee shad jerkbait that I cast out and let sit for quite some time. When I started the retrieve a fish hit. I got another bass doing the same thing, but then the bite dried up. I switched to a white curly-tailed grub and got a few more small bass. None of them were big. In another bay a pike hit my spinnerbait. Darrell got a few small pike. No one lure was working, but we got a couple of bites so it was fun.

After a rainy lunch of wraps and soup at camp and some super hot tea, we got back on the boat. The dogs had perked up with the sunshine and seeing some fish really got them excited. The sun had returned after lunch and our moods continued to improve. The dogs were snoozing in the boat or climbing into our laps for cuddles. Erza managed to rip my rain pants, which wasn’t ideal considering the weather we kept facing.

Dinner was early on the third night since we were down a lantern (it had died at breakfast) and I wanted to get dinner started with some daylight left. Darrell got a fire going for some light and warmth. The forecast was calling for a slight chance of showers. We had downpours. But it was okay. With the fire roaring we had dinner under the tarp and watched as lightning lit up the sky. The moon came out for a bit and it was beautiful. Then we had another huge downpour and by the time we headed to bed it was still pouring.

With temperatures projected to get down to 5 degrees celsius, feeling 1, that night was a good test of our 4-season tent. Throw in the steady rain and it really got a good testing. On our first fall trip we had our summer tent and our summer sleeping bags with temps feeling around zero. We slept in our winter jackets and snow pants that year. For this trip we had the warmer sleeping bags and the warmer tent and I found myself unzipping the sleeping bag during the night because I was so warm. What a difference! Having the right gear for the right situation makes a trip so much better.

On the morning of day 4 we felt victorious after surviving another night of crazy rain. The sky was overcast to start and we enjoyed our pancakes and found ourselves wishing it wasn’t the last morning. As much as I complained about the rain on this trip, a rainy camping trip is better than doing pretty much anything else. It was also dawning on us that would likely be our last camping trip of the year because we have so much to get done at home.

The dogs had been wearing their winter jackets since the previous day and did not want to give them up that morning. Fortunately, we ended up with incredible sunshine on that last day. It was so nice to be fishing with the sun beating down on us, even as the wind picked up. We trolled big lures for big toothy critters but to no avail. Just another small pike got hooked on our lines.

The wildlife was so much more active with a sunny day to enjoy. Ducks, loons, herons, chickadees, ravens, crows, squirrels, and chipmunks were all out enjoying the sun.

Back at camp we had one last amazing meal for lunch, a cheesy rice with veg concoction that Darrell came up with using our dehydrated veggies. It was so good. The meals were a real highlight on this trip. We left the hot dogs at home, and only brought KD as a spare meal. We tried so many things we wouldn’t normally take on a camping trip and it was fun to find out what worked and what didn’t. We have made a lot of changes with gear and food this year and it’s neat to see what works for us now compared to when we first started camping together.

Eventually it was time to pack up camp, put the lifejackets on the dogs, and head back to the dock. We kept the winter gear on because it was still freezing when the wind was blowing. We trolled around Blackstone Harbour for a bit, not wanting to call it quits on another trip. We finally pulled the boat out after 4pm and headed for home.

Many things have changed for us since that first fall trip to The Massasauga, but one thing remains the same, we love this fall trip as much as ever. I can’t wait for next year, even if it does rain the entire time.