Ontario Provincial Parks: Best Campsites and Reviews

Friday, April 17, 2015

Previously on Blogging with Robert Fidler

When we last left our heroes they were being chased by a crazed Samurai, every second weekend through the provincial parks of Ontario.

"I want sushi!"

Our heroes had just learned some hard truths about their ten year experiment to see every Ontario provincial park.

I learned how to use my gizmo to take the best "selfies" ever and...

Eight (parks) times ten (years) is only eighty, not 103, no matter what calculator you use (even the ever optimistic Fidler calculator).

I thought I'd look like this forever. Damn Fidler Caculator.

So after four years of adventures, and our defeat of the two headed turtle,

I'll get you Rob and Bev!

We have decided to add four more years to our time limit (just like a two term president) thus attempting to see every provincial park in Ontario in merely 14 years.

Then I'll be King of the Ontario provincial parks!

Beverley and I will also be applying for the Woods™Dream Job to travel the entire summer hiking, canoeing and camping on the Trans Canada Trail.

We will see this again, hopefully in better weather.

Wish us luck. Or even better contact Woods™ and tell them why you think we would do the best job at contactus@woodsdreamjob.com. This is a new year and I will endeavour to entertain, inform, and have a unmitigated blast doing it. So let the Blog begin…

"Until that day my friends, until that day…"

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Rene Brunelle Provincial Park : I'm on the Top of Ontario Ma!

The Ballad of Rene Brunelle (If you can't guess the song ask someone who is over 40)

Come and listen to a story about a man named Rene (Joseph Napoleon) Brunelle,

A jack of all trades (teacher, tourism operator, politician, etc.) he treated everybody well.

Then one day he decided to pack it in.

And way up north they decided to honour him. (With a Provincial park that is.)

Well, first thing's first, old Rene was always fair,

But his wife must of said we cannot live near there.

So they moved to Magog, Que. and promised to be back soon,

Kapuskasing didn't care cause they were over the moon.

(Beam that is, UFO spotting site, Where the Provincial Park is.)

Come on I'll show you around Rene Brunelle Provincial Park. This is the south day use beach.

If you didn't guess already, Rene Brunelle Provincial Park was named after someone. Rene Brunelle was an Ontario politician for Cochrane North from 1958 to 1981 and after doing a little research on him, he was a bit of a conundrum. First, he wanted to allow forestry in some of the largest provincial parks, particularly Quetico, and yet the province still named a provincial park after him? He came from a family in the pulp and paper business, but later in life ran a tourism company, which, I have to assume, was not deforestation tourism... "On the right you will see where we have chopped down 100 acres of boreal forest to make toilet paper and Kleenex. Does anyone need a tissue?" Then, in the end, after serving Ontario for 23 years, he moved to Magog, Quebec; 120 kilometres east of Montreal and 40 kilometres from the Vermont Border. I guess he got tired of the north? ...or was it the bugs?

A little hard to see but every unidentified speck in this picture is a dragon fly. There must have been thousands. Again in the day-use area.

Rene Brunelle Provincial Park is located 30 minutes east of Kapuskasing right above the town of Moonbeam off the northern trans-Canada highway #11. If you don't know where that is phone your high school geography teacher and ask him or her, when they don't know -- ask google. It truly is the top of Ontario, unless you use a plane.

Rene Brunelle PP was about to be shut down in 2012 due to low visitation, but the people of the area protested so now the park is open and Moonbeam is on the hook for any shortfalls. When we arrived at Rene Brunelle we were only staying one night because I figured they only had two trails and I could see everything I wanted in a day and a half. Well... I was right on the park's two trails:

Vigilance Trail (1.5 km) was a not so leisurely stroll (due to the mosquitoes) around a point on Remi Lake with information signs about the history of bush pilots in the area. It was beautiful and interesting, but not enough to make us forget about the mosquitoes. It should take about a half hour (we did it in 10 minutes).

Gene Roddenberry might have something to say about this? Trail begins and ends at the day use area.

Spruce Lowland Trail (1.6 km) was better when it came to flying pests and was an easy half hour hike with the points of interests being trees, flora, fauna, and an empty bear's den.

They told me it was an empty bear's den, but then why is the barrier rope broken? (Not in the day use area.)

What we didn't know is that right outside the front gate you are connected to 40 plus kilometres of trails for hiking, biking, rollerblading, or in the winter cross-country skiing. Total amount of Moonbeam Trails hiked -- zero.

For more information : http://naturetrails.moonbeam.ca/carteEn.html.

Remi Lake, the lake Rene Brunelle PP is on, is well known in the area for swimming, fishing, boating of all kinds, and hunting. Which brings me to my bird picture.

A Blue-winged Teal and next years targets. Good Luck ducklings. Picture taken at the day use area.

Rene Brunelle would be a great park to visit if you wanted to do some fishing and didn't worry if you don't own a boat because the provincial park rents them. Now, you may have noticed a theme running throughout this about whether we were at the Day Use Area or not, that's because if I was staying at this park I would probably never leave the day use area. It has washrooms, a place to cook, two great beaches, a volleyball court, a park for children, wild life, and a covered eating area. It's like this park put more time, money, and thought into their day use then their camp sites. For example, the Camper's Beach looks like this:

Private, yes, but small and not very sandy and not close to any of the campsites.

Versus the Day Use beaches:

This is the north beach for day use. Private and big and nicely sanded -- but again really not close to the campsites.

Our site was nice, don't get me wrong, but for how far north this campground is I would have hoped for more privacy. It's not like this provincial park doesn't have the land or waterfront property. This is the first time (definitely not the last) where the site we stayed at is not on the list of good sites.

Site 87. We could see our neighbours on both the right and left; not seen in this picture,

I could accept this if the campsite was right on the water, but it isn't. The good sites at Rene Brunelle are numbers 9, 33, 34, 39, 41, 49, 54, 56, 57, 82-85, the best one being number 88. None of these are near the beach, but some have views of the lake which is the next best thing. In summation, Bev and I had a great time at this park, however most of our fun was had at the day use area where we hiked, swam, relaxed, and saw some amazing wildlife.

Dragonfly landed on Bev with its Mayfly lunch in tow.

Well now it's time to say goodbye to Rene and all the merrymaking,
I'd like to thank you folks for kindly dropping in.
I highly recommend this park's locality,
If only it wasn't ten hours away.
(By car that is, straight time with no breaks, and that's from Toronto -- you figure it out from where you're from and unless that's Moonbeam or Kapuskasing it's far.)

Site Cleanliness: Good. There was some garbage but nothing that couldn't be cleaned within ten minutes of arriving.

Privacy: Not great. Out of 88 campsites only 13 had what I would call adequate privacy. If it was up to me this is where I would spend money on fixing up the sites. You could easily fix some of these privacy issues with some well planted trees -- and you have experts in tree planting living as close as next door. As well they have room to build new sites, even if they were walk-in's.

Hiking and Activities: Better than expected. I was saddened to find out there was so much hiking that we didn't get to enjoy. As well, there are ample boating and fishing opportunities for people who have a little more time.

Park Class: Recreational Park class for all the things you can do here.

Beach Quality or Ease of Getting to the Water: Beach quality was quite good, but as for ease to getting to the beaches they were quite a distance from any of the campsites. As far as ease of getting to the water, every site by the water has a path to it which is great for canoeists, but not great for swimming.

Recommended Length of Stay: I would suggest that if you are going to Rene Brunelle you absolutely book ahead of time to get one of the best sites and stay for at least 5 days. A couple of days for hiking and a couple of days for fishing. I'm certain you would never get bored.

Overall Impression: I liked the day use area the most I have ever liked a day use area at any provincial park. Unfortunately, because it was so good it made the campsites look less desirable. This would be a great park for a fishing trip.

Rating out of 103: I'm going for number 58 for the year Rene Brunelle the politician retired.

Again if you're keeping track:

#2 Algonquin

#3 Quetico

#19 Sandbanks

#21 Neys

#22 Wakami Lake

#23 Nagagamisis

#26 Pancake Bay

#30 Chutes

#51.5 Silent Lake

#52 Restoule

#53 Point Farms

#56 Inverhuron
#58 Rene Brunelle

#92 Rainbow Falls

#101 Turkey Point

#102 Bronte Creek

P.S. If you still haven't gotten the song here is a clue, Jed Clampett.

Friday, July 25, 2014

White Lake Provincial Park Revealed -- From the Semiwite to the Fully White

To begin I would like to talk about our friend Google maps. I use google maps every time we go camping so I really do appreciate the service, however if you ever drag the cursor and change your course so that the roads you are travelling on have no names; be prepared, Google maps can seriously screw you around. North of Mississagi Provincial Park first there was a logging road... no problem, we have taken the Sultan's Road out of Wakami Provincial Park and that one is crazy. (We had to dodge rocks so big they'd take out you're carburetor and you'd be lucky if a logging truck wasn't barrelling down on at 110km/hr.) Thank heavens we didn't encounter any logging trucks or really big rocks on the 'No Named' logging road. What we did encounter was a turtle in the middle of the road. Bev really just wanted to help it get across the road. Me I'm a little more cautious and really just wanted to stop playing in the middle of a logging road. You know like your mom use to tell you.

"Bev that's a Snapping Turtle. You might not want to get too close?"

Then we took a right onto what I have come to understand is a snowmobiling trail -- an OFSC Prescribed Trail? I'd never heard of them before. I don't know about you, but I haven't been on a dirt road in a long time and I've never been on a dirt road in a Nissan Versa. I have to admit I was kind of having fun; a scared fun, but fun. Beverley astutely pointed out that we had no business being on a dirt road, but there comes a point of no return where you either cross your fingers and keep going forward or you just keep talking about how you should have turned around. And we did both. Other than it taking a little bit longer and some rattled nerves and teeth we came out the other side without incident. And now without further ado here is my first attempt at a video in this Blog.

We arrived at White Lake Provincial Park and the staff said the bugs were bad, so we got prepared. It seems the staff at White Lake either doesn't know what bad is or at least have never been to Mississagi to experience true bug badness. Due to a bridge closure on the Trans-Canada Highway we had to rush this provincial park and to give you a sense of what that's like... here we go. We set up in half an hour at site 84.

Site #84 all set up and ready to go. Bev waiting for me to take the picture so we can go... for a hike.

Most sites along the water have a designated path to the beach/fishing/pick-up boat area.

I don't know about the whole beach but there were leaches a few feet in so for us = no swimming.

With swimming out we decided to hike the Deer Lake Trail (1.5 or 2.5 km). This trail was an easy hour long hike through the forest around Deer Lake and an adjacent beaver dam. There was an abundance of wild life around but it was near impossible to take a good photo of anything. This is where I acquired my first true taste of bird photography and how amazingly stupid/difficult it is. I must have taken 10 blurry pictures of in front of and behind birds before getting an only slightly blurry picture like this.

A Swamp Sparrow I think?

Then this in focus one.

If you look really closely I think it's a Black-throated Sparrow. But why won't it look at me?

And my favourite is this one of baby Ruffed Grouse. See if you can spot them in the original photograph.

I know there are 4 baby Ruffed Grouse in this picture.

And now the Close-up.

The easy one is on the branch. Then the 2 down and to the left behind the Bunchberry plants. And the last one is on the white moss to the left of the 2.

How did you do? Having finished being frustrated for the day and with dusk on it's way, Bev and I visited a logging water sleigh display, then ate, showered, and went to bed so we would be ready for a whirlwind day on Wednesday.

Bev giving her Blue Steel pose with the Water Sleigh.

While we're sleeping let me tell you a little about the park. White Lake is known for it's fishing of Walleye (Pickerel), Northern Pike, Whitefish, and Perch. A family camping near us comes every year to fish and on their first night they only caught "about 25 fish" and "put most of them back" because they were staying for a week. As well, if you are a fish snob there is Clearwater lake which can only be hiked to and is stocked with Speckled Trout (no live bait can be used). White Lake is also an excellent start off point for a canoeing trip as the White River Canoe Route is ranked in Ontario's top ten routes. White Lake Provincial Park is 6085 hectares, which is 60 km squared, and was created in 1963 as a Natural Environment Park.

The Best Sites are # 6, 8, 12, 13, 57, 61, 63, 69, 73, 80, 81, 84, 85, 86, 89, 90, 92, 97, 101, 156, 159, 161, 164, 165, 169. The cream of the crop are 6, 8, 12, 13, 80, 81, 84, 85, 86, 159, 161, 164, 165 because of how close they are to the water.

View of the lake from site #84. And the fire pit is pointing the right way.

Bev and I awoke Wednesday morning to the news that they had closed the Trans-Canada Highway (What???) due to a bridge problem in Nipigon meaning we would have to take a detour to the northern highway adding 2-3 hours onto our trip into Thunder Bay. So we had a choice either spend another night and hope the bridge was fixed by the next day or try to fit in as much fun in the morning and head out. We chose the latter and luckily we did because the bridge was closed for 3 days. So here is what I call The Party part 2. We packed up our site then went to the Exercise Trail (0.5 km) 45 minutes is what is suggested but it really all depends how good shape you are in and what level you wanted to accomplish. I have created a slide show out of our photo's of this hike to give you a sense of it.

After a great morning warm-up we hiked the Tiny Bog Trail (4.5 km) about 1 hour and a half. This trail was at one time about viewing spots, but I think nature has taken them back. Here is viewing spot number one.

Score one for the trees and zero for the views.

The second viewing spot was even funnier as the Dragon Flies had claimed it.

Hence the reason White Lake has fewer bugs.

"Find your own place to sit! Can't you see we are sunbathing. Martha cover yourself."

This hike was actually a great deal of fun and more moderate than easy. White Lake Provincial Park is an amazing park that has things to do for everyone. I really do want to come back to fish, but I think we would have to rent a motor boat to get the full experience.

Site Cleanliness: Great. Not much garbage at all and in the park guide they have an article on how to treat the tree's in the provincial parks I think every park should adopt and put in their guides. Skip the tick warning and focus on how to preserve the campgrounds for future generations.

I only have one problem: If the PP doesn't sell kindling it is sometimes difficult to start a fire without some twigs.

Privacy: I would say 75% of the sites have some privacy, but because there is so much fishing there are so many pull through sites. The cream of the crop sites are all completely private.

Hiking and Activities: Fantastic. There are four hikes, canoeing, swimming, fishing and birding (as long as you are not taking pictures - brutal). The park also offers guided hikes and children's programs on the weekends, guest speakers, and Log Drive Days where the park celebrates the area's logging history.

Beach Quality or Ease of Getting to the Water: This park was made for ease of getting to the water as it is the reason most people come to here. Beach quality I'm giving a 'be aware' that there are leeches in the water, but again maybe somehow in the roped off swimming area they have found a way to get rid of them. (Maybe they have paid fish to guard the swimming areas?)

Recommended Length of Stay: I'm going to say 5 days as you could fish every morning and evening and still go for a hike everyday or a canoe in the afternoon. You would not get bored -- let's put it that way.

Overall Impression: As with all the northern parks I was very impressed, I just wish we caught a fish.

Rating out of 103: Because of a slight difference in beauty and leeches I am placing White Lake Provincial Park at number 30 and moving Chutes back to 29. White lake is just going to have to accept that it's a little bit older, but looking good for it's age whereas Chutes can keep lying to itself. 29 for ever baby!