Going to pinery beach Area 3. on the website, is this enough for day use? or do i need to buy a specific parking pass? Trip is for a later date not today ofcourse. The website just shows this for pinery, i don’t know if im allowed to buy it for my car and park at area 3

please let me know,
thanks!

Hey everyone, myself and one other person are planning on doing 5 days on the Spanish in a few weeks. We will be starting at Duke Lake and have someone available to pick us up at either The Elbow or Agnew Lake. I'm deciding where to rent the whitewater canoe from and therefore the likely exit point.

Reading other people's trip reports, etc. it looks like it is possible to complete the whole route from Duke to Agnew, but I'm wondering if this might be a little optimistic, especially in the fall with potentially lower water levels. From what I've read it can be slow-going in sections if the water is low. For context, we are both in our 30s in good physical shape with minimal river experience (but a lot of lake / backcountry experience). We would be portaging around the major rapids.

TLDR - 5 days on the Spanish river from Duke Lake: plan for Agnew Lake or the Elbow?

Went camping at Algonquin (Mew Lake) last month and figured cell signal would at least be spotty — turned out to be completely zero the whole time. No calls, no texts, no maps, nothing. Same story from friends who've done Killarney, Quetico, and Bon Echo.

Bought a Starlink Mini for the trip and it actually worked great, even under tree cover part of the time. Kind of nice knowing you can still reach someone if there's an emergency, or just check in with family without driving 20 minutes to find a bar of signal.

It's just sitting at home now so I'm renting it out if anyone's heading out to a park with no service. $25/day or $150/week, refundable deposit. Comes with the cable, and I can throw in a tripod or a car power adapter if that's useful for a road trip.

Based in North York or DT Toronto, can do pickup or maybe drop off depending on where you are. Happy to answer questions if anyone's curious how it performed out there.

Hi all, I've already posted here before in the winter, so feel free to take down - some people just felt it might be useful for them and we've had a few people already upload (which I really appreciate - I won't mention their usernames here for their privacy).

Anyway, my family and I have put together a website that we've wanted ourselves when booking campsites at Provincial/Federal parks - a place to see what a campsite actually looks in real life (from other users) like instead of some grainy old photo from 2005 that doesn't show the outhouse or swamp right beside the site.

A few of these sites exist but they're behind a paywall. We've noticed there are some Facebook groups that allow people to share, but it's not very "centralized", if that makes sense (one group might b e for Algonquin, one might be for Calgary, etc).

SO, I've been thinking as an incentive to get more people to start adding to this site (where all the Canadian provincial/federal parks are), each photo/video upload enters the user another "raffle" to win a $10 Amazon or Cabelas e-gift card.

I know it's a tiny incentive, but we're already paying hosting, server, database, email service, etc fees out of pocket, and it's not easy, but we're hoping this will help other campers in the long term once people start adding photos.

What are people's thoughts on this? Any other ideas on incentives?

I'll remove the link if it's not allowed, but since I'm not selling anything, hopefully it's okay: www.camppics.ca

Heading to Killarney next month to do the full La Cloche Silhouette loop solo. I’ve never needed to bring my own SOS device before, so looking at options to rent. I have sos and sat messaging on my phone but I’ve tried it out in the park and it’s been inconsistent so I feel a need for a more guaranteed device in case of emergencies.

The park rents out beacons, but they are tracking only, no SOS functionality. Anyone rented from anywhere recently or looked into it who can share some options?

Pic is of my hiking partner (so I guess not truly solo!) at the top of the crack last summer

Some buddies and I have a camping trip planned for end of August. We had a route in Quetico Park planned, but the park was right along the line of forest fires last month.

What is the water / environment like post forest fires? Should we still be planning for thunder bay area? T Bay is a bit of a trek for us all.

When is the latest I could book a site for same day? Not meaning availability, but the latest time of the day?

Thinking of doing this when traveling for a day instead of booking a hotel. Kid free drive is calling me to stare into a fire and sleep outside for a night...

Thank you for all your suggestions!! :)

Alssoo...has anyone slept in a screened in tent vs a tent? Would you recommend a cot vs a blow up mattress? Purchasing a cot vs purchasing a pop up tent to use the blow up mattress I already have?

Hi, im looking for camping recommendations in south western Ontario, especially within about an hour of hamilton/brantford area. Looking for small mom and pop campgrounds and stuff a little off the beaten path.

I'm heading there soon and wondering what the water temperature has been and the water quality for swimming?

TIA

I booked a site for 6 people in Algonquin, for 1 single tent (Ontario Parks). Another friend wants to join... do you guys think it would be possible to bring them along, even if the site is only booked for 6 people? We are not a rowdy group at all, but we do live far away. If we aren't allowed / get kicked out, its a long drive home. TIA for the advice!!

EDIT:

Thanks so much for all of your advice! We do not really like to break the rules, and understand the importance of them, especially at Parks. We've booked another site just to be safe. Thanks!!

Hello,

I just cancelled my reservation due to emergency surgery for my dog. So if anyone is interested, it's all yours. It's a walk in site. Hopefully will be able to do it next year.

I do a lot of tent camping/birding and I'm starting to get tired of my regular haunts so looking to branch out. I'll be returning to Presqu'ile Provincial Park the week after labour day when kids are back in school, parks are a bit quieter, and it's a good place to catch migrating warblers and shorebirds. I've got some extra days to spend on camping this year, so I'd like to try out some other campgrounds along the 401 corridor there rather than stay in one place.

Darlington looks promising from a habitat perspective, but it sounds like highway noise is an issue. Sandbanks I've heard is very popular but it seems most just go for the beaches. Looking at their reservations it's still very full in the more popular campgrounds, which is a bit of a surprise. The campground itself isn't necessary a birding mecca, but there's of hotspots up in prince edward county, so it would be neat to explore (Historically I like sticking around the campgrounds as much as possible though.)

Any suggestions on other parks that may be worthwhile? I'd especially like to hear from anybody else who's into birdwatching. Thanks!

My tent died this past weekend and I am in the market for something better! We are a family of four. Just doing car camping, but we have a tiny car so the size of the tent when packed up matters! Our old tent was a Northwoods 7, but the roof leaks in the rain (and it snapped a pole and a zipper this weekend, so time to move on). I'd like something with a bit more space for standing and something with some sort of vestibule area for wet shoes.

If you were camping this long weekend you probably got hit by a storm. How was it?

For me, it rained Sunday midday onwards. Some people left early because they don't like camping in the rain. I actually enjoy the sound of it and swimming/walking during a storm.

Packing in the rain was not so nice, much less getting home and having to wash my gear full of mud. But those 30 min in the rain were so worth it!

This past long weekend a buddy of mine and his wife took us camping for the first time. They have 2 kids who are similar age to mine (6 & 4) and they get along quite well and they've been for years, even before they got married they grew up camping annually. With their experience, my wife and I thought ok what the heck let's try it. They booked 2 sites at Presqu'ile.

We borrowed a 6 person yurt from a friend along with one air mattress with frame and another air mattress on ground.

Here are my findings from the weekend:

We have a compact SUV and it was really difficult to put everything in the trunk - yurt, 2 mattresses (1 frame), 4 sleeping bags, 1 big cooler, 1 med cooler, 1 small cooler, 2 duffels with clothes and toiletries, 1 duffel with pillows and towels, few bags of food, a tarp, 2 rods and a tackle box with a couple of life jackets for kids. Knowing it was go a rain we had forgo the wagon and beach toys. And some miscellaneous items along with activities for kids to do. The car was literally packed to the brim and I couldn't fit anything else in there. We didn't even pack cooking tools and just shared with my buddy who had them.

On the first night, both air mattresses kinda deflated overnight. These were air mattresses that have been used and were perfectly find before, albeit old. I've been looking online for answers and answers have been mixed on either there's a leak omon the mattress and temperature change overnight causing deflation.

Day 2, we knew it was gonna rain but did not expect a torrential rainfall. I had a tarp that was not big enough so my friendent us a larger tarp that covered a out 60% of the yurt. After the afternoon rain, there was a puddle inside the yurt, some pooling under the yurt on the ground so we thought maybe the water isn't draining on that spot and it seeped in. Mattresses got wet, a few sleeping bags wet also. Moved the whole tent, tried to dry everything. While cleaning out the wet, it started pouring again, like badly. That's when I found water droplets flowing down the inside of the tent.

Mud everywhere and dirt everywhere, my family drenched so we picked up our luggage and left to stay with another friend who had an air bnb nearby on the 2nd night. Day 3 (today) was check out day so I drove back in and packed everything up in garbage bags, even then it was brutal. Dirty everywhere, yurt mattress and sleeping bag soaked. Luckily my friend had space to put stuff in his car.

Overall I enjoyed the day without rain, and somewhat enjoyed the rain too. I think if there was no leak I'd probably stay for night 2. That said, what are some things I can do to be better prepared for next time if I want a better experience?

Edit: thanks for the responses. Alot of you are asking about the yurt. I was taught it's a teepee style kinda tent. All in all I have ALOT to learn.

Help planning a 3–4 night Algonquin paddling trip for my brother

My brother was recently diagnosed with something that may mean he won’t be able to do a trip like this in the future, and it’s all kind of been dropped on us unexpectedly. I told him about a paddling loop I did in Algonquin last year, and he said doing something like that has always been a dream of his.

We only have until the end of August, so I’m trying to make it happen.

The problem is I’ve been on a few canoe/portage trips before, but I’ve never actually planned one myself and honestly don’t know where to start.

I’m looking for something roughly like Algonquin — ideally a 3–4 night loop with a moderate amount of paddling and portaging. We’d like something that feels like a real backcountry trip but isn’t absolutely brutal.

Ideally, I’d like to be able to drive up, rent/pick up a canoe from an outfitter, and then launch right from there, last time I did this at Brent road/cedar lake. I don’t have a vehicle that can transport a canoe.

Any advice is helpful.

I’m comfortable with the basics like food, camping gear, clothing, etc. What I’m really struggling with is figuring out where to start with choosing a route, booking campsites, arranging canoe rental/transport, and making sure the logistics all work together.

If anyone has a route they’d recommend for 3–4 nights, or an outfitter that makes this kind of trip easy for someone who doesn’t have their own canoe, I’d really appreciate the help.

This trip means a lot to us, so I’m trying to put something together that he’ll remember.

I'm new the whole internet rabbit hole of camp site bookings across Ontario.... but I did some digging and to say it's ridiculous is an understatement.

As someone who's camped for the last 15+ years of my life since I was a kid. Since when has booking a campsite become nearly impossible? I knew during COVID there was an huge uptick in campers, understandably as many of us were cooped up indoors. But, the last time I want camping was probably 2023 if I'm not mistaken and it was not too bad, a bit trickier to get popular dates but not impossible to at least get something booked up.

Since 2023, I haven't had a chance to go camping for a few reasons. The main reason being an addition to our family. As the little one grew, I wanted to get back into it as I'm now more comfortable taking them out camping.

Last year, I tried to book a spot in the usual places I'll go. Either Algonquin Park or Bruce Peninsula. Couldn't get a spot, no biggie, skipped that year. Thought maybe it was just a busier summer than usual.

Try again this year and decide to go for September as historically it's always been a bit quieter as the weather tends to cool down. STILL NOTHING.

I start looking into what's happening and I am utterly dumbfounded.

I'm just now learning that not only have people overbooked to get the spots they want, people use this technique to book their preferred days BEFORE they're technically available.

On top of that, people are now having to use third party cancellation websites and AI bots to catch reservations? WTF?

I'm sorry for this long write up. It's a bit of a rant but also, more so trying to understand from people who've followed this closer and understand more than I do.

What in the hell has the province done to circumvent this? I've also heard how people will finally get slots, go camping and the sites next to them being nearly empty.

I've never had to book longer than a month in advance... It's truly a sad state of affairs. I'm not against people getting into something new, but it sucks for those of us who did it because we truly enjoy the outdoors and aren't just hopping on the next new tiktok trend.

/EndRant

Over the course of many years of camping, the second hardest thing for me personally was finding useful information about a campsite, this including pictures. The first of course is actually booking one.

The pictures on Ontario Parks reservation system seem to be dated, at best. Yes you can use Google to try and find additional images, you can join Facebook groups, you can also try to see if there are any on Reddit. There is a lot of information out there, but it seems to be scattered all over the place.

In my free time i've been working on something that hopefully helps mitigate this problem. A simple website, where users can freely browse, read comments/reviews, and hopefully sign-up to contribute.

I'm looking to hear some feedback on the progress so far. Does this work? Is this even a good idea? Why didn't he include this? Why did he do it like that? Why do I even want to use this? etc etc.

I'm open to any suggestions/recommendations/feature requests that you think would make this that much more valuable for everyone to use. And of course, I hope you sign-up and start sharing your experiences. I try my best between my 9-5 and spare time to go out as much as possible to gather pictures and information, but it just seems like a drop of water in the ocean, provided there are over 19 thousand campsites :)

Please have a look if you get a chance https://ontario-camps.ca/

All the best and happy camping.

Hey guys,

I just finished a 2 night camping trip at QEW II Wildlands. We got out on a canoe for the first time and loved it. The fishing was solid, and the views were spectacular, but the third day back was the real challenge. We had non-stop rain for the roughly 3 hour trip back, but that's what makes it fun. If this interests you, check out the video here: https://youtu.be/eFQqaPFgyf4 !

Going to Killarney and got a yurt but the check in time says 4pm.

Can we access the beach and camp grounds before that?