A Quick Fall Getaway
/McLaren Park Campground
24-26 September, 2021
We’re trying to squeeze as much camping in as possible in these last few weeks! Especially since our season started late again this year. Another last minute booking took us to McLaren Park, in the Parks of the St Lawrence.
We were supposed to camp with our friends and knew they needed a bit more time on Friday to prepare to leave. We were pretty much ready to go by mid-afternoon, but thought we’d see if we could travel together. Unfortunately, something came up and they needed to defer the trip until the next morning. So, we pushed off just past 5 pm.
When we arrived to check in, we ended up parked next to another 16 ft Bambi! It was so cool. We didn’t get to meet the owners, unfortunately. We checked in, dumped our tank and went to set up. Being the end of September, the sun was sinking quickly, so we managed to situate Holly just as the last rays were disappearing.
In the morning, we had breakfast and coffee. We were chatting with our friends, who had planned to leave first thing in the morning, but when they hitched up, their electrical wasn’t working! They tried so many different things, including calling our dealer and troubleshooting with the owner. Nothing worked. Such bad luck. We ended up camping beside their empty campsite.
Daisy got a long walk and then Chris went for a run in the early afternoon, while I read. It was a beautiful day to be outside! As a side note, the showers at McLaren are really wonderful - clean, hot and great water pressure!
After Chris’ run, we took a drive along the Long Sault Parkway and ended up on the patio at Butler’s Restaurant in Ingleside for a beer and a late lunch. After eating, we went over to the Bird Sanctuary to check things out. We were able to walk along the paved pathway with Daisy, but she’s not allowed on any of the trails, since that’s where all of the birds are. It was pretty warm out! I took a short walk over the bridge to the Bird Sanctuary while Chris and Daisy waited.
We picked up some wood at the front office and headed back to our site for a campfire - likely our last chance at a campfire for the season! Since there were no bugs, we sat around the fire for a while, reading and chatting. As the flames went down, we made some grilled cheese sandwiches in our pie irons. There’s nothing better than a pie iron grilled cheese over the fire! So delicious! We put the fire out and called it a night.
In the morning we had a gorgeous day to sit out and enjoy our coffee and breakfast. We took a long walk around the campground and slowly began packing up to go home. The clouds stared to roll in, so we hitched up and headed home.
It was one of our last weekends of camping and we had super views with sunny weather. The only slight drawback was that our campsite was right at the intersection where cars drive towards us and only make the turn on the road as they get to our site. This means headlights pointing at us in dusk. It wasn’t terrible - we’d pick this site again if it meant having a water view vs no water view, but we’ll try for a slightly different site in the future.
A lack of bugs and perfect camping temperature made this a terrific weekend! The grounds at McLaren Campground are impeccable and there's a nice open feeling as well. I wish all of our trips could be like this!
Ottawa - McLaren Park - Ottawa
Towing: 174 km
Driving: 49 km
Black Tank: We didn’t record this
Fresh water: We didn’t record this
Batteries: We didn’t record this
After a season of long weekend camping, a 2 night trip, where we arrived in the evening and didn’t have to bring any work, felt like a breeze. We used the showers at the campground and the temperature at night was beautiful without needing to use our fan and depleting our batteries. Bringing an extra separate container of freshwater for coffee and drinking water really helps to conserve our freshwater tank.