Back to the Parks of the St. Lawrence at McLaren Park
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Maclaren Park
14 - 16 August, 2021
Summer holidays! And we headed south again, back to the Parks of the St. Lawrence but in a new campground - McLaren Park. Our reservation only started on Saturday, which meant we weren’t in any rush to leave from work and we had Saturday morning to pack up. Knowing this, I didn’t really prepare much in advance (although I did turn on the fridge to cool it down on Friday). The bed sheets had been cleaned, but I hadn’t had a chance to actually make the bed again!
Saturday morning began with a load of laundry, making our bed, filling the fridge (and negotiating what our daughter wanted to keep in the home fridge while we were gone for a week), packing our clothing and any toiletries that we don’t already have duplicates of in Holly, filling the fresh water tank and getting all of our cords together for the various electronics we needed to bring. When we booked this week of camping, the intention was for Chris to actually be on holidays, but things had changed a bit for him and taking holidays for the full week became a difficult plan. In the end, he needed to bring his work laptop, phone and various cables and headsets to be able to take calls on and off during the week. As part of our preparation, I also did a quick wipe down of everything as our neighbours are doing a large landscaping job and there was a layer of dust everywhere because I forgot to close the little side window!
We rolled out of the driveway just past 4 pm, went around the block and luckily realized before we went too far, that I had forgotten my phone! Back home we went, one last time.
Off we go!
We don’t usually take highway 417, but we headed east on it towards the St Albert cheese factory, where we made a short stop to buy some fresh cheese. There’s nothing better than cheese curd that’s made that very day!
After St. Albert’s we continued south towards the St. Lawrence and arrived at McLaren Park Campground just before 6 pm. We had a beautiful waterfront campsite, but it was a bit awkward and oddly, we seemed to be out of practice when it came to deciding where to put the trailer. We finally figured it out, levelled and chocked our tires only to realize we had forgotten to hit the dump station on the way in. So we un-chocked and went to dump. The dump station is in a weird place – quite close to a number of campsites (which I would not want to be staying at!) and we ended up going at it the wrong way. We had already done a tour of the loops on our side to change the direction to back into our site and then we had to do more loops to change direction to get into the dump site (and then again back to our site). Some campers likely wondered (and maybe had a good laugh) what we were doing when they saw us pass by so many times!
Things were smooth at the dump station. However, I decided to try out our new Water Bandit to flush out the black tank and while it eventually did the job, there was a bit of trial and error to get it correct (and this resulted in me getting sprayed a bit). I need to learn to use it properly!
Once we were finished dumping, we made our way back to our site and completely changed where we were going to place the trailer. Good job, because where Holly ended up was level side to side without us having to do anything. Chris went off to walk Daisy while I set up camp and enjoyed the gorgeous view.
The view from our front door!
We got out the BBQ (a new WeberQ that we added this year) and used it to heat our sausages and peppers. Grilled peppers dipped in hummus are SO delicious! We had some raw veggies as well and ate our supper outside, facing the water.
I took Daisy for another walk just at dusk because I wanted to check out the campground. She wasn’t keen on the walk and kept pulling me back towards Holly! We didn’t have a campfire, but it was fun to see all the other fires burning. The campground was pretty busy - I didn’t see many empty spots for camping on my walk about!
We headed inside, got ready for bed and watched two episodes of Never Have I Ever. We’re nearly finished the second season now, which is unfortunate, because we’ve both really enjoyed the show. We turned off the lights and went to bed early, tired from the previous night. We left the fan on all night and the breeze coming in the window was beautiful and cool. Daisy kept moving around and I wondered if she was too cold. At one point though, she was curled up between me and the window with her head towards my head (usually she sleeps head towards the bottom of the bed). It was lovely, but also not comfortable! She was up and raring to go at 7:30 am, so Chris took her out and I got the coffee on.
Chris headed out for his long run – 22 km - for most of the morning, while I had my breakfast, talked to our son for a bit on the phone and then took Daisy for a walk. We saw Chris run by while out on our walk and Daisy started to cry for him. Such hysterics! I took her to the water where she forgot all about him and cooled off a bit.
After his run, Chris went for a dip at the beach and then we took a drive down the Long Sault Parkway. It was so pretty! We stopped at Avonmore Beach (it’s marked as an Ontario Historical Site by the Lost Villages Historical Society, but I couldn’t find much more online about this gorgeous location!). We walked around a huge grassy area with lots of Russian Olive trees, water views, rocky shorelines and small beachfront areas. We had a Russian Olive tree in our backyard growing up for a while and I’ve always loved the colour of their leaves and the way they sway in the breeze. It was such a pretty park and Daisy loved chasing rocks and sticks along the shoreline.
We continued on the Parkway to the Stone Crop Acres Winery near Morrisburg. Luckily, we arrived just in time! They were hosting an evening outdoor music event so the kitchen was closing a little earlier than usual (Note to self: look up concert schedule for future dates!). Chris enjoyed an amber beer that came in a frosty cold beer glass and looked sooo refreshing! I had a flight of white/rose wines that were off-dry and nice. We split a portobello mushroom pizza, which was delicious and the exact right size for us to share.
With our bellies full, we headed back to Holly, where I relaxed, read and enjoyed the spectacular view, Chris didn’t get to enjoy the view quite as much, as he needed to get some work done. We had a snack and I realized I hadn’t really moved my body much over the day, so I went for a fast 20 minute walk around the campground (without Daisy to slow me down with all of her sniffing). We got ready for bed and watched our last episode of Never Have I Ever. The show is so well done and we’re hoping there will be a third season!
Daisy woke up a bit earlier than normal in the morning, which worked well, as it was Monday and Chris needed to attend a few meetings. During his first meeting, I made coffee and breakfast outside and then I went for a 5 km run along the Waterfront Trail pathway during his second meeting. This pathway begins at the entrance to the St Lawrence Parkway near our campground and continues west, winding through trees and along the water. It was beginning to get hot, but there was often a little breeze from the water and many trees provided some shade here and there. I haven’t run outdoors in a long time, so I found it much more difficult than running on our treadmill at home! I returned for a shower and then we began hitching up and preparing to leave.
We were in site number 115 with a beautiful water view (but not somewhere we could swim from). Our site wasn’t very private, mostly because we had 3 large trailers in the electrical sites right across from us and they were all facing the water. It felt a little bit like we were being watched all of the time as their chairs faced the water (and therefore our site) and they were out in them often. This is why lots of people angle their trailers so that the door faces the water and affords them more privacy. But Holly is pretty tiny and the trade off of privacy and back window view is a hard one! Daisy played in the water a little bit, but we didn’t feel at all comfortable having her off leash, even to go into the water with so many people watching. She soooo wanted to be in the water all the time and pulled us towards it at every opportunity. Our site didn’t have a great space to hang our hammock (we only had one full day there so it wasn’t a big deal) and we didn’t put up a clothesline either. We put out our awning during the day to keep our door in the shade and the solar worked beautifully to keep our batteries topped up!
The weather cooled down very nicely on our first night and, using the fan on the first setting was really comfortable. The second night was a bit warmer but our fantastic fan was helpful.
We finished packing up and pulled away from our site just before the 1 pm checkout time.
Next up: Ivy Lea Campground
Ottawa - MacLaren Park
Towing: 87 km
Driving: 65 km
Black Tank: I forgot to check how full our black tank was, but I'm certain there was a bit of space left in it and we were able to use the bathroom on our way to Ivy Lea, where we dumped as we arrived.
Fresh water: We also had enough water to get us to Ivy Lea, where we topped up our fresh water tank before heading to our site.
Batteries: Our solar panels worked really well as we had great sun and Holly wasn’t under any large trees. With Chris needing to work, we had more electronics to charge, but our batteries were good because we had the sun to keep them charged.
