Canoeing - The Massassauga Provincial Park

This was our first canoe trip of the year, postponed from two weeks ago during the weekend of rain. The Massassauga is one of our favourite parks, especially for an easy first trip of the year. Access to dozens of on water sites is possible by going over just one portage of 370 m. It's an average portage, so if you have forgotten how to do it since last year (or two years ago), it's not a big deal. The Massassauga, on the shores of Georgian Bay, is a 2-3 hour drive for us, so it is relatively easy to get to.

This is also my first posting to my new blog. If you have been invited here and do not wish to receive anymore invitations, please let me know and I will remove your name.


We tried a new campsite this weekend, number 16 on the north shore of Spider lake. This was the view Saturday afternoon. What cannot be seen in this picture are the black flies and mosquitos. They were terrible this weekend. Even on the water, they never left us. Needless to say, we spent little time in the open, instead reading and napping in the tent.

Supper was early too, and we were in our sleeping bags by 8. The night was cool, but we stayed warm in our sleeping bags. This was the sun rise Sunday morning, around 6 AM. We had plenty of sleep, so we had an early breakfast a were on the water by 8.











For those of you not familiar with wilderness/back-country canoe camping, this is how you carry your canoe. The pack on my back contains all the food, what little there was for overnight.












This is me putting the canoe back in the water.











My wife carries everything else that we need. Really, she likes it that way. We have tried various permutations and this has turned out to be the best, easiest and quickest way to portage. She loves her canoe pack, just like I love my canoe.





That's it for my first post. I will try to keep this update regularly. Mostly, I wanted to have an easy place to throw up some of the many pictures we take.