Storyline: Advantures in our back yard
There is a tune of optimism and even joy in the air. Day after day, month after month, almost a year and a half strapped (figuratively) to a chair in a room or a house (lucky those like us who have gardens) by an invisible enemy, a tiny virus that brought the world to its knees, paralysed life and sent us all into hiding, many are walking into the second pandemic summer with a spark of hope.
When we planned this short road trip, step 1 of Ontario’s reopening was scheduled for June 14. Provincial parks were still closed for overnight use, and as mentioned in the previous post, we wanted to see our Ottawa family. The weekend just before reopening looked good. There would be less traffic, we thought, and we could boondock somewhere.
It wasn’t very wise for retired people to choose Friday for a road-trip, especially when everyone was just unleashed from a long “Stay at home” order and many would head out to their cottages. But we had to be in Kanata, Ottawa’s outskirts during the weekend if we wanted to see them all. And just when Doranya was all set to go came the announcement that step 1 would happen on Friday, June 11. Not sure what exactly was involved in it, but restaurant’s patios and some non-essential stores would be open. This meant more people on the roads. An early start was therefore called for.
Doranya left our driveway really early, to avoid morning rush hour traffic. Leaving the GTA roads behind us, we thought we had some time for an early morning hike in the nearby Long Sault Conservation Area, which we did.
Not sure if the $6 parking fee was worth the hour or so on the somewhat buggy trail, with millions of gipsy moth caterpillars hanging over our heads and dangling in front of us, but by the time we finished it was already past 10am. Instead of exploring more of the small and beautiful country roads, we sped up onto the busier but faster Hwy 7. We’d leave the scouting of free camp sites for after the visit. Hwy 7 was less busy than expected, although our feeling was that every existing Ontario RV was on that road.
Lunch at Havelock: two of the three parking lots alongside the train tracks were jam packed with cars and RVs. There was room for Doranya in the former railway station’s (now restaurants’) parking lot. Aside from the cars of the restaurant patrons sitting at the patio tables, there were two other RVs and us.
After lunch we swung by Marmora, where Freecampsites.net had a wild camp spot listed. Didn’t see much space for a campervan let alone a big rig, and decided to explore more on our way back. Driving away from Marmora, Doranya almost ran over a baby fawn that wandered out to the roadside just in front of us in full daylight and sight. Barring this small scare, the rest of the trip was rather boring, it being a route we’ve travelled many times.
After having a great, physically-distanced time with the gang on Saturday, we had a late Sunday morning start, lunch with Marian & Jim and then I had Jim’s signature pink drink. Alex could have driven us on to Merrickville for the night.
Judging by the number of RVs on the road on Friday though, we weren’t sure if there would be a spot left even for wild camping anywhere. It was safer to just moochdock in Kanata that night and reconnoitre a few of the suggested boondocking sites on Monday.
The day broke around 4:30am with sun slowly and lazily waking up and a porcupine crossing the lawn. It wasn’t much later when I set up the front table, made my coffee and browsed the news online while waiting for Alex to wake up. The day was still young when we had breakfast, said goodbye to our generous hosts and took off on a wild camp scouting venture.
Merickville Fair Grounds
Skipped the Burritts Rapids sites suggested by iOverlander for two reasons: first it was too close to Ottawa and if we were to go its direction, we’d probably moochdock in Kanata and second, we also know people living there, so we’d use their driveway instead of the suggested boondocking sites. We’ll scout them some day though, just to know their whereabouts and offerings.
Small country roads lead Doranya to Merrickville where she was parked in a paved parking lot at the Rideau Canal locks, just in front of the rather full Merickville Lions Club Campground. Although it was still morning, the patio across the street had already attracted some visitors.
Walked to the end of the Main St. W, where the suggested wild camping spot was to just discover that we’d already been there in June, 3 years ago with our friend Milan. Then, it was to use the communal washrooms and have lunch at one of the picnic tables.
The grounds are situated on the Rideau River next to the public library and the public beach. There is also a small boat launch on the river.
Merrickville, founded in 1794, and one of the oldest settlements along the Rideau, is currently a pretty little town which has previously been selected by Communities in Bloom as Canada’s Most Beautiful Village. With over a 100 heritage and historic sites (according to Wikipedia) to be seen, an active artisanal community, boutique restaurants to be visited and many outdoor activities to be part of, we’ll revisit it again when fully opened and perhaps boondock at the fairgrounds if no events are scheduled. As it has also rich railway history we’ll scout and write more about it in a separate storyline. Our intention is to visit little towns and villages built around railways, many of them now abandoned, hike around and explore their history.
We walked the fairgrounds, took some photos with reflections on the river, then drove Doranya around. There were no signs to say that overnight parking was not allowed. As a matter of fact, there was an older Roadtrek 190 parked by the library, that had probably spent the previous night there.
There was also no sign on the parking lot across from the Mainstreet Restaurant where we initially parked Doranya either.
So at least as of our visit the fairgrounds seemed a great spot to spent a night or maybe two. Check with the events schedule though, since there are quite a few of them at the fairgrounds: Merickville Fair, Vintage Car Show, Artist Guild Studio Tour, Merrickville Antique & Artisan Show and more.
Smiths Falls Lower Reach Park
As we departed this pretty little town and headed towards our next stop, Smiths Falls, a platoon of motorbikes turned in front of us just at the bridge. We followed them along County Rd 43 for 20 minutes all the way to Smiths Falls; or should I say they led us to our next stop, turning under a bridge onto Old Slys Road, and parking Lower Reach Park.
As per iOverlander this is “a big municipal park south of downtown”. It too is located on the Rideau River. Doranya was parked on the opposite side, far from the bikes between the small beach area and a boat launch (notice the theme! It would be the same throughout the day). We strolled through the park and clicked as many snapshots as possible, which created some clean up work for me later. Here too we did not see any signs prohibiting overnight parking.
Smiths Falls, founded in 1786, is a much bigger town than Merrickille, with a major railway station for CP Rail and Via Rail. For readers outside of Ontario or Canada for that matter, CP Rail – Canadian Pacific Railway and CNR – Canadian National Railways are the major owners/users of the railway system here and freight has the priority over passenger trains (which are operated by Via Rail). The construction of the Rideau Canal brought the little mill village to flourish. However, the rapid growth of the major railways connecting Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa, Montreal and more in the 1850s gave the town direct lines in dozens of directions. The abandoned Canadian Northern (later Canadian National) station is now the Railway Museum of Eastern Ontario. There are many trails to be walked and museums and heritage sites to be visited, however one thing from recent history deserves mentioning: It is said that a studio here is the birthplace of North American Beatles recordings (1963, 1964). We’ll revisit Smiths Falls again during our envisioned railways trip.
True to ourselves we took many photos, again with reflections in the water and Alex did a video tour of the potentially free overnight place. We’ll use these grounds when touring the town. Off to the next on our list – Perth.
Perth’s Last Duel Park
A short drive from Smiths Falls (another 20 minutes along County Rd 43, and a left on Cole Road) and we are parked in an absolutely stunning spot by the river. It is said to have hot showers and bathroom. We didn’t care about this part.
We just loved the reflections of the colourful canoes and kayaks in the waters, the docks with a few people fishing from them, the boat launch. The parking lot is paved, so no dust on a dry hot day as this one shaped to be. Just the dreaded deer flies. There is a nice picnic area and a park just beyond the parking lot. No signs prohibiting overnight parking. It will be another nice spot to stay while exploring Perth.
Perth is a town in Lanark County, situated on the Tay River, established as a military settlement in 1816.
The name of the park where we stopped commemorates the last fatal duel in Upper Canada (former name for what is now part of the Province of Ontario), where in 1833 a law student was killed fighting with a former friend over a woman.
And for golfers, established in 1890, Links O’Tay is the oldest Canadian continuously operating golf course. There are many attractions and historic buildings here too, as well as festivals (music festival in July) and events to attend. Another town on our list to explore and we know where to stay overnight.
It was lunch time and Doranya took us to our next destination, where we planned to have our lunch.
Sharbot Lake’s Railway Heritage Walkway Boat Ramp
We sped along Hwy 7 to get to Sharbot Lake, some 30 minutes away. Doranya was getting low on gas, but we’d noticed on our way to Kanata on Friday that the gas at Sharbot Lake was much (15¢/litre! – A) cheaper than anywhere else. Alex suggested we have lunch first and then fill up before heading home. Passing by the gas station, we turned south to the village.
Left Doranya on a paved parking lot, just above the railway heritage outdoor exhibit and a dusty gravel parking lot on the other side of the road from the heritage walkway, which is supposed to be the boondocking lot.
Glad we parked where we did. As we pulled Doranya into the lot, a dozen of noisy ATVs (all-terrain vehicles / 4-wheelers) swung by, filling our airways with dust. One needs a gas mask here, I thought. As the ATVs gathered at the end of the heritage walkway and eventually took the trail north, we managed to walk through the exhibit grounds with tons of information about the history and purpose of the exhibited items.
This is part of the K&P trail (Kingston and Pembroke Railway). We’ll provide more details later in an “Abandoned Railways” or so storyline.
Our aha! moment in Sharbot lake was when we decided to turn on the A/C (air conditioning). Because of the incredible dust the ATVs were billowing, and the deer flies filling the air, we decided not to open the windows but to run the A/C instead. We had to first start the generator and wait for a few minutes for it to begin delivering power. So far so good; however when we turned on the A/C, the generator went crazy clattering and surging. At that point we realised that the gas tank was under a quarter full and apparently, we could not load the generator. Thus, no A/C or microwave. Ate our lunch cold with only the fan providing fresh air and off we went to fill up. The point is, we drove in by the Sharbot Lake gas stations which are on the highway.
The village is a few kilometers down the road from the highway and we decided to have our lunch first and fill with gas when back on the highway. Didn’t think about the use of the generator at that point. Lessons learned. Don’t leave the procrastinator having his way? (AKA, the never put off ‘til tomorrow what you can put off ‘til next week guy). Anticipation of risk factors is important even on a leisurely trip.
By now we had decided that it was a long way to swing up to Ompah or down to Tweed. Although it is not mentioned anywhere in our boondocking resources, we thought that Ompah’s star gazing pad might be a good one to check out for overnight camping. Or the grounds around Plevna. Another time. We also didn’t have time to swing down to Tweed, and check the boondocking site mentioned in park4night.com. Our last stop for the day would be back in Marmora.
Marmora boat ramp
Back on the Hwy 7 after filling up with gas and sated with an ice cream sandwich from the gas station’s convenience store, the traffic suddenly became horrific. This was the first time we were glad we had a dashcam. Must have been checkout time at Bon Echo Provincial Park because suddenly hundreds of cars began racing along the road, crossing on double yellow lines uphill and narrowly avoiding collisions with the oncoming traffic, just to overtake each other and get stuck behind another line of cars ahead. I am sure Alex will pull some shots from the dashcam into his videos.
In Marmora we left Doranya in the parking lot of the Memorial Park Information Centre. Boy, was it busy! We could not believe our eyes. There was almost no spot to park, but as we pondered, one RV pulled out and we quickly took its spot. We are used to this parking lot being a quiet, sleepy place. We’ve driven through Marmora hundreds of times for a bio-break and a picnic at the nearby tables every time we passed by. There had hardly been a person or a car to notice around. This was the reason we liked it there. A stroll by the river, perhaps a coffee at the nearby café or lunch at a pub. All so different now. There were people everywhere, picnicking, running around; cars parked further away with kids playing and teenagers on their laptops peeking out from van hatches.
A Marmora free camping spot was listed on freecampsites.net. It was described as one being just next to the boat ramp by the river. We walked to a boat ramp. It really was a small place. Across the road there was the water treatment plant and a big garage with a sign “No parking”, then just up from the boat ramp another sign “No overnight parking, no camping” and further up there was a big parking lot, but it too had a few signs forbidding overnight parking.
The only spot somewhat with no signage was just above the boat launch spot. It was small. Would fit our van but not any bigger rig. We decided against this spot. However, as I am writing this and checking again with freecampsites.net apparently, we were not at the right boat ramp, which is further up river on Main St. in a residential neighbourhood.
Well, we have something to do next time we pass by Marmora and hope it won’t be as busy as it was this past weekend.
All in all, we consider our reconnaissance of boondocking sites a success. We’d heard and read good things about iOverlander, park4night and freecampsites.net among others, but crowdsourced information is only as good as the contributors. Our decidedly limited sample size is, of course, not statistically valid, but it has provided a level of comfort for when we need to use these and other resources while travelling.
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