Adventure #2: A Simple Trip to Massasauga Provincial Park

With the success of our first canoe trip together, Michelle and I decided to venture out into the wilderness for a second time from Wednesday, July 4th to the 5th, 2018. As our last trip was fun but quite busy, we opted for a slower-paced journey this time around, choosing Massasauga Provincial Park as our destination. As Massasauga is a backcountry, only park, Michelle and I made arrangements to park our vehicle at a nearby marina before embarking on our journey.

We woke up early Wednesday morning, loading up the vehicle with our gear and the canoe before heading on our way towards Parry Sound. We stopped at Moon River Marine located on Wood's Bay, our starting access point for the trip. Moon River Marine was an excellent marina where we bought a pass to park our vehicle for one night. They even had a dock right next to their marina that was perfect for launching canoes! After loading up the canoe with our packs, Michelle and I headed out into Wood's Bay, heading towards the Captain Allan Strait where we would camp for the night. It was a gorgeous day, with the sun shining brightly overhead. Sunscreen and sunglasses were definitely a necessity on this trip!

Under the heat of the sun, we made our way through Wood's Bay; however, we ended up paddling past the opening that led into the Captain Allan Strait, getting a tad bit lost for a little while. Whoops haha! As Wood's Bay is a larger body of water, the water was mildly choppy, making it difficult for us to stop and check our maps to relocate the opening. Eventually, we determined where the Captain Allan Strait was and paddled that way, yet we still weren't quite in the actual opening, but rather a very weedy section that frames the opening to the Captain Allan Strait. Instead of going around to try and find the exact opening, Michelle and I pushed through, finding a path amongst the weeds. If it weren't for this little mistake, we wouldn't have had the opportunity to see the family of geese that we did, so that made it all worthwhile!

As we finally made it into the Captain Allan Strait, we paddled for a little while, keeping a lookout for campsites on our way to determine where we wanted to set up camp for the night. After spotting a few good sites, we came across site 306, which seemed perfect! It had two framed in, sandy tent spots, a picnic table, a bear box, and a fantastic sandy beach. The site had beautiful views, yet was closed in enough to give privacy from the vast amount of boat traffic along the Captain Allan Strait. We brought the canoe into the site, unloading it and laying it on a stretch of grass. After exploring the site to be sure it was a good fit, Michelle and I began unloading our packs to set up our tent and a hammock. As it was around noon at this point, we decided it was time for some food, so we pulled out our snacks and had a quick meal around the picnic table. 




While packing up our food for later, Michelle and I decided that swimming would be a good idea given the intensity of the sun, so we slipped into our bathing suits and spent some time just relaxing in the water. We discovered that paddling life jackets are rather fun for just floating in! After drying up from swimming, we just relaxed on our campsite, taking turns reading books in the hammock for the rest of the afternoon. It was a very relaxing day, to say the least. For dinner, we set up the stove to boil some water for our Backpacker's Pantry meals. As we discovered how gross filtered lake water can taste the last trip, we brought along a couple drink additive squeeze bottles. All in all, it was a pretty good meal.

After dinner, we packed up our stuff for the night, placing our packs in the convenient bear box located on the site. We then crawled into the tent to read a bit more before we called it a night. As we were in the tent, we noticed a boat driving by, towing a tube with a passenger, warning nearby campsites of something. We decided to go and sit at the picnic table to see if they were going to stop and say anything to us, which they did. Turns out a mother bear and her baby had been spotted at the day use picnic site near us, and the boaters just wanted to warn nearby campers so that they could make sure their sites wouldn't attract them. After the little bit of commotion, Michelle and I decided to call it a night and luckily for us the bears never paid our site a visit. 

The next morning we woke up, made some more Backpacker's Pantry meals for breakfast, before packing up our gear and heading on our way back to the marina the same way we came in. The only difference was this time we used the actual opening between the Captain Allan Strait and Wood's Bay. In a short amount of time, we made it to shore and loaded up the vehicle once again to head on our way back home.

Although not quite as exciting as our last trip, Massasauga was beautiful and relaxing, and a trip I would highly recommend to anyone looking to just get outdoors! I know I plan to go back here someday!

                                                 Until the next adventure,
                                                                                                   - Megan
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