Venturer Camp, French River (2 Days / 5km)

An introduction to winter camping, I think?

The Cover:

My favourite shots that are 'cover-worthy' for this little story.

A sundog in the sky.

Building a quinzhee.

Rating:

The French River - a beautiful and wonderful place. A Canadian classic, if you will. Now, in this instance, not the Provincial Park proper of course (a family cottage that we have the pleasure of visiting on occasion), but a excellent spot to visit nevertheless. We're very, very lucky.

Regardless, I'll offer a rating for the French River itself, as we've had the privilege to paddle in this park many, many times.

I Want to Live Here Rating: 4/5

People-Meter: 1/5

Anxiety Scale: 1/5

Pain Train: 2/5

10/10 Recommend: 5/5

The Prologue:

The French River, home to cottages and wilderness alike, is of national historic significance to Canada. Canoeing, kayaking, and other water-based recreational activities are commonplace. Paddling, however, is a favourite. You can take in the sights of the many interconnected lakes, gorges, and rapids from Lake Nipissing to Georgian Bay. A sight to see, that's for sure and certain!

For context, Isaac and I volunteer with Scouts Canada and often spend our weekends out with our Venturer Company, teaching high school students the many tips, tricks, and trades of the outdoor world. This is one of those many adventures.

Here's our trip report!

The Story:

Day Zero:

Cambridge to Rainbow Camp

Another early departure for a weekend trip! We left Cambridge around 11AM with the squad in tow after packing our trailer full of gear. The fact that we had a trailer in the first place was a blessing - if you've read Bon Echo Provincial Park (2 Days / 4km), you'll know that we have a history with trailers. Particularly with getting them to function correctly - the lights always never seem to work, which is a problem if you're in need of extra space (the super van wasn't going to be enough this time round with five teenagers tagging along).

Isaac and our Dad spent many, many long hours in the dark of night trying to come up with a solution. We traded vehicles (which required a couple of drive between Cambridge and Guelph), cautiously explored with wiring (and I say this incredibly conservatively - they were trying to diagnose the problem, not become mechanics overnight), troubleshooted, and ended up deciding that the issue was with the vehicle, not the trailer itself. There was a short somewhere that we couldn't fix (even if we wanted to), meaning that the running lights in the trailer weren't working. Fortunately, the signal lights were functional, so as long as we drove during the day, all would be well.

That's exactly what we did! We left as early as possible, eating lunch on the road (we had some tasty, tasty homemade sandwiches). The drive overall, was uneventful. The roads weren't busy in Barrie, even after stopping for gas (the van was hungry, too). Our Venturer friends got distracted inside of the gas station - Isaac had to retrieve them so we could continue the long drive to our destination at the French River. Food was holding them hostage. Entirely understandable, of course.

We arrived at Rainbow Camp (our 'put-in' for this trip) just as golden hour was beginning, so 4:30PM, give or take a few minutes. The most friendly and adorable dog greeted us - I had the passenger door of the van wide open so I could give the aforementioned dog the love it deserved. Much like us, the couple that owned the dog were visiting a cottage on the French River for the weekend. Unfortunately, their snowmobile died, (probably got stuck in some icy slush) so they were forced to use a four-wheeler to haul their gear.

We were not so fortunate.

As always, we elect to pull all of our gear across the river the old fashioned way - by sled. It takes a little while to pull everything together and secure all of the bags, bins, coolers, and outdoor accessories down with bungee cords, but once completed, the cottage is only a 20 minute snowshoe away (or walk if there's a fairly solid snowmobile trail along the way - spoiler, there usually is). Sadly, we had all our gear organized once golden hour had passed, so we had to settle for blue and pinkish views on the river. We weren't really in the best position to see the sunset, but there was some colour in the sky.

The boys walked ahead and I stayed back to keep the girls company and help them with their gear as needed (there was a mild backpack malfunction). Dad was already at the cottage with his Venturer Company (we were meeting them there), so the boys were keen to move at the speed of light and simply arrive to our destination for the weekend. I wasn't about to get in their way!

By 5:30PM were were giving the crew a tour of the cottage. It's not a super big place, but it helps to know where the major things are (sleeping quarters, the bathroom, all that jazz). Shortly afterwards, dinner and dessert preparation was the number one task. There was plenty of onion and apple cutting to go around, in addition to chatter about old camps, tomorrow's activities, and the dreaded quinzhee (Luke was going to be sleeping in one).

We ended the night with a few games of Pass the Pig (Isaac and I were the all-around victors - clearly all skill no luck) and many, many rounds of some kind of Pictionary game. I can't for the life of me remember the name of it - I only recall thinking that someone's drawing looking like the creepy Duo Lingo unicorn thing, which was not at all correct.

Day One:

French River Proper

Up early today - with our original plans being cut short, it was important to get the day started as early as possible. We had a lot of activities planned and didn't want to waste any time!

I rolled out of bad around 7:30AM and stood by the bay window in the cottage for a little while, deciding if I wanted to go outside and take a picture or two. You could just tell that it was cold, yet glorious morning. There was just this quality to the light, plus crystal clear skies, which only means one thing at the French River...COLD, a brisk -20 in fact. I eventually decided that it would be worth my time to just go out and snap a couple of pictures. It couldn't be that bad, right?

Ha, wrong. I managed to get frost nip on my pinkie finger within ten minutes? This is what happens when you lug around a giant hunk of metal in the name of photography. I retreated to the indoors to nurse my finger and make a cup of coffee.

Now, my Dad gifted me a pretty nifty coffee filter for Christmas. A GSI Coffee Rocket to be exact. I have my fair share of coffee related camping items, and this one is quickly becoming a favourite for more bougie adventures. And by bougie, I mean a trip that doesn't require lightweight gear. It's easy to use, simple enough to clean, and may not pack down to a teeny tiny size, but that's not a huge problem. It fits right inside of a camping mug. A pretty simple solution if you ask me!

Breakfast was speedy. The oatmeal practically punted everyone off outside. I was the last to leave the cottage. I wanted to make sure that the kitchen was clean after all of the cooking chaos. With over six people things were bound to get messy fast. It's just inevitable.

By the time I left the warmth of the cottage, our squad had made very good progress on our first task of the day - making a quinzhee. A giant pile of snow had already been assembled and packed down. Sophie and Evelyn were collecting sticks so we could create air holes in the snow. Just the finishing touches were left, which mainly involved adding more snow to the quinzhee and letting it sit for the day (the quinzhee needs time to settle down and harden up). I snapped a bunch of pictures and tried to stomp off in the woods in search of wildlife, but no luck. Not even any birds, man! Perhaps it was just too cold?

The next activity in the itinerary was tubing. There's a nice little hill right beside the cottage, and it's quite entertaining just coasting down it in a inner-tube. I taught the Venturers how to put on snowshoes and create a track, while Isaac freed the inner-tube from the bunkie. Apparently the lock had frozen shut and required a bit of love in the form of boiling water and hand warmers? He had to locate and coax the air compressor as well - it wasn't exactly keen to operate in such chilly conditions.

Soon enough our young friends were having a grand old time sliding down the hill. Up and down they went, over and over. Predictably, I froze my fingers yet again in an attempt to capture photos of the tubing madness. Probably one of the coldest days out there this winter season? Even hand warmers didn't quite do the trick.

Just before noon the crew collectively decided that it was time to warm up and have lunch before returning to the outdoor world for an afternoon hike. Another simple meal was on the menu. Soup and hot dogs? A slightly odd combination, but it worked. Got everyone all warm and cozy, which is just what you want to be before heading out for a snowshoe.

We ended up hiking for approximately 1.5 hours? This was the first time our Venturer Company had ever gone snowshoeing, and for those who've never done it before, it can be a bit of a struggle. And a bit of a struggle it was! We initially followed a swamp for quite a ways, but there was a lot of overgrown alder and downed trees, which forced us off our intended path. There was a lot of tripping, falling, and rolling in the snow, not all entirely intentional. Nothing a little experience can't fix right up! Walking in snowshoes can be pretty darn awkward!

Luke got quite the soaker in a not so frozen creek (a shallow spot in a swamp, don't worry). He wasn't sure how to escape, so Isaac had to jump in to get him out. He, too, got quite wet - his pants were soaked all the way past his knees. This kind of forced the speed of our hike to increase. Don't want our soaker victims getting too chilly! We moved from the swamp to an old logging road, following fairly fresh snowmobile tracks back toward the cottage. A couple of kilometres in and our squad was hitting their maximum for the day. The pace had slowed considerably, there was some grumbling, and overall fatigue.

We made it back to our starting point just after 3:30PM. I hung back to make sure that everyone made it to the cottage safely. It's important to make sure that no one is left behind! Those that were super cold returned to the warmth of the cottage for the remainder of the afternoon.

Everyone else spent a couple of hours finishing the quinzhee before nightfall. This meant digging it out, of course. We have a couple of Compact Shovels from Sail that did the trick. They're small, nimble, and easy to manoeuvre about in small spaces. Put a few of those in some capable hands and they can do wonders! I mainly used a bucket shovel to help move the snow out of the work area. Three people could fit in the quinzhee and I wasn't about to make things even more crowded in there.

Soon enough it was time to make dinner. Shepard's Pie was the name of the game, in addition to cake, apple crisp, and ice cream. We taught the crew how to play Five Crowns, Euchre, and Karma. Games to keep everyone entertained as the evening carried on. At one point a couple of the kids went outside to check out the stars. It was a clear, cold night, which meant that viewing the sky would be perfect. I eventually followed suit - I was told that Neptune was out to play alongside a simple crescent moon, a photographic opportunity I wasn't planning on missing. As predicted, it was a lovely sight for sore eyes. A stellar way to end a busy day, I think.

Just before bed Luke ventured out to the quinzhee to light a candle. It doesn't take must to get that thing pretty warm! We wished him a good sleep. He was the only Venturer crave enough to call the quinzhee home for the night.

Day Two:

French River to Cambridge

No sleeping in on this Sunday! Time to make breakfast, clean and pack up - the more time we have, the better - our high school friends absolutely need it. Isaac let the kettle go off purposely to act as an alarm. Such a sneaky little bean!

Breakfast was a feast this morning. Pancakes, blueberry sauce, leftover cake, ice cream, bacon, and oatmeal. Basically anything that needed to be consumed before we headed out for the day (the boys were up for the task). As predicted, it wasn't a short process. Took three hours from beginning to end? Believe it or not, that included the dishes.

Of course, the chaos just continued. Packing everything up was an experience I can only compare to herding cats. Just craziness. Absolute craziness. We eventually got the cottage closed up and started the long walk across the ice. Probably arrived at the van around 11:30AM? Isaac and I raced ahead so we could start organizing the gear. We were about to play adult Janga, not throw everything in the van and hope for the best. Not our style, you know?

Took close to an hour to finish packing. We finally hit the road at 12:30AM, greeting with terrible conditions on the highway. The blowing snow was awful all the way to Barrie. We stopped at a Harvey's for a quick bite to eat (I passed - not a restaurant that I like very much, plus they don't sell coffee), before returning to the road. The final moments of this trip were just filled with hours of driving. Not very entertaining. Everyone slept for the most part, all of the way home.

The Appendix:

Unedited Bits:

From our Instagram Highlights