Massasauga Provincial Park is in Ontario, about two hours north of Toronto. It is in an archipelago on Georgian Bay and offers I think over 100 campsites - all of which are paddle in back country camping. Since it is an archipelago, you can canoe all day with no portages. I went with my 14 year old daughter Liz, looking to introduce her to hammock camping and myself too, having only one other wilderness night hammock camping. We are experienced tent campers, and brought tent along as 'Plan B'.
I was also testing 2 new pieces of gear: Dutch spreader bars and a Coghlan's double wide cot bug net. I apologize for the lack of photos of gear but you can enjoy a few views.
Our hammock configs were like this:
- We both have Dutch 11' net-less Hexon hammocks
- Both use cinch buckle to whoopee suspension attached to Continuous Loops on hammocks. With Dutch double hooks on one end and larks headed on other.
- It was extremely hot. I had a 3 season jarbridge for her and a fleece blanket for me. Used neither.
- 40 degree summer sleeping bags
- New Coghlan Double bug net as Plan A bug protection
- Dutch summer sock as Plan B bug protection
- Tent as plant B, with Klymit air mats (which we loved prior to meeting hammocks)
It was a great trip. A few challenges thrown in...
We ran into extensive traffic driving from Rochester to the park, all on Canadian side. Park is North of Toronto and these people are serious about their weekends in cottage country. So we lost about an hour there.
It was a bit windy when we arrived at park. White caps on water. Looked into a closer camp site but went with original plan which involved a planned 3 hours of paddling. A bit over 4 hours of paddling against headwinds later we arrived at campsite just at dusk. Dinner, pitch tent and configure hammock set up all took time. The double bug net was not long enough for one let alone two. Failure on my part - dimensions were on packaging and we were supposed to pre-configure this prior to trip. But one of us had to go out and win a soccer tournament so had more games ;<). Anyway. I could have made it work (did so next night) but we had the tent set up and sun going down so we crawled into the tent (aka sweat lodge).
4am bear visit. Helped himself to a plastic bag with sunscreen / bug spray in it. As usual we had "all" food and other scented items in bear bucket hung from tree. Kept the bug spray out, because, well, there are bugs at night. It travels in zip lock baggy with our sunscreen. Never thought about the sunscreen - which must have smelled like a pina-colada to every woodland creature in a mile radius. We went back to sleep. He passed by tent a little later but daughter and I went back to sleep again. As a goalie, Liz has nerves of steel.
Wake up and did breakfast, start breaking camp. Liz decides thieving woodland creatures should not get away with it stealing her sun screen. She heads to Thunder Box and suggests I start searching. We are on a peninsula. Thunderbox is west of camp. I head north of camp. Walk 25 yards in and clap my hands, make some noise. I hear a commotion and see furry black butt running away. Phew!. Wait, we are on a peninsula. He will reach water and than circle around to my left... where the thunder box is. Daughter is puzzled why father is running through woods towards her clapping his hands with an edge of concern in his voice. Advises me bear or no bear she is taking care of her business and would prefer I stay away from thunderbox.
After this excitement we stick close to camp but do try heading the way I saw him leave with the bag. 50' away from camp we find plastic bag with spray cans still in it. He bit into them, they expended their contents mostly in the bag. 3' away from bag is a pile of bear vomit. Luckily for him bug spray not punctured. I mean, I am sure ingesting 2 different types of sunscreen is not healthy but the insecticide would have been worse. Still some sunscreen in bottom of bottle. Daughter not adverse to using sunscreen with bear saliva. I swear I need to get her a coon skin cap and just leave her in the woods to live out her days in peace and tranquility. Most kids her age spent the weekend hunting Pokemon to earn points. She is in the woods getting her stuff back from bear. This sounds foolish, but I figured walking around campsite in daytime is not a bother. We were not looking for the critter, just trying to see if we could come across the cans which I was pretty sure would be discarded. I did expedite the 'pack up and leave this island' process though and we left a note.
Ok, back to hammock camping. Second site had better trees. We did pitch tent but were able to configure tarp and hammocks.
Bug Net
I took the double bug screen, cut a couple of pass through holes in it and put it over my hammock. It draped to ground nicely. For her hammock I used my Dutch Argon Summer Sock. I hear you, it ain't supposed to be a bug net. I tell you though, it worked perfect for her. It was just warm enough to skip under insulation. She enjoyed dropping stuff below her into the solid sock. She did not think pulling it on and off was a bother. It did cut the breeze and made things a bit hotter but this worked to her benefit later in the evening. And we were under a bright green Noah's tarp. I think the sock is larger than a bug net though, a trade off. And my improvised netting was large too. Both worked though. We were swarmed by bugs but only had about 4 bites each for the whole weekend and agree none of those were from when we were in hammocks. We were both amazed at the noise though. With the bug screen over ridge-line it can be pretty close to your face. So you do hear the near constant whine of the bugs trying to get you. At first it is satisfying - Ha! you can't get me. Than it is pretty annoying since as long time campers that is our signal to start swatting. I think the answer is to spray screen with Permethrin after we check to see how safe surrounding yourself that close with Permethrin covered mesh is.
Spreader bars
At first the trees were to close at the head end. We napped the afternoon bunk style without bars, her above me. She thought that was a lot of fun and we could have used the double net over both of us if we stayed like that close. But I'd bump her when I moved and we were keen on using the Dutch Spreader bars. So I shortened the footer suspension which gave me more on head end and installed bars. Wow! These worked great. The hammocks were still not perfectly level, which I believe they need to be. But we ran with it and me being slightly under her kept our legs apart more. Yes, one side goes up if someone gets out. Yes, when someone moves the other feels it. It very much helped that the prior night we were tent camping on mats that squeaked and made noise when you moved too. In comparison the hammocks were of course way more comfortable and I felt that they were fine for close proximity camping. Very comforting to be close like that under same tarp when there are sunscreen thieving critters about.
Things I would change:
- Better bug net: The Coghlan's double basically failed. It worked great, but was a pain to configure. There are many people who have walked this trail ahead of me and I need to learn from them and try a frontkey or something similar.
- I did enjoy how the Coghlan draped to ground. I had a bucket next to me on ground that acted as a night table. Getting out for call of nature was easy enough. Was surprised that nothing made it under (although I took pains to make sure nothing was holding it up.
- The Summer Sock is not meant to be a bug net, but it works for us. I will DIY a frontkey for comparison, but we enjoyed some of the features the sock offers. We camp more in shoulder seasons than summer.
- Whoopie hooks: I larks headed the whoopee's to the Continuous Loops on the footer. After working with the Whoopie Hooks on the head end I am sold on how simple they can be. Should purchase either a Whoopie for footer end or a weight rated carabiner.
- Invest in gear to save time. The Dutch Bling has its place. I feel I could have had hammock set up in place faster if I had just a few more toys. Example: reconfiguring footer involved me removing a larks head between 2 sections of amsteel. Not difficult but not easy - hard to adjust.
All in all a great success. We are both confident enough to leave tent home text time, although we were pleased we had it this time. Trick would be to get an established rig up quickly. So we just have to zero in a few things and practice a bit.
And of course - photos:
It was hot, so occasionally we will drag our feet:
Second day campsite. We still put tent up but used it as changing room. Liz's new orange Dutch hammock. Mine is olive, harder to see. Paddles provided a bit of function but sure made us look salty.
This beats hunting Pokemon:
Sunscreen covered in bear hair and puncture marks. Looking at the distance between punctures this guy was bigger than he looked out the tent door at 4am.
Ok, this cinched it. After first night in tent Liz got up around 9am, groggy and sore. Second night was in hammocks. She popped out of her hammock at 6:30 singing and refreshed, ready to start paddling. This is the rare 'early morning canoe photo'.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks