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Some provincal camping help please. (some fishing)


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A good friend of mine and his girlfriend have decided that they want to go camping again this year which I am all for. Her stipulation was 'A place none of us have ever been before.'

 

As much as I like this idea, I want to make sure we get a campground that is still nice, isn't too far from home and hopefully has some fishing options.

 

Ok so here are the specs (again any help is appreciated). We live in Mississauga, I think 3 hours would be our max drive. (Can be pushed a little bit). Can't be a campsite any of us have ever been to OR a lake we have ever fished before.

 

We have been to/ fished:

 

The pinery

Cyprus lake at Tobermory

Balsam lake

Scugog

Quinte (No sandbanks :( )

Presquille

Somewhere in Algonquin (Though I don't remember where. I was 12)

Chutes Provincial park (ultra sad I can't take them there)

 

 

I think that's it. Any species of fish is ok.

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Killbear, Killarney, Silent lake, Bon Echo.....

 

 

Does it have to be a provincial park? Why not go to kawartha highlands, or leslie frost (or whatever they call it now) up near dorset? Almost like crown camping, but you have to book, and pay for a site. Kind of remote, depending on your experience I guess.

 

S.

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well you would have to push it by about a half hour but I would suggest Restoule. Excellent park with nice waterfront sites,2 beaches,very good hiking trails,bike trails,great canoeing,boating and of course some very good fishing for walleye,smallies,musky,pike and lake trout. There are several back lakes which get very little pressure(you would probably be the only ones on some of them) even the main lake does not have the crowds some of the other parks further south and closer to highway 11 get (Restoule is 45 minutes off 11). Park is very quiet,secluded with tons of water to explore,even hooks up to the french river canoe route.I have been camping there for 25 years now,and I have been to many others over the years,you would have a hard time finding a nicer park.

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If you can do something besides a provincial park, I'd suggest Lakair for camping. Very quiet, beautiful water (although no real beach). great owners and good walleye, pike and bass fishing. Primitive and electrical sites. Outhouse or flush with showers. Depending on your campsite, even wifi ;) and if you don't mind bunking together, the wall tent rocks.

 

Not too far from Sudbury or North Bay if you need a break.

 

Missed going last year so plan to make up for it this year.

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Are you looking to " get away from it all" somewhere remote?

 

Or something with power and water with something close by for the girlfriend if she gets bored...?

 

If it's option 2 then the long sault parkway is good... Little further then 3 hours... I think 4-4.5 hours if I remember right...Lots of on the water campsites... Good fishing... On the st lawrence river... 45 minutes from Ottawa and about an hour to Montreal if the lady wants to go shopping...

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Are you looking to " get away from it all" somewhere remote?

 

Or something with power and water with something close by for the girlfriend if she gets bored...?

 

If it's option 2 then the long sault parkway is good... Little further then 3 hours... I think 4-4.5 hours if I remember right...Lots of on the water campsites... Good fishing... On the st lawrence river... 45 minutes from Ottawa and about an hour to Montreal if the lady wants to go shopping...

 

I get the feeling sadly option 2 is probably the safer bet. The buddy and I would be more happy doing an interior Algonquin trek or the like but I think his girlfriend would kill us if we brought her along on one of those.

 

Also thanks everyone for all the advice. It was actually too good, now after showing them some of the options, they want to go a few times this summer.

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I have done a pile of crown land camping, but some women just aren't up to it. I used to date a girl that loved it, but my wife really likes an organized provincial park. Some women prefer to be close to a bathroom and showers! If she's not that outdoorsy, I wouldn't push the crown land camping that hard! You definately wouldn't regret restoule!

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She's not going to want to camp on Crown Land, lol. Great way to make her hate it the first time out. Do her a favour and just go to a PP... If you want to turn her off from camping, roughing it the first time out will do it.

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A bit further than what you specified, but keep it in the back pocket if you ever want a fantastic part of Algonquin to go with a different group to try out Cedar lake (Brent) haven't been in too long to comment on the fishing but when we went the trout were plentiful and so were the walleye, I had a cousin from Holland come over and he did a 2-3 day portage there too and loved it

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While I love most PPs, you have to remember that not all maintenance/cleaning staff is the same across the board. Which means that while there will be comfort stations, the potential exists they could be pretty scary if not cleaned well. She may want to avoid the outhouses as well ;)

 

Unless you're dead set on provincial park camping, I would research private campgrounds as well. They tend to be tighter re:noise and other disturbances, which may or may not enhance your experience, depending on what you guys want to do while camping.

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Haha you guys are making me fill up a huge list.

 

Restoule seems to be at the top of it.

 

Killarny sounds pretty good too...... actually I haven't seen a less then stellar option yet. Might have to bust out drawing names out of a hat.

 

Reservations start April 4th right?

you can make reservations up to 5 months in advance to any PP that has reservations.For the best sites the sooner the better.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I would suggest Grundy Lake for what you have described. It is about 4 hours drive from Hamilton up the 69 and is a really nice park with three lakes that are really easy to canoe and portage around. I went a couple years ago with some of my city friends and they were all fine where we stayed. The lots were really nice and there weren't many people when we went end of June, though that may be a different story further into the summer season :P

A couple people above mentioned amenities and these were actually quite nice as they had toilet paper and had been cleaned recently! lol The park is failry popular from what I understand and was certainly well maintained and very very pretty. this fishing was okay, the group i was with wasn't too into fishing so we only messed around for a couple of hours :(, but i still managed a few snot rockets and a few walleye - enough to keep the cityites amuzed ahaha.

You can PM me if you have any questions or anything as well. Cheers! and hope you have a great trip!

Chris

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Silent Lake is nice if you have canoes. No motors are allowed.

There are washrooms etc. and it's close to Apsley for supplies.

 

Depending on how self sufficient you are, as in don't need a washroom, and have a boat with a motor, there are lots of places on islands where you can camp for free in and around the Kawarthas. PM me if you want suggestions.

 

There are also lots of canoe routes in the North Kawartha Highlands Park, where you portage into small lakes. Most portages are short and easy.

Edited by garry2rs
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