Take Your Children Camping

When I was growing up, every summer our family went on a 7-10 day camping trip.  While other children our age were taking family trips to Disneyworld or Texas, my brother, sister and I were stretched out (brother more so as he got his own bench seat!) in our full sized van, stuffed to the top of the back seat with supplies.

I would wager a bet that most Southern Ontario children never gain an appreciation for their province - its size and diversity - because they never see more than a small portion of it.  Each summer we would have a new route to explore through Ontario's countryside, camping along the way.

The best part of camping in Ontario is Ontario's Provincial Park system (http://www.OntarioParks.ca) .  Every park had it's own features and highlights, but there was always a familiar similarity among them all.  Maybe it was the brown gatehouse, or the campsite sign posts where you put your sign-in slip, something made each park feel a little like the one you left.

I remember one particular summer when all the parks had a program for kids.  If you completed certain tasks, you would earn a button pin with a wildlife photo and Ontario Provincial Parks written on it.  The one task I remember was cleaning up garbage on vacant sites, pop can tabs in particular.  After we picked up so many, we turned them in to the park staff for our button.  At 29 years old, I still have my buttons!

I have so many memories of our camping trips - my brother and I as youngsters building an entire road system in the dirt of the site with our dinky cars, my mom always insisting on packing a tablecloth and clips for the picnic table, the smell of the old canvas tent, waking up in the tent as a very young girl and "reading" my Sears catalogue before every one else woke up, the heebie geebies I had the first time I saw a pine bug (well it was on my shoulder!), the sight of pine needles covering the green roof of the outhouse, and the long 6 hour hike we tackled one summer in Algonquin Park.

We saw a good portion of Ontario during those trips.  I remember the gravel road  cutting down through Hornepayne, touring the pulp mill in Iroquois Falls, the ChiCheeMaun ferry (http://chicheemaun.com) past Flower Pot Island, and the fascinating rock wall in Bon Echo provincial park.  

I'm sure the nights we spent camping in Ontario's Provincial Parks led me to my first summer job as an Ontario Junior Ranger at 16.  That amazing summer experience led me to a undergraduate degree in Forestry, taking me to where I am now, working for the Canadian Forest Service.

Was I jealous of my friends who went to Florida?  Of course I was.  I still have never been to Florida, but I wouldn't trade our camping trips for all the Disneys in the world.  

Take your children camping.  Create some memories they will hold on to for life.

Submitted by Lisa - Friday, September 09, 2005 00:57:33

Comments: