On an overnight hike in Fundy Park in New Brunswick I stopped for lunch at a picnic area near a parking lot full of day visitors. A woman headed directly towards me full speed with her boyfriend behind trying to keep up with her and she asked "excuse me, can you please tell me where we ARE" while looking back and giving a nasty look at her boyfriend who was clearly the one who got them lost. I pulled out my map and showed her and she asked if I knew where they would have parked. I said there were only two posible parking lots and if it was not this one it was the other one and showed her the shortest trail to get there but she did not want go back in the woods to get lost again so I gave her directions along the road instead. She thanked me and took off with the boyfriend again trying to keep up.
The funny part of this being Fundy Park is no matter where they live they had at least an hour in the car together to get home.
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One overnight trip to Foster Brook in Fundy Park, I left after work and got to the park with just enough time to hike in and set up before dark. The campsite is in a valley and there is a hill in the middle of the trail between the parking lot and the campsite. As I arrived to the campsite I saw a woman heading up a trail leading nowhere and went over to check on her. She said her and her 72 year old mother were trying get back to their car and after getting the cars description I told them I had parked next to them and pointed the correct direction. She said she knew that but did not want to walk up the big hill they had walked down and thought they could find another path back to the car without going uphill. I convinced them that you go down a hill you must go back up and that they would not get back before dark and lent them my spare flashight and told them to leave it under my car. They must have made it because the next day their car was gone and I never did see my flashlight again.
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All beans and no toilet paper
Went on a trip with a guided youth group of 12 to 15 year olds where all the gear was provided and all the kids had to do was provide their own food. Many or most of the kids had never camped before and neither had their parents. One of the group who also was my tentmate let his mother do his meal choice for him. His mother associated camping with beans and figured that a 3 day trip with 3 meals per day meant 9 cans of beens, no other food and no toilet paper.
The poor kid had issues the first night and good for him I had a full roll of toilet paper (and a full loaf of bread), but the second day after finding a comfortable branch and leaving a large load on the ground the branch broke and he fell right in it. After using all my toilet paper to clean himself off and still 1 1/2 days to go he had to start using slices of bread to wipe. I would say the best sight was on the last day while hiking across a large field the whole group had to wait while this kid ran to the only bush close by with two sliced of bread in his hands to do his business, however the bread was gone at that point so I don't know what he used. Many of us in the group went back for future hikes but I never did see him again.
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Went on a few overnight hikes with a nice guy I will call Jason. I always pack heavy as I like to have everything I may need so even an 1 night trip I would be 45 pounds, Jason would always be 22 lbs. I know his pack was 22 lbs as it was the first thing he would say at the trailhead and would repeat it over and over. The thing is, he was never prepared for the trip. On the three overnight hiking trips I know of, he ran out of food and had to take donations from the rest of the group, did not have bug repelent, and another trip had to borrow my spare flashlight all while saying "my pack is only 22 lbs " and never saying maybe i should have packed 23 lbs.
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On a recent two night hike in Mont Orford to Vallonnier site there were a few groups of us all heading in and two guys really stood out as they had all of their gear in a 4 wheel wagon with one pulling and the other pushing. Both were wearing flipflops and seemed to have no idea the trail had a lot of up and down sections. When they got to the turn off where the trail turned rough they decided to keep on the easy trail even though it went the completely wrong direction. I have no idea how far they got before giving up, but they never did make it in to the campsite.
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I did not see this myself but read about it in the news. Three guys that were discribed as new canadians went for a day hike in the mountains in North Vancouver and got lost and had to spend the night in the woods. Seems they had a lighter and to keep warm (in the woods)they decided to burn their shoes and jackets (in the woods). They were found the next day cold but ok and no explanation on why they did not try to burn some branches and wood.
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On my last hike last weekend I was on a new to me trail that followed the waterfront in Petie voie du Fleuve park in Montreal. The trail followed the beach for a couple of kms with lots of nice spots to sit and chill. I first past a couple of guys sitting alone then I passed one who was removing his clothing so I figured that he was going to go for a swim and I found a private spot for myself to have a picnic. A few minutes later another guy walked past completley naked and that was when I realized I found an unoficial nude beach. I packed up my stuff and headed out passing a couple more nude guys before getting out of the area. On the way back I skipped this part of the trail. Oh well.
Keith Foskett- A thru-Hiking Trilogy: A Three Book Boxset on Kindle for about $6.00
Includes;
The Journey in Between - The El Camino de Santiago
The Last Englishman - Pacific Crest Trail
Balancing on Blue - Appalachian trail
Keith Foskett- High and Low
Bill Bryson - Walk in the Woods
Dillon Wallace - The Long Labrador Trail
Carrot Quinn - Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart
There are many facebook groups set up just for hiking from Montreal where people with a car post where they are going and that they have available seats and just asking for some gas money. Most are day hikes but some are overnighters as well. Some groups are all young people who may not be interested in taking along an old guy like me so I have not tried to connect with anyone yet.
Le P'tit Train du Nord is a multi use trail that would be primaraly a bike trail with not many backcountry sites however many car camping campgrounds along the way. There are many rest areas on the trail with many in remote loations that probably are not for overnight camping but if you are discrete and set up just before dark and are up early no one will know or care that you were there. The trail is paved half the way and crushed gravel the other half and is not really at any point in the middle of nowhere but is quite nice all the same.
Galland busses provide services from downtown Montreal to Mont Laurier with many stops along the Le P'tit Train du Nord giving many options for backpacking the trail. With bus stops in Mont Laurier, Lac-Saguay, Rivere-Rouge, Labelle, Mont Tremblant, Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Val-David and Saint-Jerome you can hop on and off at many points along the way to make planning without a car easy.
Boucherville island is just off Montreal and is available by bus from Longueuil-Universite-de-Sherbrooke Metro station. There are also passenger ferries to this Island. Boucherville Island has a campground with some walk in sites in the woods and some in a field. The sites have a large steel lock box for food, packs and security. There is a bike rack in each site with water, washrooms and a camp store on site. The store has ice, firewood and enough food items that you could even go without bringing in supplies. The sites are about 3-4 kms direct from the bus stop but you could take other trails to make a longer hike if you like. I will will be going back here many times in the future.
Urban Camping at Recreo Park is a campground I car camped at one time and hiked out to it from Montreal another time. It is located on the end of long island at the end of a park called Petite Voie du Fleuve in the Saint Laurent River and would be a 15 km walk from the new REM station at Ile-des-Soeurs on Nuns' island and 18kms from Jean-Drapeau Metro Station. You can also take busses to Nuns' island and from the casino on ile Notre-Dame. It is very flat and along the water front the whole way and even though it is at no point in the middle of nowhere, It a nice easy to get to weekend hike. The island has a paved bike path down the middle with nicer side trails most of the way with many picnic areas on the waterfront. The campground itself is all walk in sites with a beach nearby that campers get in for half price. There are a few racoons in the area however, all the sites have a wooden lock box to keep food away from them and if you bring a lock you can keep things safe from people as well. I was lots of rain the night I was there and the box leaked a bit.
SAFETY
I was in my teen years when I took up back country camping with a guided group, then also took backpacking/camping classes with a group hike at the end of the course. The one thing that was repeated over and over was due to safety to never hike alone. I followed this for several years but as none of my friends would strap on a pack and walk though the woods I gave up backcountry camping.
Then I decided to give it a try anyway so I dug out my old gear and headed to Fundy Park for the weekend. I had a great first trip and continued on camping on my own until I found some people who were interested in joining me. After that I never had any issues or concerns with camping alone.
Camping alone has been made much safer with the addition of a cell phone to your gear list as when you have service you can contact anyone anytime and even with spotty service you can still update your trusted person back home on you progress along the way. I will send a screenshot of my google map location to my wife everytime I set up camp and even just randomly along the way. The screenshots show my exact location with the time so this will at least make is much easier to track me down in a crisis.
HIKE YOUR OWN HIKE
When backpacking on your own you are much less likely to run into unexpected issues along the way than in a group as you can only really plan for yourself. If you are with a group and someone runs low on food or did not bring everything they needed you will end up pitching in and lending from you own small well planned stock.
Also when solo backpacking you do your own pace and pick your own rest stops and you can avoid trying to make others happy without giving up what you want.
One summer, my wife and I were spending a lot of weekends on the trails north of Vancouver as they were accesible by public transit and once off the bus you could be in the middle of nowhere quite quickly. We would do a nice walk and find a good spot for a picnic and just sit and chill for a while. Some friend of ours wanted to come along with us the next time so we planned to meet the following weekend and the day before they asked to bring another couple with us and we agreed. We packed a huge picnic lunch that was more of a buffet style that we were going to share with everyone and looked forward to the trip, howerver it was not to be a nice trip at all. The guy of the other couple considered himself a highly trained athlete and had no interest in smelling the roses , so decided to do the trail as fast as possible. This was the opposite of what we wanted and told them to go ahead as we were not in any rush. Our friends in the middle who invited this guy tried to play peacekeepers and make everyone stick together so in the end this guy did not set a new trail record he and we did not get our nice picnic. We ended up carrying all the food the whole way and brought it back home with much of it going in the garbage. This was just a day hike and would have been much worse had it been an overnighter.
Back in the day, or at least my day the external frame backpack was the only choice for backpacking with the big technical breakthough in the early 80's with the addition of the non padded hip belt. By the mid 90's the internal frame backpacks had almost completly taken over to the point where even finding an good quality external frame pack was difficult. You could still find some lower quality pacs in some department stores however the camping stores were all only internal frame. This was made more difficult as it was before the internet and ordering online was out so the only way to order would be from a magazine ad.
Around 1996, as my old pack was at the end of its life, I bought two more used External frame packs to mix and match the pieces to make one sort of new pack out of the three that did the job for a few years, however the sholder and hip belts were all thin and it was time to upgrade to something newer and due to not finding any external frames anywhere I ended up switching to a new internal frame Badlands pack from TNF instead. I got 20 years out of the pack and although it was good for flying with, it maxed out at 45 lbs of weight so I still wanted an external frame and recently switched back by buying an Alps Comander pack online.
Although there are many pros about external frame packs, the only real reason to use one would be if you are carrying a heavy load, if you only carry less than 40-50 lbs there is no good reason to have one as there are many internal frame packs that will do the job. If you are not sure what type of pack you want and internal frame is probably best.
The downside of external frame packs is that they are heavy, bulky and not steady on uneven trails to the point were even light scrambing can be difficult and unsafe. They are much more difficult to take on a plane and even fitting one on a small bus or car can be a challange. Even the new external frame packs can be somewhat outdated feature wise compared to other packs and come with less adjustments.
The upside to external frame packs is they carry heavy loads to the point where you are only limited by the weight your legs can handle. They have a space between you and the pack that makes for good ventalation but also awkward items in the pack do not dig into your back. The frame extends below the sack so that when you place the pack down it is only the frame that touches the wet dirty ground. In many casses you will walk more upright with the external frame and your back will sweat less. Often times the external frame packs have more pockets to organize your gear easlily however many internals now do this as well and many have lots of straps and tie down points.
It used be be that external frame packs were cheaper than internal frame packs but this is no longer the case. The choices are so limited that it is difficult to even find one now, let alone finding one on sale. I visited about 20 different outdoor stores in the Montreal area and only the armee surplus store downtown even had any at all and they were old used army packs that were too small for backpacking. Even stores like Sail that may have had up to 100 internal Frame packs did not even have one External to pick from. I had order one online using only pictures and reviews to make a choice without being able to try it on in person. Most of the external frame packs made now are specificly designed for hunters and used to carry a heavy load of meat of up to 150 lbs.
Using an external frame pack can be a bit of a fashion statement not being as cool as the newer designs, and you may pass some younger hikers who have not ever seen one before. Whatever you pick, hike your own hike.
There are many things to consider when buying a new tent. New or used, how far you will be carrying your tent, your budget and how often you will be using this new tent. Also, are you looking for one do all tent or will you be buying a differnt tent for each type of camping trip. Are you always only camp with the same number of people or are you sometimes with others and sometimes solo? You should also consider If you will be keeping your pack in the tent with you or a dog you will need to make sure you have enough space. It is easier and much more expenseve to by many tents than only one. If you are only buying one tent you will need to make many compromises and buy for the occasions that you will use the tent for the most. Other things to look for besides quality and size are number of doors, vestubles and type of tent.
Hiking Pole Tent
Hiking pole tents use one or two hiking poles which saves weight if you are carrying you poles anyway. They typically take more time and effort to set up and will never be as sturdy as a tent with poles but they should be good enough for most trips.There are now many models to pick from starting at 60 bucks for a cheap no name brand to several hundred for a better quality known brand.
Three Season Tent For Backpacking in warm weather
The most popular type of tent for backpacking is a tent that is just big enough for your needs and as light as posible. The price for a 5lb tent can be less that half the price for a 4lb tent and often times the heavier tent is going to be more durable and last longer than the lighter tent. If you are going to do 30km days multiple times the extra expense will be worth it, however, if you only hike 5 km on level ground you could easily go with a cheaper more durable tent even with a little extra space. Three season tents will ususualy have some mesh with many being all mesh. This is good for ventalation while keeping out the bugs and can also be used on a nice night without the fly for stargazing. Three season tents are lighter than 4 season tents if you are never going to camp in the winter will be all you need.
For Car Camping
When picking out a tent for car camping weight is no longer much of an issue. You still may want to conisder how much bulk you can fit in your car and in your home storage area but mostly the main consern is how big of a tent you would like, do you want separate room dividers, how many doors and if you would like an attached vestuble or bug room. Your budget relies on how often you plan on using the tent and how long you want to keep it for. Car camping tents can range from 80 bucks to 8 thousand with most in the $150.00 to $600.00 range. Many have rain flys that only cover part of the tent which makes for large easy open windows but could fall short in a big rain storm. Flys all the way to the ground will offer better rain protection but limits the use of windows and the ability to enjoy your souroundings. If you are camping close to your car you are not really in any crisis if your tent leaks or falls apart in a storm as you can take refuge in your car in worst case. This mean you can choose a tent that is on the cheaper side and with big windows made for comfort and will take some rain but not to the extreme.
Four season Tent For cold or bad wather
A four season tent is really a 3 season tent for fall, winter and spring as they are not that good for the summer. Typicaly three season tents have mesh either in parts of the whole tent and have good airflow for ventalation. This is good in warm weather but in the cold you don't want this. A good 4 season tent will have no or very little mesh and the fly ususally keeps the drafts out making for a warmer night. They can be very hot in the summer even with the doors open and of coarse you can use them if it is the only tent you have but it will not be comfortable and will be much heavier. Four season tents besides being better in the cold weather are also better able to take on big storms with lots of wind.
Hammock Tent
Something that is somewhat new to the market is the Hammock tent that comes complet with bug mesh and a rain fly. The advantage to these is you don't need a level clear space to set up. Just two trees (or anything else) to tie to and this can even be done on a hill. This also keeps you off the ground and can be a plus for some people. A big disadvantage of hammock tents is they are no good withought two things to tie to and this can be a big issue at car campgrounds as you can't leave your designated site to find a suitable place to set up. A big plus to these tents is there is being off the ground you will never get wet though the bottom even if a new river flows through your campsite. I have not used one yet however it seems some have a storage shelf for a pack or for boots.
Bug Tents
Bug tents although not made for sleeping in can be used to hide ocationally from the nasty little guys or in extrem cases used to spend the whole trip inside. If you will be in a realy bad area for bugs it is nice to have a bug tent that fits over your picnic table so you can cook and eat in peace.Make sure to get one with black mesh, white mesh is difficult to see though and you will sit bug free with no view of the nice outdoors you tried so hard to camp in. You can get a 12' by 12' but tent starting at a hundred bucks and a few hundred for nicer versions. For traveling lighter you can use a small beach tent that has mesh windows and a door that closes.
Privacy Tent
Privacy tent is an outhouse size tent used for porta potties, changing and showers and would only be used for car camping.
I currently (only) have 4 tents, a 5lb 2 person tent, a 1 person tent I use for solo hikes, a 3 person 6 lb tent for use when there are two of us and also for car camping and a 2 person 9.8lb winter tent for colder harsh weather. I used to have a 4 lb 1.5 person tent and a 6 person car camping tent with a built in bug room but had to slim down my inventory due to storage space.
Now that LED lights are cheap and available everywhere I don't have any need for to carry any other kind of lighting. Of course battery flashlights have been around for a hundred years, however battery life with the older style incandescent bulbs was limited and no where near leds today. In the 80's I used to camp with a karosene lantern that was small and light enough to take backcountry as long as I kept it upright to keep the oil from leaking out. Also popular for car camping was the Colman white gas latern that was bulky and needed to be pumped up to light. In the 90's candle lanterns were small, lightweight and cheap and came with candles that would burn for 8 hours.
Now you can get cheap, Lightweight led flashlights starting at a couple bucks and even with the choice of flashlights and lanterns with rechargable batteries and solar charging with many that will also charge up your cell phone. I have a 5 D cell battery MAG Lite that I bought 35 years ago for $80.00 that is now less powerfull than a small pocket led flashlight that you could get at a dollar store.
Flashlights used to be measured by candle power and now go by lumens and the power rating can help you pick a new light, but in many cases you can take the manufacturers lumen rating with a grain of salt.
I moved to Quebec a few years ago and was looking to get out there and find some nice places to hike and camp. There were a couple of things that confused me at first and took me some time to figure out.
There are 4 Mont Tremblants
Shortly after arriving in Quebec I attended an outdoor show downtown Montreal to get information on good places to go and ended up leaving the place quite confused. I stopped at two booths for Mont Tremblant and got maps from both and when I checked them out in detail they did not match at all. First I thought they were in different scales but still could not make sense of them. It was only later I realized that there are 4 Mont Tremblants. Mont Tremblant Park, Ski Resort area, Town and Village and they all have hiking trail going past or thru them. It was only after that I could plan out a trip and get out there.
The parks that quebec calls national parks are really provincial parks and are not part of Parks Canada
This difference in wording to call Provincial things National probably makes sense in french but was confusing to me at first. There is also a Quebec National trail that crosses the province but is not part of the great/trans canada trail.
The Quebec parks (Sepaq) are divided into sectors
Most of the parks in Quebec have different sectors and not only do the roads in one sector not join up with the other side of the park, sometimes the different sectors of the same park and not even joined together at all. If planning a trip make sure you know what sector your trail or campsite is in or you could be stuck driving and extra hour or more to get the the correct road to your destination. When booking a campsite they usually include the sector on you reservation information.
SUMMER
I will start with the most obvious choice to camp and that is summer. Besides the fact that most campgrounds are only open in the summer it is also the time of the year for swimming, fishing, bbq's and other outdoor activities. The downside to camping in the summer is it can be hot in the tent and it is also the bugs favorite time of the year as well. Also the nice hot weather makes keeping food fresh much more difficult than in cooler weather. As it is the most popular time of the year, campsites can be fully booked up on the weekends and even during the week and there will be more people everywhere.
FALL
This is my favorite time of the year to camp and backpack as even though it can be cool to cold at night, there are no bugs, it is not as wet as spring or summer with less mud on the trails and water crossings are usually easier and safer. I also like backpacking around late September to mid October when the leaves are changing colour. One downside to fall backpacking is that in may places it is hunting season and not always safe to be walking around in the woods so it is a good time to stick to parks or well established trails. Many campgrounds close after labour day so choices will be more limited than in summer, however there will also be less people out there.
WINTER
Besides the obvious cold and snow, camping in the winter comes with less daylight as it can be dark as early as 4 pm. Usually when winter camping I set up camp early and spend the evening in my sleeping bag reading. Due to the cold, cooking and eating can be more difficult and it is not much fun sitting around in the cold doing nothing. One good part of winter camping is that it is easy to keep food fresh as you are basically in a fridge. Keeping water from freezing can be a challange and don't let your water filter freeze or it will not work and you may not even know it is not working any more. If you think your water will freeze overnight, dump it out of the bottle and into a pot so even if frozen you can put it on the stove to melt it. Winter camping requires a larger backpack and more gear to be safe and comfortable and may require snowshoes or crampons and a bit of experience using them with a heavy pack. It also requires better or doubled up sleeping pads and a good sleeping bag. The R value will add up when using two sleeping pads, but when doubling up sleeping bags it not so easy to know the teperature rating of the two bags. I usually winter camp in places where I have been before to not have any suprises as in the winter you can end up in a crisis when things go wrong. Due to most campgrounds not offering winter campsites it can be dificult to find a place to go.
SPRING
Spring is nice in that the bugs are not out in full force yet and it can be warm out. Spring is often wet, muddy and water crossings can be difficult and even dangerous. The weather can be unpredictable and to be safe and comfortable you will need to pack more clothing and gear to be prepared for the temperature changes. It is nice to be out there when the woods and fields are coming back to life. In spring there will be less people around and many campgrounds will not be open yet.