Day 1, 7 Sept 2022
After packing and preparing everything I 'might need' for the last two days I said goodbye to both my parents, the mad pickeler, and my father. I had planned to depart around 9:30 or 10:00 AM at the latest. As it turns out, 9:27AM was about right. I travelled the well worn path of Highway 12 up the western side of the Ottawa river to little fanfare. By now I have travelled this road many times and know what to expect along the route, and being bright, sunny day and being dry for the last few days the drive was beautiful, if uninspiring. One hill did give me a slight whiff of what must have been CVT oil or transmission slippage, but all the dials and gauges showed well within tolerance, and it was only a faint reminder of one more service I must conclude on the now much older Subaru - flushing my CVT oil. Something I've managed to put off through the pandemic, as a major pain in the donkey. I stopped at the town of Mattawa, at the Mcewan gas station. 1.58 for regular, but as always when towing the trailer.. 1.77 for Premium. I bought also a sugar free gatorade (A.K.A; once it is empty it is about the right size and volume for a midnight tinkle if I don't want to venture outside, and I rarely do in the middle of the night) and a small beef sandwich. I was tempted to hunt down the illusive poutine stop, but I realised that I should have left about 60 minutes earlier to give me enough time, as I had mistakenly calculated my trip to Temiscaming and not to my final destination, which was around 1.5 hours further.. leaving to me to 'just' arrive for 2:00 PM instead of an hour earlier as I had planned, so that I could go and wander the shorter trail by the visitors' center while I waited for the site to open up. I would see if I could grab that on the way back on Friday, assuming, I didn't opt for another night.
After orienting myself at the gas station, I headed up towards Highway 63, which as it turns out was under fairly heavy construction, and was travelled heavily by large trucks containing wood, pulp, and something else which appeared to be in very clean stainless steel tanks. I did not get a chance to see a logo or anything on those trucks so I'm assuming water, molasses or something 'food grade' They appeared to be unmarked, but had no explosive warnings on them or any other danger markings at all. For all I know they were simply brand new empty trucks. They were certainly going fast enough on such a windy narrow road to give oncoming traffic pause.
After around four construction zones, I came upon gaps in the trees where I saw a huge pulp mill across the Ottawa (very narrow here!) there was a sky high pile of what appeared to be saw dust, and the smell of pulp was wafting through my vents, it is not pleasant, but one does get used to it. This must be Temiscaming, and after another 10-20 minute drive I arrived at the river crossing, and confirmed it. I would not be stopping here though, as It was already 1:10PM and a hard left at the end of the dam lead me north on the eastern side of the Ottawa, up a 15 degree incline hill for what seemed like 10 minutes, which was quite the workout for my little car I slowed to 70 and stuck to the truck shoulder and just took it easy. no need to race and waste fuel and overheat something. The engine temperature was
running around 130c which is the highest I've ever seen it.. but soon it settled back into a more manageable 105c at the crest of the hill, or shortly after. There was a small pullover a little bit further with a very nice little bathroom, and as I sat there admiring the cleanliness of the thing I wondered if anyone had stayed the night there, as it was heated, had fresh potable water and a place to cook outside, though everywhere you looked it was sternly labelled 'no camping' There was a little brook that appeared to be around 6 inches deep with amber water flowing gently over black rocks and gravel. I will have to make a point to come back either tomorrow or on the way out when the sun isn't so high and angry in the sky. Did I mention my car is reading the outside temperature is 28 degrees? One wouldn't really notice.. it is very dry, as the forecast stated, but the dryness in my throat and the sweat on my otherwise cool brow tells the story. I will need to make sure I carry plenty of water and don't overdress. It seems 'cool' but it definitely is not.
Around 30 minutes Later, Just after 2:00 I turned in on Chemin Opemican, the main road of the park, and followed a long and winding road.. at posted 30kph to the administration office.. but that wasn't the right place, I had to go nearly to the end of the road, through the entire park, and finally I found the park office. A grand place, built in lightly varnished blonde coloured pine, hardwood floors kept quite clean and shiny with high ceilings and large windows. This I will have to come back to later, as there's a wide variety of merchandise here and some local specialities as well, which might make for a nice souvenir. Plus, I need to see If there is a park sticker for my trailer, which is of the utmost importance. (even though I can basically manufacture my own now). The lady at the desk seemed to be in her early fifties, she greeted me en francais, and I answered with 'Bonjour, hello' to set my language preference. She seemed to be struggling a bit. I asked her if I needed a tag, for my car or my site, but she said no.. but printed me out a receipt to keep on my person. She directed me to my site and I thanked her before leaving to find it. I drove past several empty sites before arriving at mine. There was a tag in the post saying the previous person left on the 28'th. I thought it strange, because it was supposedly booked for yesterday, else I would have come yesterday. But maybe they don't give tags for the off season? I guess I'll find out if I come back and all my stuff is gone at the end of tomorrow. Backing the trailer in was a bit tricky, as the driveway was about wide enough for 1.5 car widths, with one foot drops on either side for drainage. After a few close calls I managed to get the trailer in most of the way, and as always did the final positioning by hand. Since the inverter charger for my lithium battery was not installed, and this site came with power and water, I'd be doing both solar and shore power this time. after getting things situated and installing my stabilising jacks, I wired up the AC and flipped the breaker in my trailer, hoping nothing caught fire.. as I hadn't tested the new wiring except with the on board inverter. Nothing happened. The ac power brick for my fridge which I plugged in had no power. What was wrong? I checked my breakers, got out my meter and checked all the wiring.. everything looked good and had continuity out to the receptacle. So.. I lifted to cover.. and.. oh.. the breaker for the park's power was off. Genius. I flipped the 20A breaker on the post and we're in business. I rewarded myself by retrieving one of the Arizona Ice Tea Tetra-pak boxes from the fridge.. and had a nice cold drink, immediately followed by a tinge of pain in the base of my skull. I was overheated for sure. I slowed my pace, and decided I would also drink the water I brought from home as it was cool but not 'ice cold' as I'd kept the fridge set to -5c, which I'd found is the 'temperature of the fridge walls, but not the contents' from previous. You could safely set it to 5c and up to -6c without worry of things freezing. -10c would eventually bring things right to the edge of freezing, which was fun if you wanted to have slush drinks, but not so fun if
you had milk in there, which I did. Its maximum setting, -20c would freeze things solid, after a time. It isn't perfect, but far better than just a normal cooler with ice in it. And it was cheaper than the professional coolers that would hold ice for days, and you didn't ever need to replace the ice.. you just need power, and not much power at that. The thing uses about 1 amp per hour at it's medium setting at -5c which means it will let the temperature rise around 2 degrees before kicking in the compressor again. But I, digress. I was not able to set up my tarp this time, unfortunately the site is mostly gravel, and the pegs won't stay put. There is a sandy bit but it is not ideal for the placement of my trailer. I want to see the road from the window, and if I put it there i'd have to turn it 180 degrees and my extension cord isn't long enough. Guess I should have put the outlet in the back after all.. but I didn't want to have cables running under my bed if I could help it.
Curfew is at 11:00PM and continues to 8:00AM I forgot to ask if the gate is closed, but I imagine I will creep my way out that way tomorrow morning to see, I want to go to the grande chute trail first thing in the morning, which is around a 30 minute drive, and then about 30 minutes to get to the chutes.. golden hour starts a 6:25 am so preferably I'd like to be on the move by 5:30 or 6 am.
It is now 4:30ish PM and my stomach is letting me know food would be appreciated, so I suppose I should get on that. The smell of burning green wood is wafting this way from the camp site further down the hill, which is well out of sight, but I did hear a dog barking earlier. Hopefully they respect that this location up here is a dog free zone. I think if I come back I'd opt for a site a little further up as it is a bit further away and probably easier to back into, I've walked the loop here now sometimes pictures don't really reward you in the same way that eyeballs do.
I think I'll try one of those quick meals tonight. I have canned meals, but I'll use those if I feel like I need them tomorrow night. The ones I have now only have about 600 calories per serving, which is probably all I need after just driving here.
And so I sign off for the evening. Bienne Niut or something like that.