Ontario

Ontario yours to discover!

Mike discovers that the vast wilderness of Canada is a campervanner’s dream

WORDS & PHOTOS: Mike Waterman

Yours to Discover’ is the motto on each Ontario vehicle registration plate and, during 26 days and 3,300 miles travelling in my own campervan, that’s what I attempted.

At the birth of Canada in 1867, Ontario was one of the four founding provinces and is now the most populous, with around 15 million people. While in the east the forty-ninth parallel is famous for marking the US-Canada border, Ontario has pushed well south of that line, seemingly encroaching on the USA. Point Pelee, the most southerly point in Canada, is further south than 12 entire US lower 48 states and, in fact, is a little south of Rome.

In terms of a road trip, the second-largest country in the world is not nearly as big as I expected and Ontario follows a similar pattern. Canada stretches a long way north, but its road network is concentrated in the south, running broadly side to side. Getting to the northern wilderness by two-wheel drive campervan is not often an option and when roads do head in that direction, they are often long-distance cul-de-sacs.

Borders became a theme for me in Ontario, as so much of what the province has to offer is close to a border. Ottawa, the national capital, is on the border with Frenchspeaking Quebec. Niagara Falls shares a border with the US, and similarly lakes Superior, Erie and Ontario are all part of the border between Ontario and America. The only great lake that Ontario misses out on is Michigan.

Ontario butts up against two other provinces, another country and a whole diff erent language, which adds to its attraction. I entered Ontario from the province of Manitoba to the east.

With a shared border of nearly 1,000km (621 miles), there is only one through road, Highway 17, which in these parts is the Trans-Canada Highway.

One great thing about GPS is its bird’s-eye view of things hidden from view from the road. Coming from the farmland

BELOW LEFT TO RIGHT A visitor to my campground pitch; My private stretch of shoreline in the Sleeping Giant Provincial Park prairies of Manitoba, the approaching boundary with Ontario was marked on the screen and beyond that seemed to stretch a land of lakes.

The other scenic change is visible from the road and that’s the growing appearance of rock in the landscape. I’m crossing into the Canadian Shield, an area of exposed rock covering over half of Canada. What I had taken as separate lakes was just one, Lake of the Woods, the sixth-largest in North America after the five great lakes, but with a unique look from its over-14,000 rocky islands, a gift of the Canadian Shield. I visited Kenora, the self-proclaimed capital of the lake. At the Discovery Centre they recommended a local campground with a nice walk back in to explore town. The park manager put me on a powered tent spot as they were more private than the big RV slots. It’s a nice lakeside town with lots of murals

painted on the sides of buildings but, apart from the local craft brewery, little was open on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Driving through the Lake of the Woods area reinforced some lessons about Canadian camping. Provincial parks offer some of the nicest camping, although they aren’t cheap, as the fees also include entrance to the park. Private campgrounds and even some run by public bodies often cater for seasonal campers, which can give an air of being in a holiday resort. There is a big market for Canadians parking up their RV for the whole season and some campgrounds have gone 100% that way.

I did a big circuit south on Highway 71, east along the Rainy River overlooking Minnesota and back north on the deserted Highway 502 where I saw a mother moose with two calves standing on the road. As I slowed, they were off like a shot, no chance of a photo, but a great sight.

Despite being on the US border, according to the local radio I was deep in NW Ontario, which, at first, I found confusing, but then realised

ABOVE American Falls and the smaller Bridal Veil Falls on the right, both on the US side

BELOW First Nation Totem near the Lake of the Woods that further east Ontario heads a long way south, seemingly taking a massive bite out of its southern neighbour.

I travelled east to Thunder Bay on the western shore of Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world. The area is not flat like the prairies to the east, but neither does its elevation vary a great deal. This is not an area of views. There is a sense of the vastness of the forest, but this is not an area of spectacular vista.

For the second day running I saw moose from the road. Wildlife spotting in Canada is a real highlight.

Ontario spans two time zones and west of Thunder Bay I jumped an hour by leaving the Central Time zone and entering the Eastern zone.

The Sleeping Giant Provincial Park is a peninsula jutting out into Lake Superior and became one of my favourite places in Ontario. When I mentioned I had a kayak, the ranger sold me two nights in a lakeside pitch with my own access to the lake. It was so good I went straight back to the office to double my stay. 

Sleeping Giant Provincial Park has a wonderful network of hikes and, having previously grumbled about the lack of expansive views in Ontario, two of those trails were up the Sleeping Giant for views. I picked the Head Trail, which, at 16.7km (10.3 miles), was shorter than the 21.8km (13.5 miles) Top of the Giant Trail, but the price was that it included the steepest climb in the park. The last mile or so was signposted as ‘extreme’. Brutal might have been an alternative description, but, boy, was it worth it for the view across Superior to the city of Thunder Bay. My 10-mile walk took me five hours plus an hour spent at the top enjoying the view. I saw hares, deer, chipmunks, hummingbirds, woodpeckers so large they sounded like pile drivers and a red fox chasing a bird. What I didn’t see on the way up was a single person, although the trail was getting busier as I hiked out at lunchtime. In the afternoon, two white-tailed deer visited my pitch.

Sleeping Giant is all that’s good about Canada. Camping in what feels like the middle of nowhere, on a large secluded pitch unable to see any other camper, right on a lake shore with amazing paddling, fishing, cycling and hiking right on the doorstep. All around is wildlife, there just for the looking. It’s to find places like this that I travel. There are locations I get an emotional reaction to and the place seems to ask, ‘why don’t you stay a while, just hang around’.

Two days later I did the longer hike up the Giant, which, just as the ranger had promised, was much easier and equally spectacular.

In the northeast corner of Superior is the Pukaskwa National Park, which has a nice campground and is known for its coastal hikes. Heading down to Saulte Ste Marie, the road goes through the Superior Coastal Highlands, which were invisible to me in the fog and the 5cm of rain that day.

Driving around Lake Superior, I spotted six European RVs heading west, including two German-registered Sprinters and a T5. In all the non-European countries I’ve visited, the ranking for who brings their own vehicle is always the same, with the Germans way out ahead, the Swiss next and then the French and the British roughly equal.

I then headed south for Manitoulin Island, which is reached by an old swing bridge in the town of Little Current. In the south I left on the ferry to Tobermory at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula. From there it’s an easy trip south through fl at farmland with numerous wind turbines to southwest Ontario and Windsor, Canada’s most southerly city, which directly faces Detroit.

BELOW CLOCKWISE In Kenora, gateway to Lake of the Woods, you can even do the shopping by boat; At the top of the Sleeping Giant; The 1895 Canal in Sault Ste Marie; A groundhog RIGHT My last campground, Wesley Clover Park just outside of Ottawa

We stayed ANICINABE PARK CAMPGROUND 955 Golf at Course Road, Kenora, ON anicinabepark.com NATURE’S INN RV PARK & MARINA 80 Claybanks Rd, Dryden, ON, P8N 3H$ naturesinn.ca/dryden

THUNDER BAY KOA 162 spruce River Road, Shuniah, ON P7A 0N6 koa.com

MARIE LOUISE LAKE CAMPGROUND Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, Pass Lake, ON, P0T 2M0 ontarioparks.com HATTIE COVE CAMPGROUND Pukaskwa National Park, Heron Bay, ON, P0T 1R0 pc.gc.ca/pukaskwa SAULT STE MARIE KOA 501 Fifth Line East, Sault Ste Marie, ON P6A 6J8 koassm.com BATMAN’S COTTAGES & CAMPGROUND 11408 Highway 6, Sheguiandah, ON, P0P 1W0 batmanscamping.com LANDS END PARK 59 Corey Cres, Tobermory, ON, N0H 2R0 landsendpark.com ST CLAIR SHORES CAMPGROUND 2358 St Clair Road, Stoney Point, ON, N0R 1N0 NIAGARA FALLS KOA 8625 Lundy’s Lane, Niagara Falls, ON, L2H 1H5 niagarakoa.net SIBBALD POINT PROVINCIAL PARK 26071 Park Road 18, Sutton West, ON, L0E 1R0 ontarioparks.com LAZY ROCK RV PARK & CAMPGROUND 28 Taggart Lake Road, Mattawa, ON, P0H 1V0 lazyrock.ca CANISBAY LAKE CAMPGROUND, Algonquin Provincial Park Kilometre 23, Highway 60, ON algonquinpark.on.ca and ontarioparks.com PRESQU’ILE PROVINCIAL PARK 328 Presqu’ile Parkway, Brighton, ON, K0K 1H0 ontarioparks.com WESLEY CLOVER PARKS CAMPGROUND 411 Corkstown Road, Ottawa, ON, K2K 0J5 wesleycloverparks.com

Driving east with Lake Erie to the south, it’s like being back in southeast England judging by the place names, like Essex and Kent Counties, Tilbury, Chatham and even London is here. From just outside Hamilton the Niagara Peninsula breaks into vineyards, with a plethora of wineries offering tastings. I found cabernet merlots to be popular, together with chardonnays and a variety of white German grapes. Across to the northern side of Lake Ontario is the distant skyline of Toronto, made familiar by the CN Tower.

Niagara Falls is a very touristy place, with casinos, chain restaurants and duty-free shopping for American visitors. I stayed at a campground on the main bus route and was at the falls by 8am. The 24-hour pass for $9 was much better than trying to find parking at $6 for 30 minutes. Cars and pedestrians can cross the Peace Bridge into the US so the falls can be seen from both sides. I’d recommend Canada for the views and the US for the ability to get up close and personal with the falls. By lunchtime it was too crowded for me and I headed home.

My route took me clockwise around Lake Ontario to Toronto. So far driving in Canada had been on quiet roads with totally reliable journey times, so the traff ic around Toronto was a shock to the system. The 403, which is a

My 'van

2016 VW Transporter T6 LWB Trendline

CONVERSION TYPE Adventure Trek by Stratfordbased CamperKing camperking.co.uk OWNED SINCE 2016

LAYOUT Side kitchen, rock ‘n’ roll-style bench/bed

TRAVEL SEATS/BERTHS 5/2 WHAT I L♥VE ABOUT IT It’s so fl exible. Off-grid camping is aided by two 85Ah leisure batteries, a 65W solar panel on the roof and an Eberspächer diesel heater. I shipped it over from Antwerp in Belgium to Halifax, Nova Scotia, travelling on the same ship as a passenger, and spent a year in the US and Canada, before shipping it back to Europe to embark on the European leg of my road trip. It has been a great little campervan!

raised motorway, heads along the shore and right through the centre, so the views of the city are pretty good.

After busy Niagara and Toronto I craved countryside so headed to the Sibbald Provincial Park on Lake Simcoe. Like most of the parks I’d seen, it’s based around launching a boat, playing on a beach and having a picnic, but here there is also a small British settler museum in an 1830 house.

This area seemed a little different to the rest of Ontario and I think it’s the trees. To this point the forests had been mainly silver birch and pine, but here was a wider variety of broad-leafed tree, which made a nice difference.

Back south I visited Algonquin Provincial Park, which was Canada’s first provincial park, established in 1893. Its 3,000 square miles includes forests, spruce bogs, 2,456 lakes, 2,000 beaver ponds and six major rivers. Some 56km (35 miles) of Highway 60 gives access to numerous campgrounds, 16 maintained hiking trails, two cycle trails, plus an excellent logging museum.

On the shore of Lake Ontario is Brighton, motto ‘Where the past meets the future’ and the home of Presqu’ile Provincial Park with its 21m-high lighthouse built in 1840, 407-pitch campsite and 337 species of bird.

My final stop was Ottawa, the Canadian capital located on the Ottawa River, which forms the border with Quebec province, my next destination. I’d picked a campground only a mile or so from a park and ride into the city.

Ontario has much to offer and, for me, its biggest sales point is the great outdoors. It’s a place for doing as much as seeing. Locations for hiking, wildlife, birdwatching, kayaking, cycling and fishing abound and, if one or more of those activities is your passion, this place is superb at giving you opportunities to enjoy what you love. Would I recommend someone shipping over their own vehicle, or fl ying in to rent one, yes, absolutely. As they say, it’s yours to discover.