Crowds...Plan B

[Black_Fly]

We have our trip planned to the Algoma district next month (July) but have no idea what to expect in terms of crowds, motor boats on Missinaibi Lake, or what would be a good plan B. If things are overrun with pilgrims. We're timing our car camping for during the week, but that might not be enough to find peace, as is the case with several parks in MN. Anyone know what we should expect and a good plan B if things go sideways? Thanks.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Can't imagine that unless you go on Canada Day weekend there would be crowds. Its some five hours from any major population center.. It's pretty hard to get to and has no services other than water and pit toilets.. That takes alot of attraction away for some. And the fishing season slows. You have a 40 km long lake..there is plenty of room..
I fear you have BWCA thinking.. crowd planning..

Ivanhoe Lake closer to Timmins has more crowds and more services. Its on the highway.. Missinaibi PP is not. Bring spare tire for sure,

 

[Iskweo]

Take the plunge....come north. Turtle river near Ignace. Non operating park....ie...wilderness.All you need is a camping permit for non residents and off you go. I was supposed to be there this week but my party folded on me and the weather went south for a solo trip. There will be no crowds there.


Christine

 

[yellowcanoe]

Take the plunge....come north. Turtle river near Ignace. Non operating park....ie...wilderness.All you need is a camping permit for non residents and off you go. I was supposed to be there this week but my party folded on me and the weather went south for a solo trip. There will be no crowds there.


Christine

the non resident permit is the rub.. You need to go to a Service Center that knows Crown Land Camping Permits though if you know now you need a permit you can get it on line... And its a bit of a stretch to Ignace from Missinaibi Turtle River alas does not seem driveable.

I camped at a Provincial Park near there 51 years ago. I think its gone..

 

[Odyssey]

20+ years ago I was listening to a radio programme. The guest was a writer discussing Ontario outdoor vacations, of the canoe, camp, hike variety. The host asked about avoiding crowds streaming north from the (Ontario) populous south. The writer said she recommended travellers going a) beyond North Bay, and/or b) after Labour Day (Sept 1st). Doing both would be golden she said. She also offered her favourite provincial park as an example, Neys PP. on Lake Superior. "Go in summertime and you'll have some company there. Go in September and you'll have the place to yourself." Ever since listening to that programme I've tested her theory and found it to ring true, mostly. And yes, we've car camped in Neys PP a few times, rain or shine, summer or fall, and have never been crowded. But a lot can happen in 20 years, so who knows. Lately we've been paddling not quite so far north but still north of the magical 46th (actually the difference is the distance to drive, not the latitude) and been rewarded with unpopulated lakes. We've even braved "busy lakes" on season opener weekends and been startled by the solitude of it all. Did we get the dates wrong? There should be lotsa lotsa humanity around somewhere but they seem to be missing. Or maybe we just got lucky. By comparison this past week we went for a couple days south of that magical 46th, in Muskoka cottage country, and enjoyed a quiet time in a pretty bay all to ourselves...well almost. It was a small cottage lake but nobody was home. It was a weekday trip so few cottagers were about. Just us and some hummingbirds, ospreys, ducks, geese...and ltsa lotsa mosquitoes and black flies. Later on the drive home I stopped for gas. A gentleman swung his car around to the pumps as I eased forward too. Each at our chosen pumps filling up I called over attempting a disarming smile "Sure is busy on a Saturday, eh!?" He harrumphed and continued filling up. As I stepped into the gas bar to pay he was waiting and he leaned forward to apologize. "Sorry. I get a bit frustrated with the crowds. Didn't mean to get hot under the collar." I shrugged and smiled, brushing off any reason to get riled. We wished one another well and that was that, no worries. As I was paying the exasperated cashier was telling me all about the rude and angry customers flaming her for every silly little inconvenience to their fragile snowflake world. "This place is too slow! I'm in a hurry!" "Eight pumps and only one cashier!!?" "What, no coffee machine?!" I agreed with her that if only they'd understand that one single day up here in paradise might be better than a week back at home, but ya can't waste it. She laughed and said she couldn't wait to get home herself.
I on the other hand could. My wife and I slid out of town the back way and found rolling country roads ahead of us, stopping to discover a cute coffee shop, a great bistro restaurant, and a quiet village park...before eventually getting home. I can't say the trip was golden, but nothing was wasted. We're covered in bug bites and I picked up a sunburn. I did way more swimming than chores, and she did way more reading than cooking. Actually, it is sounding pretty golden now I come to think of it.

The Missinaibi lakes still sit on my bucket list, so I'm eagerly looking forward to a trip report from there BF. By my way of thinking, and I could be wrong, you'll be more challenged by bugs and weather than by any crowds. But if I'm wrong and a plan B becomes necessary, perhaps going upstream to Little Miss might be worthwhile. That's especially on my list.
However your plans A and B go, I hope your trip is golden.

 

[Boreal Birch]

The only people car camping in the summer are pilgims.
I only car camping I do is because I do not want to spend money on hotels or motels. Every night in a tent is like money in the bank or more money for a better tent or other gear.
If you want to get away from people, you can not expect to go places that other people want to be also.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Been reading a little about the Park. Seems sparsely used even in August as the 100 km dirt access road seems to be a deterrent..I read reviews that mention discarded auto parts and logging trucks. Sounds like home! Sounds like a challenge for normal cars and best for high clearance vehicles.. Last time I was sort of up Chapleau way ( Bisco) I shattered a windshield.

 

[recped]

It's been a long time since I was there but the road is just your standard type of gravel used by trucks. I highly doubt there would be much boat traffic on the lake, the campground isn't that big and there are no electrical hookups so the motorboat & trailer crowd don't generally go there. It's also a long drive from places like Timmins where people might come from for day use.

As a general thing the Algoma/Superior area was much more heavily used (by campers) in the 60's than it is today.

 

[Black_Fly]

Thanks all. I am a little worried about the road. I didn't opt for AWD, only have FWD on my SUV. I'm also towing a trailer.

 

[recped]

Biggest danger on that road is hitting a moose or a bear.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Just keep your speed down and remember logging trucks have the right of way.. If you see an approaching dust cloud find a wide spot to pull over or even a twitch road( but remember you have a trailer)
Cant be any worse than the Seboomook Road here in Maine.. With the Northern Road.. 100 km of joy.

 

[memaquay]

I've driven all these dirt highways for years using vehicles ranging from a Toyota Echo to a chevy Malibu to a truck. You'll be fine, just drive accordingly.

 

[Black_Fly]

Is there any gravel at all?

 

[recped]

Do you mean as opposed to "dirt"? If so, in this part of the world most people call anything without pavement a "dirt" road.

Seriously, because of the park the road is maintained, you might come across the odd pothole, as I recall it's mostly pretty flat as well.

The biggest road hazard throughout that entire area are moose especially around dusk, they are the "worst" on the main roads because of the cleared ditches.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Dirt or gravel.. may depend on how recently the road was maintained. We sometimes dump gravel on our dirt roads to fill in odd areas. Over time the gravel works in.. Loose gravel is something to be aware of .. you can skid out with excessive speed And oncoming traffic can kick up gravel or rocks.
I take it BF that dirt and gravel roads are not found too much in your area but they are actually better in some areas than pavement.. We have horridly cracked and heaved paved roads but our dirt roads are easily maintained with a grader. We loved dirt/gravel in Alaska as they heaved far less than paved.

 

[Black_Fly]

I lived on a dirt road in Wyoming, where dirt means dirt, gravel means creek run mostly, cinders are nice. Winter means snow. You norters got your own lingo. I sometimes need translation.

 

[memaquay]

Well, the title of your other thread, "help me get Wood" sure means something else up here too, lol, and I ain't helping you with it ha ha!

 

[Odyssey]

Times sure have changed. In the good old days a dirt road was what I lived at the end of, right next door to an honest to goodness farm beyond a swimming creek. The nearby village spread its dainty skirts across two crossroads, one dusty intersection at each end of town. These village roads were paved but none were called streets. Well, except one. We all called it "Back Street", for the obvious reason that it ran in back of the more lively businesses in town being the feed mill and the undertaker. And unlike the other deathly quiet thoroughfares Back Street was dirt. And I mean real dirt. It hadn't seen a lick of gravel since Jesus was in short pants. But then civilized society stepped in and before we knew it empirical became metric, dirt roads became "secondary roads" and people stopped using Rural Route addresses. Then all of a sudden street signs started springing up out of nowhere. I didn't even know our dirt road had a name, it had always been RR#1. I still remember standing next to the feed mill staring up at the strange sign with the wrong name on it. Union Street? Boy, did they ever screw up. I wondered what village got our Back Street sign? I repeated the scenario days later at the end of our own deadend dirt road. Since when did they pin a name on my long country lane? And yes, not long afterwards the township even sent a gravel truck to sprinkle the road with a scattering of stone. And just like that our dirt road had become gravel.
Many years later I was wasting my youth on a long hot drive returning from the hotel bar with a childhood friend. The windows down and radio turned up, we splashed the headlights down the rolling dirt roads heading home. Turning at the last lonely corner we killed the tunes and let the night air wash over us and listened to the hum of rubber on road. Hum? Hum!? Buddy gently eased his AMC Gremlin down to a crawl and we both listened intently to the strange quiet. Stopping, he opened his door and reached down and touched the road. "Holy sh*T! Brad! Touch it! Touch the road! You won't f*&^%ing believe what they've done!!" "No way man, you're crazy." But I opened my door and leaned out under a midnight sky to touch...pavement. Holy Hannah. They paved Field Road. No more dirt. And we wondered how the times sure had changed.

 

[yellowcanoe]

RR#1 box 8BB. That was in NJ some 40 years ago.. Then USPS said no go you must have a house number! AAK.

Back in the early 90's our lakeside shoreline was divided into building lots and the developer paved a .4 mile 0.6 km stretch of road for his new houses. He thought the town would take it over. Our town takes nothing over.. The upshot is that access to this little bit of urbanity was over 3 miles of two logging roads that depending on the time of year are dirt gravel or outright mud.

Now thirty years later the snowplows have ripped up the shoulders the pavement is all cracked and the estimate to reconstruct the lovely paved road is over 100K. This to be shared by 12 families.. Some of them had insisted they did not want to deal with dust.. When presented with numbers ,, Lets just say we are ripping up the crappy pavement and going back to dirt. There is a road nearby aptly named Durt Road. Many main roads here still are dirt.