In the summer of 2020, we set off on a 28 day, 10 provincial park trip that took us around Algonquin Park. Our first stop was a one-night stay at Six Mile Provincial Park, north of Port Severn, Ontario. As usual, we avoided as many of the 400 series highways as possible and took the scenic route to the park. We packed our lunch and snacks since we were only planning on making stops for gas, quick walks to stretch our legs, and let Chloe do what she needed to do. Tuna sandwiches, fresh fruit and vegetables were on the menu for lunch, which we had in Downie. Then we made a gas stop in Arthur, and another walk at the community centre in Honeywood before pushing through to the park. Traffic was great all the way because we were heading north on a Sunday, all the traffic was southbound back to the city.
Tuna sandwiches are best shared.
Honeywood is a frequent stop for us on our way north. Look at that sky!
This trip was almost canceled, first because of Covid-19 and then because of a heatwave we were having. Luckily, the parks opened when the cases dropped and the forecast for the upcoming week looked like the heat would break, at least where we were going. Spoiler alert – it did break and was comfortable for most of the trip.
Normally by this time of the year, we would have already been camping with the trailer several times but this was our first trip out. Chloe was actually a bit anxious with the changes and possible rain coming in. We filled the water tank and then our one-year-old tap started leaking everywhere! Turns out it had some major plastic parts that cracked either in the winter or due to the movement of the trailer. Day one and we already had our first major issue to resolve. Luckily we were only a short distance from Midland and we would be able to replace the faucet and install it before heading farther up north.
This tap lasted one year in the trailer. We replaced it at Six Mile Lake with a less attractive but all-metal Moen that will hopefully last longer.
Since it was too hot to walk any of the trails ( 39 degrees Celcius) we decided to spend the evening relaxing and reading in the trailer with the air conditioning on. It would be one of the few days we would have the power or the need to have it on.
The next morning we took a walk around the park (see gallery below and check out the video) before driving into Midland to purchase a new tap and then install it before we checked out of the park. It took a while for Chitra to remove and install the taps because it is so awkward to do anything in a trailer – they aren’t really designed to be easily fixed, just easily built. Thankfully we carry almost all of the tools we would need to do plumbing, electrical and mechanical repairs to the trailer.
During our short stay, we saw quite a few wildflowers, caterpillars, and butterflies at the park but one night was enough for us and we packed up and headed north toward our next park, Mikisew Provincial Park.
