Camping in Ontario is wonderful but getting pretty expensive for a solo traveller. A night stay at any provincial park without power now cost $52.50 plus firewood if allowed at $9 a bag or more. So, all in one could be at out $70 a night. For a budget traveller like me, where the trip is as longs as the money holds up, that is a pretty high burn rate.
Fortunately, Canada has something called crown lands, these are lands own by the government and so can be used by all residents without charge. Non-resident can also use them, they need to buy a permit which is still a very good deal ($10.57 per night). To find out where to camp for free checkout the "Crown Land Use Policy Atlas" its an online map very big file and takes time to load so be patient it shows exactly what land is free use "beige" and what is privately owned "grey". Not all land allows camping, when looking at the map look for General Use Lands the beige areas. Some areas will be green and they maybe protected forest or an existing provincial park so no camping allowed or not free Also some areas are purple indicating Indigenous reserves, you still may be able to camp there but one needs to ask and ask the right person which maybe hard to do.
As always when camping in the bush, take out what you brought in, be respectful leave no trash seriously put of you fire with WATER lots of water make sure its cold. Yes that also means your toilet paper too.
This summer I done a lot of research on the map and have identified what looks like good places to camp for free close to Toronto along Hwy 400. Even though I have planned only a 3 week trip a good part of the trip and trip post will involve going to the spots I think I found and record what I see. Take a picture, maybe stay a night, describe where they are, often a canoe will be needed to access the spots. I sold my canoe so I may need to buy a new to me one. Also give parking advice, the problem here is many public roads near private lands have posted no parking signs everywhere one would like to park to access the government lands often accessible only by water. Oh those evil private cottage owners.
No comments:
Post a Comment