We are off on a new trip, but before we jump into any posts about breathtaking sceneries and exhausting hikes, we need to publish Boondocking in Ontario Part Two. We did promise you a second part for Boondocking In Ontario Part One.
If you are thinking of boondocking in Ontario, please read on as there will be some information that you should read. If you are not, just read about our trip and enjoy the pictures.
Our first post is about Torrance Barrens and some more thoughts about camping on crown land. It will include the first and last days of our trip (yes, we are already back and about two weeks behind our travel posts). There is a reason for this first/last day post, so read on as there will be shocking surprise on the last day (don’t peek).
During this trip we were lucky to find some amazing crown land spots to camp on, but we were also sad and angry to see the disregard that some campers have for public land. Unfortunately, these people may set the tone for camping on crown land for the rest of us. Or more likely, the fact that many of these places may soon close to camping.
Warning: this post is long and may get preachy at times. It also highlights an amazingly beautiful spot in Ontario that should be protected.
But first, bras.
We drove by this farm and its “bra fence”. I was immediately on my phone googling bras on fences in Muskoka. I did find out that the woman that lives in this farm got her inspiration from a similar fence in New Zealand. She had to have one too when she got back. I also found out that about 100 bras were stolen from the fence.
You just never know what you may find once you turn into one of those back roads!
But back to our trip and to boondocking.
On our way north
We decided to leave in the afternoon and boondock in Torrance Barrens, a dark-sky reserve which is merely two hours from our house.
Torrance Barrens is one of the southernmost expressions of the Canadian Shield
This is the erratic rock
Because of this southern exposure it has very unique flora and fauna. There are 463 flora species, 5 are rare and threatened.
There are also 94 bird species, 19 mammal species, 28 butterfly species, 8 dragonfly species, and 18 reptile/amphibian species in the reserve, one of which is the only lizard in Ontario, the five-lined skink.
Now you know!
The low elongated granite ridges lend themselves to perfect hiking trails
and flat camping surfaces.
Indeed, many people come to camp in the area as camping is allowed.
It was disheartening to find trash throughout the area. Mostly in campsites closer to the road, but we did find a lot of trash throughout the park. Below is the “other Coronavirus”.
We hiked for a while and admired how the changing light transformed the landscape into a painting.
As the clouds gathered
we settled down
and watched the sunset light up the sky.
Torrance Barrens was designated as a Dark-Sky Reserve in 1999, the first one in Canada and we were hoping to captures some shooting stars (on camera, not in our hands).
The night was cloudy at times, but we were able to sit outside and admire the night sky, the constellations, and the milky way, and a few shooting stars.
Due to some incompetence on my part, there are no pictures of the night sky. Perhaps another time.
We continued on our way north the next morning in search of other amazing boondocking sites on crown land, and we found some!
Up North
In the next few weeks we’ll share with you our trip to the north shores of Lake Huron and the east shores of Lake Superior, but this post is about boondocking on crown land, so let us just say that crown land camping in northern Ontario is amazing. We found several beautiful places that were accessible with our van. If you are backcountry camping, or truck camping, there are a lot more spots that you can find just by using the Land Use Atlas and the Backroads Atlas as we showed you in Boondocking Part One, and we hope that you found it useful.
We will not however, share with you any of the spots that we found except for Torrance Barrens and if you read to the very end you will find a cautionary tale and the reason that we share this place.
And this is why we wouldn’t share any of these places so publicly on the internet. You can no longer camp in this beautiful camping spot because of excessive littering.
We ended up in this gorgeous spot, and you’ll see more of it in one of the next posts.
But look at this sign.
“currently allowed” it reads. Will it be there next time we travel north? Will the people that follow us appreciate the magic that this spot has to offer and look after it?
On our way south
Fast forward a week and we decided to stop at Torrance Barrens on our way back home for another night under the dark sky.
To our surprise, there were “No Camping” signs throughout the area. These signs were not there a week ago!
and closer
We had a hunch that this has something to do with the amount of garbage that we observed last week.
We were lucky to find an area just outside the boundaries of the preserve that didn’t have “no camping” signs and settled for a quiet dark-sky-watching night.
Or so we thought.
Soon after, cars started arriving and several of them settled not far from our site. There were at least 20 people ready to party. They had a good fire going, and were pretty loud into the small hours of the night.
The next morning they started packing up. Clearly the beauty of this place or the promise of dark sky was of no interest to them.
One of the party dudes carried a beer case of empties towards what he thought was a garbage dump. It was a trash pile that other campers left behind. We pointed out to him that they he needs to take his garbage out with him as there is no garbage collection. He muttered okay and went back to his car with his case of empties.
We later found that very same case hidden behind a bush.
Nicely done asshole.
We were getting ready to go for a short hike when people carrying garbage bags started showing up. An initiative by local businesses who organized a garbage collection day.
We had a chance to talk to some of the the folks and they are all fed up with people coming into their town and literally trashing this beautiful place.
So we stayed to help collect some of the trash.
Some of it was disgusting, and some just a hazard.
Of course the idiots from last night left their fire smoldering with all of their plastic bottles slowly burning away 🔥 we poured water over it, but the volunteers called the fire marshal to come and check it out.
We had a long and interesting conversation with the sheriff who shared with us some of the local frustration. He also mentioned the conservation officers are making their rounds and giving out tickets for all sorts of offences. And this is just the beginning.
This is what we came to see.
and this is what we found. There were many more bags of garbage removed from the site by about 75 volunteers during the community cleanup day.
but the experience left a bitter taste and, frankly, we think that no camping should be allowed there.
It also impressed on us to becautiouss of sharing camping locations. Perhaps if one has to work hard to find these locations, they will have more of an incentive to keep them clean and better than they found them.
Finally, a shout out to the Clear Lake Brewing Company for spearheading this community initiative! We made sure to stop and show our appreciation.
Oh, and the beer was very good!
Back to the bras at the beginning of the post. They should have been the most outrageous thing that we would encounter in the Muskokas.
If you are considering a trip to Torrance Barrens keep this in mind:
- the place gets busy on weekends with limited parking (about 20-25 cars)
- no parking by the side of the road
- no driving onto the barrens.
- Officers patrol the area and issue tickets
- only backcountry camping is allowed (200 metres from the road) – officers literally making people move to a spot beyond the 200 metres.
- there are many offences that conservation officers can give tickets for: littering, camping where not allowed, parking where not allowed, too much light, drinking in public, not putting out your fire,etc. Just give them a reason, and they will!
- If this behaviour continues, camping will be banned altogether
- Please, please, please keep this place clean and beautiful so that we can all enjoy it.
- This post offers some more options for finding a camping spot in Ontario.
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such a beautiful place; it is a shame that a few idiots may ruin it for everyone. I’m glad to see the local community take things into its own hands with the clean-up efforts, and having a beer seems like the perfect way to end such a day!
It looks like they are vamping enforcement up and there is hope for a brighter future. The beer was very good 🙂
I certainly hope the enforcement works…
Ugh, I always get so upset whenever I see trash on a trail or park or anywhere really. How lazy and inconsiderate can someone be? Glad there are other awesome people out there who take conservation efforts more seriously and make an effort to clean up. We usually now hike with a small plastic bag and pick up trash on the trail along the way. The trails close to Toronto are usually the worst for garbage.
Yeah, the closer you are to the big city, the more trash you have. Having said that, the area up north that closed to camping is pretty remote. We live across the street from a regional forest and find trash all the time. Thanks for collecting trash on your walks!
It help to take pictures, film rowdy, messy campers, most important is to get a shot of their license plates (very important – do it discretely). Then share with Crime Stoppers and MNR. I did this with poachers (illegally taking animals) that I witnessed. Stopped a OPP cruiser, showed my photos (we even zoomed in). The officer said he confirmed the trucks plate, recognized the owner and will make his visit (I emailed my photos to his email). All we can do is our part, help clean up, or blow the whistle!
Great suggestions as long as it’s done discreetly and keep you out of potentially confrontational situations. You need to actually catch them on video or photo in the act of doing something illegal, or it’s your word against theirs.
Such a nice area too bad for the people who don’t appreciate it and spoil it for everyone. Sounds like the conservation people have a difficult job there.
They do! They also have a huge area to cover, but it lo0ks like they are pulling together all of the resources and making an effort to protect this place.
I used to live by a beautiful park with a pond at its center. It amazed me how much trash people would leave behind, and I never understood why they would wreck their own natural treasure. Sigh. At least there are people who still care and clean up after the fools and slobs. 😀
Right? It blows my mind why one who comes to an area to enjoy it would throw their garbage and spoil it. Why do they come there in the first place? Doesn’t it spoil their enjoyment when they see garbage? Just why?
I don’t get it either. I guess they figure someone else will pick it up. Just plain mean-spirited.
Your post was not excessively long or preachy. It takes a community working together to keep unspoiled areas pristine and natural. Time and again humans have wreaked havoc through thoughtless actions. If we don’t call them out, then this practice will continue.
Stealing bras from a fence? How badly did they need it? There are a couple of these out of context places near us that I enjoy seeing. One is a large tree that someone chose to adorn with shoes. There are so many shoes it looks something like a Christmas tree with too many ornaments on it. Another funny one is a farmer who has chosen to put a toilet out in the middle of his field, perhaps seventy yards away from the roadway.
It was going to be longer and preachier 🙂 You are right, people will keep on doing these things and good people will keep undoing them.
We have shoe trees here too, but I haven’t seen a toilet in the middle of a field. Is it being used?
I don’t think so because it’s yards from any shelter. If it weren’t on private property, I’m sure some would be tempted to take a gag photo of someone on it.
Too bad 🙂
Such a beautiful place. Why do some people have no regard for keeping it that way? The MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION! Thank you for being great 👏. Carry on and enjoy.
Yes, it is the million dollar question! hopefully things will change now!
I think it’s a long process to educate everyone and it seems logical that the offenders pay the price. In the meantime, trash calls for more trash, so these clean-up efforts are not in vain.
This is a very good way to sum this up!
Great spot except for the ass holes. The problem is that those ass holes are multiplying. These days there seems to be much more of them than there are people like you and I.
I hope not! I’d like to think that there a lot of people that care. I guess we don’t notice those who behave 🙂
It’s so disheartening to see people being so disregardful towards the beautiful verdant nature. Kudos to people who run campaigns to keep the purity of the place intact. A lovely read of a wonderful outing👍
Hopefully, they will be able to keep it under control! Thanks for coming along!
At least I know now where to go get a bra! It is so sad that people were not taught respect for the land. Those guys who left that trash should be prosecuted. Sad, yet it was a good thing you were there to call and clean up. Such a beautiful place!
There are many styles to choose from 🙂 I do hope it will be better now that the town folks are taking action and putting some pressure on the ministry!
I hate it when people litter like that! Great post btw!
I know, me too! And thanks 🙂
We saw the NZ bra fence in 2002, when we were on the South Island. As to the campground garbage, it would seem that most people are lazy pigs. Never sure why they feel others should pick up after them. Good on you for chipping in. Allan
It’s so cool that you have a firsthand experience to something quirky that I mentioned! Yes, many entitled pigs around, but it was good to see that there were lots of caring folks in that area that chipped in and made a difference.