Trip report:
First Annual
True Canadian Winter Bus Campout
February 28-29th, 2004.
By Greg Potts.
First
Question: Why on earth
haven't we done this before?
It wasn't like other groups
haven't had organized winter events. The FullMoonBusClub does the
"Edisto FreezeyourToe", and the Peach State Transporters run the "Dead
Of Winter" campout. Strangely though, there hasn't been a Canadian
campout between November and May. When Collison Corner suggested the
idea to
The_Bug_Pack mailing list there was enough
response to justify putting something together.
The end result was a spectacular success. 8 Buses and 4 visiting
carloads of Bug_Packers was a teriffic turnout for an event only 4
weeks in planning. The weather certainly didn't hurt, with unseasonably
warm temps about 10 degrees (C) higher than normal for late February.
That's like 20 degrees in the old scale.
For myself the event got under way on Friday, with Matthew and I
shopping for food and preparing dinner for Saturday and prepping
ingredients for breakfast on Sunday. Saturday found us getting up early
to have breakfast together and finish packing. Since Colleen and the
girls were away at Girl Guide camp it was quality Man-Time for Matt and
I, and we had lots of little details to look after.
Eventually we had everything ready to go, and with the westrailer
hooked up and time to spare I decided to do a few last tweaks on the
throttle linkage. What I discovered was that a spacer was missing on
the linkage behind the cable, and this resulted in almost 3/16" of
freeplay in the cable. Once I got the slack on the cable taken up
properly with some washers in place as spacers I found throttle
response to be much better, and the bus picked up at least 5MPH on the
highway. To test throttle response I decided to drive down to the 401
and see how it ran, and found it hauled the westrailer nicely at 65 MPH
pulling only 375 degrees on the CHT gauge. Seeing as how we were fully
loaded with food, firewood and westrailer I thought we were doing
pretty good. Instead of pulling off at Meadowvale I decided to head
further east and see if Adam had arrived at the designated checkpoint
yet.
Thanks to the Ministry of Transportation, Adam wasn't quite ready to
roll yet. That was no big deal, as Collie hadn't heard from Cory yet
either. Adam and I decided to meet at Walmart, and catch up with Collie
and Cory after their side-trip to meet Scott in Don Mills. Eventually
we all met up on the 401 just west of the parkway, and the carabus set
off to cross the city to the higher elevations in the west.
Traffic wasn't too nasty on a dry
Saturday afternoon, and soon we found the office towers, malls and
factories thinning out and forests and farms lining the highway more
often. A bit further out of town and the road began to rise as we
approached the Niagara Escarpment and the ski hills near Kelso
Conservation area. Not long after that Collie spoke up on the CB
radio... Dave Ireland had called and he would be meeting us at the car
pool parking lot at the 401 and highway 6. Once Dave was in line the
carabus was up to five, and Collie pulled up short at the next light so
I could slide up to the front of the line and lead the carabus into the
park. Traffic continued to be a non-issue, and about fifteen minutes
later we arrived at the gates of Valens Conservation area to find a
Synchro already parked there: Eric Cleland had arrived just minutes
ahead of us.
Suddenly the girl at the park gate found herself awash in registration
paperwork...
Adding vehicles to the sites Jamie Rivers and Dennis Jolliffe had
already staked out, and registering new sites and second cars to a
couple more sites beside them. Pretty soon we had all the paperwork
sorted out and the six buses were back on the road, with just a
mile or so to cover to reach the campsites.
And suddenly we
were there, and the first campout of the season had begun.
Once we arrived, a "flurry" of activity broke out as people
jockeyed their buses into the perfect position and camping implements
were set up just so. We all had a lot to do if our sites were to look
as good as Jamie Rivers did... he had spent the afternoon as a model
subject for a photographer shooting winter camping pics for the next
Valens brochure, so the campsite was impeccable. My main priority was
to find a place to unload my firewood -- the middle of the bus was
filled to the windows with scrap lumber that my employer was happy to
be rid of.
Once that was done I could pop the roof and get things organized, but
relaxation was going to have to wait until after Jamie's hike to the
lookout tower. This was also a good chance to scope out the
campground facilities... Coin Laundry, flush toilets, showers... A
pretty good deal for $25/night. The tower Jamie led us to was at the
edge of a stand of mature red pines, and was just tall enough that you
could look down on the top branches. It also gave you a 360 degree view
of the horizon, which was clear to at least 30 miles. Nothing beats
that cool dry winter air for long-range visibility.
After getting a good look at our surroundings we headed back to the
campsite and Matt started working on getting the campfire lit before it
got dark. I spent some time getting the westrailer kitchen set up and
arranging dinner ingredients, and put up some lights and hung my big
Canadian flag up near the campfire.
When camping in the
winter it gets dark a LOT earlier,
so you get to spend LOTS more time at the campfire.
Once the fire was lit people started to settle down around it. I put
the stew on the boil while Matthew set to work prepping the bread
bowls. Christine kept the stew from burning while I got some other
details sorted and soon it was time for dinner. 12 bowls later the
stew-pot was still half-full, but plenty of breadbowls came back for
seconds and pretty soon there was nothing left.
The campground was very quiet, but every now and then a car would drive
by... And when one came charging around the last corner faster than
average I wondered out loud who the lunatic was. As the car came into
view I had my answer: My brother Brent had finally arrived. He'd
been busy that morning helping a buddy use up gas on his skidoo, and
then managed to get lost trying to find the campground. He unloaded
some more firewood from his van, and then parked it out of site and set
up his lawnchair in the circle.
The campfire was awesome. Lots of pleasant conversation, lots of
pleasant beverages and snacks. Some new people to get to know, and some
friends to catch up with. We kept the fire rolling along pretty well,
and the huge pile of firewood slowly dwindled. No-one was cold, and
often we found ourselves widening the circle to get to that sweet spot
between the scorching heat and the winter chill.
After a while Ruth and Jamie brought out some really nice campfire
munchies... Potato Skins. We let the fire die down a bit so they could
be baked, and when they came out we were able to stuff them with ground
beef, chives and sour cream. They're a great treat for a long cold
winter evening.
About 1AM I realized that since I was responsible for organizing
breakfast, I had better get some sleep. Despite being extra-sensitive
to planetary rotation, I managed to find my way to the westfakia and
did not need any encouragement to get to sleep.
7:00 AM came pretty
early. Too early for me...
I told it to Sod off, rolled over and went back to sleep.
Half an hour later I came to my senses and started to get ready for the
day... Coffee was my first objective, after which I would get started
on breakfast. I was happy to see that the campfire hadn't been left
cluttered with beer empties, Dennis and I found only a few dead
soldiers that needed to be tucked aside before the ranger made his
rounds. That done I was able to get back to breakfast, and soon had
veggies simmering and Matthew stirring a wok with three dozen scrambled
eggs. Ruth, Jamie and Adam also lent a hand to keep things rolling, and
before long it was time to chow down.
Once the burritos were done it was time to break camp and get rolling
on Jamie's Waterfall Tour. But first we stopped to arrange a group
picture at the edge of the field in front of the comfort station. This
turned out to be an amusing experience, thanks to the sharp 90-degree
uphill turn that was thoroughly iced up. Collie and Adam managed to
make it up the hill, then it was my turn with the westfakia, followed
by Tom & Thanh in their Saturn. So far so good... but then
some wahoo in a GM astrovan tries his luck, and fails miserably.
Spinning his wheels for ten minutes, he blocks the corner and prevents
Eric, Cory and Jamie from joining the group. Eventually he gets the
idea he just isn't going to make it, and ass his vehicle slides over to
the far side of the corner he is treated to the sight of a Vanagon
synchro, a split-window and a baywindow bus demonstrating their
superior handling as they roar past him up the incline. After that I
snapped a quick group picture from the center of the clearing and then
we headed off out of the park for the waterfall tour.
Jamie knows the Cambridge/Hamilton area quite well, and I was very
impressed with the waterfalls he brought us to. After visiting Webster
Falls we stopped for lunch and parted company with Collie, Adam, Eric
and Kim, who were all on a tighter schedule than the rest of us. After
cooking hot dogs and soup on the westrailer, the remainder of us got
back on the buses and headed a little ways down the road to the Spencer
Gorge.
The view from the gorge was accompanied by a great hike along a popular
section of the Bruce Trail. The trail led us along the edge of the
gorge with plenty of icy hills and lminor muddy sections to keep the
exceitement level up. And if that wasn't exciting enough, there was
always the ongoing snowball fight that Christine, Cory and Jamie kept
up throughout the walk.
If you don't
know the meaning of the word "gorgeous", make time to hike the
Spencer Gorge.
After the hike we made our way back to the buses and reviewed the map
to determine our best routes home. With that decided, Cory and
Christine carabused with Matthew and I and set off Eastbound with the
rest of the group going eastbound. We gassed up and got back on the
highway, rolling easily across the 403, up the 427 and east on the 401
with very little trouble. The bus ran slightly hotter than it had
earlier, possibly due to my accidentally topping up with midgrade gas
instead of my usual regular. Or maybe it was a slight headwind, I don't
know. Before long Matthew and I were waving to the last bus in our
carabus, and pulling off the highway, with another great campout under
our belts.
THANKS:
Collie, Adam and Jamie, for helping arrange the event.
Matthew, for helping me get stuff together.
The staff at Valens, for making such an excellent facility avalable.
Everyone who attended, in buses or otherwise.
Lots of additional pictures are available here.
You
know it's a good campout when people are talking about "Next Year"
before they've even left.
...I can hardly wait.
