family Camping baseCaMp | betCha DiDN’t kNow | LittLe expLorers | get-awaY | bubbLe street
[ BaseCamp ]
The people in Your neighbourhood
I
was excited about my new five-pound ing a family, one of the many changes I’ve It was their first time camping with kids, but
refillable propane tank. I had two but- had to accept is trading these solitary so- by the looks of their sun-faded pup tents and
tered cheese sandwiches in the frying journs for a more convivial camping atmo- micro stoves (and yes, a corkscrew) I guessed
pan and two hungry campers begging for sphere. that they’d backpacked Europe.
food. It was our first father-toddlers camp- A few weeks after the propane incident, I The following morning, Harry wandered
ing trip and I just then remembered the spent the August long weekend at the busi- over asking if we had sugar for their coffee.
safe place in my basement where I’d left the est campground in the Highway 60 corridor We handed him a bottle of maple syrup. It
adapter hose that connects my new tank to of Algonquin Park. Packed into the knot of was the best we could do. Over breakfast the
my Coleman stove. campsites were nearly 300 people—more kids became fast friends and we planned an
What happened next is a bit shaky, like than the population of the two towns in all-day hike and cycle together.
the real life video footage from an episode of which I live and work. Campgrounds like these aren’t about wil-
COPS. Driven to crime by hungry, whining ziggy was the first person I asked to bor- derness. To me they are about being sur-
children, I stole the green canister from my row a corkscrew. The twenty-something hip- rounded by like-minded outdoor families—
neighbour’s abandoned picnic table. py girl across the campsite road rummaged people you get to know more in a weekend
Upon their return I thought it best to con- through embroidered pouches and secret than you do your neighbours at home.
fess. I’m glad I did. The two large middle-aged compartments in her chartreuse Westfalia. Campground neighbours give what you
men were, I’m certain, linked to the Russian Nothing. don’t have, loan you what you’ve forgotten.
mafia—or let’s just say one was in importing The campers to the left were Baptist and They pick things up in town and leave you
and the other was a simple truck driver who said they didn’t drink, although the teenage their worms and leftover wood. They boost
just purchased a new BMW 760. son suggested we just sink the cork. I said dead batteries and return stray Frisbees.
I know all this because they invited us thanks and moved on before the question- These neighbours make family camping
back for souvlaki skewers cooked over their ing began. more fun than it would be without them.
fire. After the kids were tucked into their On the other side, a young couple cuddled And, campground neighbours forgive you
sleeping bags, I returned to share a $200 close to the fire, wine glasses in hand. Per- for stealing propane canisters and don’t ask
bottle of Johnny Walker Blue toasting the fect. Except they’d forgotten a corkscrew too truck drivers how they afford $200,000 Eu-
new automobile. and grabbed a screw-off bottle on their way ropean luxury sedans.
My first 20 years of camping I did in re- to the campground.
SCOTT MACGREGOR is the publisher of Canoeroots, Rapid,
mote places—mountains, lakes and rivers— Finally, I met Harry Sarin, a radiologist
Adventure Kayak and Kayak Angler magazines. He lives his life
where seeing another group was grounds to at a big hospital in the city, and his wife, a of petty crime with his wife Tanya and young family in the
keep moving to a different spot. Since start- nurse on leave raising their three children.
Ottawa Valley.
[ BetCha didn’t know aBout…]
Moose
P
n The word moose is derived from the to five months to develop, making them the
hot
Algonquian name moz, meaning he trims, fastest growing male organ in nature.
o:
s
teve P
shaves. Must be that unfashionable mullet,
n Native American myths about moose with
goatee, and patchy spring coat.
devil’s antlers are based on the misshapen
age
n Moose are known as elk in Europe. North
appendages worn for life by castrated bull
American elk were named by early European
moose.
explorers who thought this large deer
corporate pride and prize targets for high
species resembled the European elk (i.e.
n The largest moose ever recorded was
school car rallies.
moose). Presumably they had yet to see an
discovered in Alaska. It stood 2.34 metres at
n Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, is named from
actual moose…
the shoulder, weighed 816 kilograms, and
the Cree word moosegaw, which means
had a rack spanning two metres.
n In 1910, 10 moose introduced in Fiordland,
warm breezes. Nevertheless, the city’s mascot
New Zealand, disappeared into the
n The flap of skin that hangs beneath the is a 10-metre, 9,000-kilogram concrete moose
impenetrable bush. Occasional sightings
throat is called a bell. named Mac.
were as credible as reports of Bigfoot until
n In 2000, the Moose in the City project
n Chocolate moose, a dish made famous by
moose hair was found in 2002.
flooded Toronto, Ontario, with 326 life-size
the Muppet Show in 1978, is a culinary staple
n Male moose lose their antlers in the fall and
moose statues. Sold at a charity auction,
of northern tourist towns.
re-grow them every spring. Antlers take three
these moose quickly became a source of » vIrgInIa MarShall
0 SPRING 2009
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