Camping season has officially begun!
This long weekend we kicked off our 2016 camping season at Kouchibouguac National Park. This park holds a ton of childhood memories for both Jeff and I seeing as the park is about 45 minutes away from our hometown of Miramichi. This was where my grandparents always camped and where we would go to the beach and I spent several girl guide camps here!
The campground was packed and the weather was gorgeous so it made for a fantastic kick off weekend. We stayed in the South Kouchibouguac campground at site 306...great location but only had electric service so it made for a little planning for water conservation and having to use the park facilities for the most part. Not ideal, but we made it work! We were thankful to at least have electricity since the nights did get chilly enough we had to put the heated beds on.
We arrived Friday evening after supper and set up pretty quickly. We broke in the oven and made pizza for the first time ever in the camper...and set the smoke alarm off. Oops! The kids roasted some marshmallows over the fire and we got ourselves all settled in. Danny had the lot right next to us and some of our friends were scattered around the park too so we saw a few friendly faces around.
Saturday we took the kids on a bike ride and scavenger hunt the park was putting on. It was so hot it felt like July so we didn't do more than 6km before taking a lunch break and finishing the further away clues by car. There were a few things we needed to get so we took a drive into Richibucto and found a Tim Horton's before heading back to the awards announcement for the scavenger hunt. We ended up winning a deck of cards and laughed at the poor announcer trying to pronounce our names (apparently McDonnell looks a lot like Mitchell on paper).
Sunday was a little cooler and a little more laid back for us. We lazed around the campsite reading and napping while the kids played an endless game of monopoly before hiking the osprey trail in search of the red Adirondack chairs Parks Canada hides around the national parks in very picturesque locations for visitors to find. Unfortunately we discovered why we had never done this trail before and why it's not one of the more popular ones. It was 5km of rougher trail through the woods hiking with not a whole lot to see and no fun information stops along the way. And...no red chairs. Madi thought the forest was very mysterious and both kids learned a lot about different kinds of trees from their grandfather before we finished up and headed back to camp.
Monday morning we got up a little late and had a big breakfast before making the trek home. Madison fell asleep before we even left the park and Cole was out somewhere between Doaktown and Fredericton. Even the dog is sleeping off her adventures!
All in all it was a wonderful weekend and a great start to the season with awesome weather, great company and a chance to work out a few kinks getting back into the swing of things! Our next adventure keeps us close to home while we check out Mactaquac Provincial Park in June!
Adventure is out there!
-The McDonnells
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