Camping Spots

Ok with the warm weather this past weekend it's really got me thinking of how badly I want to get out camping. With my recent (Jan 2020) purchase of a TRD OR I can now get to places I previously couldn't. It would be likely be me and the girl friend heading out, we like to portage and get fairly removed from civilization. Unfortunately our schedules rarely match up and vacation time is largely used to combat winter blues. So we're kinda limited to weekends, 3 hour highway drives to camp aren't always ideal as highways aren't that adventurous and it sucks up soo much time. Hence my dilemma.

So to add a little variety/excitement to the motorized portion of the trip I'm looking for semi-local roads/trails that can help scratch the camping/portage itch. We're in Wasaga/Barrie so anything in Simcoe County/Muskoka/Parry Sound/Kawartha is fair game. I know that everyone isn't always so keen to share their secret little camping spots so I'll offer my two favorite sites to get the ball rolling.

McCrae Lake - from Driveway to campsite <3 hrs - minimal driving (all highway), portaging options, easy paddling, FREE camping, only draw back is it's well known.
https://www.campkit.ca/blogs/tips/backcountry-for-a-weekend-mccrae-lake


Gibson Park/Lone Lake - minimal driving, options for off-roading, great fishing, free camping, some areas are a little marshy. I've made it to the blue marker on foot in both the summer and winter. There are power lines which have some variable terrain which (if memory serves correct) could make for moderate level offroading to get to camp.


Share some of your spots and maybe I'll see you out there

 

Too tall an order? Or is it that nobody wants to share

 

You can join OF4WD (either via club or standalone) and get list of trails there, most trails have camping spots marked there.
Other than that Southern Ontario long past the wild west days with free land to camp. It's mostly commercialized, the only place is left is crown land which is available to a public and you can camp anywhere and make your own camping spot.

 

All my spots are to far north for you. Outside the 3 hour limit.

But I will put a few here just incase I am wrong.

This is the wife and my fav camp spot we found.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/M...1eedc28d87c0a5!8m2!3d46.7211192!4d-79.2367297
If you like paddling, that camp site is prime. The farther you go down that road, the more lakes you find. Almost all of which are crystal clear, spring fed. You can easily see to the bottom in most of them.


VMUTS is all crown land and has lots of camp spots, as in where ever you want to camp you can. I can show you good places to camp, I use VMUTS every single chance I can. Any excuse to go out on the trails is one I use. Showing someone a few camp spots is one of them!

www.vmuts.ca

 

Sorry, most of my spots are about 5 hours out, and even then i'm not aware of any camp sites along the way. mostly a mishmash of ATV/ snowmobile trails, which you would need an OF4WD membership for as well.

But as @Norilsk had mentioned, and it is literally 100% true, is that anything south of Barrie is in fact commercialized/ private land.

Grey is all private land.


If you want to do car camping, there is a handful of it down here in the south tip. but it's also everything a Yaris could do without much trouble, so you wont be able to stretch your legs all too much.
VMUTS is on my list of places to go as it is also a large network of ATV/ Snowmobile/ Offroad roads/trails.

 

Only place I know is ardbeg.....

Had this spot flagged for years. Never checked it out. It’s north of orillia. Service road that takes you to one of the Severn locks. Could probably find a spot to camp there. Not sure if it’s crown land or not.

 

I had a good time at limberlost Forest, by Algonquin. Only 25$ per person. No lake view though.

 

Im just gonna write this so ill get all the updates for campsites. Ill need them for my trip to Vancouver

 

Unfortunately they closed that road 2 years ago,,,to many people using it as a garbage dump, also a bunch of 4x4’ers destroyed the road that spring,
It’s very disappointing as it was a good spot,
This was taken today,,

 

Wait, they closed Swift Rapid? I was up there in Jan and was still open,

Always the few bad apples ruin it for everyone else.

 

According to the signs ,,,,only walking is allowed now,
Note the camera on the post above no parking sign,

 

Man, what a bummer, I really hope they start include proper garbage disposal in school soon, I mentioned here before that one of the unopen roads I drive often is littered with garbage since pandemic started, like you went through this much effort to go out of the way, it probably costs less on gas if they just gone to the dump.

 

I hiked in to turtle lake last month. The sign said it was closed till may 31. A local guy I met along the way said maybe august 31. Is that sign not there anymore????

 

It’s possible,,,did not see it

 

It seems it may be the case:

https://www.orilliamatters.com/poli...ids-there-are-things-you-need-to-know-3813624

If you check on facebook there's a swifty's group, and it seems it may be for a while, then you see some a**hat does this:

 

Bummer!!! Is that a truck or atv track?Hopefully the trail cam caught the vehicle.

 

They don't know, but it seems to be heavy enough to be a truck, either way, some folks are lousy and I do hope it re-open again, its a nice area.

 

Thanks for sharing this one. I'd never heard of McDougal Provincial Park. I looked it up on Ontario Park's website and it states that it's a non-operating park and doesn't have any details on parking or camping.
Would you mind replying or PM me with some more details?
We complete an annual 6 day backcountry canoe trip every September and are always looking for new spots.
We usually stick with the organized parks such as; Massasauga, Algonquin, French River, Killarney, Temagami area parks, Frontenac and Quetico.
We've only Crown Land camped outside Elk Lake once and the Temagami Area.

 

Not 3 hours outside Wasaga/Barrie but Skull Lake, South of Elk Lake was nice. We took our stock 2012 Tacoma 4X4 down the logging road, paddled over to the island and camped there for a few days. Only ever saw 2 ATV's the whole time.