Anyone have experience "Boondocking" (dispersed camping) in Canada???

Wanting to do the circle tour around Lake Superior this summer and generally try and avoid campgrounds. Any experience with dispersed type camping in Canada? Not sure of usage on Crown Lands-are there fees? Can one just wander off on dirt and camp???

 

There is an abundance of crown land on the north side of Superior. Some right on the coast and much much more a very small drive north of the lake. Some of the campsite apps iOverlander, freecampsites.net, etc... have the lake shore pull-offs marked.

If you have Gaia maps the backroads mapbooks will have all the logging and unmaintained roads mapped. As most of these roads are typically created by the logging industry they are maintained on a 40-50yr cycle. You will run into everything from beautiful smooth graded roads to impossibly overgrown and washed out. As they are primarily logging, many only come within 100m or so of lakes. Finding pullouts and clearings to camp is plentiful and easy still. We also have many private hunt camps sprinkles through out crown land, these areas are not marked on the CLUPA maps but are obvious when you come up to them.

As a non resident, you will need a permit for crown land camping. Information on that and the rest of the crown land rules can be found here.
Recreational activities on Crown land | ontario.ca

This is the Crown Land Use Policy Atlas. You can look up where crown land is and query information about specific areas (not all crown land or conservation reserve is created equal. Conservation reserve is a confusing term. For teh purpose of camping it can be considered crown land but will usually have restrictions on hunting, logging, etc.... Again, its good to check the details using the find information tool in the CLUPA.
Crown Land Use Policy Atlas (gov.on.ca)

For good measure, here's the rules on collecting firewood for a campfire.
Using wood from Crown land for personal use | ontario.ca

 

Thank you. I have since writing this found most of this information. The atlas seems a tad confusing, but going to give it a try next year. Have any special places you know and are willing to share? There is a Crown land camping site on Face Book but they are militant! Not much use so far. Thanks again.

 

The atlas is confusing at first until you figure out its quirks. It also sucks huge on mobile so its a plan ahead tool or if you can tether to a laptop while on the road, do that.

Unfortunately those groups are understandably protective over their spots. I have seen many spots get destroyed in the last several years as things have been popularized. IF you have specific areas you are interested in finding camp, the fellas over in the Ontario BS thread can be a great help. I think some of the guys are from that area as well.

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