Need advice on "Boondocking" 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??? Doesn't seem like there as many options as even the Mid West down south of the boarder.. Advice welcome.

 

Recreational activities on Crown land | ontario.ca


You need a permit, but generally no one checks for it... but I attached the link above. Camping wise any crown land is a fair game, as long as you don't create new camp sites (cut trees, make firepits etc). Plenty of logging roads go through crown lands, so you can use those to wander further.

 

@ppat4

 

Thank you. That is helpful.

 

Can’t speak for Ontario, but in BC basically any crown land you just pitch a tent, for free. Thousands of miles of logging roads through wilderness. I have explored about 1/2 of the areas in the province in my lifetime, but only just touching on those spots over 400 trips.

Ontario though has 15 million people, only 5 million here in BC.

For size comparison, you can fit 3.5 Colorado’s in BC. The state Colorado that is, not the truck…

However, to get to the good remote spots you have to leave the Vancouver area and travel past Hope BC. After that the fun starts.

In the areas I visit I could easily find well over 1,000 spots to camp, and virtually alone. Its pretty rare that I ever see anyone else when I am out exploring.

As others have said, don’t start cutting down trees to make a camp spot or such. Here in BC the areas you can camp for free are endless. You could not explore them all in 10 lifetimes.

Most of BC is wilderness. Yes there are many small towns dotted throughout the province, but the wilderness dwarfs the amount of land used for development.

Good luck with your trip. Ontario is a beautiful province.

 

This is one of the most useful website:

https://www.lioapplications.lrc.gov.on.ca/CLUPA/index.html?viewer=CLUPA.CLUPA&locale=en-CA

If you do not carry laptop with you, you can sign up for iHunter ON on your phone, if you pay for the annual use, you can also add layer function for crownland to see where's the nearest one.

 

Thank you!

 

If you're a Facebook user there is a group for Crown Land Camping in Ontario, .

 

This fellow also shows you how to dig down in that atlas to check if your chosen point qualifies for the 21-day camp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vleAwJbrBCM