Recently we took our vintage trailer out of the country for the first time, spending a week in Canada's Algonquin Provincial Park. While it was only about a 6 hour trip from home it provided for some new experiences. Crossing the border early in the morning worked out well and went smoothly. I tried not to laugh too loud when the customs agent asked if we were "bringing anything" with us into Canada, perhaps she hadn't noticed the Shasta behind and the four boats stacked on the roof of the car. But after a few basic questions we were on our way again. Once into Canada we made a planned stop to pick up a few groceries that the customs guidelines had noted as prohibited to bring across the border. During that stop we noticed that one if the car tires was really low on air and ended up at a truck stop where I found a compressor with a hose long enough to use without requiring us to drop the trailer. I've got a small 12volt air pump but it's on it last legs and needs to be replaced. The rest of the drive up was uneventful as we drove from the outskirts of Toronto into more rural county. Algonquin park has several campgrounds suitable for small trailers and many more paddle-in sites for canoe camping. We were really pleased with our site which was on the water and quite private. So private that our hard to not notice trailer got almost no attention which was nice. While we really like attending trailer rallies and showing off the Shasta, it's also really nice just to be camping. We launched another new kayak that I had built in the previous months and spent a lot of time paddling. We also hiked a number of short interpretive trails, checked out the visitor center, and visited the logging museum. We saw a bunch of wildlife including a black bear, fox, great heron, beavers, and got one brief glimpse of a moose that was so far off it was hard to say that we actually saw it. One thing we found interesting was that the park draws both english and french speaking campers from Ontario and Quebec which gave it a unique feel compared to places that we typically camp. Overall we had a great time and hope to make it back from time to time. The trip home was mostly uneventful except for some traffic and a tight corner out of the customs checkpoint coming back in to the US. Since the trip I've been spending some time looking at the map again and hope to explore more of that new country that we just discovered to the north.
