Bravo Presqu'ile Park

Back in July of 2012 I wrote a letter to the local newspaper and also posted the same letter on my blog regarding changes within Presqu'ile Provincial Park and some areas that I felt needed to be addressed. As someone who has camped and visited the park every year of my entire 45 years of existence, I've witnessed a lot of changes within the park. Some of those changes I agree with and some I have taken issue with. As always, it's only my opinion but of course through conversations with other park users I've come to learn that my concerns and ideas were being shared by plenty of other paying customers.

Today I'm not going to delve into all of those concerns again. The last time I wrote about it I was happy to receive some feedback from what I can only assume were park staff or individuals close to the day to day operations of the park. I didn't necessarily agree with what they had to say but I appreciated their input and respected their ideas and thoughts. That's the great thing about this country, everyone is entitled to their opinion and I don't have a problem with someone taking a stand on the opposite side of the fence as me provided they do so with class.

What I wanted to do today was thank the person or management at Presqu'ile who finally listened to not only me but the many other campers who have made suggestions over recent years and addressed the one issue that has been a thorn in the side of so many of us.

After finishing another camping season at Thanksgiving I finally made a trip back into the park in early November and was thrilled to see that work had begun on resurfacing the main road into and across the front of the High Bluff camping area. This road had been a constant source of complaints mainly because of the dusty conditions in the summer time.

High Bluff campground road.

It was a common site between May and October to see campers having to close the windows on their trailers, covering their food and even walking across the road to sit in order to avoid the disgusting dust that blew into their campsites after each vehicle passed by. Sadly the dust would be less if the vehicles were traveling at the posted speed limit but that's a rare occurrence indeed. It was a health hazard for senior citizens and small children and just a dusty annoyance overall.

Entrance to High Bluff campground.

This past weekend I returned to the park to enjoy a peaceful walk and hoped to spot some wildlife. The deer were scarce as usual but upon completing my walk I took a drive into the camping area and was blown away by what I found. The park had finally paved the road across the front of the Bluff. It was a thing of beauty and I know the regular campers who won't return until the new season begins will be thrilled to see the road they've been begging to be fixed for so long has finally been given the attention it sorely needed.

The difference between the old road and the newly paved road is huge and on I'm sure I speak for all campers when I say "Thank You" to Ontario Parks and Presqu'ile Park Management in particular for seeing to it that this upgrade happened.

West end of High Bluff road where pavement begins.

Some will argue that the newly paved surface will only cause problems with speeding vehicles but of course as any regular visitor to the park will tell you, speeding cars and trucks have been a problem on weekends along that stretch of road long before pavement was put down. I just hope the Park Wardens make a concerted effort to crack down on this problem next summer because the kids will love riding their bikes, scooters and roller blades on this smooth new surface and we'd all hate to see something tragic happen.

The entrance to the park has also been resurfaced and widened at the front gate which should help to alleviate congestion when campers stop to register at the office.

Once again, Bravo Presqu'ile! I look forward to seeing what upgrades you have in store for us next. Might I suggest a new trailer dumping station? (hint hint)

Presqu’ile Needs Some Attention

I've camped at Presqu’ile Provincial Park in Ontario every summer and at times in the spring and fall for over 40 years. It is a home away from home and holds a lot of great memories as a kid and an adult.

It has gone through a lot of changes over those years, as you would imagine, some for the better and some for the worse. I could write a book on these changes but will try to keep my thoughts as brief as possible.

It still remains a great park for camping with good sites however the CAMIS reservation system is not the best online. I spoke with many campers who are dissatisfied with how it works now and what appeared to be very slow servers. Twice while booking sites I was kicked off 3 or 4 steps into reserving the site and lost the site I wanted. I never had this issue in the past. I hope they upgrade before next winters reservation period.

For some reason, maybe to save on fuel costs, the park workers weren’t cutting the grass as often as they should prior to the lack of rain when it was growing a lot. Plus, there are a lot of areas that used to be kept cut that no longer are and this looks dreadful. I'm sure it has something to do with the naturalists wanting to keep the park a more natural setting. It just looks like they're lazy or too cheap to cut the grass the way it used to be. I’d say it makes it harder to spot the deer but that’s another story.

The main roads in the campground need to be paved or resurfaced properly right away. Not only have they been patched over and over and are very bumpy but the dust kicked up by passing cars is disgusting and an absolute disgrace. Anyone camped on the side of the road where the dust is blowing towards is constantly eating the dirt, having to clean their vehicles and must keep their tents and trailers closed up tight to avoid having everything covered in grit.

This has been like this for many years and so far the best solution the park staff have come up with is to pour a little water on the roads to try and keep the dust down but this happens infrequently and does little to solve the problem. Campers will even walk back and forth with jugs of water and will wet the road themselves for some relief. Not exactly what these paying customers had in mind for an activity when they booked their vacation.

For the amount of money that is spent in the park each year you would think they could afford to properly pave the roads most in need. At the very least, pave the main roads around High Bluff and Trails End where the problem is the worst. Use recycled asphalt on the other campground roads. But it seems the powers that be would rather stay under budget and continue to find temporary and cheap solutions that really aren't solutions at all.

One nice change recently was the addition of newly built comfort stations on High Bluff, The Pines and the Maples campgrounds. Although I guess they couldn't afford to put hot water into the Pines washroom. Now they just need to build one more with showers near Trails End.

I'd also suggest that as every camper registers upon entry, they be given not just the park newspaper that contains the rules but a separate piece of paper with five or six of the main rules that are constantly being broken. Among those are people cutting through campsites not their own and washing dishes at the fresh water taps where people get their drinking water.

And speaking of drinking water, what does the health inspector think about the dumping station being located only a few metres from the fresh water tap. While one camper dumps their septic tanks, another is filling their holding tank with drinking water. It would be a smart idea to move the location of the drinking water across the road where trailers could fill up with water in a much healthier location. Plus with the tanks being on different sides of the trailers they could set up the new water filling station so trailers could fill up on either side.

Finally, the biggest safety issue in the park is the speeding. How a child hasn't been killed or injured is just luck. The speed limit in the campground is 20 Km/h yet it is not uncommon to see cars doing 40-60 Km/h at times in the camp area. Campers can often be heard yelling at the speeders to slow down but if the security would set up on foot and catch and fine a few each weekend, it would go a long way towards solving that problem. It wouldn't take long to nab a few and they're easy to spot. You can see their dust flying from some distance down the road.

I know to some this all might sound like nitpicking but the back of every campers registration card that goes in the post at the campsite has a place where suggestions can be added and turned in. I have a sneaky suspicion that a lot of those cards are either ignored or just filed and forgotten. This might be a little more public and harder to ignore.

I love the park and spend a lot of time there with family and friends and I think these changes if implemented would go a long way towards improving the stay for each and every paying customer.

Learn To Drive Will Ya!

I don’t think I’m telling you something you didn’t already know when I say that there are a lot of really bad drivers on the road. It’s not that they can’t keep their vehicle on the street; they just don’t know the rules of the road.

The simplest rules are forgotten most often and unfortunately this lack of knowledge or the sheer lack of common sense of some road warriors will be the cause of many accidents.

Now, I’m not about to make this a male versus female issue even though the majority of the offenders in my experience are women. While that may be the case, men and young drivers are just as guilty.

I’m also not going to harp on those with a lead foot. I myself have been known to creep over the speed limit from time to time, especially on the highway. The fact that I think the speed limit on the major highways should be raised from 100 to 120 kilometres per hour is just my opinion. I love to travel in the U.S. because the speed limits on the Interstates are higher than they are here in Canada and you can actually get where you’re going in much better time. Not to mention the traffic seems to flow better as well for some reason.

This discussion I am more concerned with some simple regulations of the road that people just don’t have a grasp of and I’d rather see the police start ticketing these individuals rather than someone who is 10 or 15 km’s over the limit. So here are my current driving pet peeves:

1. Turning into the Wrong Lane at an Intersection
I’m sure you’ve all seen this before and this one drives me crazy. Picture yourself sitting at a stop light waiting to turn left onto a four lane road (two lanes in each direction). There is also a car waiting across the intersection facing you waiting to turn right to travel in the same direction as you. The light turns green. What should the drivers do? According to the law you each turn into the closest lane. That means you turn left into the passing lane while the car facing you turns right into the curb lane. That’s how it should work but I would say nine times out of ten one of the cars cuts across into the far lane cutting me off. At this point my horn, hand gestures and foul mouth all go into action. Where are the police when you need them?

2. Driving in the Passing Lane
This one really steams me sometimes, especially when the car is going slow. Once again you’re traveling down a four lane road. The right lane is the driving lane and the left is the passing lane. I know this might come as a shock to some, but they call it the passing lane for a reason. You go out there to pass someone and then you pull back over to the right into the driving lane and continue. You don’t stay out there and keep putting along. The folks who really tick me off are the people who stay in the passing lane because they’re eventually going to turn left onto another road. Get the hell over until you’re almost at your turn. Surely to goodness you can change lanes half a kilometre away. You don’t need to drive 5km in the passing lane before you turn. Where are the police when you need them?

3. Passing on the Right
Along the lines of the last one, possibly as a result of someone driving in the passing lane you may have to pass on the right if they’re going too slow in the wrong lane. That is the only time I condone this. However, recently I was coming to a stop light in town and was preparing to make a left turn. Some asshole in a truck came flying up beside me on the right and swerved in front of me cutting me off and jammed on the brakes for the light. I was pissed off to say the least. So for the remainder of the light, I had one hand on the horn and the other flipping the bird. Road rage? Perhaps. Pointless? Also perhaps but it makes me feel better and in a situation like that, that’s all I care about. Where are the police when you need them?

By the way, I have to give thanks to my brother for teaching me to use the horn. He does it all the time in Florida. Maybe it’s an American thing. It accomplishes nothing but it feels so much better to help release the anger. After all, like the Hulk, you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.

4. Merging Into Traffic…You Don’t Have the Right of Way
I see this all the time as I’m traveling along the 401 highway. I’ll be motoring along in the driving lane (right lane) and as I approach an area where traffic can enter the highway I can see cars preparing to merge onto the motorway. Normally most drivers would move over to the left passing lane and allow those cars entering the highway an easier and clear spot for them to do so. However, sometimes the traffic is thick and you can’t move over. These idiots feel that they have the right of way to merge when actually they don’t. They will force their way on to the highway and nearly cause an accident or at the bare minimum make the oncoming traffic hit the brakes to avoid them. What they should have done is waited for the traffic to pass and the lane to clear before proceeding. They do NOT have the right of way. Where are the police when you need them?

5. Not Using the Ramp to Accelerate to Speed
Going hand in hand with number four is this one. Drivers who instead of using the on ramp to get up to speed before entering traffic, merge immediately while only doing half the speed they should be. Meanwhile, the traffic coming up behind this “tool” is forced to weave around or brake to avoid hitting said “tool.” Use the damn on ramp for its intended purpose. They make it long for a reason. Where are the police when you need them?

6. Approaching an Intersection with the Stop Lights Out
Finally I come to one that is near the top of my list of most annoying ignorant driver screw-ups. This has been a common one this summer as we’ve had a number of storms that have caused power outages at intersections. As you approach an intersection and you notice that the power to the stop lights has been interrupted and they aren’t working, what should you do? In this case you don’t just go flying through the lights if you happen to be travelling along the busier road. That’s a great way to cause an accident. Instead, you treat the intersection as a Four Way Stop.

That’s right; you must come to a complete stop and allow the car or cars to the right of you that were at the intersection first to proceed before you continue your journey. It’s really quite simple but once again, we have a lot of people driving today that either have forgotten what they learned or just don’t care and that’s why people are dying on our roads. Where are the police when you need then?

People can talk about drivers using cell phones or speeders causing accidents. I won’t deny that those situations can lead to fender benders or worse but I bet there are just as many accidents caused by people who don’t know the rules of the road rather than by those who choose not to follow the rules.

If any of the above situations sound like something you may be guilty of, I hope I’ve helped to refresh your memory and perhaps next time you find yourself in one of these situations, you’ll remember to do things properly. Happy Driving!

Oh, and to answer the question I kept asking about the police…check a Tim Horton’s parking lot.

Presqu’ile, Show Me the Money

For those of you who enjoy camping in Ontario, don’t you just love going into the Provincial Parks with their nicely paved campground roads? OK, maybe you can find that at almost every other park, except Presqu’ile Provincial Park near Brighton, Ontario.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Presqu’ile. In fact, I love it so much I’ve camped or visited there for 40 years and my parents have been going even longer than that. It has changed a lot over that time, some good and some bad, but it’s still like a home away from home. I know several of the staff at the park and they’re all super people but perhaps it’s time to stop worrying about going over budget for a change and get the park back in shape.

Believe it or not, birders, naturalists and tree-huggers aren’t the only people who use the park. While I respect those people and the fun they have, I’d hazard to guess that most of the parks revenue comes from your average campers. These are people who enjoy meeting with other campers, spending time with their families and sitting by campfires under star-filled skies. Sure they might look for the odd bird or plant but most are there to get away from the phone and to enjoy the great outdoors.

I can’t even begin to imagine how much revenue Presqu’ile generates each year. Just for fun, let’s assume the park is full for a weekend and in most cases during the summer it is. An average night of camping is around $35 and with 400 campsites; the revenue generated from only a two night weekend stay is $28-thousand dollars. Multiply that by 12 weekends from June to September and it comes to $336-thousand dollars. That's just the weekends during the peak part of the season and doesn't even count all of the sites that are full from Sunday to Thursday, the early Spring or the Fall camping. The number would grow a lot more if we counted those.

Of course, that’s just the campers and the numbers don't include senior or disability discounts. We haven't even factored in the daily passes purchased by visitors coming in for a picnic, day at the beach or a drive through to see the remaining few deer that weren’t killed during the last few culls. Believe it or not, I’ve actually seen a couple of deer this year but it is a rare sight. A day pass is around $16 per vehicle so there’s a lot more extra revenue that will come in from those.

OK, I think you get the picture, money shouldn’t be an issue. My point is this; why won’t the management of the park or the powers that be spend some of that money to upgrade the steadily deteriorating roads in the campgrounds? I’m starting to think they don’t even read the suggestions left on the backs of the expired permits. Patch jobs just don’t work anymore. Surely there must be some money left after paying the staff and any other bills to lay some asphalt and do the job properly.

Last summer the dust created by the lazy and quick fix effort to improve the camping area roads was unbelievable. It was everywhere including all over the trees and vehicles, not to mention inside the trailers. At times you couldn’t even sit outside and enjoy the day. How did the park respond to this problem? They sent around a small water truck to trickle some H2O on the roads to keep the dust down. Would anyone like to guess how well that solution worked in the 28 plus degree heat we had? The roads were dry and dusty again in a matter of minutes.

Forget the dust, how about the fact that the campers are forced to use the roads when driving and pulling their trailers to their sites. We’re talking about trailers that cost any where from $5-thousand dollars to several hundred-thousand dollars for motor homes and luxury bus models. That’s a lot of money to have bouncing around causing damage to your second home or only home for some campers. I can just imagine how many dishes, TV’s or other items have been broken over the years.

Some might argue that paving the roads might increase the speed of the vehicles in the campground. Trust me when I tell you, there are plenty of people speeding in there already and I am amazed a child hasn’t been killed yet. I don’t know why security is never around to slow people down. After the roads are paved, put in a few speed bumps or speed humps like they have in the U.S. to help with that problem. Four or five speed reducers in each camping area would be a lot better than the potholed roads they have now.

Of course, nothing surprises me anymore. Last year the main road leading into the Park was ripped up to be resurfaced just before the August long weekend. That is easily the busiest weekend of the year and the dust created along that road for the next few weeks was disgusting. The trees were white and anyone riding a bike or walking along the road had to have a shower to clean the filth off them after they finished their outing. Obviously someone who makes more money than me but with fewer brain cells came up with that idea. No doubt they did it because it saved money somehow and that’s all that matters isn’t it? Perhaps this was a screw-up on Brighton’s part since it is a county road but it still reflects poorly on the park and they should have fought it and held off until September when the peak season was over.

Someone needs to step up, open the purse strings a little and finally get the roads paved once the park closes after Thanksgiving this year. It’s time for Presqu’ile Provincial Park to stop shipping their profits to other Parks and keep some of that money for themselves, increase the budget and get the campground roads fixed. If not for the reasons mentioned above, then do it for all of those kids who are trying to rollerblade and keep falling because the roads are a mess.