When Alison George got married, she registered not for traditional china, but for camping gear at Mountain Equipment Co-op, the plan being to go on a romantic canoeing trip with her new husband for their honeymoon. “Give me a barrel pack and a portable hammock and I’m in heaven,” the Toronto PR consultant says. She and her spouse, an architect, are now planning another canoeing trip for August, this time with their young child in tow. “We took our son car camping when he was six months old and on his first canoe trip when he was four,” George continues. “He’s nine now, so this summer marks his sixth camping trip. And I know there will be more.”
Despite her enthusiasm for it, George didn’t grow up camping; she came to it later in life, after launching her career in communications. In this respect, she is typical of the great tide of Canadians who are embracing camping in growing numbers, many for the first time. According to an Angus Reid survey commissioned by Canadian Tire and Coleman Canada, at least 46 per cent of Canadians now take camping trips as part of their summer vacations. And even though it’s still early in the season, “camping reservations at Parks Canada [campgrounds] are up 14 per cent over the same period last year and 24 per cent compared to the five-year average,” says the federal agency’s Natalie Fay.
Unlike “glamping,” the overly precious, mercifully brief trend toward “glamorous camping” (think “tenthouse suites” with heated slated floors), the current fondness for the great outdoors seems rooted in much less affected interests, from camping’s cost-effectiveness in an era of increasingly expensive air travel to its low carbon footprint to a genuine desire to really get to know one’s own country. (“Campcations” are also big in Britain this year.)
“I think everyone’s craving a more organic lifestyle and camping is part of that general societal movement right now,” says Maryam Mokhtari, a 27-year-old Toronto-based fashion illustrator who has also lived in New York. “It takes you away from the busyness and chaos of the city to connect with nature and also your friends in an intimate way. I derive a lot of inspiration from the great Canadian landscape.”
Mokhtari acquired her camping know-how as a teen on wilderness trips with friends, mastering cooking over an open fire and learning how to fish. Many, though, couldn’t tell a perch from a pickerel if their dinner depended on it. To remedy that, Ontario Parks and Parks Canada have joined forces this year to offer a spate of new workshops created specifically with campsite newbies, from lifelong urbanites to new Canadians, in mind. The federal agency is also offering or co-sponsoring similar programs in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec and Nova Scotia, while its website (www.parkscanada.gc.ca) includes how-to diagrams, instructional videos and up-to-the-minute information on such resources as new camper-friendly campgrounds across the country.
During the overnight Learn to Camp workshops in Ontario, participants get on-the-(camp)ground schooling in campsite, campfire and camp-stove set-up, food preparation and storage, campsite safety and cleanliness and, last but not least, how to have fun in the great outdoors. According to Parks Canada, the pilot program was test-driven last fall in Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park near North Bay, Ont., where a diverse group of new Canadians from countries as diverse as Kazakhstan, India, Rwanda and the Ukraine pitched their tents. The exercise was so popular that it led to this year’s initiative, specifically three more Learn to Camp programs in a trio of parks – Darlington, Sibbald Point and Bronte Creek – within driving distance of Toronto.
“I think it’s a great initiative,” says George, who is planning to camp at Killarney Provincial Park this August. “If you don’t know what you’re doing, camping can not only be intimidating, but also dangerous. I’ve watched people – many people – who don’t know how to paddle a canoe head out onto a lake in the middle of Algonquin Park. I think that’s crazy. If you’re inexperienced or if you have the wrong gear, camping can go wrong in a hurry.”
