My primary love for rough camping is my passion for natural history. Almost all my undergraduate courses (Concordia University, Montreal) were biology, and I think the most esoteric was my plant field ecology course plus 4 yrs experience in a freshwater ecology lab and Lead Field Lab Technician (Limnology McGill University/OMNR Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources).
That being the case one pleasant discovery was that this whole zone re-work construction at parc National du Mont Orford was done in part to protect a recently discovered CITES listed orchid, Tesselated Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera tesselata / Epipactis tesselata). That really peaked my interest and deflected my disappointment with my hiking goal. The bird watching was great as I saw and heard close-up, (like within 8m) a Wood Thrush, my favourite bird, plus I saw very close up as well and at eye level a Chestnut Sided Warbler. That being a first for me. Crazy exciting.
One door closes, another opens. Our National Park system here in Quebec, Canada (SEPAQ) closed the trail-head for my current shakeout hike to my two night booked primitive campsite. I guess if my French had been better, I might have picked up the implications of that. They didn't give me supplemental info when I booked on-line or at the Welcome centre when I arrived.
However, It rained, so that was good as it forced a set-up in a mildly stressful situation and my Kelty Salida 2 tent performed very well, as did my MEC Guides' tarp, MEC Reactor 3.8 sleeping pad, MSR Dragonfly stove, Primus Eta 1L pot with the heat exchanger. Though it weighs almost two pounds, my MEC Guide's Tarp is a blessing. I didn't bring my down bag this time but I used my MEC Penguin summer bag with a liner which kept me quite warm.
As unpleasant as serviced campsite camping is, at least I became very familiar with my untried gear.
There is a lot of chatter in hiking circles about Permethrin treated clothing, do-it-yourself application style. Some outdoor clothing/gear manufactures retail gear pre-treated with permethrin. Some services will treat your gear for you. The default brand popular with and targeted to the hiking demographic sells a 0.5% spray, not available in my neck of the woods, but I did find a 0.25% spray-on solution at my local, big box hardware store. I treated two pairs of hiking shorts, a shirt, my gaiters, and my hat. I tested that out by taking a day hike around a very large self guided interpreted beaver dam marsh. This weaker treatment even kept the horse flies at bay... I didn't get bitten once!! The 0.5% spray kills insects on contact. I don't know if my solution killed them but sure deterred them. It's efficacy on ticks is my biggest concern. Permethrin in it's liquid form is dangerous, burns the skin and kills kitty cats. When dried it is perfectly safe for users.
In spite of the horribly uncomfortable tenting layout, (these serviced campgrounds are not designed for campers without camp-cots) my MEC Reactor 3.5 sleeping pad buffered me from most of the gravel, actually they were small rocks. If a guy can sleep seven hours solid through that, well, I count it as a success. Imagine how comfortable it will be sleeping on forest floor duff!!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe0p7ttk17b3ofcrQNaXGrw
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