Chris and Julia Prouse - Meanest Link Record Holders!

Embracing the Wilderness – The Joys of Camping in Ontario

"You never feel more alive than when you're on the ragged edge of what's possible."

Join us for an absolutely wonderful chat with Chris & Julia Prouse, the proud record holders for the fastest time completing the Meanest Link canoe route in Algonquin Park - expedition style. No support. No food drops. Just the two of them against the clock & the elements.

They are great Moms that have been taking their wee one into the backcountry since he was 8 months old, if memory serves.

They have a truly amazing YouTube channel. Ditto for their Instagram.

Tim very much feels a kindred soul in Julia's sense of humour.

Chris comes back for more chatting after Julia had to call it a day and even turns the tables and interviews us for a bit. :)

Please check out all of their content. Seriously, it's pro-level material! And great storytelling. And they're just awesome people!!!

You can find them here:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisProuse

Instagram: @cprouse

Show Notes: 

Welcome to another episode of our great outdoors series, where we delve into the invigorating world of camping! Today’s episode takes you on a journey through the tranquil backcountry and the lively front country, exploring the profound impact of disconnecting from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

Main Themes:

1. Backcountry vs. Frontcountry Camping:
   • Chris and Julia Prouse share anecdotes and reflections on their backcountry camping experiences. 
2. The Art of Disconnecting:
   • Highlighting the significance of taking a break from our connected lives, Chris advocates for the mental and emotional benefits of immersing oneself in nature through camping.
3. Camping with Children:
   • The conversation turns to the importance of introducing children to camping. Chris emphasizes how these experiences can foster a love for nature and teach valuable life skills.
4. Exploring Ontario’s Parks:
   • Ontario’s parks are a camper’s haven, but securing a spot can be a challenge. We discuss various parks and the difficulties faced due to high demand.

We hope this episode inspires you to pack your bags, grab a tent, and set out to explore the great outdoors. Whether you’re a seasoned camper or a first-timer, there’s something truly magical about sleeping under the stars.

Remember to

Transcript

00:00 - 00:04
Hello and good day, eh? Welcome to the Super Good Camping Podcast. My name is Pamela.

00:04 - 00:05
I'm Tim.

00:05 - 00:09
And we are from SuperGoodCamping.com. We are here because we're on a mission

00:09 - 00:13
to inspire other families to enjoy camping adventures such as we have with our kids.

00:13 - 00:18
Today's guests are a couple of charter members of the Ontario Outdoor Adventurers Club.

00:18 - 00:22
Chris runs, skis, paddles, cycles, and competes in triathlons.

00:22 - 00:26
She shoots amazing films for their YouTube channel. She's a mom and a wife,

00:26 - 00:30
has a job that she's not allowed to talk about with a company that we're not sure we can mention.

00:30 - 00:35
She and her wife hold the record for the fastest completion expedition style

00:35 - 00:40
of Algonquin Park's Meanest Link route. Actually, I think they hold the two fastest

00:40 - 00:44
times because they went back out, did it again for funsies, and then a third time.

00:46 - 00:50
The expedition style, meaning that they had no support en route and no meal drops.

00:51 - 00:54
So please welcome to the show, Chris and Julia Prowse.

00:54 - 00:58
Hi, welcome. Thank you for having us. Thank you for being here.

00:58 - 01:04
Yeah, I was gonna say, I love the name of your podcast. I was delighted to hear that it's

01:04 - 01:11
SuperGoodCamping because Tim is a superintendent and super cool from that. So that's awesome.

01:11 - 01:12
There you go. I didn't think it up.

01:12 - 01:14
It was an inside joke, play on words. Yeah.

01:16 - 01:19
It's all, it's all everything. The whole entire podcast thing is Pamela's fault.

01:20 - 01:28
First question out of the gate. So I know that, oh, a little history. I remember the first video

01:28 - 01:34
I saw and don't hold me to it. I want to say you guys were running an Ironman at Tremblant,

01:34 - 01:39
something, it was something along those lines. It was something, it was definitely in Quebec.

01:39 - 01:42
Oh, and it sounds right. Yeah.

01:42 - 01:49
Okay, cool. So we know that because we, I see lots of evidence that Julia is a lunatic and

01:49 - 01:55
sorry, that Chris is a lunatic and does all the things that involve Ironman things. Julia,

01:55 - 02:00
I see you out doing some of those. Are you doing all of the same things? Do you guys do,

02:00 - 02:02
like, are you both lunatics?

02:04 - 02:13
Chris is the lunatic. I would say she's the instigator and I am the somewhat willing

02:13 - 02:16
participant. Okay.

02:17 - 02:23
So I should mention, so Julia deserves a lot of credit in the sense that many folks think that

02:23 - 02:28
I'm the one who got Julia into backcountry camping, but Julia was backcountry camping

02:28 - 02:34
way before I was like, I'm pretty sure like a decade before I was with outdoor ed in high school.

02:34 - 02:39
And she was a pro star at camping before I even met her. And then she met me and then she

02:39 - 02:44
dragged me into the backcountry. And so she shared her love of the backcountry with me. And

02:44 - 02:51
I shared my love of things like triathlons and endurance stuff with her. So it's been this nice

02:51 - 02:54
confluence of things that have come together. So yeah.

02:54 - 02:55
Very cool.

02:55 - 02:59
Yeah. And I should say, when I say I'm a somewhat willing participant,

02:59 - 03:08
really like Chris, I was always drawn to her because she, I always, you know, want to get

03:08 - 03:12
out and do things and then I never do. And I sit at home and I watch TV and Chris is the one who

03:12 - 03:19
like actually gets me out there enjoying life, having a great time. So it's, it's a, I'm a

03:19 - 03:21
willing participant.

03:21 - 03:29
Yeah. The funny thing is with our very first backcountry trip, and it's funny because the

03:29 - 03:34
very first backcountry trip that Julia took me on, it was fantastic, by the way, I took to it right

03:34 - 03:36
away. And I was so fortunate.

03:36 - 03:36
Yeah, you did.

03:36 - 03:41
I was so fortunate to be able to learn from Julia right off the bat because, you know, I got an

03:41 - 03:48
accelerated instruction from her that helped me like figure out everything so much more quickly.

03:48 - 03:52
We were on our first trip and I think we were paddling either on the first or second day of

03:52 - 03:56
the trip. And I said, Julia, what's, what's the longest trip you've ever gone on? And she said,

03:57 - 04:02
this trip right here, this is the longest trip I've ever been on. It's going to be like the

04:02 - 04:06
longest, what is it? Sorry, the longest distance that we've done in a day, I think.

04:06 - 04:10
And so it's funny that Julia says she's a willing participant when in reality,

04:10 - 04:13
she started pushing, pushing the limits from the get go.

04:15 - 04:16
Where was that first trip?

04:16 - 04:22
Oh, it was up in Algonquin Park. We started at Canoe Lake. We went up through

04:22 - 04:32
Burnt Island into Otter Slides into Happy Isle, Big Trout, White Trout, Tom Thompson,

04:32 - 04:37
and then back to Canoe Lake. Yeah, so essentially the Big Trout loop.

04:37 - 04:40
Yeah. Amazing. How many, and how many trips have there been since then?

04:41 - 04:42
Oh, wow.

04:42 - 04:43
More than 12.

04:44 - 04:53
Well, like we, we've been together for 12, going on 13 years now. And we've done like,

04:53 - 04:58
on average, two trips a year, which isn't a lot, but it's what we can squeeze in. So

04:58 - 05:01
yeah, do the math, probably about like 25 trips.

05:01 - 05:02
Cool.

05:02 - 05:08
And then the funny thing is, right after, was it our second trip in the backcountry

05:08 - 05:11
that we went across the park? Or was it our third? Was it our second or third?

05:11 - 05:13
Yeah, we ramped up pretty quick.

05:13 - 05:18
We ramped up pretty quickly. We went from that Big Trout loop to going across Algonquin.

05:18 - 05:22
I think it was like my second trip ever in the backcountry. We went from west to east.

05:22 - 05:24
How many days did we do that in?

05:24 - 05:25
We did it in nine days.

05:26 - 05:31
We did it in nine days. We had a rest day in the middle. And oh my gosh, that was a hoot.

05:31 - 05:38
That was a hoot. We saw areas of Algonquin that we probably, some of the more remote areas that

05:38 - 05:44
we've ever been to in the park, the east side of the park is very seldomly traveled, especially in

05:44 - 05:50
the core of the park on the east side. You can go for days without seeing anybody. And it's,

05:50 - 05:52
yeah, it's very, it's very peaceful.

05:52 - 05:53
Yeah.

05:54 - 06:00
That's nice. So I want to point out to some of our listeners, when you say two trips a year,

06:00 - 06:08
and nine days is a trip, lots of people don't do nine days for a trip or longer. Yeah,

06:08 - 06:14
like lots of people, a trip is four or five days, maybe seven days, but just saying.

06:15 - 06:21
I mean, we also do four and five day trips as well. Like we're,

06:22 - 06:24
so we just get in what we can squeeze in.

06:26 - 06:31
I totally hear you. I get three weeks a year and I eat up all three weeks doing

06:32 - 06:34
camping one way or another. Yep.

06:35 - 06:37
Where is your favorite place to camp?

06:37 - 06:41
This is, so I'm going to admonish you because recently you had a

06:42 - 06:50
a live stream and you said, this isn't about me. This is about you. I will say, I don't,

06:50 - 06:55
I can't say that I have a favorite place. I've done my most tripping, probably done my most

06:55 - 07:02
tripping in Kawartha Highlands, to be honest. Algonquin Second, Killarney. And then we just

07:02 - 07:06
did French River this, this summer. I love them all. They're all, they all have their

07:07 - 07:12
different qualities to them. And, you know, I mean, there's always, there's always something

07:12 - 07:18
different that makes each trip special. Even if it's a disaster, there's, there's something about

07:18 - 07:24
that trip, whatever it was, whether it was weather, whether it was, you ran into 600 people

07:24 - 07:30
on the portages or whether you ran into zero people for four days straight. You know, it's,

07:30 - 07:36
it's all, every, every trip is, is wonderful in its own way. So there, that's, that's it.

07:36 - 07:40
That's all the questions I'm answering. Solid answer. Yeah.

07:42 - 07:46
So, okay. So you guys are setting up, hypothetically, you're setting up for an,

07:46 - 07:53
a nine day trip. Tell me, take me through the, the prep process. Cause I know you're

07:53 - 07:57
pretty hardcore about, about how you go dook, dook, dook, and lists and stuff.

07:57 - 08:03
Yeah. Okay. So if I'll, I'm going to answer part of this and then I'll let Julia answer the second

08:03 - 08:08
part of it. If we're, if we're planning for something like the Meanest Link, I feel like

08:08 - 08:15
it takes months and months and months of planning and preparation. Even, even after, you know,

08:15 - 08:20
doing it our third time, it takes just a tremendous amount of time to plan those out.

08:20 - 08:26
But if we're planning like a more casual trip in the backcountry, I'll let you take over.

08:28 - 08:31
Yeah. So I start off with some like mild anxiety.

08:36 - 08:43
Add a dose of stress. Yeah. Just, I don't know, getting out the list and

08:45 - 08:50
you know, taking the camping equipment out of the basement, packing the equipment,

08:50 - 08:54
packing the clothes, doing the grocery shopping, doing the meal planning,

08:54 - 09:01
maybe not in that order. Exactly. I like to do a lot of the meal prep in advance so that when

09:01 - 09:06
you're actually out in the woods, you're just like, it makes it a lot easier and you can just

09:06 - 09:10
throw stuff together instead of having to do a lot of chopping and stuff out in the woods.

09:10 - 09:17
And then, yeah, like, gosh, I'm, I'm not very good at interviewing.

09:17 - 09:26
But, but a lot of it, so I'll say, you don't need to, you don't want to know this.

09:27 - 09:32
Is your question really about, is this helpful at all? I don't know. Am I supposed to be commenting

09:32 - 09:39
on my own response in the middle of this podcast? I don't know. I'm used to live streaming where I'm

09:39 - 09:43
not commenting on myself as much. I'm just going to edit you right out of the air.

09:43 - 09:48
Just cut that all out. Oh, goodness.

09:48 - 09:54
But it is, a lot of it, I mean, you do, you have the lists and then, and then, like,

09:54 - 09:58
if somebody were to ask me the same question, just because I'm a bit of a dick sometimes,

09:59 - 10:04
I would be like, I don't know. Like, you have that list and you just,

10:04 - 10:09
you follow the list, you do the thing. So after the, you know, fifth time you've done it,

10:09 - 10:13
you don't, you're not, you're thinking through meals and stuff like that, but you're not,

10:13 - 10:16
you're just doing the autopilot. You're just following the same thing that you

10:16 - 10:21
have done five times now. So I, in that sense, I get it.

10:22 - 10:26
Do you dehydrate all your own meals? Do you just purchase dehydrated meals?

10:27 - 10:34
Oh, good question. So we do not yet own a dehydrator, although I hear great things.

10:34 - 10:39
We are big fans of Backpacker's Pantry for dehydrated meals. And then we also do a lot

10:39 - 10:43
of fresh food as well. You lug a lot of fresh food around with you for nine days?

10:43 - 10:44
It depends on the trip.

10:47 - 10:52
Well, agreed. The, it's the fresh food for as long as you can make it, you can stretch it out

10:52 - 10:57
for the first couple of days. It's a, cause then you get to the dehydrated stuff, which isn't quite

10:57 - 11:02
as awesome as, as the fresh stuff. Okay. So you, so you prep everything, you pack everything.

11:02 - 11:08
Do you, so I can, speaking for myself, I pack all the stuff and then I go, okay, but I still

11:08 - 11:12
have stuff left and that's how many bags we're taking. There's still stuff over here that isn't

11:12 - 11:18
in those bags. How do I make this play? I could have sworn I paired the list down last year.

11:19 - 11:22
Do you guys run into the same thing? And if you do, what's the solution for you?

11:22 - 11:26
Oh, for sure. Like I'll like pack the food barrel. I'm like, that didn't quite fit.

11:27 - 11:32
I'll repack it. Nope. That's not quite right. Like I've learned over the years,

11:32 - 11:37
a number of techniques, like putting like the bigger, chunkier things in first.

11:37 - 11:44
And then the softer things like your rope can just like squeeze right in between a couple

11:44 - 11:49
other things. No problem. Or like some toilet paper or a hammock. Like those things, those

11:49 - 11:56
are your like squeeze in around other things. And like, if you have freeze dried meals,

11:56 - 12:01
like Backpacker's Pantry style, like put those all around the edges of your food barrel

12:01 - 12:07
because they just slide right in. And then I also realized like when we were getting into

12:07 - 12:12
our longer trips and things didn't all fit into the food barrel, like you can put toilet paper

12:12 - 12:19
in your pack. Like you don't have to have everything non clothing and sleeping bag related

12:20 - 12:26
in a pack. Julia is a master packer because I feel like before a trip, I'm usually working on

12:27 - 12:33
prepping like the, some of the, the paddling equipment and the film equipment. And Julia

12:33 - 12:40
is focusing mainly on packing the barrel and she's gotten so good at it. And like,

12:42 - 12:48
I'm just like amazed because the whole thing is like this intricate puzzle and she's just become

12:48 - 12:53
very, very good at it. So it is like a puzzle. Yeah. Like a game of Tetris.

12:53 - 13:00
Yeah. I'm good at packing our front country stuff into, into the trunk and into the car and stuff

13:00 - 13:05
like that. It's like, Ooh, that's a solid 25% more than when we first packed. It's like,

13:05 - 13:07
no, no, pull that back out. That's going to slide in there. That's going to put there. We're going

13:07 - 13:11
to do this. We're going to do that. So speaking of which do you guys do front country at all?

13:12 - 13:18
Or does it, are you exclusively backcountry? We have done front country. We've done winter,

13:18 - 13:25
right? Yeah. We did a winter camping in a yurt with Ontario Parks once. Sweet. And yeah,

13:25 - 13:31
that we actually had a lot of fun staying in the yurts. It made things very comfortable.

13:31 - 13:38
I think that was actually, was that Mew Lake? Yeah. I did fall and severely smashed my elbow

13:38 - 13:44
on some ice. It's like, it's actually captured in the video, but I took a really hard fall

13:44 - 13:49
and I kid you not that elbow still hurts a little bit to this day if I like press on it the wrong

13:49 - 13:57
way. So it took, I think I actually chipped the bone inside. Good fun. But it's, I think it's

13:57 - 14:04
doing okay now. It doesn't bother me too much, but other than that, it was a great trip. It was

14:04 - 14:11
a great trip. I feel like when asked if we're exclusively backcountry, other than that winter,

14:11 - 14:17
that one winter camping trip, I think we're as close to exclusively backcountry as you can get.

14:17 - 14:22
We're the type of people who have like an eight month old child and we're like,

14:22 - 14:25
no, we're just going to get right back into backcountry camping. Yeah.

14:28 - 14:32
That's, that's not a bad thing. I'm actually fairly jealous. I waited till,

14:32 - 14:39
actually I didn't take, no, I took him camping. Oh, our eldest, he was probably 18 months,

14:39 - 14:44
16 months, something like that. The first, but it was front country. So not, not backcountry.

14:45 - 14:50
There are advantages to front country camping with a small child. Yeah. There are many.

14:54 - 15:00
How was he in the canoe? The first go round? How was he? And then compared to today?

15:00 - 15:07
Yeah. I mean like every age has different, you know, advantages and challenges. So when they're

15:07 - 15:14
really little, they don't move around very much. So you can pop them in a bucket or some sort of

15:14 - 15:21
seat and they stay put. The first time we went out, it was raining on our way out and we actually

15:21 - 15:29
had not tested out our rain suit on him. And he was not a happy camper that day, but otherwise he

15:29 - 15:37
was really good in the boat. Now he's like, he's a toddler, so he wants to paddle, but then he's like

15:37 - 15:43
paddling in the wrong direction. And there's just, it's a whole, and he wants to like get up and move

15:43 - 15:49
around. So it's just like a different, a different beast. Yeah. Having said that, one of my favorite

15:49 - 15:56
moments in our videos of all time, and it's actually at the very end or near the end of the

15:56 - 16:02
bear encounter video, where we had a bear come into our campsite when we were camping with Cedar

16:02 - 16:09
during his first trip. At the end of that trip, when we were paddling down Canoe Lake on our way

16:09 - 16:15
back home, because we were packing up and heading out and wrapping up our trip early, Cedar slept

16:15 - 16:22
in the bow of the boat, just in front of Julia's feet. And there's a scene where Julia picks him

16:22 - 16:28
up out of the canoe, and he's in a little bucket. He's in this little tiny, there's like very soft

16:28 - 16:34
bucket. I know that sounds funny to say a soft bucket, but it was ergonomically sound. But he's

16:34 - 16:39
propped up, and he's wearing his life jacket, and he's in a little bucket, and he's like, he's this

16:39 - 16:47
little bundle of joy. And he looks up at Julia and gives her the biggest smile. And I think that is

16:47 - 16:54
one of my like favorite moments in our videos of all time, that smile, where he's just kind of

16:54 - 16:59
looking up. He's just had like a wonderful nap in the boat. He's looking at Julia, and he has just

16:59 - 17:06
like, just glowing smile on his face. He didn't have any teeth at the time. It's just so adorable.

17:06 - 17:12
Like every time I see that shot, it just like, it melts my heart. And it was a happy moment for so

17:12 - 17:19
many reasons. We've made it out safely. We were all healthy, safe, and Cedar just had that beaming

17:19 - 17:26
smile. It's one of my favorite moments. That's a cool thing. It's cool to have those memories,

17:26 - 17:33
and to have them documented. When he's 20, you'll be looking back at that still and going,

17:33 - 17:39
oh, I miss those days. Yes, yeah, that's exactly it. And he'll be 20 like that.

17:40 - 17:43
Yeah, man. And like that.

17:44 - 17:49
I'd say one of our favorite videos of all time is actually the second year, or actually,

17:49 - 17:53
maybe it was the, no, no, it was the second year, but his third backcountry trip, where we

17:54 - 18:00
took him in during the fall. He had like a slight meltdown on the way in. But other than that,

18:00 - 18:07
that was like one of our best trips with him. And like, I cherish that video. Like that video

18:07 - 18:16
means a lot to us. Like you just mentioned, Tim, I think in 20 years from now, we'll rewatch it,

18:16 - 18:21
and we will just be so appreciative to have those moments, those fond memories captured on film.

18:22 - 18:25
And it's like, they're essentially like home movies.

18:26 - 18:28
But like really good ones.

18:28 - 18:30
Yes, so he has much, much better quality.

18:31 - 18:39
So 1080p versions. Yeah, we've got a smart screen in the kitchen. I'm the cook. So I'm in there all

18:39 - 18:46
the time. And one of the best parts of doing that is it's just on random, and there'll be pictures

18:46 - 18:52
of them in their pajamas, you know, and rain boots mucking around on the campsite and when they were,

18:53 - 19:01
three feet tall. So I'm a sappy old guy. I love it. It's one of the best things ever.

19:01 - 19:02
Yeah.

19:02 - 19:07
I don't know what I would do if I didn't have all my pictures uploaded digitally. Okay, so I want

19:07 - 19:14
to talk about, give me a brief idea of what, and I don't care if it's an amalgamation of all three

19:15 - 19:23
Meanest Link trips, but give me a rough idea of what that experience is like.

19:23 - 19:30
Oh, wow. So the first trip was a huge learning curve. We did a ton of prep for the first one,

19:30 - 19:37
and just by a few hours secured the expedition style record on the route. But again, we learned

19:37 - 19:47
a lot. We learned a lot. And then the second time around the trip, we had a blast as we knew the

19:47 - 19:53
route and we had figured out a lot. And there were some truly transcendent moments during that trip

19:53 - 20:00
where we were, you know, finding our limits and just having a wonderful time. It was actually a

20:00 - 20:06
lot of fun. And something that I've said in our videos before, and you can quote me on this in

20:06 - 20:11
the future, is you never feel more alive than when you're on the ragged edge of what's possible.

20:11 - 20:18
And I very much felt that during the second trip. And the third trip this year, we went even faster.

20:19 - 20:26
We did it in five days, eight hours. And I'd say this year's trip was a little bit more challenging.

20:26 - 20:32
I think we're trying to eke out some more time. We're up against some things like incredibly

20:32 - 20:38
low water this year. The previous two years that we've done it, we always do them at the same time

20:38 - 20:43
of the year, very beginning of August. In the previous two years, we had great water levels.

20:43 - 20:50
This year we had low water. And the low water was a big challenge. It was a huge challenge.

20:50 - 20:57
And gosh, so we kind of battled with that despite going faster. So I'm proud of our accomplishment

20:57 - 21:02
having gone faster despite the low water. But yeah, this year was a little more challenging.

21:04 - 21:10
So if you don't mind me asking, just because when we ran into the same sort of low water

21:10 - 21:18
thing this year, did longer portages, in other words, have to get out somewhere else

21:18 - 21:23
because you were running into muck or you're going to have to drag it over rocks?

21:24 - 21:29
Yeah, it wasn't so much an issue with the portages, but there's a lot of rivers along the Meanest

21:29 - 21:37
Link route. So for example, the Nipissing, normally you'd paddle and then do a little

21:37 - 21:40
portage and paddle and do a little portage and paddle and do a little portage. But you were

21:41 - 21:47
paddling 10 meters and then you're like, oh, there are all of these rocks. This is an additional

21:47 - 21:53
portage for 10 meters, which as you know, a 10 meter portage, you're still getting all of your

21:53 - 21:57
stuff out, lugging the canoe, putting all this stuff back in. It's still a lot of work.

21:58 - 22:04
10 extra meters onto a portage is not a big deal, but an additional 10 meter portage is a lot.

22:04 - 22:09
And there were like 10 of those in a row along the start of the Nipissing. So that kind of thing.

22:10 - 22:12
And then going down the...

22:14 - 22:14
Oxtongue.

22:15 - 22:20
Yeah, going down the Oxtongue, the first and second years, we were just flying. It was like

22:20 - 22:23
we were going down, just like rushing water.

22:23 - 22:25
We were zipping along.

22:25 - 22:30
It was like we were going down a water slide. And then this last year it was like,

22:30 - 22:34
oh, we've hit bottom again. Let's step out of the canoe and like walk it for a bit and then

22:34 - 22:38
get back in and like paddle slowly as we're kind of scraping along the ground.

22:40 - 22:44
And the other really challenging thing is even though we do them at the beginning of August,

22:45 - 22:49
it's still very cold out there in the early morning and at night.

22:49 - 22:54
To give you some sense of like how cold it can get, the second year we did it,

22:54 - 22:58
we were going up the Big East. And the day before we came through there,

22:58 - 23:02
another crew was doing the same route. They were doing the Meanest Link as well.

23:02 - 23:06
And one of them had to be airlifted out for hypothermia.

23:08 - 23:12
Yeah, this was the beginning of August. And so the point that Julia was alluding

23:12 - 23:17
to about having to get in and out of the boat, like on the Oxtongue, just like several times

23:17 - 23:23
or several times up on the Nipissing, it meant you're constantly getting your feet wet,

23:23 - 23:30
your legs wet, splashing, what have you. And it was very challenging to stay warm.

23:30 - 23:37
For the very first time among all three trips this year, we had to stop and light a fire

23:37 - 23:41
at the end of day two, just because it was a real challenge to stay warm.

23:41 - 23:48
Yeah, I can imagine that. Late August, getting wet and stuff's usually not that big of a deal.

23:48 - 23:54
But I also don't get in and out of the boat that often either. So that'd be, yeah.

23:54 - 24:00
Yeah. And also when you're like, we were doing a lot of very early morning traveling and very

24:00 - 24:06
late night traveling as well. So it's like at the end of August where during the middle of the day,

24:06 - 24:09
it's quite nice, but then at night it gets cold. So when you're actually out and

24:10 - 24:14
moving in the night, it can get quite chilly.

24:14 - 24:18
And sorry, we should clarify, this was actually at the beginning of August.

24:18 - 24:19
Oh, sorry. Yeah.

24:19 - 24:26
So it's kind of surprising how much cooler it can be up in Algonquin compared to where we are in

24:26 - 24:33
Kingston. I feel like it's sometimes as much as like five to 10 degrees colder up in Algonquin

24:33 - 24:38
at night time than it is sometimes down in Kingston. And that's something that I forget

24:38 - 24:45
about sometimes. We do go very well prepared, lots of base layers, lots of ways to stay warm,

24:45 - 24:50
but gosh, as soon as you're wet out there and the temperatures start dropping at night,

24:50 - 24:53
holy crap, it is such a bummer.

24:53 - 24:59
I hear you. Well, I'm sure that I heard a meteorological somebody saying that Algonquin

24:59 - 25:05
very much has its own weather pattern going on through there. Like if you see a bunch of snow

25:05 - 25:13
here, there will have been additional, another 10 centimeters in that wave through Algonquin. So

25:14 - 25:15
yeah, I can see that.

25:16 - 25:18
How can people reach you or find you?

25:18 - 25:18
There you go.

25:18 - 25:28
Oh, you can find us on YouTube at, I think it's youtube.com slash chrisprouse, C-H-R-I-S-P-R-O-U-S-E.

25:28 - 25:32
You can find us on Instagram. I think my handle on Instagram is at cprouse.

25:33 - 25:37
And those are the two main areas where you can find our stuff.

25:37 - 25:43
But yeah, thank you so much for a wonderful conversation. We always like to sit down and

25:43 - 25:48
chat with like-minded people who love the outdoors. And if you're listening to this

25:48 - 25:54
podcast, please subscribe to Tim and Pamela. They've got a wealth of content. There's a

25:54 - 25:59
great podcast with Kevin Callan and many others. So be sure to check it out.

26:00 - 26:05
For those who are watching at home and watching the video right now, Julia had to step out. She

26:05 - 26:10
had to get ready for an early morning tomorrow morning, but I can stay on and chat for a little

26:10 - 26:16
bit longer. So I'm curious to know, and I sort of ask many folks who are in the backcountry this

26:16 - 26:22
question, but what is your best backcountry story? I'm always curious to know what other people's

26:22 - 26:26
great stories are in the backcountry. What's your best backcountry story?

26:26 - 26:27
Well, I'll start because I've only got one.

26:27 - 26:32
It's possible this is the best worst story.

26:33 - 26:36
He was saying, you know, you always learn something. It's always a new experience.

26:36 - 26:43
And yeah, so our very first time backcountry camping was in Kawartha Highlands and it was four

26:43 - 26:49
of us. So we're like a blended family. We've got two kids and we'd gone backcountry camping

26:49 - 26:54
in Kawartha Highlands. Tim had planned the whole thing and we got there the first day. It took

26:54 - 27:00
a lot longer to get to our very first site than expected. And it turned out that he'd

27:00 - 27:07
overestimated the abilities of three quarters of us. So yeah, we got there and everybody was

27:07 - 27:13
exhausted after a whole day of paddling to get to the first site and some bad weather was coming in

27:13 - 27:20
that next day. And there was no way we were going to get to our next site and also dodge the bad

27:20 - 27:27
weather. So that ended up becoming an abbreviated trip. Very. It was a one night trip.

27:28 - 27:35
Essentially, it was the first time I'd gone backcountry in an extremely long time. And I just

27:35 - 27:40
assumed like paddling is not that hard of a deal. Just, you know, you find a rhythm and away you go.

27:41 - 27:46
Okay. For those of us that have paddled before, but for three of us that haven't paddled before,

27:46 - 27:51
it was a bit of a deal. We got into a bigger lake, then it was like, oh, yeah, headwinds.

27:52 - 27:57
And then and then it was just like, okay, and couldn't find the portage. And it was just one

27:57 - 28:02
thing after another of like, me being terribly rusty and totally oversubscribing everybody's

28:02 - 28:07
abilities. And then and then I, you know, it's like backcountry, we don't stay,

28:08 - 28:12
there aren't stay days, you go, you just keep going, you just keep going. So yeah, nope.

28:12 - 28:21
I haven't gone again since then. But Tim and Thomas have done several backcountry trip, the ones that he's talked

28:21 - 28:27
about French River and that's been with Thomas. Cool. Cool. Julie also wanted to say

28:28 - 28:31
thank you. What's in store for you guys, Chris? Oh, what's in store for us?

28:33 - 28:40
Well, yeah, like, like, how does the new job effect? Yeah. Oh, yeah, I would say we're still

28:40 - 28:46
going to do probably about two trips a year. It probably won't change our rate of camping

28:46 - 28:53
too much. I think what we're we're hoping for next year is I'd like to do something

28:53 - 29:00
challenging again. And then I think Julie and I would like to do something more relaxed. So

29:00 - 29:06
backcountry trip, or we're just kind of exploring but not not going at a high rate. And then a trip

29:06 - 29:10
again with Cedar, of course, I think what we're aiming for with Cedar is to be able to say we've

29:10 - 29:16
tripped with them every year of his life. And we've managed to do that so far the first three

29:16 - 29:20
years. He's been in the backcountry every year. And I think what we're trying to do is we're

29:20 - 29:28
trying to have Cedar grow up being not remembering a time when he didn't camp so that he always

29:28 - 29:32
feels like he's had that connection to the backcountry. I don't know about you folks,

29:32 - 29:38
but I feel like I feel like disconnecting from the world and and being off grid is becoming

29:38 - 29:45
increasingly rare. So I feel like it's a it's a special place just to be able to disconnect.

29:47 - 29:48
Rare and necessary, I think that

29:48 - 29:54
and more necessary. Yeah. Like, yeah, the world seems the world seems more stressful.

29:55 - 30:00
As I wonder, you know, for the longest time, I was thinking, was it just me? Because I'm

30:00 - 30:05
getting older, I'm paying more attention to what's going on around me. The Trumps and the

30:05 - 30:09
Doug Fords and all that sort of stuff. I don't think it is. I think I think the world's actually

30:09 - 30:15
burning down. And so it's more, it's more stressful, or at least it's to there's more,

30:15 - 30:21
there's more, there's less good evident out there. There's more, I don't know, malicious,

30:22 - 30:28
just nastiness going on. So yes, you know, you fight, you fight to save that. But you also need

30:28 - 30:35
a break from it. And yeah, I absolutely am latching on to that more and more. Now, for sure.

30:35 - 30:40
And out of curiosity, so during the year, how much backcountry camping? Well, sorry,

30:40 - 30:44
well, you've been on on together, you've been on one backcountry trip. And then,

30:44 - 30:51
Tim, you go on trips with your kids. How much? How much backcountry tripping do you do? And how

30:51 - 30:58
much frontcountry tripping do you do? Or frontcountry camping do you do? Well, number of

30:58 - 31:06
trips, it's relatively even, we tend to do four trips, we do a three, at least that seems to be

31:06 - 31:12
the more recent pattern. We do it like a three day, one kid's not in school, but when the kids

31:12 - 31:17
were finishing up school, so we do we try to take that first weekend or one of the first weekends

31:17 - 31:24
after school. And bug out, bug out for a weekend, you know, some Presqu'ile or something like that.

31:24 - 31:28
We've done Presqu'ile two weeks or two years in a row, just a nice, just a quick little

31:29 - 31:36
take a breathe. Okay, cool. And then Thomas and I usually do a week or eight days, wherever French

31:36 - 31:42
River this year in July, and then in August, we'll do another five or six day depends on

31:42 - 31:48
Pamela's schedule. She's pretty hectic. And that'll be a frontcountry, Pog Lake this year.

31:48 - 31:56
And then the big kid Thomas and I bug out, as much as we got burnt at Kawartha Highlands,

31:56 - 32:04
that first trip, we have historically done at least one fall weekend, like a three day weekend

32:04 - 32:12
and just booked one site, stay there for the three days. Somewhere usually in September,

32:12 - 32:15
I think we did, we've done a couple of Octobers, but we got rained out. So we've pulled back to the

32:15 - 32:20
last weekend in September again. And that's, that's our typical, you know, we might we're

32:20 - 32:26
looking at actually taking Camper Christina's winter backcountry for beginners.

32:26 - 32:31
So we might try something along those lines, although we may do an introductory

32:31 - 32:37
yurt type type deal. I'll try not to wipe out and break my elbow. You know, we'll see it.

32:37 - 32:40
But yeah, yeah. That's pretty much it.

32:40 - 32:45
I was gonna say, where do you recommend frontcountry camping? What are like,

32:45 - 32:48
where are the best places to go frontcountry camping?

32:48 - 32:52
I loved Killarney and Arrowhead and Kilver. I think those were my three favorite.

32:52 - 33:00
Yep. But it also depends on so what you're going to find if you do do some frontcountry,

33:00 - 33:06
a lot of it may not be what you think is the most awesome, but what's going to play out

33:06 - 33:15
really well for Cedar. So perfect example is Arrowhead. It has lots of hiking, lots of biking,

33:15 - 33:23
plenty of greenery, fairly well separated sites. It has it has lakes shallow'ish to play in. And

33:23 - 33:31
then it has Stubbs Falls. And we'd spent like half of our trips there. We've done two or three

33:31 - 33:36
goes there twice, at least twice. We spent half of the time just playing in Stubbs Falls.

33:36 - 33:44
It was a riot. The kids were, I don't know, 10 or 10, maybe into early teens, not even early teens.

33:44 - 33:49
No, no, no, not the first time they weren't. They were probably seven and 10, I'd say.

33:49 - 33:55
And it's a riot. It's good. It's good fun. Cools everybody off. We have it's that sort of

33:55 - 33:59
thing. You know, at some point you'll end up at a at Killbear because it's

33:59 - 34:06
beautiful, because it has a sandy beach. It's got a nice we've got, we are dog people. So it's

34:06 - 34:12
got a nice dog beach, that sort of thing. Pinery was also a pretty cool one. Then we're getting

34:12 - 34:19
into older ages for kids. So Thomas and I biked, holy mackerel, we biked, I don't know, probably

34:19 - 34:26
20, 30 clicks that one day just touring around just and it's a massive park.

34:26 - 34:32
So Bon Echo was good for Mazinaw Rock. We went we paddled over there and then hiked up the rock.

34:32 - 34:39
It's cool. Most of the places have at least a feature and often half a dozen features that can

34:40 - 34:45
make it worth going there. I mean, outdoor, outdoor, anytime, anywhere. I don't care.

34:45 - 34:51
I'm not a big fan. There's some party places that it's fine if you go through the week.

34:51 - 34:56
Not so good on the weekends. Sibbald Point is a nice

34:56 - 35:08
park has a good program for the kids and stuff that the Rangers put on has a lot of really cool history and from Monday to Thursday, that's just fine and dandy.

35:09 - 35:20
The other three days, it's insane with day visitors and stuff. It's just absolutely crazy. I just, no, no, got to go. This is might as well be in Toronto.

35:21 - 35:42
Yeah, what about like booking these places? Like, I know you like, like, during the winter, I think you can book like three months in advance. And then like, sometimes it fills up like the day, like, like in advance it, it books up like months out. So is it the same for like Killarney and Killbear and the Pinery and

35:43 - 36:12
Well, they just changed the rules, because welcome to Ontario Parks. Part of it is the insanity that the last three seasons have been...three summer camping seasons have been the pandemic. So 23 days has historically been the thing. And you can book up to five months ahead of your first day. Now, the five months still applies, but they've changed the maximums. Most of the most of the popular parks, including Algonquin are seven days now, some of them are 10 days and some of

36:12 - 36:42
them are 14 days, there are still some 23s. But there are all the ones that are up like Thunder Bay and and like way up there, right? Like, because they simply don't have the volume they're trying to, I think that's what they're trying to do is trying to make it be there's a lot of people that are, you know, working the system. And they're booking the 23 days and then unbooking all but the six that they actually wanted. So they can book, you know, almost three weeks ahead, which is I get it, but still kind of

36:42 - 37:12
lousy thing to do. But yeah, five months. So I usually book our first trip late in late January, I'm up at seven o'clock in the morning, with it all loaded up, ready to go and hit the button. It's a game. It's for sure. It's not nothing like the backup, although the last few years doing trying to, you know, book backcountry sites, what did we do we had? So last year, we were going to Thomas and I were going to do. Yeah, it was last year, we're going to do Killarney again, but do

37:12 - 37:41
a different route. And I had, I, again, I planned the crap out of everything. I had three, three separate routes, three separate access points, and variations on each in case, you know, it's like, okay, we'll paddle a little farther, we'll go to an extra one, we'll stay an extra day, however, that needs to play out. And then I had just for fun, because I knew Killarney has been had been getting popular. I also had a couple of no, I had a Algonquin backup, just if okay, I'm going to try it at seven o'clock. If I can't get

37:41 - 38:07
them, I'm going to go there. I ended up I tried all three of them. And I tried it for two weeks, couldn't couldn't make anything fly at all. And ended up doing we ended up in Algonquin, and it was none of none of my plans. I just went, okay, there's a site, there's a site, there's a site. And it's like, this is an absolute, this isn't, this isn't even a loop. I don't even know what this is. But that's what we're doing.

38:08 - 38:32
So it's just crazy. Yeah, yeah. I'm glad that people are getting into the backcountry. It's, it's, it's sad to find all the trash, all the 14 different grills sitting there, or, you know, somebody left their cooler behind or, or whatever. It's like, you know, it'd be nice if you just took a couple of minutes to educate yourself, instead of like,

38:33 - 38:46
I'll, I'll, I'll back out now. But I was gonna say, thank you so much to the panel for having us on. It was an absolute pleasure. And I would love to be back or have you on the panel at some point in the future, I think.

38:46 - 38:54
Are you gonna so that was a question I had, actually, are you? I see you've, you've done a couple of the live stream things. Is that a thing you're you're looking to do? Are you?

38:54 - 39:24
Yeah, so I, I did the thing for Dennis, because, like, I, I know, like, I know, and I'm sure you folks experience this as well. It's, it's a lot of work to line up podcasts and to line up guests and to put everything together and get it out. I know, from video production, like it's, it's, it's very challenging to schedule interviews with people. So that alone is a big challenge. And I just, I heard, you know,

39:24 - 39:54
Dennis say that he was thinking about wrapping up his show, and I was so sad to see it go. And I felt like, you know, Dennis recently had the equipment failure. And I was like, Oh, we need to do something to help Dennis out, because I would hate to see his show. And, but moving forward, like I, some kind of regular stream on the channel would be something that I'd like to do to the future and have guests like yourselves on the show. And, like, just, it's, it's, it's a fun thing to do. It's a fun thing

39:54 - 40:24
to sit down with people and chat about camping. You know, that is a fun time. So yeah, absolutely. I'm, I'm slightly addicted to it. We'd love to have you back. And you bet. And we'd love to do yours. Yeah. And please stay in touch. And it's, it's been a pleasure getting to know you. So thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate the insights. I love to learn from the folks. So thank you. Cool. And thanks. Thanks to both of you for coming on. This is cool.

40:24 - 40:52
That's it for us for today. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much also to our very special guests, Chris and Julia Prowse, for gracing us with their presence. We really appreciate their time. And also please do check them out on YouTube and Instagram. You can check us out on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and all the social media. And please do reach out to us our email addresses. Hi, at super good camping.com. That's HI at super good camping.com.

40:54 - 41:08
And you can check it out our website for the content of all of our podcasts and up there eventually as blog posts. My name is Pamela. I'm Tim. And we are from supergoodcamping.com. Please do reach out to us again. Take care. Bye. Bye.