As the school year wound down amidst the still great uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic, British Columbia seemed to be flattening the curve and a reasonable re-opening of community life was being pursued. The bubble was being allowed to grow so long as we all didn’t blow them up too fast and they burst. For us, this meant looking at getting the trailer on the road and getting out to camp as a family. For the first kick at the can we decided to head out to Swan Lake Provincial Park where we aimed to spend a couple nights as well as host an informal gathering for Felix’s second birthday.

Getting the trailer all set for the first camp is a always a series of Where’s Waldo searches; I know what I’m looking for but can’t seem to locate it. Has the winter wrought any damage to the unit, do I have the de-winterizing tools/materials? Can I keep the kids out of the trailer as I attempt to clean, organize, load, and test? In the end, the trailer fared well over the winter and some modest cleaning plus searching out the fun times gear was all it took, no major hiccups to get going.

The first camp however, did not afford the same smooth sailing. I left earlier in the day to get out and find a site, having taken a GF day, and Catherine was going to meet me after she finished her work. I didn’t quite get away as early as I would have liked and upon arrival to Swan our favoured campsite was not available so we started with a couple laps to see what was on offer. I settled on a site that backed onto a grassy patch with some trees and shrubs that connected to the campground play area. The camp steward passed by a couple times as I was not satisfied with the positioning of the trailer for a good twenty minutes. Also, the first trailer back up of the season is not the smoothest operation. Finally having settled on the spot and the kids demanding their freedom from the truck I released them and set to work dropping the trailer. In the meantime Catherine arrived earlier than expected and helped coral kids. As I was getting ready to open up the trailer the camp attendant circled back and started checking us in. She immediately noted with Catherine that the site was reserved the next night and so our plan to stay the two nights in that spot was immediately derailed. We decided to move and went to look at the three available multi-night sites…nothing great. Frustration mounting, as Catherine let the attendant know which one we settled on, she was interrupted by another camper looking to move from his site to another more befitting his plans. From this we were able to grab a double site that is our second choice when we visit the park. However, we needed to wait for him to return later with the right truck to move his unit out of the site. Okay, put the trailer back on, cross the road and wait. At this point, everyone is losing it and we have to do dinner. We broke out the BBQ and did up some hotdogs and tried to contain the kids as we waited to set up. As dinner finished up, the trailer was moved out and we got to setting up in earnest. This meant me scrambling to do things as quickly as possible and Catherine trying to supervise the four hooligans (this is the right term at this point in the story). All said and done, it barely seemed worth it and was not really enjoyable to be out at that point. We salvaged the night slowly, roasted mallows, went for a walk, and got the kids to bed. Catherine and I lamented the stress over bevvy’s, small consolation, but enough to crack jokes about the near collapse of a trans-Canada trip only in Grande prairie, though maybe too soon for that one.

Moral of the story, thinking back to our history of first camps: Keep it simple and expect chaos.