| Bugs can make or break a camping trip. But can they be the decisive factor when comparing summer tenting in the rocks of the Rockies to the rocks of Ontario's Canadian Shield?
No, but the odds do weigh heavy in favour of the Rockies. Even in bad years, the mosquitoes and blackflies that come out biting in the Rockies don't register next to the Shield's offerings. In the eastern rock, the bugs are so plentiful that they regularly become a part of your plate of food, your coffee, your beer, your cards and so on.
That said, the Shield also has a few bugs we western folk seldom see. For instance, fireflies are amazing critters that add a sense of awe with every viewing. Watching intermittent flashes of light floating randomly through the air is a spectacular sight.
The temperature category goes to the Shield. It is much, much warmer bunking down there than anywhere in the Rockies. This is good, provided you like warm, muggy nights.
Little more than a bed sheet is required for sleeping there. An additional blanket may also be required from time to time, but not often.
Keep in mind, on warm to hot days, tents heat up just as much as the outdoors, meaning you're often going to bed sticky and hot when in the Shield. Then again, in the Shield there’s the Great Lakes or thousands of smaller lakes that are all swimming temperature and easy places to un-sticky yourself.
A dash in and out of, say, Waterton Lake, is about all one can stand in such cold bodies of mountain water. Not very easy to stay in long enough to get clean.
Also, I can’t imagine a snowstorm in Ontario Shield country on an August long weekend. It was only two years ago the rocks of Alberta were covered in snow – along with all the tenters in the area – that same weekend.
The abundance of wildlife scores about even. The Rockies regularly offer grizzlies, sheep and deer for viewing. The Shield responds with plentiful black bears, moose and deer.
One factor that could decide this debate is a basic human activity: going to the bathroom. Where there are outhouses, the proverbial tip of the seat has to go to those in Shield country. Not only do they stink far less than their cousins in the Rockies, they’re also decidedly void of graffiti and carved-in initials. The Shield biffs are also better designed, being made an extra foot or two longer so you can actually take a step toward the seat and avoid being hit in the derrière by the door.
Another factor that favours the Shield, but isn’t really a part of camping, so doesn’t count in this comparison, is the location of liquor stores. Seems the turnoff from the TransCanada Highway to every third or fourth provincial park in Ontario comes equipped with a gas station and a small liquor store. Sometimes they're the same building.
It's hard to out-do the Rockies in terms of awe-struckedness, though. The towering and enormous rocks draw your eyes like metal to a magnet. You never tire of looking at them. It's not hard to be humbled by the combination of sheer size, beauty and latent power that comes with the Rockies.
That's not to say the Canadian Shield, with a Group of Seven image at every turn, isn't beautiful in its own way. Smooth, orangy-reddy-brown-coloured rock, often sparsely covered with pine trees or low-lying bushes and surrounded by water, is amazingly gorgeous in a postcard-size kind of way.
All told, you can’t go wrong camping in either place. It depends on your preferences, warmth versus cold, bugs versus none. Let’s give it to the cool nights and no bugs by a hair. |
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