Disclosure: for our 3rd annual 5 Dads Go Wild camping trip we partnered with a collection of brands to test out their products. However, as always, editorial control remains with me.
This year we went on our 5 Dads Go Wild camping trip a lot earlier in the year than we have the last couple of years. And we went to a different campsite. And one of the dads could not join us. And the theme of this year’s camping trip was social distancing.
Other than those little details, it was just like the last couple of years.
Actually it was pretty much totally different than last year.
This year, group sites for provincial campgrounds were not open for use. And well, in keeping with the theme of this year’s 5 Dads Go Wild camping trip of social distancing, we wanted to have separate campsites – not the group site.
Unfortunately we could not get a series of sites on the dates we needed in our favourite park, Manning Park, so we decided to go to the Ross Lake Campground in the Skagit Valley Provincial Park.
And I have to admit, the Skagit Valley Provincial Park is a beautiful location – but be aware – it is REMOTE. It is over an hour and fifteen minutes down a rough gravel/dirt road and once you are at the campsite, well that is IT.
There is no store, no cell service, no wifi, no electricity … you’ve got what you brought.
It was a very different experience. Not a bad experience – just VERY different than our experiences at Manning Park Resort.
At least this year we didn’t have to deal with snow collapsing our tents?
But we did have to deal with incredible hordes of mosquitoes. I mean mosquitoes that drove people mad. You know how bad it was? The people in the campsite across from my campsite packed up all their camp stuff in the evening and LEFT the campground!
They had just arrived that day. They told me that they could not handle the mosquitoes.
And when I say “my campsite” that is because as I said, instead of having a group site where we could all pitch our tents nearby one another, we each had a separate site – social distancing – don’tcha know.
Also, the 5 Dads Go Wild team had a secret tool along for the trip – the Thermacell Patio Shield – the most valuable device. No word of exaggeration, when we had the Thermacell on the picnic table (one on each end of the table), there were NO MOSQUITOES in our campsite.
Walk out of the 4.5 metre zone of protection, and all you could hear was the buzzing of millions of mosquitoes.
Thank you Thermacell for working with us on this year’s 5 Dads Go Wild camping trip – it would have been a lot less fun without this device.
Anyway, enough words, do you want to see the “tell-all”, the “you won’t believe what happened next!” video from the trip? Have a look at my video.
And if you are feeling really generous and helpful, maybe you would even consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. All I need is another 600 subscribers and I can once again earn between a dollar or two a month from my videos. Ahhh… the dream.