I’m convinced that the best time to camp is early autumn. The weather cools down only slightly so you can actually spend time outside doing various activities and with everyone back to school/work, campgrounds become fairly quiet and you have the right environment to get back to nature. Plus, animals once again become more active as they begin to prepare for winter. Yes, this is my favorite time to camp but I wasn’t able to get the time off work that I wanted earlier in the month make a good camping trip and not knowing if I’d get any time at all this month, I decided to make the most of a small hole in my schedule last week to get a small jaunt in. On Labour Day Monday, as soon as I finished work, I threw my gear in my little car and drove like the Dickens to Danielson Provincial Park a little over an hour drive south from Saskatoon.
On Labour Day Monday, as soon as I finished work, I threw my gear in my little car, stopped to grab some dinner where I heard the kid behind the counter yell to his coworker, “You gotta see this Fiat with a kayak on it!”, and then I drove like like a bat out of hell to Danielson Provincial Park. With the sun setting earlier and earlier, I knew it would be a race to get there and still have enough light left to set up camp but it was hard not to keep stopping to look at the setting sun to my right and the rising moon to my left. Truly, it was one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever taken and no photo could do it justice. I made it to the campground with a hint of light left but was disappointed that the site I wanted had a trailer parked in it. It turned out for the best though because after not really liking any of the other sites, I headed to the overflow and found the best site in the whole campground. Site 8 happens to be at the end of a row of sites but the way it’s nestled in the shrub near the lake made it absolutely perfect!
The next morning, I took advantage of the stillness and made my way to the dock. Lake Diefenbaker is not a naturally occurring lake but rather, was formed when Gardiner Dam was built on the South Saskatchewan river. Three provincial parks are situated on its shores and is popular for boating and fishing. I’m not sure why I was so surprised by how clear the water was. Maybe it’s because I’m used to paddling on the river in Saskatoon where it’s so full of bird poop. Either way, it was a lovely paddle and I had quite a few fish popping up which partly scared me because they’d randomly come from nowhere and make a loud popping noise on the water but also made me excited because I brought my fishing gear with me and I still have yet to make my first catch.
I made a bit of a mistake after lunch. I really should have gone hiking right away instead of waiting until a bit later in the afternoon when it was getting too hot and was close to dinner. From the overflow, there’s a small trail that links you to the network of trails in the park including the Trans Canada Trail which goes through that park. I was pretty unimpressed with the lack of trail markers. For example, I came to a map with a ‘You Are Here’ sticker and there was a fork in the trail. So I choose the direction I wanted to go which was to head in the direction of the Trans Canada Trail only instead, it took me to one of the other campgrounds and gave me no other markers to point me in my direction. I had to take a guess and realizing I was lost, I then just had to follow the main road to a spot where I remembered seeing a trail crossing. Not the prettiest walk but taking me so far from my intended route made all my geocaching plans go to waste. I’ve hiked a bit there before and I know it’s a lovely walk as was the parts of this trek where I was actually on the trails but they really have to do better with the markings in areas that connect to campgrounds.
Needless to say, I ended up with quite a migraine before dinner. In addition to grumbling about getting confused on the trails, I was also stewing about a personal situation which I’m sure made things worse. I’m not sure if having some time away from the world helped or hurt my mind set but while I did come to a decision about it, I’ll admit that it was a little too hard to relax and that certainly had to have contributed to some pain issues. The migraine forced me to sleep a bit and I decided that after dinner, I should really make more of an effort to relax. And that’s what I did. After some food and a bit of reading, I spent the last hour of the day fishing along the shore and watching the sun go down next to the towers of Gardiner Dam.
On my last day, I decided to pack up my site and head to the beach area. My parents were coming from Saskatoon for a picnic but I had some time to kill so I jumped back into my kayak. The weather was quite weird by then. Totally calm one minute, windy the next. The currents also behaved rather weirdly. They either wanted to strand me on the shore or turn me in the opposite direction. I suppose that’s a good way of describing my life! But I made it time for lunch with my folks. I tried a bit of fishing after lunch at a spot where I’ve seen many fishermen before but once again I could see a lot of fish popping up but I couldn’t catch anything. Again, so similar to my life. I gave up after a bit and decided to head back before the rush hour traffic in town got too bad. It was a nice little adventure even with all my frustrations.I suppose that’s the true lesson of life right there: enjoy the good, make the best of the bad.
Note: None of the above photos have been edited in any way. They were taken with both my cell phone and with my DSLR.