Some of my fondest memories from my youth involve camping and I'm so happy to share the same experiences with my kids. We've camped with each of them as babies (crazy, I know), and now the excitement on Mya's face (and I assume on Jasper's when he's old enough to understand) when she hears about our camping plans for the upcoming season is priceless.
This week was opening week for Saskatchewan Provincial Parks and I was geared up and ready. We have a lot of trips planned this year that will see us to Battleford, Moose Mountain, Duck Mountain, and (fingers crossed) Rowan's Ravine. We also plan to hit up Nickle Lake as it's only a few minutes away from where we live.
Saying that reservations at Sask Parks happen fast is an understatement. And those of you who were lucky enough to get campsites without encountering any problems were exactly that: Lucky. I was among the 1500 people who were mistakenly charged twice for my campsite on Monday morning. And I was also one of the 3400 people who had logged in on Wednesday morning in an attempt to book a campsite at Douglas Provincial Park. I say 'attempt' because that day I needed 6 sites for a family camping trip and by the time the system worked itself out of the massive overwhelm there were only single bookings left (and not very many at that).
Monday morning at least found me with two campsites at Battleford for the week prior to my family's Beaton Festivus. We will be camping with Jacquie's family like we do every year and I'm most excited for our annual trek to the lighthouse in Cochin. But Wednesday was a bust. I was awake at 6:45am and by 8:00am with still no campsite, I was one cranky momma!
Sask Parks wrote numerous emails of apology and have fixed their system by extending Friday's launch into 3 more days. The positive of this change is that I still need to book at Moose Mountain, Duck Mountain and Rowan's Ravine - so there's a better chance that I can get the sites I want on the days I want when they are divided up. Unfortunately for me it means another 3 days of waking up at 6:45am in order to make sure I get reservations. They launch reservations at 7am sharp.
Friday found me with a full service site at Duck Mountain. Saturday found me with an electrical site at Moose Mountain. And Tuesday morning (fingers crossed) will find me with 6 sites all together for our Haug family camping trip in July. I've enlisted Jacquie's help for Tuesday's launch as I don't want to miss out again like I did for Douglas.
As tiring as this week has been with all the 6:45am wake ups, I'm really looking forward to a summer of camping. Our new parks this year: Battleford - a park I haven't been to since I was a kid, Duck Mountain - Roger's suggestion as he remembers loving it there and Rowan's Ravine - the backup park since we didn't find sites at Douglas, but have heard from friends that it's a beautiful park. And, of course, our token park: Moose Mountain - will find us there for our third year in a row.
As much as I love the white stuff outside, I'm ready for a little fun in the sun!
Melanie
