Camping Family – Entry # 2

Camping 2010

Entry #2 July long Weekend – Cross Lake Prov. Park

We returned to Cross Lake Provincial Park as part of a group that has camped on the July long weekend since 2004. Some of the other spots we have been over the past 7 years are:

Sylvan Lake (Jarvis Bay Provincial Park) 2

Crimson Lake (Rocky Mountain House) 2

Old MacDonald’s Farm (Stettler) 1

Thunder Lake Provincial Park 1

The Group site at Cross Lake is one of the nicest settings we have been to. Located about 45 minutes north of Westlock, it is very similar to the group sites at many Provincial Parks in the area. The spaces are quite large, more than enough fire pits including one large central pit and has a large cookhouse complete with lighting and power.

There is a huge grass area in the center of the site with permanent horseshoe pits and ample room for other games you may have. On this occasion we used it for Bocce Ball, ladder golf, football, frisbee and a few others The horseshoe competitions were intense and drew the most attention and even had chairs surrounding the pitch with onlookers and a cheering gallery. There is also a convenient fresh water tap adjacent to the cookhouse. As most of the families have dogs, it was great to have the area to let them run and enjoy each other.As mentioned previously, Nicki is an avid camper-dog.

The Cross Lake campground has a nice beach with a marked swimming area and boat launch. There is limited shore fishing but it is a fairly large lake and for those with a boat, access to the northern pike and perch that reside in the waters is much easier.

The weather over the 4 days was almost perfect, which makes the outdoor experience all the more enjoyable. The mosquitoes were out but manageable, especially in the evening as local brown bats came out and made short work of the few that were around. It was said that these bats will eat up to 600 mosquitoes each every hour, sure saves on repellant. On several occasions we were graced by the local deer population that would wander out into the open area to access some of the lush green grass and clover.

There are also walking trails that wind their way around the park and for the ambitious campers there is a 3 kilometer trail out to a tenting area on the opposite side of the lake to where the campground is located.

One of the families that attended brought out a trivia game called “Did you survive the 2010 Campout”. It involved having 100 questions on Alberta/Canada history and facts, 4 questions each on 25 different thermal “can koosies”. Each family was responsible for finding answers to the 100 questions, which meant sharing your questions and possible answers with the others in the group. At the end the scores were totaled and prizes given out to first and last place, it was a great event.

It is important to note that the Group area does not have site power, although there is the opportunity to charge batteries in the cookhouse. Last year we upgraded our holiday trailer to a new Jay Flight 28 BHS and decided to have a solar panel and 2 DC-31 deep cycle batteries added to the unit. After 12 years of always watching the power levels and switching out batteries this weekend was an absolute joy. Lots of sunshine transferred into all the power we needed allowing us to focus on our poor horseshoe throwing.

The trip home on the Sunday was quite blustery, causing some movement of the trailer. We had a dual cam sway control – equalizing hitch installed with the trailer which is said to provide “Active” rather than passive control of possible trailer swaying. I can attest that this is definitely the case and when pulling these longer units it is the only way to go. We also recently upgrade our brake control to the Tekonsha P3 series – I certainly noticed the difference in braking comfort.

We are off to Cold Lake Provincial Park followed by Meadow Lake Provincial Park in Saskatchewan for the middle portion of July. We hope to have the nice weather experienced on the July long weekend, at least for most of the time but weather is not something you can predict, just live with. We also hope to have time to visit CFB Cold Lake to see what we can see; hopefully we’ll see some F-18 Hornet Fighter Planes and some CT133 Hawks. 

My husband provided most of this entry…but I wanted to put on the record that we purchased one additional item to add to our camping gear that I truly enjoy. It was my “Saskatchewan Roughrider Outdoor Mat”.As a true rider fan that “bleeds green” each summer this will be a great treasure. Can’t wait to show it off in Saskatchewan on our next outing. I am aware RV City offers mats for other teams but for our camper their is only one choice. Go Riders Go!