Reserving a campsite at Killbear Provincial Park next summer

[tinkybean]

We are planning to go camping next July at killbear and I can see that reserving a site is quite hard these days. I grew up camping there and we always stayed in blind bay. We are aiming for Sunday, July 6 2014 and would like to stay for 7 days. If I go to book on February 6 am I likely to get a site in Blind Bay? We have about 5 picked out we like. Thanks!

[tinkybean]

Thanks again for checking the park out. You have been so helpful. I look forward to planning my trip next summer!

[Mvander]

Love Killbear and we usually go 2-3 times a year but its getting hard to visit if you havent planned way ahead. We have noticed there are usually unreservables available at granite saddle if you arrive sun-thurs. These have not been cut nearly as much as other areas but dont offer electric.

[kilbearcamper]

Observations of tree cutting at Killbear, Lighthouse Point sites 1182,1181,1148,1151, have no shade as all trees were cut in that group of sites.
As a general rule most of the sites will have less shade, some sites are wide open to the sky while others have not been touched.
Any Beech tree visible on OP web site pictures will be cut down or are already down. On Sat. I heard chainsaws running in Lighthouse Point, so the cutting is not complete yet
On the bright side solar panels will work better.

Almost forgot this;
The policy for first come first served sites has changed. Renewal must be made before midnight the day prior to leaving not noon on the departure day as in the past. The FC FS sites not renewed are made available at 8 am

[hone_eagle]

killbear cull

you can find the odd picture of the tree removal results

[relaxin]

putting the campsite pictures up was one of the best things they ever did, takes some of the guessing out of reserving at an unknown place. they will wait till fall so they can photograph without campers on the sites, would be my guess.

[hone_eagle]

kilbearcamper wrote:

tinkybean wrote:
Killbear said they were going to update the ontario parks website this fall. They were kind enough to ask me what sites I had in mind and they'd tell me if those ones were affected, still waiting on an email reply. I had no idea it was that bad though, that clear cut?? I'm worried now! We love Blind Bay and I understand that area was the most affected.

We plan to go on Sat. for a day trip(if not raining) If you like PM your site numbers and I will have a look.

It would be awesome if you come post some pictures of a general nature ,you know just how much sunshine gets to the ground now.

[tinkybean]

kilbearcamper wrote:

tinkybean wrote:
Killbear said they were going to update the ontario parks website this fall. They were kind enough to ask me what sites I had in mind and they'd tell me if those ones were affected, still waiting on an email reply. I had no idea it was that bad though, that clear cut?? I'm worried now! We love Blind Bay and I understand that area was the most affected.

We plan to go on Sat. for a day trip(if not raining) If you like PM your site numbers and I will have a look.

Sent! Thanks so much 🙂

[kilbearcamper]

tinkybean wrote:
Killbear said they were going to update the ontario parks website this fall. They were kind enough to ask me what sites I had in mind and they'd tell me if those ones were affected, still waiting on an email reply. I had no idea it was that bad though, that clear cut?? I'm worried now! We love Blind Bay and I understand that area was the most affected.

We plan to go on Sat. for a day trip(if not raining) If you like PM your site numbers and I will have a look.

[relaxin]

hone eagle wrote:
Exactly

I vote to put you in charge of Ontario PP 🙂

I would accept the job, on condition the bureaucrats are put on a short leash, and the libs keep their dirty little fingers out of the parks cookie jar.

maybe I need to make a $30,000 campaign contribution , that will surely get me the job
😉

[tinkybean]

Killbear said they were going to update the ontario parks website this fall. They were kind enough to ask me what sites I had in mind and they'd tell me if those ones were affected, still waiting on an email reply. I had no idea it was that bad though, that clear cut?? I'm worried now! We love Blind Bay and I understand that area was the most affected.

[kilbearcamper]

tinkybean wrote:
I decided to call killbear directly this morning, they assured me if I book in February I won't have a problem finding a site in my desired campground. They actually cut down a lot of trees this year due to beech bark disease, so apparently it has changed many of the sites privacy and shade. They said they will update photos on ontarios parks soon do reflect the changes.

We were there on May.24 weekend, Blindbay gate was closed,so drove through Harold Point and Lighthouse Point, cutting down of alot of trees is an understatment,some sites looks like a clear cut.
The logs were piled up at the day use beach parking lot, didnt take a picture,there were 3 piles of logs, each pile was at least 100feet long 20feet high.
Hope OPP's updates the picture soon to reflect the cutting.

[tinkybean]

I agree something has to be done. I will also write ontario parks about my concern regarding people "cheating the system" it's definitely unfair to all the honest people that want to reserve for the time they actually intend to stay!

[hone_eagle]

Exactly

I vote to put you in charge of Ontario PP 🙂

[relaxin]

hone eagle wrote:
Interesting and thanks for your insight.
I have filled out the online survey and commented that they should raise prices for the most popular parks (closest to T.O.) until people move farther out to less populated parks,just a few bucks a year until equilibrium is reached.
I know not fair to cash strapped families but its all I got

interesting thought, however where the handfull of parks that they closed are concerned the smartest thing they could have done was offered special deals for those parks, and for other less popular parks as well, a little focused marketing could never hurt as well.
weekend warriors only provide a 2 day income out of seven,most stay within 3 hours drive of home, most bring everything with them, as its only 2 days and who wants to spend time shopping when you only have 2 days,,, or realistically 1 full day and one half day. so the benifit for the surrounding community is minimal
an incentive for longer term campers to head out the extra distance, in specific parks, each based individually, the most common that would attract would be to have lang stay deals, say you have a week off, you could stay at killbear pay full price,, or,, drive an hour more, another $20 or so in fuel, but book your first 5 days and get the 6th for free, book anther 4 and get your 11th for free and for every 4 paid after that you get another free (up to the max stay)so if you go for 6 days you pay for 5, 11 days you pay for 9, if you go for 16 days you will end up only paying for 13. they could in some cases if called for take it a little farther and ad a free bag of firewood with each day over X# days, the object would be to put people on sites for as long as possible, even if that means taking an empty site and only collecting a fee for 5 out of 6 days its occupied, the savings to the campers are not huge but its enough to offset fuel costs in getting there or more for longer stays. the loss to the park is in reality nothing ,, as the site would have been empty anyways, so there is only gain for them. the surrounding towns could also kick in and offer to pay for a free day or half price day, or coupon for free firewood for say a 2 week stay, or whatever amounts, through the local business association, because if you stay somewhere for a week or more its pretty much gaurenteed you will end up in town shopping, fuel, groceries, browsing local shops, perhaps at a festival, or whatever,, it puts people there with their money for an extended period of time.

a false gain could be argued on the parks behalf as the camper would have spent the money at another park, however, by moving some campers out of the more popular parks and on to less used / popular / distant parks that will free up space for more people to get in to the more popular parks, thus reducing the demand on them to expand, by better utilizing the facilities they have. I have friends who can barely afford to go camping due to the cost, and fuel(=distance) to them is a factor in the cost and the more popular parks are the ones close to them.
as for the parks to give the discounts, the gains for the surrounding communities means quite a bit especially for more isolated communities, my last trip (last week) we spent over $500, food refreshments, went out for ice cream, bought a new lawn chair to replace a broken one, a couple more water toys for the kids, had a bicycle repaired, went to a local festival for a day, spent over a hundred there. a little less income for the park could translate to more for the community, therefore more taxes for the government, possibly less support money from the government

looking at your location (essex) we were at rondeau last week of september for 5 days doing some bird watching there and at peelee point, it would be nice if the feds would see the need for camping parks and put in maybe 150 to 200 sites at peelee point.
we also volenteered on the great canadian shoreline cleanup that was held the same saturday we were at rondeau, (what a mess the beech was)