The NeoAir Balloon

 

Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Review

When I first started backpacking, I remember lugging around an enormous egg crate foam mattress with a green plastic sheet backer about a third the size of me, when I was a wee one.  It was huge and not super comfortable, to boot, not to mention other issues with it, but things have changed.
A couple Boeing engineers happened came up with the original Thermarest self-inflating mattress sometime in the 70s - two nylon sheets sealed, with a piece of foam between them.  These started becoming very popular in the 80s and 90s.  They were great, much smaller than the eggcrate style foamy, but a bit heavy.  I found them a bit of a pain to pack, kneeling on them and squeezing out the air.
So, when Therm-a-rest came out with their next generation pad - the NeoAir, I was excited.  They branded this thing as a new style air mattress.  It has no foam in it, and as a result, can fold up to a size about 2/3 of a pint glass.  This is so small, I have lost it in the stern of my kayak because it had gone all the way to the tip and got lodged way back there due to it's small size. Sweet, not to mention it is super light.  After getting my first NeoAir a couple years ago I was excited, it seemed to be everything I wanted in a mattress - small, lightweight, comfortable.  It even has a silver rubberized side to prevent it from sliding around in the tent, and was a warm three season mattress to boot, thanks to the reflective liner.  It is expensive though, coming in at about $140CAD at MEC.  It is kind of a ripoff that they make you buy a stuffsack for it separately for another $12.50CAD for a small nylon sack, instead of including it with the mattress.  This brings it up to a hefty 152.50 for just a small air mattress.  Some comments I read online say it is a little noisy, but I only found that is the case when it isn't blown up very firm.  These are more difficult to inflate than the standard old school thermarest, since you have to blow it entirely up, but on the other hand it is much easier to pack and deflate.  I can roll it up just holding it in my hands - no need for kneeling on it any more.
I was completely happy with this mattress, except for when I was in Massasauga a year and a half ago, during the middle of the night, I heard some loud popping sounds coming from my mattress only to find out the internal baffles had blown in the mattress. The baffles inside the mattress that keeps it's shape seem to separate from the sidewalls if you blow it up a bit too much and parts of it start turning into a balloon while you are lying on it, rendering the mattress useless from the rather uncomfortable odd shape it now is.  Once one baffle starts going, others go quickly, leaving you with this weird shaped inflatable that can't be used for sleeping on.  This certainly can be a pain if you are in the backcountry and have many days left to go on your trip.  So, when I got back I sent it back and got a new one through warranty, no questions asked.

Only problem is, now this new one has done the same thing after about 15 sleeps - the baffles are blown and I just sent it back to Cascade Designs for warranty service.  While they send me a new one no questions asked, it still is a pain - I am out of a mattress for a few weeks and it cost me 15 bucks to send it back to the states.  Both seemed to happen after about 15 days of use.
 I suspect this happens with the baffles because I like mine firm and blow it up rather firm, even if only with my mouth. There certainly isn't any warning in the literature that says it can do this if blown up too much.  It is unfortunate that this happens, because I love this mattress until the baffles fall apart.  I wish they would spend the time to figure out how to make the internal construction stronger and it shouldn't self destruct like this, no matter how hard my lungs blow it up.  Even if I don't blow it up firm, I would suspect it would give out rather quickly as it seems to be designed a bit too close to the edge of structural integrity.
I can't really recommend this mattress because losing your mattress from a structural flaw just shouldn't happen, but this seems to do it consistently if you blow this up a bit too much.

High Costs of Camping in Ontario Provincial Parks

Camping used to be a low cost vacation option.   However, it is a bit of a sore point with me that it certainly isn’t anywhere near being cheap any more in Ontario, and it’s getting more expensive every year even inflation adjusted.   I will mention park fees were frozen from 2010-2011, but there was a rather hefty increase in 2010, and Ontario still stands head and shoulders above all other province/states in it's comparatively soaring user fees for camping.  As well, with the introduction of the HST instantly added 8% more to everyone's camping user fee bill.

Recently, for 8 days of a mix of backcountry camping and car camping in Algonquin Park,  it cost an exorbitant total of $660 dollars for camping user fees for two people, after reservation fees and HST were tacked on.  Extend that to a month’s length and you get an absurd cost of $2400 a month.  In any city (well, maybe not Toronto) for that amount you can rent a large house or very well appointed multi room luxury condo for a month…  and all I get for camping is the privilege to use a patch of dirt to pitch my tent,  sometimes water supplies and garbage disposal for a few items, possibly a shower.  I don’t know what others seem to think about this, but I think it’s somewhat of a travesty.    Ontario has one of, if not the highest user fees for camping in North America.

The Ministry of Natural Resources claims 80% is paid by the user and 20% is funded by the government.  I dunno, maybe there’s some serious management issues, since I seriously still don’t know why it costs so much to run these parks – maybe it’s time to look at the ledger books and trim some fat, or get the logging companies that exploit the parks to pay more.   I don’t see the need to build and fund mega-interpretive centers such as the new ones in Algonquin Park and the French River for the drive through tourists, or maybe the bus tourists who go to these centers should pay user fees to visit them.   I also would prefer to lower the base camping fee and charge people per use for the showers as is done at many parks outside the province.  Many times I am just using a park for a stopover for continuing driving all day or launching point for backcountry trip and I am only there overnight, 12 hours max., using no amenities except for the toilet.

Furthermore, it is the "'Friends of {insert park name here}" groups that produce the value-added  amenities that you pay for while purchasing documents: producing maps and interpretive guides for trails, not the Parks themselves.

After some research, I found that 80% of user fee recovery is much more than other provinces (some 20% or less).  Or perhaps Dalton McGuinty can spend some of the mega profits (a.k.a. taxes)  the province reaps from the LCBO for some park funding, huh?

I don’t mind paying fair camping fees for the upkeep and staff, but in my humble opinion they are beyond fair right now.  I think people should pay no fees for backcountry as in Manitoba, not $10-$20(plus HST) each person per night, for something that requires essentially no upkeep.  I would gladly volunteer to construct a backcountry camp site, including building a thunderbox out of my own pocket in exchange for a lifetime free backcountry pass.

The reservation fees for Ontario Parks are out of hand, and they use these to unfairly pump up their revenue as well.  Even if you reserve sites for multiple places at the same time, they will charge a reservation fee for each time you move location, which is common in places such as Algonquin Park which have multiple locations.  We went from Achray-backcountry-Achray-Kearney Lake-backcountry-Mew Lake last trip in 8 days.  For the reservation, they thought it was fair to charge 5 x $8.50=42.50 (+HST) alone in reservation fees for this (they did us the favor of  waiving one out of 6 of the fees after complaining about multiple fees).

Another way to get gouged while camping is to get charged for parking fees when car camping or using put-ins for backcountry sites..  $13.50 per night for parking is charged at Chickanishing creek in Killarney to use the crown land backcountry sites on Georgian Bay (which they can’t charge site fees for, so they make up with elevated parking fees).  A second vehicle at any car camping campsite is good for an $8.00-$11.00/day gouging fee by the park.  Other places such as in French River, at the privately run Hartley Bay, the marina which is the only option in the area, takes advantage by charging $10.00/day vehicle parking fees plus another $10.00  ‘launch fee’ for each boat to use their dock to walk your canoe or kayak out and put it in the water.  I don't see how anyone can justify with dignity charging $8-$13.50/day so I can park my car on a 6 x 10 foot patch of dirt in the middle of nowhere.

In addition to this, the Ontario Parks charge $7.50 for a bag of firewood nowadays, most of the time substandard wood at that.  The majority of the time I buy wood at a Park now, it’s wet, if not totally soaked and doesn’t even light without some accelerant in one form or another.

The list is quite long for the user fees you get charged while camping in Ontario Parks, but each 8 or 12 dollar fee adds up quickly.  The fees charged are spread out like that so it's not such a sticker shock until you see the final bill.  Bottom line is we got charged $660 for 8 days of camping for two people with a tent, and that's even before the money I spent on ice and firewood at the park stores, and the canoe rental fees I spent in addition.   I guess camping is for the rich now.

These high fees leave me with a sour taste in mine and many other campers mouths and are pushing people away from camping and enjoying the outdoors and I find it unfortunate.  For me, it won’t stop me from my journeys as there is little alternative, other than using crown land for backcountry trips, but it is a thorn in my side to be felt like I am being taken advantage of each time I go camping. I am sure less and less people will chose to go camping for a vacation if the fees are raised any more than they already are, in this already depressed and fragile economy.

The unsettling thing is, despite the already high fees, Ontario Parks has been sending out surveys to people who have gone camping recently.  The survey starts out asking how you liked the service, but then starts asking your thoughts on potentially paying more for camping, trying to get a feel for what the response would be if they hiked fees even more than they currently are.  I'm sure most people will answer with a resounding NO.
Here's the survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2011CampgroundSurveyEnglish

Here’s a quick comparative cost table I threw together:

Note:  Some areas there is a range of costs from park to park, and wherever possible a typical cost is used.  And please add HST to your Ontario bill.

Also Some Related Links:

Ontario provincial park userfees highest in North America

A comparison Between Ontario and British Columbia provincial parks management models 
Canoe camping in provincial parks with a large family is darn expensive!  
Countylive.ca - Price gouging in Ontario's provincial parks 
Kingston WhigStandard - Ontario Park Pass Too Expensive

If you have issues with the high costs of Ontario Provincial Park Fees as I do, I would encourage you to let these people know:  Minister of Natural Resource Linda Jeffrey, ljeffrey.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org,  Premier Dalton McGuinty, dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org, or your local MPP.


Updated Links to User Change Increases:

OutdoorJay – 2014 Ontario Provincial Parks User Fee Changes

OutdoorJay - 2012 Fee Increase

 

Ontario Parks website – 2014 Fees

Ontario Parks website – 2013 Fees

Ontario Parks – Poor Quality Firewood

 

 

Saw vs. Axe

I'm not exactly an environut - leave-no-trace at all costs type of guy in the backcountry.
I am sort of middle of the road - huge respect the environment, but I won't go to all ends to leave no trace.  I like to  have campfires when I am in the woods.  In fact I would count my skills as a wood gatherer in the backcountry rather highly.  When I first started backcountry camping, I started fires, but didn't even use any tools to gather firewood.  Anyone that has successfully started fires in the backcountry by gathering wood knows that the only wood that burns is dry wood, dead branches that are still on trees, or dead trees themselves, still standing.  Anything lying on the ground is almost guaranteed to have way too much water to burn efficiently.  So I used to break lower branches off of pine trees to burn then snap them by stomping on them.   This, to say the least isn't the easiest way to go about it, not to mention it kills your hands with the vibration of snapping branches, and getting hit with the ugly stick in your face when you stomp the branches isn't fun either...  A tool makes gathering wood much more efficient.
So, what's better, a saw or an axe?  I'm sure many people have their preferences, but to me this almost isn't even a question.  Just like a game of paper scissors rock, saw beats axe any day.  A hand saw can slice even quite thick branches off trees, fell small to medium sized dead trees, and cut longer pieces into a manageable size for the fire.  Quickly.  Efficiently.  The only thing a saw doesn't quite excel at is cutting finger sized branches off of a larger limb or tree.
An axe on the other hand, at least in my opinion is next to useless.  It takes much more effort and time to cut even a medium diameter piece of wood than a saw, and good luck lopping off any decent sized branch or trunk.  Any axe big enough to be useful is much, much heavier than folding saws to boot.  Hatchets are just useless.  The only thing an axe is better at than a saw is to fray or sometime split wood for kindling and chopping off those small branches.  Might as well leave the thing at the car camping as far as I am concerned if all you want a tool for is to collect wood.  I'd challenge anyone with an axe vs. my saw to collect firewood for a night's campfire and beat them to a larger pile of wood much quicker any day.
I have a Trail Blazer brand Sawvivor takedown saw (same as pictured above).  I love this thing.  It's ultra lightweight aluminum tube, light enough for me to take backpacking.  The saw stores in the longer tube when folded, and takes only seconds to set up.  It makes short work of anything less than 6 inches in diameter.  Highly recommended.

Eastern Algonquin Park

I took a week long trip to Algonquin park with my GF Deanna in late June to take her backcountry camping, both canoeing and backpacking for the first time.  We visited both Achray on the eastern side to do some canoeing and the Eastern Pines trail and Highlands backpacking near highway 60.

All I can say is that the bugs are insane in June.  Be prepared with a bug jacket and lots of bug spray. I prefer Ben's 100 for bug spray (100% DEET), you can only get Ben's 30(30% DEET) here in Canada, but online you'll find people that will ship you Ben's 100 from the US.

Other than that June is a nice time to go when the days last forever, and the park isn't busy yet.  Beware of buying firewood in the park, they always either screw you by not filling the bag, or ive you wood so waterlogged it seems they just pulled it out of a lake or something, won't light worth shit.

Anyways, there's a blurb on Achray if anyone is interested:

Algonquin Park – Achray Provincial Park

Achray Park is part of Algonquin Park in the mush less traveled Eastern side of Algonquin, when compared to Hwy. 60 corridor.   The park store there used to be the train station for the Canadian Northern Railway that used to run through there.  The rail bed still exists, but the tracks and ties have been dismantled over 10 years ago.

Achray is on Grand Lake- a rather long lake, and also happens to be the site where Tom Thompson painted one of his more famous works ‘The Jack Pine’ where he was working as a ranger, a year before he drowned in Canoe Lake in the western part of Algonquin park.

Grand Lake is good for canoeing, motor boats up to 10hp are allowed on the lake as well, the lake has many sandy beaches that apparently the Algonquin Indians used to camp at.  The Eastern part of Algonquin

Getting to Achray is a different story.  To get there, you have to leave Hwy. 17 near Petawawa and take a long dirt road to Acray at km 50 of the road.  The road continues quite a way to Lake Travers, another backcountry destination.  The road is wide, but wasn’t in that great of a condition, even though a grader was working on it.  Many soft spots even when dry, and on the way out, many washouts and mud pits due to the several days of rain when I was there.  Also it is the main route for logging truck, watch out for them, they tend to drive in the middle of the road which can surprise you coming around a corner.

The main gate is Sand Lake gate, which is open limited hours, about half way between Hwy 17y and Achray.

Achray itself is a rather bare bones park.  There’s no comfort station or showers, just a few flush toilets, and a camp store selling firewood and ice that seems to be open only when they want to be open.  Also when I was there, they were selling bags of wood that were only 2/3 full…  seriously – $7.50 for a couple of pieces of wood, and all bags were like that.  I would advise getting your wood before you get to the park.

There are two outfitters on the way in just as you get off of the highway – the newer Algonquin bound on your left and a bit further down on the right, Algonquin Portage, which also sells firewood, food and gas, as well as rents canoes – when they are open…  they were only open until 4 when I was there in late June.  I (foolishly) assumed I would be able to reserve a canoe for a backcountry trip at the camp store in Achray itself, but that was not the case.  I had to drive all the way out to the highway and back to get it, then all the way back out again to drop it off (since we were staying at Achray for hiking after the paddling) .  These trips are about 200kms of dirt road driving, which means I had little gas left after dropping the canoe off, then I had to drive even farther into Petawawa just to fill up, since Algonquin portage was closed when I was dropping the canoe off and couldn’t get gas then. 

I would advise filling up your tank before heading off of Hwy. 17, and also either bringing your own canoe, or if you rent a canoe, arrange your trip so you are on your way out after paddling, to avoid having to drive all over hell’s half acre.   I don’t know why they can’t have some kind of an arrangement to be able to rent a canoe just at the park itself instead of having to go back out to the main road to do this.

Other than that Achray is a beautiful, quiet park (no radios on all sites), with a nice lake, couple of beaches, and access to backcountry canoeing and several hiking trails – Berm Lake interpretive trail, Barron Canyon Trail, and Eastern Pines Backpacking Trail.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to check out the Barron Canyon trail due to the incessant rain on the way out this last trip, but I’ll have to visit again to do this.

Some Everytrail trips from Algonquin:

Algonquin - Achray to Barron Canyon (2 day canoe trip)
Algonquin - Eastern Pines Backpacking Trail (did as day hike)
Algonquin - Highland Backpacking Trail (2 day backpack)