Camping in Killbear

A couple of weekends ago we packed up the kids and headed north to Killbear Provincial Park.  We have camped a lot over the years, but have never been to Killbear, opting for Killarney instead.  This year, however, I am determined to see new things while travelling.  So all new camping locations of us this year!

Now back to Killbear - this park is huge and very popular.  Killbear is located on Georgian Bay, and is about 45 minutes outside of Parry Sound.  While not quite as rugged as Killarney, it has several beautiful sand beaches and at least two great hiking trails - that I can speak for.  

We booked a site that backed onto the beach.  It was a rock beach, but kept the girls occupied for hours.

We took in a beautiful sunset....

So aside from hiking, exploring and swimming while camping the next big thing to consider is FOOD.  I think its the fresh air combined with extra effort to do simple things - like getting water or trips to the bathroom that make everyone much more hungry than normal.

One of the meals we have on almost every camping trip is what we refer to as 'The Campfire Meal'.  This involves cooking our entire meal in the coals of our camp fire. (I know many people who camp cook all of their meals over the campfire, but we typically use a camp stove or mini bar-b-que.)

This meal was invented during a trip to Killarney when we were camping during a very bug infested summer... I don't know how it happened but we experienced - mosquitoes, black flies and deer flies in AUGUST!!!  As an effort to ward off the bugs, my husband built a campfire very early in the afternoon.  Not wanted to see the massive coal bed go to waste, I decided to cook our dinner in the coals - resulting in one of the best dinners ever!

We always cook potatoes for this meal.  I chop the potatoes into cubes, add onions and whatever other vegetables I have on hand,  season with salt and pepper, toss in oil.  Double wrap in tin foil and place in coals.  I flip and rotate the package frequently to ensure even cooking.

For vegetables - my daughter picked corn for this meal.  I coated each cob in butter, sprinkled with a bit of salt and again double wrapped with tin foil.  The corn was added to the coals and flipped and rotated as well. 

For the 'meat' - I had the girls help me roast pre-cooked sausage over the fire and I had a veggie sausage.

I've cooked all kinds of vegetables this way - carrots, zucchini, mushrooms - you name it. The best vegetable I cooked was during  an autumn camping trip where I roasted a turban squash - amazing.

We're planning a larger car camping trip later this summer.  I'll post more action shots of the process then.  I'm also planning an interior camping trip at the end of the month and still debating about taking the girls or not.  Either way I'll post about the trip and itinerary and food!