#outaouais

Rocky islands are my favorite! One of these days I want to camp on one.

#outaouais

Paddling Lac Papineau in the Outaouais. #outaouais

Lake is also called Lac Commandant (there are multiple papineau lakes in Quebec!)

This was a beautiful lake to canoe with camping potential. However there is no easy way to access to the lake with free parking (that we found).

We paid $35 just to park for the day in an Auberge empty parking area.

We “parked” our canoe and took a little walk to get a better view.

We will definitely come back here. Lots of water to explore.

We spent Saturday on the lake, exploring on our canoe and taking a break on a beautiful beach.

On Sunday we took our time driving back home through Gatineau and exploring that area a bit.

It was a real delight to discover this whole new world of outdoor opportunities open to us because we now have a canoe.

Excited for many more seasons of paddling, and new discoveries.#lacdupoissonblanc #outaouais #petitenation #lavalleedelagatineau

Rock climbing the cliffs in Lac du Poisson Blanc, only accessible by water.#lacdupoissonblanc #outaouais #petitenation

On Friday afternoon we loaded the car with camping gear and our canoe and left the city for 2 nights in the woods.

Destination: Reservoir du Poisson Blanc or Lac du Poisson Blanc

Since we got our canoe I started following canoeing in Quebec hashtags on IG and this place kept coming up. It was high on my must paddle destinations.

There is a regional park on part of the lake: Parc Regional Poisson Blanc and they manage 70 designated canoe camping sites available on the islands and shores of this lake.

https://poissonblanc.ca/en/

Theoretically there is also dispersed camping available in non-designated sites but I imagine as this place gets more popular those will be harder to secure.

This is a large lake but very popular. And for good reason, it’s gorgeous!

We camped at the south end of the lake at the Air-Eau-Bois campground.

https://aireaubois.com/

The camping sites there are nice but really close to each other and our first night we were next to a group of young guys who were headed out the next morning to canoe camp somewhere on the lake. They were loud and close enough you could hear them fart in their tent. IOW, too close.

Our second night at the campground was better with them gone.

A plus of the campground is a free bag of wood for every night. A $10 value which made the $40 site more reasonable. I balk at paying for a camp site when I’m more comfortable with dispersed camping and don’t need amenities.

Next time we come to the area we’d like to camp in the lake and ideally head out to the little lakes west of here to portage and paddle.#lacdupoissonblanc #outaouais #petitenation #lavalleedelagatineau

It’s hunting season and there’s a hunting group at the other end of the campground with ATVs, which I only heard when they came back from hunting late in the day and early the next morning. You can see the tire tracks on the sand.

#outaouais #reservefauniquelaverendrye #campingembarras

I was not expecting to find such a nice site for this one night trip.

Part of the reason for using my car as a camper is to have the ability to park and sleep wherever it is safe to do so.

It’s called boondock camping or Boondocking, which means to camp for free at sites with zero or limited facilities.

This is my first night boondocking and I struck gold.

This is an actual campground that is “closed” for the season. You can no longer make reservations (and pay) but the sites are still open. And probably stay that way till the road is snowed in.

#outaouais #reservefauniquelaverendrye #campingembarras