On a road trip to PEI back in 2018 we stopped for a pit stop at the Thousand Island’s visitor’s centre in Mallorytown. We took an obligatory sign photo – you can see the pain of it in Liam’s face and posture – and then explored a bit.
My First oTENTik
During our hike around the National Park, we saw some very cool A-frame tents facing the river. We couldn’t fully investigate since campers were occupying the tent, but I knew that I wanted to stay in one of those tents some day. They looked so civilized …
Fast forward to the present, when the recollection of those tents became the impetus I needed to get me into a National Park during the fall. Who wouldn’t want to bypass sleeping on a thin pad in a tent? (Ok, lots of people love that, I do too, actually, but still…) So I did a search and found that there are many of these tents (“oTENTiks”) in our National Parks, not just Thousand Islands National Park (and they are close by – woot!). Search again, and I shouldn’t have been surprised, but they’re generally all booked up, even in the shoulder seasons. Eventually I was able to secure 2 nights on McDonald Island in the Thousand Islands National Park for mid September. This would be National Park #5 for me!
All I needed was a couple of willing (and available) friends to go with me… and that was surprisingly easy, considering the complications of having to get ourselves to the island! (YAY Marie and Carol!) After lots of discussions and planning we took 2 kayaks and rented a third in Gananoque, which has the closest boat launch to McDonald Island. (Note: overnight parking on city streets is free until October 15th. Bonus!)
Getting There
Packing (and unpacking) for any trip is always my least favourite part, and this trip was no exception, for me at least. The three of use had to not only determine what we need, but be mindful that it would fit into our kayaks. (Yes, it all fit…) Needless to say, we learned a lot about the limitations of a dry sack’s flexibility and the pros and cons of randomly stuffing items to the far reaches of a kayak’s tip or tail.
Mid September camping is not without risk, especially when you are paddling across the St. Lawrence to get to your campsite, but we had phenomenal launch weather and a calm river when we put in. It took us a while to find our island (while there are not actually 1000, there are a shit ton). There are several solid docks and a nice beach for mooring on McDonald Island, but after we landed there and found our campsite, we decided to paddle around the island and pull up right in front of our site. These 3 photos are taken with me standing in one spot and swivelling from side to side. (You can barely see top of the oTENTik in the opening of the woods. Look harder!!) It was a pretty awesome site! Site 2A. Highly recommend!!
Camping on McDonald Island
McDonald Island has a self check in. You pay docking / beaching fees, your wood, and your campsite (cheque or credit!). You can leave your recycling and your garbage in handy bins, which is pretty awesome. There’s a cart for hauling your stuff to your site, 2 incredibly well ventilated and maintained toilets, and 3 communal eating areas to enjoy (one is a large covered structure with a wood stove). At each oTENTik site there’s a food locker, outdoor covered eating area, charcoal grill and firepit. It’s all very impressive!!
The oTENTik!
Finally I get to show you our oTENTik! It was fabulous in almost all ways.
You can see that there are Adirondack chairs on the deck. Nice touch! (We took these out to the rocks for the sunsets.) It sleeps 6. The mattresses are firm and clean (take a fitted sheet, it’s worth it). There’s a solar powered light and power jack (fits a car cigarette lighter style adapter – who the hell knows what this is called – we didn’t bring one which was a bit of a bummer – read the fine print!). There’s also a nice wooden table and 4 chairs inside, but you’re not allowed to eat, prep or store food in the oTENTik, so we only really used the table to hold our gear. The oTENTik comes with a broom and dustpan, but the floor is very gritty with old dirt (apparently no mopping), so plan for indoor shoes / slippers! No heat, so we had every article of clothing imaginable for cold nights – just in case (FYI, many oTENTiks in other parks DO have heat …). On our second night there was quite the windstorm, which caused the awnings of the tent to flap and snap and make a ton of noise. It sounded like a massive branch was scraping the roof. I was wishing I had earplugs.
Kayaking in Thousand Islands National Park
We had some great paddles around the islands, stopping from time to time to get our bearings, have a pee, eat some lunch, put our kayak skirts on … that kind of thing. The maps that Marie got from the rental shop were really handy because they included marker locations (each marker is numbered so you can figure out where you are). This helped a LOT since all of the islands in the area we were kayaking are labelled #1.
There is a fantastic website detailing 9 routes in the greater Thousand Islands Paddling Trail. We stuck to paddling route #3, the Admiralty Islands, which are relatively protected from the winds. When we went outside of that zone we were buffeted with really high waves and a cross wind. It was fun, and we all had kayak skirts (thankfully), but we were glad all of our paddling wasn’t in that kind of wind.
So that’s camping on an island in Thousand Islands National Park in September! Lots of fun. Go for it!
