Any backcountry camping trip can be a humbling experience but, winter backcountry camping is a whole other beast. It teaches you the need for efficiency in everything you do. Wasted time means wasted energy and that means you get cold… fast. You need to take care of the small things so they don’t compound into major issues. So as much as you think you’ve mastered your kit and preparation, mother nature will literally throw that upside down and make you start again until you are a well-oiled, efficient, machine… I mean it’s either that or you freeze. That is the true beauty of it all.

And then I see the woman wave her hand for her friend to join her. She’s still dancing and laughing and she’s wiggling her fingers at a friend. The friend stands up, starts dancing, makes her way toward her friend and they dance out of view. I look behind me and see that others have started to dance where they are, with their groups, in their spots. I think about how this has been such a longtime coming. We’ve been waiting for months to hug our friends and go to concerts and, my gosh, to just dance.

Sometimes it’s so easy to congratulate a benchmark in other peoples lives when that benchmark is tangible: a ring, a graduation certificate, a birthday, the purchase of a house. But it had me thinking about how many things we don’t celebrate. How many milestones are people passing every day with a Goliath-sized strength and that we don’t even applaud?

We’re coming out the other side of a long year and a half (I think I’ve been saying that for months but hey, a girl can only hope), and there are some things worth celebrating, here. Things that don’t have a nice ring on it or a piece of paper to acknowledge all of the hard work.

Lee went into his house, pulled some of his own gore tex jackets out of his closet and came back outside. The nearly 6 feet of Lee dwarfed a 12 year old girl but he handed her his rain coat and said, “here, this will be big on you, but it will keep you dry.” She took it and zipped it up. It reached her knees, but at least she wouldn’t be as cold.

I sat here and watched one of my favourite parts of small businesses play out in front of my eyes. I thought, this, this is it. This is what everyone is talking about when it comes to small business, the exact charm that everyone loves.

Last week my friend, Ally, and I went camping. The weather is finally warming and the ground isn’t soaked through with soggy snow, so we packed our backpacks and set out into the Margaree valley. We ended up pitching our tent next to a set of tiny, cascading waterfalls on the side of one of Margaree’s mountains. We gathered up fallen tree branches, started a fire and ate dinner. We spent the rest of the evening laughing, writing and reading books as the smokey smell of the fire settled over us.

While tubing season is extremely fun and it may be what we are known for, there are other things we offer, too! So much to see and do right from our campground. Here is a list of some things you may not know about us, other activities you can do from our doorstep, facts about our grounds, and a few ways to save some $$$ if you’re coming our way this summer!

…As you’re packing we know it can be tempting to think what if I need this. Chances are if you’re questioning it, you probably won’t. Below is a list of five basic necessities to check your items against the next time you’re preparing for a hiking trip.