For Canadian hangers: Hanging on Crown lands.

[PineMartyn]

On another thread today the subject of stealth camping and Crown land camping came up and I thought I should mention, for the sake of others on these forums, that camping on Crown lands in Canada is legal.

The very reasons I've become interested in hammocking and just purchased my first hammock is that my wife and I go backpacking and canoe-tripping on Crown lands almost exclusively, rather than camping in parks. When camping on Crown lands, one often has to make a bush camp wherever one can and that often means one must pitch one's tent on whatever flatt-ish and level-ish ground one can. So hammocking is particularly well-suited to camping in areas where there are no existing campsites or suitable terrain for pitching a tent.

Over the years we've had friends and fellow camping enthusiasts ask us what Crown land is and how one goes about finding Crown land on which to hike or camp, I've made two instructional videos about crown land and how to find it.

Here are the links for any who are interested in this subject:

Part 1: Crown Land Camping - What is it and why do it? http://youtu.be/SHOVMz_FmFA

Part 2: How to Locate Crown Land in Ontario http://youtu.be/snbMdL0ZK1M

Hope this helps,
-Martin

[dragon360]

I am interested in this. But for myself, and after speaking with some fellow ontarian HF members, I believe that the lands. Are too far for me to enjoy on a more regular basis. But I will tune in to see your vids.

[Bubba]

Thanks for posting. I'll have to check out the links later.

[gunner76]

While I don't forsee my self being able to get up there I found I your video very interesting. I had heard of Crown Lands before but had no idea what it is and the rules associated with its use.

[The Old Boot]

I am interested in this. But for myself, and after speaking with some fellow ontarian HF members, I believe that the lands. Are too far for me to enjoy on a more regular basis. But I will tune in to see your vids.

If you go to Algonquin PP at all, there is crown land that is actually a closer drive in terms of travel time than getting to most anywhere in the park.

Pine Martyn - HaHa Now I know where you're hanging out!!

I've got some of the prettiest crown land you'll ever see just a few minutes further drive than the video - let me know when you want to explore it!!

Beth

[Whiskeyjack]

gunner, Crown Land is the Canadian version of public land.
Those are some very informative videos Pine Martyn. Luckily it's reversed up here. YOu have to search around for the small sections of private land. :)

[mbiraman]

Good service Martin. I first saw them when you put them on Wintertrekking,,,or MyCCR,,can't remember. Anyway i realized how i don't even think about it. Almost all the land up the Little Slocan Valley where i am is Crown Land. I just get out my hiking poles or snowshoes and go. It kind of never occurred to me that other folks would have to search it out but of course in the east that would be true in some places. In fact in many places that might be true. Glad i can just get up and go.

Hope your getting some descent winter Martin. We've been in a messy warm trend but i hear its getting cold again by the weekend.

bill

[Debi Jaytee]

awesome videos! There's TONS of Crown Land up here, just waiting to be explored. Can't wait for summer now : )

[Jodster]

Hey Martin .... nice video's.:thumbup:
On a couple of occasions that I've been able to "enjoy" crown land (not all), they have been less that favourable. This is a great way to get to untouched and mostly prestine lands for a great price (FREE!), but there are hazzards with it.
You mention in the video that there is often garbage laying around in the PP sites. This may be true but only on crown land have I seen busted up coolers, lazy boy chairs and massive fire pits to name a few issues. This kind of large garbage is easy to drag in with a sled or ATV .... which is why you won't find it in a PP. To say it has never (or will never) happen in a PP would be very naive of me.
At the end of my last camping trip to crown land, we returned to the truck to find it vandalized and a few items stolen. The OPP said it was common for the locals to search for these spots because the know that nobody will be returning to the vehicle at any time soon. The PP are, at the very least, patrolled on a regular basis. Again, to say it doesn't happen at a PP would be silly of me.
I'm not saying stay away from crown land .... but rather .... don't discount the back-country of a PP where you don't hear the drone of ATV's or sleds that are also using the same land. It is way to much work to haul a lazy boy into the back-country of a PP :scared:
A couple last thoughts .....
Don't leave anything of value in your vehicle if you are going to be away for any length of time. Not everyone is a thief, but a vehicle that is unattended for a couple days is an easy target.
Don't leave any food in the vehicle .... no rangers means no idea where the bears are and bears make short work of car windows.
Be safe .... it is legal to hunt on or adjacent to crown land.

Don't take this as a slam to your comments but as an addition (besides if we make it sound too good ..... it will get as busy as the PP's in the summer .... then where will we go????).

[K0m4]

Thanks for this! My gf is from northern Ontario, so I am in that area from time to time.

[PineMartyn]

Hey Martin .... nice video's.:thumbup:
On a couple of occasions that I've been able to "enjoy" crown land (not all), they have been less that favourable. This is a great way to get to untouched and mostly prestine lands for a great price (FREE!), but there are hazzards with it.
You mention in the video that there is often garbage laying around in the PP sites. This may be true but only on crown land have I seen busted up coolers, lazy boy chairs and massive fire pits to name a few issues. This kind of large garbage is easy to drag in with a sled or ATV .... which is why you won't find it in a PP. To say it has never (or will never) happen in a PP would be very naive of me.
At the end of my last camping trip to crown land, we returned to the truck to find it vandalized and a few items stolen. The OPP said it was common for the locals to search for these spots because the know that nobody will be returning to the vehicle at any time soon. The PP are, at the very least, patrolled on a regular basis. Again, to say it doesn't happen at a PP would be silly of me.
I'm not saying stay away from crown land .... but rather .... don't discount the back-country of a PP where you don't hear the drone of ATV's or sleds that are also using the same land. It is way to much work to haul a lazy boy into the back-country of a PP :scared:
A couple last thoughts .....
Don't leave anything of value in your vehicle if you are going to be away for any length of time. Not everyone is a thief, but a vehicle that is unattended for a couple days is an easy target.
Don't leave any food in the vehicle .... no rangers means no idea where the bears are and bears make short work of car windows.
Be safe .... it is legal to hunt on or adjacent to crown land.

Don't take this as a slam to your comments but as an addition (besides if we make it sound too good ..... it will get as busy as the PP's in the summer .... then where will we go????).


No offense taken from your feedback Jodster. In fact I will echo a number of the points you raised.

1) During hunting season, wear hunting colors.

2) Don't leave valuables in your car. Leave your car empty, with doors locked, and the glove box and storage compartments open and visibly empty to signal that there is nothing of value within. Some people leave a note on the dash saying "Gone fishing, back shortly", but I've never done. We have never had a problem and have never met anyone who's had a problem with theft or vandalism.

3) Don't leave food in your car, whether in a park or on Crown lands. Jodster is absolutely correct about bears and car windows. A friend of mine had his car broken into by a nuisance bear at the same trail head in Algonquin park twice in two consecutive years. His driver side window had been pulled out, his front seats torn to shreds, and the center of his steering wheel got gnawed off. Seems the bear had figured out how to get it's claws between the rubber seal at the top of the windows and shatter the glass by pulling hard on the glass with his claws. My friend's vehicle was one of 18 cars broken into by one bear on that long weekend. My friend (a former canoe guide in Algonquin) knew not to leave food in his car, but it would seem this bear had become so used to finding food in cars that he was systematically ripping out the windows and crawling into every car he could. A human-habituated bear is a bad thing. I worry less about bears when on Crown lands than when I'm in provincial parks.

4)I will differ with you on the vandalism issue. Cars are routinely targeted by thieves in our provincial parks, which is why park officials patrol them. Thieves go where they know there will be cars loaded with goodies they can easily re-sell, such as cameras, phones, and camping gear. Trail heads and the canoe put-ins of parks are perfect places for opportunistic thieves looking for loads of cars parked side by side to break into. Every summer dozens and dozens of people have their windows smashed and their vehicles rifled through by petty thieves looking for easy pickings in Algonquin park. It doesn't stop me from parking and camping there, so I'm not worried about parking on the side of a dirt road in the country where scarcely a soul will go by and theft is statistically less likely. Can it happen? Sure. Is it likely...no.

5) Regarding trash: I have seen truly horrific crap left behind on both Crown land and in our provincial parks, including the interior of Algonquin. But you're correct that any Crown land which is ATV accessible is apt to have more crap left on it. The same goes for Crown land waterways that are accessible to motor boats. There's just something about travel by motorized vehicle that brings out the lazy people who are willing to haul in heavy containers (bottles, coolers, etc) when full, but can't be bothered to haul them out when empty. Here's a photo of me of me, my wife, and a friend cleaning up a site we paddled past in a park in the Kawartha area.

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l529/PineMartyn/Garbage%20and%20damage/097GarbageOnCampsiteNearDamInWolfIslandProvincialP ark.jpg

http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l529/PineMartyn/Garbage%20and%20damage/egg_0057.jpg

Nice, eh?


Thanks for your input on this. All the points you raised are relevant considerations for anyone interested in Crown land camping.

Hope this helps,
- Martin

[Whiskeyjack]

Hey KOm4, which area of Northern Ontario do you make it to?

One other point for Crown Land, especially if you're in Northern Ontario, is to have an emergency plan in place, including someone who knows where you are and when you're coming back. Where we go camping, there is NO cell service at all. If something happens, you're on your own until your emergency contact misses you. If you don't have one, you're just plain on your own.
I've had the pleasure of spending 10 years working in some incredibly remote areas of Northern Ontario. It wasn't until my last stint a few years ago that the companies considered satellite phones and Spot GPS units to ensure our safety. I'm just lucky nothing happened during the other 7 years out there.

[PineMartyn]

One other point for Crown Land, especially if you're in Northern Ontario, is to have an emergency plan in place, including someone who knows where you are and when you're coming back.

I dwell on that point in some detail in the 2nd video, but it's worth mentioning here in case someone doesn't watch the 2nd part.

Thanks,
- Martin

[Whiskeyjack]

Sorry Martin. I didn't get to the end of the video. Too much is obsolete for us up here. We just leave town and we're pretty much good to go. :)

[K0m4]

Hey KOm4, which area of Northern Ontario do you make it to?

North Bay. Which, when I'm looking at a map is basically only "northern" in relation to Toronto :laugh: The gf's dad drove me out in the middle of nowhere two summers ago and left me for dead. Well, until two days later when they picked me up again. Somewhere north-east of the town. I like it that it is a carbon copy of Sweden (where I'm from) - and I mean literally, didn't believe my eyes the first time - but just a bit wilder somehow. And in the vastness you are only as close to civilisation as you want to be. Awesome :)

[nothermark]

Thanks for the video's. I have often wondered about but never figured out Crown Land. Now I don't know where I will turn up... ;-)

[snidetripod]

Thanks for this thread PineMartyn. This will definitely help in setting up the hang out here in Alberta.

[keg]

I've jumped back between google earth and the policy atlas on many occasions, trying to find something close enough to Toronto to easily do a weekend yet without cars buzzing by (for disclosure sake, best I've found is QEII Wildlands PP).

I've found that google earth/maps shows much more detail about road access than the atlas to help find access. I've even used the sat images to see whether it looks like roads continue beyond the marked roads. I will warn people though that sometimes google marks some 'roads' that are better described as ATV trails. 4X4 advised.

The other thing I've done with the sat images is to check if there are any cottages on the lakes/ponds I'm looking to go. Although cottages mean access roads, they also often mean motorboats which always seem to be out at 5:00 AM fishing - I'm not a morning person.


As a p.s. many of the other areas beyond general use also allow 'crown land recreation' (aka camping).

[keg]

p.p.s. Some areas such as the poker lake area in the Halliburton Highlands are crown use BUT are regulated by another agency and require permits to camp.

I'm sure that past North Bay, this isn't much of an issue.

[snidetripod]

It wasn't until my last stint a few years ago that the companies considered satellite phones and Spot GPS units to ensure our safety. I'm just lucky nothing happened during the other 7 years out there.

The Spot Messenger in is not your best bet in Canada. We have free search and rescue up here, Spot requires an annual membership or fee to use. Your best bet is to get a PLB. These are great little units that rarely fail, Spot units are prone to failing, and can not always be seen by gps satellites.

[Whiskeyjack]

What's a PLB snide?
I personally despise GPS units. I've worked with too many. A compass and map is so much more trustworthy.

[keg]

Personal Locator Beacon; basically a back-up emergency contact device. You register it with the National Search and Rescue (Canadian Military) who it sends an SOS signal to if activated. The signal is far more reliable than spot, there is no activation or service fees, and you can count on Canadians coordinating your rescue wherever you are in the world.

There are even one or two that for a lower fee than spot can be used to send I'm okay messages to people when you're out in the bush.

What I have (or at least the previous version); hopefully I'll never need to know how good it is.
http://www.fastfindplb.com/us/

[Whiskeyjack]

Thanks for the info keg. I'll have to check them out. Will be handy as for work now I have a 10 hour drive North to a mine site. The road up there is awfully quiet.

[Jiblets]

Thanks for taking the time to make and share the videos. I found them very informative.

I think I'll scope out some crown land this year.

Jiblets

[River Otter]

Thanks PineMartyn, I'll be spending most of the summer up in Canada and this will be quite useful.

[mrguyterrifico]

Hey PineMartyn.
I sat down and watched everything you put out on YouTube and I will continue to follow you in the future. Thanks for this series. I'm hunting for a site as we speak.