Stuck in the muck at Emily PP

Emily Provincial Park is situated on Pigeon River which flows into the South End of Pigeon Lake on the Trent Severn Waterway. When we reserved site #208 at the Park we did see the "poor drainage" note on the site description but opted for that site rather than adjacent site #207.  What we didn't know was that the Park had recently received heavy rains and in fact it had rained each of the past five weekends.  Parks staff indicated they have had to tow several RV's out of their campsites.

Although site #208 was quite large, the gravel area was rather short and by the time the front end of the RV was off the roadway, the rear wheels were on soft ground and began to spin.  It was obvious this wasn't going to work so we drove our Jeep Liberty to the Park gatehouse and obtained a list of alternate sites.  While scouting out a new site it became obvious that a large number of campsites were in peril from the heavy rains.  The only suitable, available site was #187 so we fired up the RV to exit site #208 but alas, the wheels also spun while trying to go forward.

For a while it looked as if we might require a tow but after about forty-five minutes, a lot of digging with our spade and use of some 2" thick boards we often carry with us, we were back on the roadway.  The new site #187, although well-drained was also a bit soft in some spots so we entered from the "wrong direction" on the one-way road to avoid having to make too many maneuvers.  With sunny weather in the forecast starting next Wednesday, that should help.

Note the hubcap reflection - Photographer & "Digger"

We did it!



At the new site