September 24: Camp Manitou

Camp Manitou is just outside western Winnipeg, but the suburbs here already line the river on both sides. Before I got into Winnipeg proper, I thought it would be a good idea to stop at the campground for the night, make some phone calls about what to do with my canoe while I was in Winnipeg, and get myself cleaned up for the city as well.

The dock for the campground stuck out at river left, somehow immediately recognizable as public despite little visual distinction from the private docks owned by every other building on the river. Perhaps it was the thicker woods, or the larger area, but I have seen some significant docks connected to private acreages too.

I walked up the wood steps to the campground where I could hear only the clanging of a flagpole, and somewhere, the barking of a dog. To my right was a cluster of cabins, all but two were locked. One was full of tables. The other was the art cabin, and its sink refused to give the treated water I wanted.

On the left side of the campground, gathered around the clanging flagpole were the gathering places of this group campground. There was a giant mess hall and activity center, and the maintenance shed as well, all locked. A big empty swimming pool was gated off, and there was a garden, with the gate in its fence conspicuously open.

Further on, there was a regular two-story house, with a wooden sign on the front, "Bob's Place". I knocked on Bob's door, rang Bob's ordinary doorbell, and knocked again, over a period of some hours, but Bob, the caretaker of the place, was not there.

I walked the road to the campground's land entrance, which was closed by a locked chain-link gate.

Given the circumstances, I did what anyone would do. I ran the ropes course.

I couldn't ride the zip line at the beginning, since the "zip" part was packed away somewhere, but I walked the low tightrope, clambered over the hanging wood beams and climbed over the wooden barriers for an hour, all the while expecting that barking dog to come running out of the distance at me. In that case, I would need all these climbing skills.

I set up my tent at the top of the dock stairs and peed in the bushes there because the bathrooms were locked.

I never did see anyone there.

Day 95 ended: 49*51.964N, 097*20.818W