Camping in Canada Part 1: Backwoods, Car Camping & Bear Barrels

Whether you're planning your first camping trip or you're just curious about Canadian outdoor culture, this episode is for you! 🏕️

Join us as we talk about the different ways Canadians camp—from rugged backwoods adventures where you carry everything on your back, to relaxing weekends at car campgrounds. We talk about tents, trailers, RVs and the pop-up campers that were everywhere when we were kids.

Along the way, you'll learn vocabulary and hear natural English conversations about campfires, bugs, swimming in Canadian lakes and rocky shorelines on the Canadian shield.

If you're learning English, this episode is a fun way to improve your listening while discovering an important part of Canadian culture. Grab a cup of coffee, imagine you're sitting around a campfire, and join us!

🎧 Perfect for intermediate English learners who want to build vocabulary, improve listening skills, and learn more about life in Canada.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

There are services like there's a thunderbox. What's a thunderbox? Have you ever heard that term? No. It's the bathroom. Hello, Epers.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Welcome to another episode of Extra English Podcast with Misha and Larissa. We are two Canadian English teachers talking about life in Canada, our lives, and anything else that might interest us. And hopefully it will interest you too. So join us for another conversation. Today we're going to talk about camping, which is a very common Canadian pastime in the summer. If you meet someone who's lived here for years, likely they will have had an experience camping. Would you say that's true? I think so.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Yeah. Yeah. I think most people who grew up here have done some form of camping at some point in their life, also. Yeah. So tell me about your camp experience. Camping. My family loves to go camping. We've gone with a group, a couple of my dad's co-workers from his early 20s. Wow. And their spouses and children. The three families have gone camping once a year for 30. I mean, we haven't done it in the last 10 years or so, but for 30 years before that, we went every year.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Oh, that's great.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

I think the adults went before they had kids. Wow. And then the kids came along and yeah, super fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

So, like what a nice annual kind of event, check-in tradition. Totally. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

And it's nice because we didn't see those friends. They lived in Toronto, which is a couple hours from us. So we didn't see them often. But when you go out in the woods with people, eating all your meals, sleeping, you know them well. Most good. What kind of camping was that? There's different kinds of camping. There are different kinds. We would do like backwoods camping, I would call it. Okay. So we would drive our cars somewhere with canoes tied on top. And then we get where we're going. My family still does this every August. You get where you're going, you park your car, take the canoe off and all your packs, and you carry it down to the water. And then it depends. So we would usually go to lakes when I was younger, but a couple of times we went on a river and we would kind of move every day. So pack our stuff up in the morning, canoe a little bit down the river, unpack again, set everything up. Now my family, we park the car, we paddle in. It's about an hour, so in our canoe, and we set up and we stay put. Okay. Yeah. But we're there's no cars, there aren't other people. I mean, there are other people on the lake, but there's no one near you. You're not gonna run into anyone. It's really nice. Okay, so do you have to rent that space? Well, the lake we go to, which we've been going to that same lake, my family for 30 years at least, used to be free. Oh. Yes, you could just go in. There were designated spots, uh, but it was free. Uh I don't think so. I think first served.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Exactly. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

And then I remember because then they shifted to a booking system and we booked a spot and we're camping there. And this couple came up and we're so annoyed because they said we've been coming here 40 years. Oh. We've never booked. This is our spot. And we're like, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

It's our spot now.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

But now that we pay, there are services like there's a thunder box. What's a thunderbox? Have you ever heard that term? No. It's the bathroom. So I won't be too detailed, but the the managers, the crown, the government employees, dig a hole and they put a box, uh, which has a lid that goes up and down, but you're in the fresh air, which is the better way than an outhouse. Yes. So Because of the smell. Because of the smell. Like you're just in the fresh air, it's nice.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

You have a nice view. It's it's pretty good. Better than some other option. That reminds me of a time when I was at Victoria Falls. Oh. And um there was an outhouse. And it they labeled it a loo with the view.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

I like it.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

And it was an amazing view. Well, but it was an outhouse, but it had like it had windows.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Oh, it had windows. Came out.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

I mean, why not? When you got a view like that, you look at it. Lou is not a very common way that we use to describe a bathroom, but it's not a Canadian term. Yeah. Yeah. But we would understand it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

So what what are other kinds of camping? I go backwoods camping. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

So uh there's also car camping, yeah. Which does not mean you sleep in your car. It does sound like that. That's what I thought. So I don't have a lot of camping experience, especially as a child. I went like as a teenager with some friends, and when I was like at uh a camp, I would go camping overnight. Like I had a little bit of experience, but when someone told me, Oh yeah, we just do car camping, I thought, oh, I could sleep in my car. Like that doesn't seem too hard. No mosquitoes. I was wrong.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

How did you find out you were wrong?

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Well, they told me. They explained. So car camping just means you go to a place with your car and then you stay where you park. Yeah. So instead of like Misha would go on the river or on the lake and her canoe. You don't need a canoe. You just set up camp there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

So there's your car, there's your little campsite, there's someone else's car in their little campsite in a row.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Yeah. Yeah. Although I suppose if one of you is a snorer, you may have to sleep in the car. The snorer may.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

You may be kicked. Yeah. Even when you go car camping, you're still on water, usually.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Usually. Yeah. Yeah. You could go, you could go to a campground that maybe has a swimming pool if it if it isn't near water. Do you think that exists? Well, RV resorts do have that. And I mean that's different. That's that's it living in a trailer. Yeah. Which maybe is different. People will say, I'm going camping, or I'm going to my trailer. Yeah. So trailer being like you can drive it and it's a home. Yeah. Often you don't drive it. Like people just stay put.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Yeah. Yeah. I guess actually there's two different things. There's a trailer, which could be attached to a vehicle.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Could be, but then but then oh yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

And people sometimes just leave them as their permanent home. Or an RV, which I think stands for recreation vehicle, which you drive and it has beds.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Yeah. And so that's like I've been in an RV, but I've never slept in one. No, me neither. It's it's really interesting because it's like a really big van. Yes. But everything is so compact and so cleverly organized because you have to have room for your kitchen and your sleeping area and your eating area. And often your eating area becomes your sleeping area because you fold this up and fold that down and then you have a bedroom all of a sudden. That's right.

unknown 7:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

I feel like those weren't very popular when we were young. Do you think? Oh, when I was young, that 100% in my mind was connected to old people. Oh. Like the idea for me was when you retire, you might travel around. Interesting. Visit all around North America. Like I imagine that retired people just got in their RVs and drove around North America sleeping wherever they wanted. I don't think it's true.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

No, I don't think so, but that's cute. Well, retirement still to come. Maybe we'll one day get our RVs. Maybe. Maybe. We can make a little convoy. You know what was popular though when we were young, in my experience, was like trailers. Like a small trailer. Often the pop-up kind, pop-up camper. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Right? Okay. So this is something that which is easier to store. Yes. Cheaper to purchase. And it just attaches to your vehicle. You'd have to have a vehicle that is powerful enough to pull it. And then a special kind of hitch or connector. Um, but then yeah, when you get to the campsite, yeah, you kind of maybe you crank it to raise it. We don't know how it works.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Oh, it but it wasn't like it wasn't magic like this. You press a button, bam, snap your fingers. No. But it went from a little compact thing folded out. And I think they would often sleep four.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

I think that seems right. Sometimes they would be like the beds would stick out beyond the frame.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

The standard look. But I never slept in one of those. I don't think. Did you?

SPEAKER_00 8:39

I did. Yeah. Um, but I was a teenager and we went to a festival, and I was more interested in the festival than the setup of the campground. So or the campsite. So I don't know how it happened.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

I have a memory. I had been in some of those. Like friends would have them and we play in it. And I feel like everyone I was ever in smelled musty. Yes. What was that about?

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Well, they're made mostly of canvas, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Like it's maybe they didn't have quick dry fabric, the same stuff these days. Also, you have to be kind of like we're pretty strict about our tents. When I'm leaving a campsite, I'll take my tent down and lay. It usually comes with a fly, which is the piece on top that protects you from the rain, and then the tent. And I would lay those both out separately in the sun so they could dry. Okay. Pack it up. And then when I come home, I'd lay it out again. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Because you don't want that musty smell to get in there. It's very easy for that to happen. I feel like camping equipment often smells bad.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Yeah. And once it gets in that smell, it's so hard to get out. So I feel like I remember that smell. And earwigs. I feel like there were often earwigs in people's camping equipment.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Earwig is a little insect, which I mean, they they're in nature. I have earwigs like going they like to eat my mulberries.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

They just another reason not to like them. They are natural, but I also think as a kid, I don't know, the kids I knew, because it was called an earwig, we believed it would go in your ear. Yeah. Uh huh. I don't know why it's called an earwig.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Nope. And I don't think they like ears.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

I don't think that's a thing. No. But and they have little pincers.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Yeah, they're they're really quite scary looking if you don't like bugs.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Yeah. Also, listen, in Canada we have a very the bugs, it's a small scale. We don't have a lot of big bugs. So the slightly scary looking ones. Yeah. Because actually none of the bugs here are actually scary. No. Really? No. Ticks maybe a little bit these. Oh, ticks.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

But we don't have like Do we have venomous spiders, poisonous spiders?

SPEAKER_00 10:36

I don't think so. I was talking to my sister the other day on the phone. She lives in Central America. And while we were talking, her son got bit by a scorpion. A scorpion? Yes. Was he okay? Yeah, he's fine.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Oh my gosh. See, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

It stings, it hurts, and then it's fine. They put some salve on it and he was okay before the end of the call. But like, yeah, I get a mosquito bite, and I'm like, oh, this is awful.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Exactly. So when we say a bug is scary looking, it's on a Canadian scale of bugs. It is not scary at all.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

And they're harmless, really. They're harmless. They're harmless. Yeah, they just kind of freak you out. Yeah. Yeah. Earwigs.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Camping. We're talking about camping. Earwigs are related. When you're living out, listen, I'll tell you this about camping. Please do. You have to be careful here. There aren't that many. I mean, bears can be scary, as we previously discussed. And when my family goes camping, we bring bear spray. We've never had to use it. Knock on wood, which means I hope we never do. Um, but chipmunks and squirrels are the real chipmunks are the real. If you leave any food in your tent, first of all, you're inviting a bear. So don't. Uh but the chipmunks will chew their way through anything to get at food. Yeah. So for the chipmunks, but also for the bears, we take something called a bear barrel, which is a big plastic barrel with like a top with a gasket. So you can seal it really well. And we put all our food in there at night, like toothpaste, everything. You cannot keep a single piece of food in your tent. It all goes in the bear barrel. And uh other things, if we have too much for the bear barrel, go in the canoe and we canoe it out and anchor it. Yeah. Or sometimes, if it's like garbage, sometimes we'll tie it from a tree.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

I've heard of tying your food up, but the squirrels could still get that and the raccoon and the not raccoons.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Well, they could, but yeah, squirrels haven't really gotten maybe we only hang up really like garbagey stuff that's not that appealing. Because also you're still you don't want the smell of food to attract a bear, which the barrel helps stop.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Yeah. Bare barrel. Memorable. So let's talk more about food. When you go camping, yeah, there's no grocery store.

unknown 12:54

Right?

SPEAKER_00 12:54

So you have to prepare everything you're going to bring. Yeah. What's your what's your strategy?

SPEAKER_01 13:01

To be honest, I'm not the food planner. Oh. I go always with my family. Generally, my mom is the food planner andor my brother and sister-in-law.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

I want to go with your family.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

You should come along soon. This is I would kind of like to go on my own, but I'm like, I don't know how to tie the canoe on the car. It's a lot of work to plan all. I, you know, I'm not great with the axe chopping wood for the fire. Oh my goodness. It's a whole production. Anyway, we it is planned out. So some food is frozen and we do, we're not real hardcore campers. I mean, we're backwoods campers. We do paddle in, but we stay put. So we bring some heavy stuff and we always bring a cooler. Which, if you're a really serious camper, you're not not even gonna do that. But we would have the cooler and we'll freeze some stuff. So normally, I don't know, maybe someone would bring like potatoes and meat that we can wrap in tinfoil and cook in the coals of the fire. Maybe like a soup or something like that that can just be heated up over our, we bring a tiny stove, a little gas stove or one little burner. So things like that. And then if you freeze it, we go for maybe three or four days. So the third night, often the food is still cold if it's been in the cooler. And it was frozen to start with. But things like that. We do have that little stove. Also, my family is very serious about coffee. So we bring beans and a grinder and a camping French press. It's meant for camping. It's great. Very unbreakable. That's a little bit luxury. And we bring alcohol. Like we're not we're not packing very light. Light enough. We have to fit it all in the canoe. One canoe? No, no. No, multiple canoes. We have three canoes for six adults and three kids. Okay. So two adults per canoe. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's how it works. Those kids will eventually become adults.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Well, already they're kind of big. So we also now have a kayak. And I think last year my oldest nephew paddled all the way in, but a year previous, I think it was tied on the end of the canoe.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

Because he could help, right? He could paddle if he wanted to, but also his dad could be the muscle. That's it. Yeah. I would like to be in a kayak being towed. And probably being fed snacks.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Probably, yeah. It's a good life. Last year, my son, so it was my son's first camping trip ever last year. Yeah. Um, and he he napped the whole way out. He had fallen asleep. So in fact, in our canoe, did we bring fewer canoes? But I was in the front, my dad was in the back, and my mom sat in the middle, not paddling, just holding my son as he slept.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

I will gladly, gladly take that job. You want to do that? Yes. I will hold a child for any length of canoe trip. Love it. So your dad was in the back because the person in the back has a bigger job, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Yeah, the back of the canoe is where you steer from. I can steer a canoe.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

I didn't mean to insinuate that you couldn't.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Just disparaging my skills. I'm kidding. He is a stronger paddler. So you do normally put your stronger paddler in the back. Uh but yeah, that's where you steer steer from. You turn your paddle in certain ways. Um yeah. But if you're in a canoe on your own, you can flip it around and sit in what was the front seat, but now it's in the back. Because the back seat is very far at the back to make the steering easier. But if you're just one person, you sit way at the back, your canoe's gonna tilt. Interesting. Yeah, so then you flip it around because the front seat's a little closer to the middle.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Is the shape the same? Is it symmetrical?

SPEAKER_01 16:40

The shape is the same, but the location right, because if you're sitting in a seat at the back, you can be squished right up to the back. But at the front, you need room for your knees. Yeah. So EPERS, we found that we had a lot more to say about camping than we thought we would. And our episode ended up quite long. So we've decided to cut it in half, and we're going to end today's episode here. And you can tune in next week to hear part two of our Camping in Canada episode. See you then.