Saugeen Shores is a campground operated by the Saugeen Bluffs Conservation Area. We chose this spot as it is right on the Saugeen River. From the dam (Denny’s Dam Conservation Area) at the town of Southampton and going up stream there is just over 100km of navigable river. The Saugeen River has about a dozen boat access points along its banks and all are well marked by road signs and on the local tourism maps and the campground has one of them. The river was flowing much faster than we expected and higher too as attested by a seasonal camper’s pole mounted satellite dish. The dish was about 3 feet into the river’s flow. We were told the river was about 10 feet higher than the summer height. The speed of the river convinced us to skip the kayaking and find something else to do. The only hope of stopping before Denny’s Dam would be a strainer of downed trees stuck on its high side. There are some hiking and horseback riding trails that we hiked which gave us some impressive views of the river and countryside.
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We arrived at the campground just as the staff were opening it up for the season. There were a couple of seasonal campers that were opening up their trailers and one was building a new deck beside his trailer. On arriving t our site I decided I would drive into the site across from ours so I could back straight in. My first inkling of “Uh oh” was when I stopped and thought I felt the trailer push me a bit. Three days of camping and day one of our 2nd campground into our 4-1/2 month, 49 parks trip and I’m stuck. Reverse, then reverse in 4-wheel drive, then reverse again after locking the rear differential and getting out to lock the front axle hubs confirmed the Uh oh. The park staff were quite helpful in arranging a quick tow backwards into our site.
The high water gave a chance to check out the surrounding area. We prefer back roads (paved) over the major routes as it takes you to small hidden places and towns that the major routes by-pass. There’s less bone-headed drivers to deal with as well. Towns like Lucknow, Glammis, Paisley, Dunblane, and Burgoyne range from decent sized towns to, “Go back. I blinked”. Paisley is a pretty town that is at the confluence of the Teeswater and Saugeen Rivers. Beautiful old buildings including one large commercial antique that is for sale. We stopped at the Paisley City Roller Mill located just outside of the downtown of Paisley and chatted with one of the owners. The mill was built in 1985 and was purchased by a retired couple who took on the task of restoring it, including building a residence in the mill and small store. They have decided to move on to a new venture and have placed the mill and its 35+ acres on both sides of the river up for sale. Maybe after checking out all the parks on North America.
We toured the towns of Port Elgin and Southampton. In Southampton we checked out the Southampton Market a 3 level, century old manufacturing building turned into a craft sale building. We had lunch, and went to a popular little bakery in Southampton and bought bread and Bumble berry pie! We had our first campfire of the trip as the weather warmed up and the trees and hill surrounding us protected us from the wind.