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TYLER SEARLE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
When Steven Cong (left) and Teresa Calderon arrived at their campsite, their first priority was starting a fire.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Cong first arrived at the campsite around 6 p.m. on Friday. After a few hours sitting around the campfire and listening to bird songs, the cold became too much to bear and he went home to Winnipeg at 10 p.m.<\/p>\n
He returned Saturday morning alongside Calderon, 44.<\/p>\n
They were committed to making the most of the weekend, but a dusting of snow was falling as the couple arrived, and the forecast was projecting a 30 per cent chance of rain.<\/p>\n
Cong said when he booked the weekend camping trip, reservations for Grackle Bay were nearly full \u2014 but after a week of poor weather marked by wind and low temperatures, only a handful of campers turned up.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the campground, on Oriole Bay, couple Davis Smith, 24, and Ella Fontaine, 23, were faring slightly better.<\/p>\n
The pair arrived at Birds Hill around 9 p.m. Friday, and spent the night sleeping in the back of their SUV alongside their Border Collie-mix, Weston. The vehicle, retrofitted with a bed and frequently used for back-country camping, offered additional shelter from the elements, Smith said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe woke up to a little bit of snow falling, so it was a little chilly this morning, but it\u2019s already warmed up a bit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still nice to be out here. It\u2019s just a slow pace, you know what I mean? It\u2019s peaceful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t TYLER SEARLE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Davis Smith (left) Ella Fontaine and their dog, Weston had a comfortable sleep inside the SUV they retrofitted for back-woods camping, despite the chilly weather.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Smith, from Beausejour, extolled the virtues of the great outdoors as Fontaine, a Gimli native, fried up hash browns and English muffins on a camping stove. She bent down and cracked a raw egg onto a plate for Weston, so he could have some breakfast too.<\/p>\n They were awaiting the arrival of some friends who booked a neighbouring site.<\/p>\n \u201cAll I\u2019m hoping for is some sun to come out,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n The couple were likely to see their wish granted on Sunday, when Environment and Climate Change Canada projected less cloud cover and daytime temperatures of 11 C.<\/p>\n While temperatures were slightly lower than average for the May long weekend, they were consistent with those seen in the Birds Hill area during the same period in recent years, meteorologist Kyle McAulay said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not that uncommon, especially when a cold front comes through, that we can see some snow in the early parts of the morning when it\u2019s a little bit cooler,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Environment Canada data shows lows reached 2 C on the same day last May, and 1 C on May 17, 2025. Temperatures were similar over the long weekend in 2024, McAulay said.<\/p>\n The coldest temperature on record on May 16 was set in 1961, when the low reached about -7 C in the area. The record low for May 17, set in 1888, was close to -9 C, McAulay said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still a bit of a ways away from breaking any records,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s cold, but it\u2019s not like it\u2019s \u2026 unprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t TYLER SEARLE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Cool temperatures did not keep joggers, cyclists and others from enjoying the long weekend in Birds Hill Provincial Park.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Based on the current forecast, temperatures in the Red River Valley were expected to remain low until Tuesday, but should reach somewhere around 20 C by next weekend, McAulay said.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully, that trend continues,\u201d McAulay said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last few weeks, almost a month or so now, have been cooler than average, but as we keep going and get closer and closer to summer \u2026 we have higher chances of warming up.\u201d<\/p>\n Back on Meadowlark Bay in the Birds Hill campground, Travis Klawuhn, 41, and his partner Adriana DiMaggio, 34, were looking ahead to the summer months.<\/p>\n Klawuhn was cooking eggs on a camping stove, while DiMaggio rolled their nine-month-old baby back and forth in a stroller.<\/p>\n Their other child, a three-year-old boy, was bundled beneath blankets in a plastic wagon \u2014 listening to a song by Saskatchewan country artist Colter Wall playing on a Bluetooth speaker.<\/p>\n The Winnipeg couple take their trailer out on annual trips for the May long weekend. It\u2019s a good way to get it ready for the rest of the camping season, Klawuhn said.<\/p>\n \u201cMay long is just always a crap shoot. I brought shorts and my parka, \u201d Klawuhn said, laughing.<\/p>\n \u201cI brought shorts and my parka.\u201d<\/p>\n When they booked the camping weekend, Meadowlark Bay was in such high demand that they could not get a reservation next to Klawuhn\u2019s sister and her family. But, when temperatures dipped and other campers cancelled their plans, they were able to snag sites side-by-side, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt kind of turned out well. Usually, May long is really busy,\u201d Klawuhn said.<\/p>\n \u201dWe\u2019re going to cook, go for a bike ride, play some bocce ball. I was wondering if there is water in the lake because I was determined to go swimming, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n While the man-made lake located just north of the campground had not yet been filled with water on Saturday, the paths surrounding it were occupied by a handful of cyclists, joggers and people walking their dogs.<\/p>\n At nearby Pineridge Hollow, the parking lot was full of cars and dozens of patrons popped in and out of the shops carrying coffee, baked treats and other goods.<\/p>\n The start of the long weekend may have been chilly and damp at the provincial park, but many people made the most of it.<\/p>\n tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Tyler Searle Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press\u2019s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic\u2019s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022.\u00a0Read more about Tyler<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.<\/p>\n \t\t
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