So yesterday, Mario, Andrew, Shafi, Hyacinth & I went to explore Camp Bison, Burwash Correctional facility near Sudbury and yes that’s right we drove just over 3 1/2 hours to look at the ruins of an abandoned prison. The adventure started early and I’m surprised the dirt road we were driving on even showed up on Google Maps as it wasn’t really Toyota Prius friendly and I bottomed out on a hill, luckily everything’s ok but I was a bit worried there. Anyway we came to an abrupt stop about 2km away from the end of the road according to the map (which itself is ~2.5km away from the prison) so we got out and walked the rest of the way.
The walk to the facility was itself an adventure and there were times we had to find ways across the flooded out road. While I had my waterproof Salomon boots on, the water looked substantially deeper than what protection they offered me.
What’s clear was that hunters prowled the area at some time because we’d see shotgun shells, bullet holes in old signs, utility boxes, etc as well as simunition casing (in the facility too). We’re like next to Petawawa so it’s clear the Canadian Forces uses this place for training.
Hyacinth doesn’t like her picture taken so I was teasing her because well I’m a jerk lol… The building is pretty run down and decaying, I was initially thinking how cool it would be to have an airsoft game here but there’s just too much rubble and holes in the ground to make it feasible. Going through the rooms it was clear that there were people staying at the facility at some point, I suspect it could be a hunting party but just in case there were squatters we stuck together. We did have radios in case we got separated and they did come in useful at times but ya on the whole we tried to stay relatively close together.
We found the solitary confinement cells, they’re tiny and I can only imagine how maddening it must have been for someone to be stuck in one, it was maybe 8’x8′. I thought the auditorium was pretty cool and off on a side room, someone set up a tent and there were some sleeping bags. The burn barrel had some garbage and the plastic container had a best by date of Sept 17th 2020. Wonder why people would leave their gear like that, they were nice looking 3 season tents too! Other expensive garbage we saw were Razor E100 scooters (2 of them), why someone would bring them out there then just leave it is beyond me.
We found what looks like a workshop, the sound deadening materials were all over the floor and it looks like there may have been a fire at some point but it was pretty neat to check out.
The correctional facility was designed to be self sustaining, with the prisoners farming and having onsite water purification but that building was flooded out. Couldn’t go into the basement as you can see. There as obviously someone shooting at the around there as we saw bullet entry & exits from the steel structures.
What for me was the most enjoyable part of the exploration was walking around the basement. Only Mario and I went as there was probably 2-3″ of water on the ground and the other guys weren’t wearing the appropriate footwear. The relative lack of graffiti meant not many people walked through that spot so it was pretty neat. Unfortunately Mario and I were busy with exploring and didn’t take as many pictures as we should have but it was large, wet and a mess lol. We did stumble across what looked like a vault door, I am guessing that’s where the prison guards kept the firearms none were present obviously and it was just full of rusted steel bars.
We met up with Hyacinth & Shafi outside, apparently Andrew wanted to look at something else & after he came out we headed back. Again radios are SO important and useful for situations like this, Mario & Andrew brought their own so I packed two extras.
It was a long drive home obviously but the high of the exploration helped keep me focused and looking at the photos, I had such a great time! I’d go back, maybe next year in the spring after the thaw but we’ll see. My ankles were a bit sore today but it’s nothing like how I felt the day after coming back from Algonquin last time. That was much tougher, this was like a nice hike. 🙂
