Well, I had hoped there would be interest from members in letting me know how Covid-19 affected the collective Park Interior experience, especially if Barry posted the request. Perhaps the figurative pump needs a prime. I will still be working on this project for another month, into march 2026. Here is what I have written so far, based on some of your posts elsewhere. Please let me know if anything should be added.

"With highway campgrounds fully reserved, and the experience different, some experienced and some novice campers turned to camping in the Park Interior or Backcountry. The open space of the Park Interior lent itself to relief from some social distancing, but care had to be taken at landings and on portages where social distancing was sometimes difficult. Masking was recommended in those situations. Similarly it was recommended that on joint family trips, campsite set-up and tasks would be done together by people assigned to each canoe, so as to maintain space, bubble to bubble. Occupants of a bubble would keep a distance from those in another bubble. Use of hand sanitizer was encouraged, and when washing dishes a rinse in bleach water was recommended. Inexperienced campers often did not know the “rules”; how lakes were reserved but not campsites, and canoeists had to find an unoccupied campsite; camping without proper equipment and sometimes abandoning it on site; and that nobody would come along to pick up litter or garbage along the trail, on their campsite, or even stuffed in the “thunderbox” or on-site pit toilet. There appeared to be an increase in unsafe behaviour and poor judgement which sometimes led to a need for rescues.  It was the opinion of some people that the new campers broke the rules because they did not know the rules, but others thought some of the new campers just didn’t care. There was also an increase in negative behaviour toward staff and other Interior campers. Some experienced canoeists thought there should still be a requirement for new campers in the Park Interior to pick up a permit and have contact with staff, with reminders about safety and garbage."
 

For me, the COVID camping experience was the inability to cross the border to take a canoe trip in Algonquin, and taking a trip or two in the Adirondacks instead.  When I was able to return to Algonquin, I remember having a mask in my shirt pocket and a vaccination card in my wallet, but Algonquin was the most normal, mask free area available.

With respect to changes since then.....I don't know that I can point to anything specifically, but that period of time certainly changed the definition of "remote".  Prior to COVID, remote was going to Algonquin Park, where the technology and connectivity could be put away for a few days.  "Work from home" became "Working remote", I suppose because it sounds softer, but is not exactly a wilderness of its own.  In the workplace, even when people are in an office setting together, the meeting location of choice is now online, in part because it is so much easier to "share a screen".  The ability to have those kinds of meetings existed prior to COVID, but became the standard during that time, and have replaced business travel in many instances. 

Reminding that online meetings existed prior to COVID, online reservations for Algonquin existed before COVID.  The technology around online meeting spaces has expanded, and so has the technology around park reservations.  That would have happened anyway, but COVID sped it up. For example, campers don't need to check in at a permit office anymore.  You can do that on the drive to the park.  Those reservations have become automated to the point where permit offices are being closed.  In a way, I miss it.  I enjoyed that brief interaction with park personnel on the way in, asking a couple of questions, getting the latest weather report, but in a way, I don't miss it. There's something clean about pulling up to a lake, loading up a canoe, and pushing off.  That part feels like the way it should be.

I'm sure other people will have comments about the number of people visiting the park now vs. pre-COVID and I can't really comment on that.  Visitation was expanding prior to COVID, so did that period of time really contribute to an expansion of visitors?  I wouldn't know.  But the increase in visitors certainly speaks to a growing desire among us to make brief escapes from the digital world, feel the wind and the waves, and have all one's senses amplified.

I doubt there's anything useful that I've written here, but who knows, maybe there's a hidden gem.  Just one bald guys' thoughts.