Many heading up north for early start to long weekend

Two white Muskoka chairs on a wooden dock overlooking a lake in Ontario, Canada. Cottages nestled between green trees are visible across the water. (File)

Thursday has been the calm before the long weekend traffic storm.

With cottage country the eventual destination for many this weekend, some people decided to hit the road extra early in an effort to beat the traffic.

“We try and take a day or two off before the long weekend just for traffic. I’ve done it too many times to realize I don’t want to be stuck in traffic all weekend,” says Paul Simms, who was heading up to his cottage near Parry Sound.

Police say they will be out in full force all weekend long keeping an eye on drivers headed in all directions.

“We’re looking for speeding, impaired driving, distracted driving and seatbelt use,” says Const. Scott Stratton with the Aurora OPP traffic unit.

Stratton says it will be all hands on deck over the next few days.

“The long weekend, especially the May long weekend, is usually one of our biggest and busiest weekends of the year,” says Stratton.

The price of gas is on everyone’s minds this weekend. Even people who are hauling their boats to the cottage say the excessive costs are starting to add up.

“We were kind of talking about that on the way here,” says Mark Widmeyer, who is travelling from Luken to north of Parry Sound. “I mean, we want to get the use out of our cottage so we’re going to be going up kind of regardless, but I’m sure it’s going to make an impact and we’ve seen it over the last few years even just with the economy the way it is less and less people going up. It’s not as busy on the lake.”

Now in the middle of Canada Road Safety week, OPP is reminding people area highways will be busy likely starting Thursday night.

As part of the nationwide campaign, police say they will be on the ground and in the air looking for bad drivers.