Conditions for campers may not be ideal during the first long weekend of the summer, but at least one Albertan is determined to make the most of it.

New mom Cindy Degrace, 24, has camped with her family and friends over the May long weekend for years, and the fire ban didn’t make her reconsider “even for a second.”

“We’ve been planning it so long, we can’t call it off at this point because of a fire ban,” said Degrace, 24.

As for the booze ban, she and her fellow campers have long boycotted provincial campsites for their stringent rules. Instead, the crew sets up camp in a field off of a service road near Caroline, Alta.

Rather than cancelling her yearly trip altogether, Calgarian Lori Chick will be heading west.

“We really like our camping, and you wait and you wait and you wait all winter, and then you wait for May long weekend to come and then that happens,” she said. “So, we decided to cancel that and we’re heading to B.C. where we can have a fire.”

Echoing Chick’s feelings about the fire ban, Edmontonian Emily Cobb said she and her friends decided against making their yearly trek to a cabin near St. Paul.

She and her friends had fireworks and arrangements to unwind, but not being able to have a fire, a camping tradition, is like a big wet blanket on their plans.

“Who wants to eat boiled hot dogs on the May long?” she asked. “With the money it takes for gas now, plus the fire ban, it’s just not worth it.”