Killarney Day 1: Sat Aug 8/09

As the name of my blog suggests, I tend to travel a lot. Visiting friends mostly, but also road trips, vacations, camping. I won't say that 'I've been everywhere man', but I've been a lot of places.

My vacation this year was not exotic, nor did I take a plane or train to get there. For 8 days I carried all my necessary clothes & equipment on my back, strapped a good pair of boots to my feet, and hiked the 78km La Cloche Silhouette Trail through Killarney Provincial Park with three other people. Killarney is on the shore of Georgian Bay, north of Manitoulin Island. It is a popular destination for boaters and canoe enthusiasts. We chose a different approach and decided to get the backpacking perspective of the park. Starting on the southern end of the park at George Lake Campground, we hiked the 78km trail in a clockwise direction which took us on a rugged, and somewhat challenging, hike in a loop around the park through the La Cloche Mountains.

I journaled everyday I was there, and took somewhere in the neighbourhood of 500 pictures along the way. So lets get started!


Day 1: Saturday Aug 8/09

Well... we left Heather's aunt & uncle's place in Huntsville at 9am this morning after a not-very-great night's sleep.

Three hours to Killarney from there, we got our permits, parked the van, and started down the trail. Past all the people hanging out at the beach, some asking us where we were going, across a little bridge, filled with confidence and excitement about getting started, and... realized that we didn't actually know where the trail started! Three paths to pick from, we picked the best marked one and off we went (yes, it was the right one!)

We only had to walk 3.7km to get to our first site. We did this purposefully (you have to book all your campsites well in advance of arriving at the park) because we weren't sure at what time of day we'd be able to start our hike. It was a nice easy walk with a couple neat views over quartzite rock outcrops.

The La Cloche Mountain Range is the only true mountain range in Ontario and, being exposed Canadian Shield, is pretty much the oldest mountain range in the world. Maybe there isn't snow on them, and they don't stretch above the tree line by any means, but they are definitely mountains. Some of the views we've seen are already pretty spectacular: crystal clear water, stunningly white rock faces, and hills which definately give the place a mountainous feel. It's some of the most rugged and beautiful country you could ever imagine; hard to believe that it's right here in Ontario.

Quick hike today. We got to our site at about 2pm and got things set up pretty quick because it was spitting rain. I'm impressed with the site; hopefully they're all this nice. H4 - right on the edge of Acid Lake. The fire pit is up on a rock outcrop looking over the lake. The tents started down below nestled under the trees with nice cushy pine needles to pad our sleep, but were later moved to higher ground up closer to the fire after we realized that the rain was flooding us out! There's a box (privy) not too far away with a fun little washroom sign marking the way. Also a nice big fire pit with logs around it for sitting on - that's a bonus I wasn't expecting!

We got a good big fire started right away and by 3:30 we decided that we were hungry enough to have an early dinner. We're going all out tonight with steak (being cooked on a big rock over the fire) sweet potatoes (wrapped in tinfoil in the fire) and carrots. OH, and don't forget the 4 water bottles full of wine! A great deal of commotion over by the fire tells me that our cooking rock heated up too fast and broke in half, almost dumping our steaks in the fire!

I'm sitting here writing with a view over a turquoise blue lake, rolling quartzite hills in the distance, and a loon floating by. Can't help but be reminded that God is Good! It would be awesome if the clouds would clear to give us a gorgeous sunset over the water, but maybe another day :) For now, I've got a song running through my head that Deanne mentioned earlier: 'Hear by the water, I'll build an alter to praise you'. There goes the loon out across the lake again. I should go see how dinner's coming along.