My most memorable Great Lakes excursion was...

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Permalink Reply by Emanoh on March 20, 2009 at 6:05am

I've done many Lake Erie excursions, but our trip several years ago through the Mink & McCoy islands along the eastern shore of Georgian Bay was my most memorable. We had every type of weather from beautiful to curtains of rain, the islands were rough, rugged and beautiful and the group I was with was awesome. I wouldn't hve changed a thing.

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Permalink Reply by mushinzencat on March 20, 2009 at 7:47am

Georgian Bay has to be one of the finest kayaking destinations in the world. Everyone who has been seems to rave about it. I went to the Penetanguishine Peninsula (southern curve of the Bay) in July of '07 and it was fantastic...

There is something for everyone who kayaks there in Georgian Bay. I really love the beautiful geography of the coastlines up there. Exposed Rock outcroppings and boulder fields seem to hit my eye just right...

I'd like to go back again and am torn between planning for Bruce Peninsula or the Parry Sound/30,000 Island Region...

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Permalink Reply by Emanoh on March 28, 2009 at 4:18pm

I have my eye on the Bruce Peninsula as well. Not much documented info about camp sites. Pretty rugged and there's snippets of civilization between long stretches of wilderness.

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Permalink Reply by mushinzencat on March 30, 2009 at 7:55pm

Emanoh - if you don't have them yet, you should get this two book series on the Great Lakes...

1) Guide to Sea Kayaking Lakes Huron, Erie & Ontario
by Sarah Ohmann and Bill Newman
(They list three day trips for Bruce Peninsula and include camping info in each chapter)

2) Guide to Sea Kayaking on Lakes Superior & Michigan
by Bill Newman, Sarah Ohmann and Don Dimond

Excellent starting points for researching or just daydreaming...

Also, if you do get up there consider checking out "The Big Canoe"
http://www.ontarioferries.com/chi/english/index.html
http://www.ontarioferries.com/chi/english/tour.html
I went on this ferry ride almost 30 years ago and have never forgotten it...

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Permalink Reply by Emanoh on March 30, 2009 at 8:18pm

I have both books and I just happened to be looking/dreaming by flipping through the Lake Superior and Michigan version last night. I've made up for lost time the last couple of weeks buy getting out in the touring boat 3 times and our local ww club did a run on the Huron in Ann Arbor over the weekend.

Yes, the link to the ferry out of tobermoray is pretty impressive. I was equally as impressed with the ferry that crosses over to Pele. Those Canadians know their ferries!

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Permalink Reply by Marc Charron on May 4, 2009 at 6:47pm

We discovered Georgian Bay during our trip around Phillip Edwards last summer. We liked it so much, we went back to the bay a few weeks later, this time through the Mink & McCoy islands. If that wasn't enough, we're planning to go back to the Phillip Edwards area this year also! See my blog for more details:



mink-and-mccoy

philip-edwards-island

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Permalink Reply by Emanoh on May 4, 2009 at 9:21pm

Marc,

Two summers ago we did almost the same trip described in your blog. We camped at Killbear Provincial park on our first night and then started and ended at Snug Harbor and made the big loop out to Big & Little McCoy. I think we camped at Green Island, which did allow us to see the Seatle wreckage. Pretty cool, ribs, decking, mechanicals and a ton of anchor chain scattered all over the bottom. Our last night we stayed south west corner of Franklin and there were lots of nooks and crannies to explore on the western side. For our last night out we bee-lined into Snug harbor and loaked up the kayaks with cold brews. We drank and watched an enormous storm roll in from the west. We were absolutly pounded in that storm. Only two out of our six tents escaped damage. My tent poles were crushed and I spent the night with my dry bags proping up my tent near my head. Not much sleep, but it was an incredible experince all the way around storms and all.

Emanoh

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