As promised, Friday began as a wet and windy day. We were perfectly happy to huddle under the tarps making a leisurely brunch of French toast - at least it was milder, as the wet and gusting wind would not have permitted a morning fire.
After brunch, we nonetheless set out to hike the Twin Points Trail. The weather mostly cooperated, with only a couple of showers at the beginning and end of what turned out to be a lovely wander.
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| Still lots of green in the forest for October |
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| We sat and had a snack on this bench at the very Western tip of Kilcoursie Bay |
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| Looking past the point and across the narrow channel to our picnic spot on Davy Island |
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| Looking East toward Harold Point and beyond |
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| The second point - closer to the day-use beach - with Scott Island in the distance |
Returning to our campsite, I changed and headed out for a run on the Recreation Trail. Opened in 2003 through the hard work and donations by the
Friends of Killbear, it spans the length of the park as a 6km groomed multi-use pathway. While not as spectacular as the hiking trails, it had enough elevation change to keep you on your toes, and its own particular brand of beauty.
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| Lovely fall colours |
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| Happy girl despite some steep little climbs |
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| A pretty leaf-strewn stream beside the trail |
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| Looking out to Lighthouse Point from the beach at the terminus of the trail |
On my way back I was even lucky enough to spot a young doe grazing near the entrance to the Kilcoursie Bay campground. While she took no notice of me initially, I managed to get her attention for a photo.
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| The deer in the park are so very acclimatized to human contact. |
A steady stream of people had been arriving in the park through the afternoon to camp for the weekend (despite the poor forecast for Saturday night into Sunday), and I ran past many of them setting up tents, tarps and hammocks as I came into Kilcoursie Bay. Returning to our site, I grabbed a quick snack and changed into dry clothes, having noted that the bay was looking much calmer than it had in the last couple of days. We grabbed our canoe and set off for a paddle around Scott Island in the last of the afternoon.
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| A whole bunch of seagulls awaited our arrival |
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| The fall colours on tiny Scott Island were much more vivid on the far side |
With just a few minutes left before sunset on our final full day in the park, there were only a couple of other things I had wanted to see. One of them was the big shoulder of smooth granite we'd seen at the Beaver Dams campground as we'd paddled past on Thursday, so after consulting our park map we drove over after putting the canoe to bed to have a look.
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| You'd never know there was a bustling campground on the other side of that rock. |
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| Classic Georgian Bay view, with just a hint of sunset to the Southwest. |
Then it was back to our site for one more campfire, over which
Tanker cooked us up an amazing mincemeat fire pie.
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| He's so good with this thing. |
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| OM NOM NOM |
I awoke early on Saturday morning and enjoyed the peaceful stillness before the campground came alive with the fresh batch of campers who'd arrived the day before - while we'd been mostly alone in our particular circle of Kilcoursie Bay, a few more brave souls had appeared to brave the rain that was to come. A few spells of light mist in the early morning were all we saw of it, though, with sunshine breaking by 9am so we were actually able to pack up our campsite dry for nearly the first time this year!
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| Saturday morning sunshine |
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| The best look we got at the fall colours along the Western side of Kilcoursie Bay |
We were all packed up with the canoe loaded securely by around noon, so decided to drive over to the Amphitheatre parking lot and hike down to Harold Point to clamber around on the rocks. It was a perfect afternoon - the lightest of breezes; gorgeous sunshine; cool enough that you didn't get all hot and sweaty but mild enough to be comfortable in a light sweater.
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| Love the ruggedness of the rocks and windswept trees |
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| Looking across Kilcoursie Bay with the hump of Davy Island in the distance |
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| Tank down on the tip of Harold Point |
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| Joining him and looking back up the point |
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| One last look at Lighthouse Point in the distance |
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay, though we weren't terribly sorry to be leaving when we did. There were potentially damaging winds and torrential rain - leftovers of some of this year's historic tropical storm season - blowing in that very evening, and we'd scheduled our stay so we'd have a full day to unpack before returning to work on Monday. The only thing I would have changed about our visit to
Killbear was the stupid roadtrip on Wednesday afternoon/evening/night: I would rather have been sitting 'round a fire even in the freezing temperatures at the park than wasting most of a day on a disappointing show.
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| There was even a small farewell party at the park gate as we left. |
The stay in the park did me a world of good, too. I'd been having some trouble with my right calf being unreasonably tight for the past couple of months, and the few days off running after the
Sticks n'Stones 50k combined with some easy hiking, a bit of trail running, and lots of relaxing seems to have helped it resolve. Even if it hadn't, though, I wouldn't trade those days spent right in the heart of Georgian Bay for anything - it's where my soul lives, and the place I most enjoy sharing with the love of my life. I'm so thankful to have had the time, resources, and reasonably cooperative weather to be able to take this trip to such a beautiful place!
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| No place I'd rather be. |
So now it's time for the last race of the year for me: my annual
run-
around-in-
circles-
for-
hours at
Horror Trail is tomorrow morning, and it looks like it's going to be a rainy one. Good thing my Halloween costume won't melt!
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