trip # 4: Beausoleil Island, Georgian Bay, Friday, July 22, 2011

It was short improvised one day trip "for fun and pleasure". And we received both!
It was also an attempt to escape incredible heat of the downtown Toronto. This attempt proved to be 100% successful.
We drove North on hwy 400, took exit 156 West to Honey Harbour (about 5 km) and parked there "at Jack" for $10 a day. The launch site is situated near the small plaza with the Church, store, library etc.
2.5 hrs after leaving downtown we were in our kayak on the water of Georgian Bay!

Short trip between the islands through the Big Dog Channel and in front of us appeared Beausoleil Island.

Despite it was Friday there were a lot of boats and every campsite was occupied but one named Sandpiper. When we approached the site everything became clear - we saw the big sign (see picture below).

Thus we were forced to move further to the North, where we stopped for a lunch  on a small cape in front of the private island.

It wasn't hot at all, the sky was cloudy but the water was warm and we swam a lot.
On our way back we have a look at a small bay to the North of our site and came back through the Big Dog Channel again.
At 8:00 PM we left Honey Harbour and at 10:30 PM were at home (we were 30 min late due to a jam on the hwy 400).

And still everything was fine in this trip!

trip # 3: Crab Lake with Ivan, overnight Monday July 11 - Tuesday July 12, 2011

Being last time on the Long Lake which belongs to the Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park too we discovered that since this year one have to book campsite in advance and pay for staying there. So we did this for the Crab Lake and paid $33.00 ($11.75 per person per night plus processing/registration fee $9.50). Besides this substantial amount of money I encountered a number of  inconveniences: i) to book a site one have to make a long-distance call (there is no free number); ii) there is no campsite map anywhere on the Internet and it is difficult to choose the site you want (I try to correct this putting below a picture taken at the launch site on the Wolf Lake);  iii) campsite labels are old and small - site numbers cannot be read from the water; iv) at the launch site they provide you with the garbage bag, but there is no garbage can there and you have to drive with your garbage to the next rest area to throw it away. I'd like to see better service for my money. And from unknown reason they eliminated one of the best campsites on the small island at the south part of Crab Lake (just in front of site 313)...
Despite this negative remarks which I never would mention if it was free out trip was excellent as it always was on Crab Lake.

Site Map of the Crab Lake

Ready to go. At the launch site on the Wolf Lake

The famous Crab Lake bass 

The turtle's feeding at the camp site

Great Blue Heron lives here

And we're the guests