They had been a world apart to me since even before I had known anyone who had been there. Ten or twelve miles out in the open Bay from Wahnuhke, to a youngster the Western Islands had seemed as distant as the far side of the moon. Then one day on an excursion up theContinue reading “The Westerns beckon”
Category Archives: Exploring
A trip around the Bay
Georgian Bay’s coasts, communities, islands, people and their history are begging to be explored. For the early part of my life I was able to soak up the southeastern part of the Bay that way. But by mid-life I was getting frustrated at not knowing, first-hand, the rest of what I privately considered my homeContinue reading “A trip around the Bay”
Viewing the Bay at its best from a rock camp
This canoe camper captures the gentle and raw nature of Georgian Bay at a season when few, if any, others are about. On Philip Edward Island, despite ice still choking Collins Inlet, he watches myriad early birds returning from migration, sees an otter prowling the rocks, gazes at the spring stars, a “red” moon andContinue reading “Viewing the Bay at its best from a rock camp”
A hidden Birdland
Contributed by Marion McLeod. (See also the post The Lost World, below). Oh my, the Lost World! I am one of the “few oldtimers” who will recognize this title. I first heard about it from your aunt Helen and cousin Betsy in the early nineteen fifties. Betsy and I, as young teenagers, explored there, cautiouslyContinue reading “A hidden Birdland”
Searching for the Waubuno
Midway through September, 1957, my friend Peter Saunderson and I organized ourselves to head up the Inside Passage to find the remains of an old paddlewheel steamer wrecked in a wild November storm in 1879. The Waubuno first captured my imagination as a boy after World War 2 when I read the account of herContinue reading “Searching for the Waubuno”
Balm for the soul
An image embedded in my brain since early childhood in the 1930s and 1940s has been the profile of Giant’s Tomb Island, with its long hump that legend claims is the last resting place of Kitchikewana. The story goes that long, long ago this giant’s love for a beautiful maiden was rebuffed, and in theContinue reading “Balm for the soul”
The Lost World
There is a ledge on a rock cliff along the mainland shore east of the mouth of the Musquash River in southeastern Georgian Bay. In the early 1920s when summer populations were much less than now, a tiny shack appeared on that ledge. It was the fulfilment of a dream of several girls from cottagesContinue reading “The Lost World”
Beautiful Beausoleil
Today it’s a national park, the cornerstone of the Georgian Bay Islands National Park. But Beausoleil Island, just west of Honey Harbour, had a history of human activity before it became a park in 1930. It is unusual in its geography, as its 1,089 hectares span Georgian Bay’s two distinct geographic zones: the rugged, rockyContinue reading “Beautiful Beausoleil”
