Manitoulin Island
We left Pancake Bay with no specific destination.
All we knew was that we had to be in South Baymouth, on Manitoulin Island, by 6:45 pm at the latest, to catch the ferry to Tobermory, the next day, so we had time to look for a stop-over place.
While I drove, DW checked for campsites on Manitoulin Island, but didn't have much success. There are no provincial or national parks on the island. There were several privately run campgrounds but for what they were charging, it would almost be better to stay in a motel, though motels weren't cheap, either.
As we reached Blind River, we made the decision to try our luck with Chutes Provincial Park, in Massey. We had been able to snag a spot, without a reservation, more than a week earlier, so we were sure that we'd have no problem on a Tuesday evening.
We stopped in the small town of Spanish, where we had great burgers at Lucky Snack Bar, before continuing on to Massey.
When we pulled up to the gate at the park, it was temporarily closed, with a sign that said someone would be back in 30 minutes. There was one vehicle parked at the gatehouse but the driver was nowhere in sight.
DW saw that only one site was available, and she decided to use the time by walking ahead to check it out. She said that she would text me if it was an acceptable site, though our options were pretty limited at this time of day.
When the park staff member returned, I hadn't heard back from DW and the owner of the car ahead of me was still nowhere to be found, so I went into the office, thinking if they were also arriving without a reservation, I'd have to beat them to it.
When the office person checked her computer, she first said that the site was booked, and my spirits dropped. But she then realized she was looking at the wrong day, and let me know it was available but for this night only, and it was an electrical site.
Just as I told her that I would take it, DW pinged me and said it was a good site, so we lucked out. The person in the car ahead of me arrived, and while I was completing the reservation, asked the woman at the desk if there were any sites available.
There weren't.
I felt a bit bad, beating out someone who had arrived at the park ahead of me, but because they didn't stay close to their car, I decided, if you snooze, you lose.
Having an electrical site turned out to be a good choice because almost all of our electronic devices were either dead or low on power. By the morning, everything was fully charged.
The next morning, before other sites around us stirred, we broke camp and left the park. DW had found a café in Massey, but unfortunately it was closed, with an apologetic sign that said the owner was sick.
We didn't want to have breakfast at Tim Horton's, so we continued on to Manitoulin Island and the town of Little Current. Loco Beanz had good ratings on Google, so that was our destination.
I have to say that their B.E.L.T.C.H. breakfast sandwich (bacon, egg, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and ham, on toast) is huge and tasty, and DW liked the breakfast wrap, but both of us agreed that the coffee, itself, wasn't great. It was weak. And the cappuccino I had was mostly foam.
We still had time to kill, as our ferry wasn't until the evening, so DW and I decided that we'd try to have a paddle on Lake Huron. We searched for spots and thought that Providence Bay, on the south shore of the island, might be our best bet.
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| Providence Bay |
However, when we reached the southern shores, the wind was quite strong and there were white caps in the bay. The day before, we ditched our plans to paddle in Pancake Bay for the same reason. We could only hope that we'd be able to get our kayaks in the water in Tobermory, tomorrow.
We arrived just as the 11:00 ferry was closing its aft doors. Had we driven straight to South Baymouth from Little Current, I wondered, would we have made this ferry?
We wouldn't have, I learned from the lovely woman behind the counter. It was full. But she was able to find a spot on the 3:30 ferry. "You've made an old man very happy," I said, as she changed our booking.
We still had time to kill, and DW was on a new mission. On the day that our Paddlefolk friend left Agawa Bay, we had all driven to Batchewana Bay for some apple fritters, gas, and souvenir shirts. Shortly after we parted ways, our friend contacted us to say that she had spotted an unusual heron between the Trans-Canada Highway and the shore of Lake Superior.
She described the heron and DW started looking it up with the Merlin app. Turns out it was a Sandhill Crane and was a rare spotting, though not impossible for the area.
When we were camping at Pancake Bay, DW and I drove up and down a stretch of the highway, near where our friend spotted it, hoping to find a spot where we could pull over and look for one. But it was a shot in the dark, at best, as we'd only be guessing where to look.
While we were on Manitoulin Island, DW used another bird app to see if there had been any local sightings, and there were a few in the area not far from South Baymouth, so we drove around, in search.
The only bird we saw at any of our stops was a sandpiper, but we saw some beautiful scenery on this island.
We returned to the ferry terminal about two hours before our scheduled departure, one hour before we were expected to check in. We left our car in a lineup and went in search of food. There are loudspeakers all around the terminal, so we could clearly hear when it was time to make it to our vehicle.
I was surprised at how quickly the Chi-Cheemaun—our ferry—unloaded and reloaded from the dock. It seemed like no time, after it moored, that we started moving onto it. The organization was impressive.
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| Leaving South Baymouth |
We must have had a tailwind, as we arrived in Tobermory a half-hour sooner than expected. We made our way to the campground and checked in, and that's where I'll leave it for today. We had quite the introduction to the park but I'll save that for tomorrow.
Stay tuned.
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