Run east to Killarney

Thursday, June 22 -- John Harbor to Killarney (76 miles)

Another glorious day on the water. Sunny but hazy with a light breeze out of the SW all morning, which shifted to the SE and strengthened a bit after we passed Little Current. We covered a lot of famous cruising ground today -- the Whalesback and McBean Channels, Little Current, Baie Fine and Killarney itself. These are all waters that John boated on back in the 1960s during two or three-week family vacations on his dad's cabin cruisers -- probably at least half a dozen trips, usually with other boats that also had kids. These were absolutely awesome vacations for a kid. After a long break John returned again in 1993 with his dad, son and son's friend (the boys were twelve at the time and reveled in the freedom of running in the dinghy on their own), again in the early oughts with Janet and his mom and dad, and finally in 2006 with his dad, son and son-in-law. All of these trips were in his dad's old 32' Pacemaker, which was a great cruising boat. 

So these waters are very special for John, but unfortunately we are having to move through them quickly, as we've got to get back to Florida to move the stuff out of our condo. This was not in the original plan, but stuff happens, and the alternate plan we devised was to fly to Fort Myers out of Toronto and to get to Toronto by driving from Owen Sound. There are not a lot of good flying options in this area, and we want to stick with the original plan of getting to Vermilion, Ohio on July 3. The benefit of this new plan is that we will get to spend see places in Georgian Bay that were not part of John's earlier travels. And it turns out that traveling just briefly through memory-rich waters has its benefits. One gets tired of being repeatedly reminded that you can't go back again.

Enough of all this trying background info. Let's get on with the travelogue and photos. Here is our destination, the village of Killarney, which is an old fishing and logging town that is now all about the tourist trade. The village is on the mainland to the left and George Island and its many cottages are on the right. The channel runs about a mile-long straight through orangish-pink granite. The tourists are either boaters passing through like us, or people enjoying the nearby Killarney Provincial Park, which is both summer and winter traffic. You can get a sense of the importance of the boater trade by noting the LCBO (state liquor store) on the waterfront with its own dock (just left of the sailboats).

We stayed at the Killarney Mountain Lodge, which was here when John was a kid and was a big treat back then like it is now. The competing Sportsman's Inn (the big white building) is now owned by the same guy and it looks like he has invested nicely in both of the properties. 

Here are some pictures taken during our cruise. First is the entrance to the Whalesback Channel, and then Whalesback Island itself. (A rather odd name for a body of water that doesn't have any whales.)

Next is the Little Detroit passage at the east end of the McBean Channel, which is only about a hundred feet wide but 20-30 feet deep. There is no speed limit going through here, but we slowed down anyhow, as there are nasty rocks on the other side if you get out of the channel.

We didn't stop at Little Current, which is the major metropolis in the North Channel. This was always a key stop for laundry and supplies during John's earlier visits. 

The Strawberry Island Lighthouse marks the eastern approach to Little Current.

A few miles north of Little Current is the entrance to Baie Fine, which is a 10-mile long fiord with a lovely anchorage at the end and a nice old lodge at the entrance. John stayed here often on previous trips, but this time we just did a drive-by. 

And to finish up, here are some photos of the Killarney Mountain Lodge. Note the rather creepy mounting of a family of deer heads over the fireplace in the dining room.