The Georgian Bay

Ok, so I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do - I have 3 blogs in mind and I'm not sure if I should combine it all into one, write three separate ones today or write three separate ones and post them on different days...I guess I'll just start writing and see what happens! Let's go back to last weekend, August long! When we first arrived in Kingston, one of Carl's teachers told him about "the" place for kayaking in Ontario, the Georgian Bay. So back in early spring we started planning our kayaking adventure! Over the months we invited a few friends to come along and last Friday, all six of us headed to the Georgina Bay! Since it's about a 6 hour drive from Kingston, we decided to drive the 3 hours to Toronto on Friday night and stay at a friends and do the next 3 hours on Saturday morning! About 20 minutes away from the boat launch, we loaded up our cars with rented kayaks and were on our way!

Kris and Kellie

Yours Truly

Carl

Ryan and Holly

A Snake

As mentioned, this area is "the" place to be for boaters and kayakers and being a long weekend, there was a lot of people! Most people headed to a nearby island called "Franklin Island" but we thought we'd take our chances on a smaller island called "Snake Island" (which we later renamed "Spider Island"). After about 1.5hours of paddling we arrived at Snake island and scoped out our campsite for the next 2 nights! The first night we shared the island with one other group but the second night the whole island was ours!

After a long day of driving, packing up the kayaks, paddling into the wind, setting up camp and swimming, we were starving! Carl and I were in charge of packing the food and for our first night we were all looking forward to some yummy pasta! Our tummies rumbled as we watched the water boil until finally, the pasta was ready! Balancing a large pot over a little stove, Carl went to lift the pot to drain the pasta and lost his grip...

Spilling our long awaited dinner all over the ground. Since there isn't much room in kayaks we didn't really have any extra food use in lieu of the pasta so we had to make due. We picked up each piece of pasta, put it into a mesh bag that I had and went down to the lake for rinsing! Once rinsed, we hand cleaned each piece of pasta, getting all the dirt and pine needles off. Then we re-boiled the pasta and finally enjoyed our first dinner (with a little extra crunch!)

In the area there is tons of islands that are all crown land. There are no actual campsites anywhere and no campsites, means no bathrooms and I'm not sure if you can tell but most of the area is all rock which means no dirt for digging which in turn raises the question "where do we go to the bathroom?" Well, let me just show you how the guys answered that question...Introducing "The Throne",

Above, you'll see a nice rock shield, surrounding you as you do your business. Find comfort in the nice mossy floor but don't forget your flat rock to do your business on and remove after use (refills are found to the right). Flat rock to small? Use the orange shovel for assistance! Having trouble seeing how this works? Maybe this will help...

Thanks for the demo Kris! What you can't see in this picture is that this area is not only in a low lying area for privacy but it is a prime waterfront location! In fact, I took this picture while sitting there...

I'm kidding, I wasn't actually sitting there, someone else was enjoying the same view from that seat as I was from our campsite :) After a small campfire while watching the sun set, it was off to bed! The following day was spent doing a little more kayaking, swimming and relaxing!

This guy wanted to join in on our sun bathing!

Our second night there we saw the most amazing lightening storm I have ever seen! The storm wasn't close enough for us to hear the thunder but we saw the sky, off in the distance light up like never be before! It was pretty amazing! On day 3, it was time to pack up and head home but not before a nice morning swim...

...For some us anyways, they swam in the cold water while I enjoyed my nice warm tea from the sidelines!

Upon our departure we had a little...or should I say, large friend wish us well...

Yup, probably the biggest spider I've ever seen in the wild! But he wasn't the only reason we renamed the island "Spider Island" it was for the hundreds of other spiders we saw that weekend and for the numerous cobwebs we each walked through during our stay...Ugh, still gives the heeby jeebies!

Overall, another successful weekend away!

...Guess I'll be writing 2 more separate blogs!