Georgian Bay, Part 5: Back Home

If you've read the first four parts of the Georgian Bay story you should be well prepared for this quiz:

1. Our trip back to Chikanishing featured
a) Wind
b) More Wind
c) Exceptionally Strong wind
d) a, b & c

Answer key: 1. d

Yes, our last day of paddling was once again a windy one. Winds peaking at about 28 MPH, with gusts well into the 30's, coming from due west (so again, right in our faces for most of the trip) and channeled through the narrow inlet to make the wind seem even stronger. The kind of wind where you keep looking at the shore to reassure yourself that you're actually moving forward. The kind of wind where you don't dare miss a paddle stroke for fear of losing what little forward momentum you have. This was small craft advisory bordering on gale force stuff, and on a regular day it's the kind of weather where I'd stay home.

No longer hyper-concerned about conserving phone battery power, I was running Strava and so have a track file

We packed and loaded our boats for the last time (easier now, with little food left to pack) and headed first north up Mill Lake then turned west into the wind. Oh, yes - this was the weather I had wanted to avoid by heading home early. And what was demoralizing was that we knew the worst would come at the end. When we did the windy transit from campsite #2 to #3 we hit the worst of it going up Beaverstone Bay and knew that calmer waters awaited us once we rounded the bend into Collins Inlet. Here it was the opposite. We struggled against the wind all day in the relatively protected waters of Collins Inlet (lots of wind, but little wave action) but knew that we had some open water to cross at the very end to get back to Chikanishing. Also, my GPS crapped out again and so did Tom's so we had only Béla's older model to guide us. I was doing my best to identify where we were by looking for the geographic features we were seeing on the map, but in a straight narrow channel there aren't that many distinguishing features.

Heading back

Lunch break

The odyssey comes to an end

The struggle against the wind put us in moods ranging from determination to resignation to just plain foulness. I think Tom was eager to get back at this point and was urging us on, but I insisted on a lunch and rest break before we hit the open water. We found a barely landable area where we scrambled ashore to eat something, stretch out and resting a little. After that, we got a little break as the wind died down for a bit, and so we made better time. Then it was the home stretch, where we emerged from behind the protection of Phillip Edward Island and were open to the immensity of Georgian Bay. The waves were big. Three footers at least, maybe approaching four. Coming at us from our left side (from the open bay) so harder to deal with than head-on. It was a wild ride. Fortunately, we only had to deal with it for about a mile. I was still trying to navigate by map and was off in terms of where I thought the opening to Chikanishing Creek was, but fortunately Béla called it right. We made the turn into the creek at just the right spot and breathed a sigh of relief. Just a few hundred yards of smooth water and we were back at the launch. As we were coming in we passed several groups heading out including two people in a canoe (they came back quickly) and a family in kayaks, including young kids in their own boats. We didn't see the family come back - I hope they didn't run into trouble in the rough water.

Kayakers happy to be back

We packed the cars and drove over to the campground where we stole showers (I think the showers were intended only for campground users, but we didn't care). Oh, it felt good to have a real shower - and they were nice, hot ones - even when I realized that I had forgotten to bring in a towel and had to dry myself with my dirty paddling clothes. Then, it was off to the long trek home. Tom and I stopped back in Parry Sound for dinner (vegan pork BBQ made with jackfruit!) then achieved our goal of making across the border into the U.S. before stopping for the night. Then the next day, we were homeward bound.

Interesting car in the Chikanishing parking lot (Vermont licence plates!)

View at dinner in Parry Sound

Lessons learned:

1. I really like Jen's approach of mixing up soup in a Thermos at breakfast time and having a hot lunch.

2. You can never have too much redundancy. Who would have thought that two of our GPS receivers (the only two with detailed maps of the area!) would crap out at the same time? My chance decision to leave a serving spoon in my food kit really helped when the majority of our cooking tools got accidentally left in the car (though we crafted a nice stirring stick that we carried with us from camp to camp). And it's a good thing we had two water filtration systems with us, as one failed mid-trip.

3. You have to find ways to accommodate the range of the group's paddling endurance, comfort level and speed limits.

4. Figure out the minimum amount of clothing you need, then reduce it by a third.

5. Label everything. Weeks after the trip we're still exchanging emails saying, "Hey, I have an extra X. Whose is it?"

6. Leave No Trace is not as bad as you'd think, and it really impresses your friends back home in terms of what a camping badass you are.

7. Don't worry!

This entry covers campsite #3 back to Chikanishing