7-16,  7-17   Good things come out of failed plans

We had anchored with three other Looper boats in Indian Harbor.  They were heading to the Moon River area, but we wanted to stop before that at a Provincial Park that had trails for hiking.  We got there and the anchorage was wide open, no boats. The water was very deep.  It dropped off from the rocks to about 30 feet.  That’s deep to anchor in, plus we were going to have to tie the stern off to shore because it was a small anchorage.  We set our anchor in the front in prep for taking a line to shore. We keep the engine in idle reverse to hold the anchor and to keep us from blowing sideway.  This is where I come in.  I watch carefully for any backwards movement that would indicate the anchor giving way while Scott dinghies to shore.  Half way through Scott’s part, the anchor gave way and we were heading for the rocks, but I was on duty and caught it and aborted the process and put the engine in forward.  The bottom seemed awfully rocky, so we gave up on the whole anchorage and moved on to Moon River to catch up with the other boaters.  We are so glad we did!

After lunch, the weather cleared and the radar looked good for an hour-long dinghy ride to Moon River Falls.  We had to use our GPS on our phones to figure out how to get there.

It was a scenic trip and we had fun dinghying around.

 

 

As we got closer, we started seeing canoes with three people and gear making their way across a small opening.

We figured there was a camping trip or something. They kept coming, more and more as we got closer to the falls.  When we arrived, there were still about 100 people on shore with their canoes, and skiffs being loaded with dozens of Rubbermaid containers three high and a boat filled with black garbage bags.  I do mean filled.  We wondered if they might topple over at the smallest wave.

When we went ashore, we talked to the people.  They were a group of 250 campers from the Toledo area. There was a cooking crew for the whole group. They had music and even brought in wood for a big dance floor.  They all dressed up and had a good ol’ time. They were pretty well packed up by the time we got there and saw the mass exodus.  There were still a few people sporting their goofy hats and makeup. We thought we walked into a mini Woodstock.  This group comes every year and they believe in “leave no trace behind.”  They packed out all the trash, took down the stage, and even picked up every cigarette butt.  There was no trash to be found.  We were amazed. They told us, if we had come the day before we would have gotten an eye and ear full.  They were a colorful group, but as nice and friendly as could be.  They also all looked beat.  One girl asked Robin if she had a third seat left in her canoe?   Bahahah, apparently, she looked the part.  Just kidding Robin, we were the obvious outsiders in our boat clothes.  We wouldn’t have been surprised if there were a few hitchhikers looking for a ride across the lake, but that didn’t happen.  It was great to see a group of people have so much fun and care about the environment as well.  Someone in our group wondered how many babies were made that weekend.  Man, we are bad.

After talking with the campers, we climbed up to the falls.

We hopped across a narrow spot of rushing water in order to get to the top of the falls.

We could see the backwaters one way and the falls splitting off into several different spots where it rushed over the rocks.  One of the campers said they had to control the water flow at the dam a few days before the event or their whole campsite area would have been underwater.  We joked that we hoped they didn’t open it back up while we were on the rock or in our dinghy right by the bottom.  I am sure they do it slowly and in the middle of the night.  There is so much water up here.  We are happy for that as it puts more space between the bottom of our boat and the rocks.  More room for error.  However, all of us except Mike and Karen, hit rocks with our dinghy props.  No harm done, just an awful sound that goes right up your spine.

We fished the next morning and Scott caught a monster Large Mouth Bass.  That is the only Large Mouth we have caught.  Check out how fat it is in the picture.  We threw it back.  We take the approach when catching these lunkers, that we throw them back as they are good breeding fish and we want to make sure there are fish for the future. But the others taste great!

Georgian Bay is amazing!  It may just be our favorite.  Over the Bahamas? Well they are almost equal.  We still have more to see and the North Channel is coming next.

Thanks for reading!  Drop us a line we love to hear from you.

Karen and Scott

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