Killarney Camping Trip Pt. 1

Chikanishing Trail to Georgian Bay.

Emily organized another camping trip over the Civic Day long weekend. Five of us went this time - Emily and her mother were in one car and Peter drove Fiona and I.

We went to Killarney Provincial Park on Georgian Bay. It's about 5 hours north of Toronto. You drive up Highway 400 past Parry Sound; the 400 turns into Highway 69 which you take to Highway 637 and head west until you see the park sign.

We left on Saturday morning. Fiona came by and picked me up and we went to Peter's place, loaded his car then headed up. Emily and her mum left at least half an hour later.

Traffic was understandably backed up going into Barrie. It's like that on weekends during summer with everyone trying to escape the city for cottage country. Being a long weekend probably made it even worse.

Since our car had a sizeable lead in time we stopped a couple of times along the way. The first time was at a roadside rest stop along the 400 to pick up coffee and snacks south of Barrie. The second was for gas and a bathroom break in Parry Sound.

Emily and her mother beat us to the park. They only stopped once to pick up burgers at Lick's (which Emily ate while driving).

Since we arrived at the park in the late afternoon we only had time to hike one of the shorter trails after unpacking and setting up our tents. We picked the Chikanishing Trail first. It's a couple of kilometres west of the main gate on the park's southern boundary.

The trail is a 3 kilometre loop according to the Ontario Parks website (or 3.5 kilometres long according to the sign at the trailhead). It's supposed to take 1.5 hours to 2.5 hours to hike (again depending on the info on the park's website or the sign at the trailhead).

According to the sign - "The Chikanishing Trail crosses over a series of small ridges, ending up at a scenic, wave-washed point on Georgian Bay." and "it meanders across Canadian Shield granite."

It was a good hike rated at a moderate difficulty level. The scenery was decent and the skies clear blue. Peter and I took full advantage both taking a fair number of shots. The trail was fairly well marked and relatively bug free (at the time of the day we went anyway).

After the hike we lit a fire at our campsite and hung out. We cooked part of our dinner over the fire as well as using Emily's camp stove.

Later we headed over to George Lake (a short walk from our campsite) to take star/Milky Way pics. Peter and I took photos while the others hung out and looked for shooting stars. We stayed out an hour before retiring to our tents for the night.