Cyprus Lake Camping - Day 1

Trevor at Little Dunks Bay

Peter, Emily and I went camping at Cyprus Lake at Bruce Peninsula National Park again. We first went in the summer of 2014 for one night with a few others from the foodie group. This time Keith, Gabe and Fiona were replaced by Trevor, Cynara and Jonathan.

On Saturday morning I met Jonathan at Cynara's place near Dufferin and Eglinton. After a stop at the nearby Timmies to pick up coffee and breakfast, we headed north.

The park is located about 85 kilometres north of Owen Sound off Highway 6. It's about 300 kilometres north of Toronto; 3-1/2 hours in good traffic, 4 or more in bad. We arrived at the park at around noon.

Check-in time wasn't until 2:00 p.m., so we headed a few kilometres north to Tobermory to wander around. At their visitor centre there we asked for hike suggestions. The girl there gave us a map of nearby hikes, so we decided to do one while we waited for the others.

On the way I bumped into a former CPC friend, Phyllis Chong. She was visiting with a couple of her friends and their dog. It's the second time I've run into friends from Toronto in Tobermory. In June, 2014 I saw Georgette with her photography buddies.

A little bit northeast of the Tobermory visitor centre is the Fathom Five National Marine Park visitor centre. From there we hiked 800 metres to Little Dunks Bay Lookout to have a look and take some photos. Peter, Emily and Trevor were nearby, so we waited there for them.

After we all met up we decided to head on and do the Burnt Point Loop. It takes you to Dunks Point and a couple other viewpoints along the northeastern part of the peninsula. At 4.8 kilometres round-trip from the visitor centre, it's a 2-hour hike.

The scenery along the shoreline is quite stunning. The tall pines, rugged rocks and freezing cold, crystal clear, blue water are all eye candy. Just beautiful!

Afterwards we checked into our campsite, lot 55, shortly after 6:00. While there were separate men's and women's bathrooms, there weren't any showers. Not a big deal since we were only there for two nights. We set up our tents and got ready to prepare dinner.

Peter brought lamb, Cynara, wings and Emily sausages. Jonathan brought corn on the cob and sweet potatoes which we wrapped in tin foil and tossed in the fire.

We didn't stay up too late. No star shots. The moon was too bright. Couldn't see the Milky Way. Time for bed.

Camping in Tobermory Pt. 3

Flowerpot Island, Large Flowerpot.

On Sunday we took a boat out to Flowerpot Island from Tobermory harbour. We actually bought the tickets the day before just in case. We wanted to be sure we got the departure and return times we wanted. Tickets are around $35 return. I believe there's a National Park fee on top of that.

We got a fairly early departure time. I think 10:45 a.m. In the morning we had to get up early enough to eat something and pack our whole campsite up which we managed to do without much problem.

The girls woke up first and got a head start. Gabe, me, Peter and finally Keith followed. He has sleep apnea and usually has a device that helps with his breathing. Since he didn't have that with him his sleep wasn't as restful as it could have been.

We used The Blue Heron Company to take us to Flowerpot Island. They have orange jet boats that can bring you from Tobermory to the island 6.5 kilometres away in 15 minutes. There are other options available such as their glass bottom boats which take you over ship wrecks, but we weren't interested in that. We only wanted to get over to hike.

Our group were the only ones on the 10:45 a.m. boat. It was like our own private cruise. One of the staff members said people usually don't depart that early in the day (which was great for us). We could sit anywhere and had a great view of the scenery on the ride there.

Even though I went on the cruise to Flowerpot Island once before (many years ago), I didn't remember that they did a pass in the water of both the little and big flowerpots. That was great. I got some really good shots from the water.

The walk around the island was nice. We gave ourselves 4 hours to hike. It's not actually that big. We just wanted to make sure we had enough time to take a lot of photos. You could probably go around the whole place in 2-3 hours if you tried.

There are only two trails - the Loop Trail and the Marl Trail (which connects to the Loop Trail on the west side). If you head east from the dock along the Loop Trail it'll bring you first to the Small Flowerpot then the Large Flowerpot. If you continue around the trail you'll get to a small cave. Further on is the Lightstation/Museum and the "Loo" with a view (an elevated outhouse).

The Marl Trail brings you to the west side of the island. We had time so we did it. Of course the big attractions are the "flowerpots" as well as the scenery over the water. There are some wildflowers that I took pictures of as well.

Back in Tobermory we had one last ice cream stop before heading down Highway 6 to DNA fish and chip truck for lunch. For $11.50 they give you a huge piece of fish and more chips than you can handle. Good stuff.

Camping in Tobermory Pt. 2

Overhanging Point, Bruce Trail, Georgian Bay.

We arrived back at our campsite from the hike quite late at night. I believe it was between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m. Most of us were quite hungry by then, Food wouldn't be ready very soon though. We were cooking the old fashioned way. First we had to start a campfire.

The park sells firewood for about $7 a bag. In fact that's the only way you can get it. You aren't allowed to bring your own in. I suspect it's to keep the place disease free. I know certain wood can carry certain kinds of insects that are detrimental to the health of trees.

The fire didn't turn out to be too hard to start. I was concerned at first though because Emily said we weren't suppose to pick up any twigs and things for kindling. Instead they brought some newspaper for that purpose. But, newspaper can burn pretty quickly unless you fold it tightly. I was worried that it would burn too fast and we would run out before the logs caught fire.

We cooked our food on long skewers. They had brought chicken wings, marinated beef and fish and beef balls among other things. Keith brought hot dogs. I started with those because, like I mentioned, we were hungry and I figure I could barbecue them quickly and start eating.

We decided to use the portable stove to cook more things faster. It's lucky we did that because camp staff came around at about midnight and told all the campers that they had to extinguish their fires and turn out all their lights. We were still in the middle of cooking things at the time.

So that was pretty annoying, but we did as we were told. After that Peter and I had planned on going out and taking some long exposure night sky shots. The others joined us for a short while before returning to camp to sleep. Peter and I stayed out until around 2:00-2:30 a.m. You'll have to visit my Flickr.com page to view those pics.

Camping in Tobermory Pt. 1

Indian Head Cove on Georgian Bay.

A group of us went car camping at Cypress Lake Provincial Park in Tobermory this past weekend. We left early Saturday morning and returned on Sunday afternoon. According to Google Maps the trip is about 300 kilometres from Toronto and is supposed to be 4-1/2 hours by car.

Emily, Peter and Gabe did the majority of the organizing. Emily and Gabe had a lot of equipment such as tents and sleeping bags already, so that was cool.

We took two cars up. Gabe drove Emily and Peter. I took Fiona and Keith. We met at the McDonalds in Brampton (410 and Queen Street), had breakfast there and departed.

Our first stop was Lion's Head. It's a quaint town off Highway 6, halfway between Wiarton and the park on the east side of the peninsula facing Georgian Bay.

We walked around for an hour. They had a very small farmers market there. We walked through the harbour where a lot of pleasure boats were docked. I chatted with an older couple who were sitting by the water enjoying the scenery. The water was crystal clear. We saw some pretty large fish swimming in the harbour. That was neat.

Afterwards we headed up to Tobermory (about 10 kilometres north of our campsite) to grab a bite for lunch. We had fish and chips at a restaurant called, what else, The Fish & Chip Place.

Next we had ice cream for dessert. I bumped into the older couple from Lion's Head again at the ice cream shop. They came up to Tobermory for a classic car rally with their 1958 Buick Special. It's a beautiful car.

At the car rally I ran into my Flickr friend, Georgette. She drove up from Toronto with her friends for the weekend too. What a funny coincidence.

After Tobermory we checked into the campground and set up our tents. Then we started on a hike around the park. We began on the Cypress Lake Trail and switched to the Horse Lake Trail. That connected us to the Bruce Trail and Indian Head Cove where some people were swimming and jumping into the water off the cliffs (which they weren't supposed to do).

Continuing along the Bruce Trail we hit The Grotto, a small cave, and ended up at Overhanging Point a scenic lookout that was great for pictures.

We headed back to our campsite from there. First taking the Marr Lake trail which connected to the Georgian Bay Trail and finally to the Cypress Lake Trail.