ReNe: bruce peninsula trip (3/3)

The night prior, we planned to go out to stargaze and catch the sunrise properly (bundle Ryan in a blanket, pack some snacks and a warm drink) at the observation tower again, but Ryan trolled us. He ate poorly for dinner so he kept waking up at night going "owie" (we think he was just hungry), so by the time morning swung round, we were quite tired.

The plan for today was an light hike to Halfway Log Dump beach (about 1km in on an easy path), and then onto Cave Point along the Bruce trail (about another 1km).

On Sunday, the plan was to walk to Halfway Log Dump, and because that trail was short, to continue on to Cave Point, a lookout along the Bruce Trail. The trail to Halfway Log Dump ended up at a stony beach. We decided to move on, finishing the trek first before relaxing on the beach on the way back.

Halfway Log Dump. The combination of white rocks and blue waters, white clouds and blue skies, was stunning. Little wonder this is the other most popular spot in the Park.

It was another 1 km to Cave Point. The trail took us through old cedar and mossy forests and along the Escarpment; often we would be walking along a rocky ridge and at parts, we would stop to peer down the narrow, deep fissures where the rocks split. About half and hour later, we emerged out from the trail to a cliff overlooking the Georgian Bay. The view was stunning, quite unlike anything I've seen before. It reminds me a bit of the Cabot Trail and also of tropical beaches, and yet, not.

The view from Cave Point. We nicknamed it Tofu Rock because the color and shape of that rectangular boulder reminded us of tofu...  It's hard to tell as the photo flattens out the third dimension somewhat, but (1) the waters and boulders are about 20m below,  (2) the boulders are as huge as trailers, and therefore (3) the greenish part of the bay where the boulders are lying is actually already very deep.

Another view from Cave Point. Yellow moss happens to grow along the edge of the cliff for some unknown reason, and it reminds me of the painted yellow safety lines you see at train station platforms.

There were two lookout points at Cave Point, so we did the thing where one of us sat on one cliff edge while the other took a photo from the other cliff. It's harder than it looks: with the long zoom lens, the slightest shake is magnified and Ryan, who obviously had to be on the photographer's back, kept moving. Also, it was pretty scary to sit right on the cliff's edge.

This was about as near the edge as we would let Ryan go when we let him down from his carrier. 

View of a rock from Half-way Log Dump. The water looked inviting and it wasn't that cold, but the brownish stuff on the rocks that made them look like fried tofu from the cliff-top? It's also algae that makes the rocks extremely slippery.

Back at the cabin, trying to convince Ryan to eat his pasta while he's engrossed with the TV.

After an early dinner, we rushed to the Georgian Bay Trail, intending to make it to the Grotto for sunset. The Georgian Bay Trail was truly an easy walk; it was a slightly raised bed of compacted white gravel all the way from the parking lot to the Indian Head Cove. We even passed by a couple pushing a stroller. We went up and down along the ridge for a while, trying to find a good place to catch the sunset, eventually walking up another little side-trail to Half-way Rock Point. Unlike Saturday, there were hardly anybody left. By the time the sun actually set, there was only one other couple, somewhere, also enjoying the sunset. So Ryan and I had the entire beach to ourselves while Mike was up on the cliff waiting for his sunset shot. 

View of the Archway from the top.

Another view of the Grotto.

View of the shoreline from Half-way Rock Point, that is looking eastwards.

View of me and Ryan on part of the Escarpment between Indian Head Cove and the Archway, from Half-way Rock Point.

Sunset from Half-way Rock Point. The beach to the left is Indian Head Cove. I brought Ryan down to the cove where he had a lot of fun throwing rocks into the lake.

On the way back we saw lightning in the distance and quickly turned into Singing Sands. Mike managed to capture this and we left before the rain hit us. In fact we made it all the way back to the cabin before the rain reached us so we didn't get wet at all!

On Monday, we thought to go for one last short trail before heading back. It was extremely short -- we walked about 500m from the parking lot before arriving at Little Cove beach. In fact, as we were about to leave, a truck simply drove right up to the beach, opened up the rear door and 'set up' there. But until then, we were the only people on that beach for as far as we could see. It's not off-peak season at the Bruce yet, but it was easy to find solitude, even at the popular spots. 

Little Cove was another stony beach. All the beaches we've seen along the eastern coast comprise of rocks, while Singing Sands, which is on the western coast, is made of up a huge swath of very fine sand.  Ryan had a great time hurling rocks, as usual, and after a while, we decided to get our feet wet. Ryan happily dunked himself and pronounced the water, "cold!" By swimming in the cold lake, we were joking that Ryan just became a little more Canadian.

A quiet moment. The water was pleasantly cool.

If it weren't for the ripples, it would be hard to tell that Ryan's squatting in knee-deep water!

And then it was back to Toronto. We got caught in the rush hour traffic while entering the city; we should have just stayed longer at the beach and waited out the rush hour.

ReNe: bruce peninsula trip (2/3)

The night before we had driven out to the Cyprus Lake parking lot. The problem was that it was nearly full moon, and hence too bright to see many of the stars and the milky way, so we should wait for the moon to set before going star-gazing. Inspired, Mike looked up the moonset time when we got back to the cabin. Unfortunately moonset that morning was 5:01am. So Mike half-heartedly set the alarm for 4+; if the weather and body permits, he might go out.

It turned out that Bruce Peninsula National Park is a 'Dark Sky Preserve' (DSP). A DSP, as defined by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, is an area in which no artificial lighting is visible and active measures are in place to educate and promote the reduction of light pollution to the public and nearby municipalities. I had remembered reading about the Park being a DSP but promptly forgot about it since I figured it would be impossible to go out stargazing with the boy in tow. But then, we thought we might as well make use of the opportunity to stargaze, despite the full moon. 

Whenever we travel these days, we keep saying, "If it weren't for the boy..." In this case, if it weren't for the boy, the two of us would have just headed out at 4am to go stargazing. Unfortunately we didn't want to deal with a cranky baby so I stayed with Ryan while Mike went out to Singing Sands. After he came back, I woke up again, feeling like I've become so boring. Unable to go back to sleep, I pulled on a jacket and drove out by myself. I had a big smile on my face by the time I turned into Singing Sands. 

It was chilly (probably in the teens) but not unbearably so. By the time I got there at past six, 'sunrise' had already started. Sunrise was 7am but by around 6, I think between the astronomical and nautical sunrises, there was a distinct blue-orange glow on the horizon. I could still see the stars but only if I lean back against the car and crane my neck to look straight up. On the other hand, I got to enjoy the early part of sunrise instead. 

When I drove back, unsurprisingly, Mike was anxious to get out to photograph the sunrise. I was as well, so we bundled Ryan into the car seat and drove to the Park's visitor center. I waited in the car while Mike went up the observation tower, but by then the best part of the sunrise was over. Thinking about it, while we've seen many sunsets, this was probably the first sunrise we've caught in years.

A shot Mike had taken at Singing Sands once the moon had set. The greenish-blue glow was not visible to the naked eye and he is quite sure it is the Aurora Borealis.

Later that morning, after a nap, we went for a hike to see the Grotto and Indian Head Cove. The Grotto is a sea cave that is probably the park's most popular attraction, and the Indian Head Cove is a rocky beach nearby. Most people go up by one trail (the Georgian Bay Trail, the Marr Lake Trail or the Horse Lake Trail) and come down by another. We planned to start with the Marr Lake Trail, which is harder, and come back by the Georgian Bay Trail. It's about 3km and we expected to take perhaps 3 hours.

We parked at the Cyprus Lake Head of Trails, and took the Marr Lake Trail first.

At the Boulder Beach at the end of the Marr Lake trail.

I've noticed that people are fond of stacking rocks, first in Japan and now in Canada. This particular shape is characteristic of the Inuit Inuksuk, a stone marker that has been used by the Inuit to help guide the northern Arctic terrain for centuries. It's a well-known and popular shape in Canada; in fact the logo for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver was an Inuksuk.

Along the boulder beach, there was a ledge and someone had stacked two rock 'sentries' at the entrance to the shallow flat section. Waves would rush into this shallow pool. The ledge looked exactly like what those tropical resorts in Bali or Thailand try to emulate with their 'natural' rock pools. However, the difference was that the water here was pretty cold. Ryan still really wanted to go swimming though.

At the end of Boulder Beach, going up the Escarpment towards the Grotto. Notice the fantastic blue of the water and sky. The deep blue part of the water marks the cliff edge of the (Niagara) Escarpment, which also forms the rocky cliff we were on and took this photo from. Notice also that there were quite a few people in the photo. What can't be seen from the photo is that there were many people on this part of the trail. 

After taking our time to walk along the boulder beach and admire the crystal waters of the bay, we clambered up to the Grotto. The sea cave was magnificent but also rather crowded, probably because it was Saturday afternoon. Many of the motels and inns in Tobermory were fully booked over the weekend.

Most of the time while hiking in Canada, we don't see many people, even on the popular trails. There's a running joke that Canadians consider a campsite with more than two other people within viewing distance to be 'crowded' and we're starting to think that's true. Even with the rooms in Tobermory booked out, we hardly saw anyone else once we ventured out to the national park. We do pass by a few other people while hiking, but certainly we had not encountered such a traffic jam before. The Grotto is really the Park's most popular spot, we thought. 

The Grotto. There are two underwater entrances. It's also possible to climb down from the top, as those two are doing. There are another two already in the cave.

It turned out, however, that part of the reason for people milling about was that an accident had occurred at the Indian Head Cove, which is just minutes away. (Past the Grotto is a stone archway, and beside that, the cove.) So rescue workers were on the scene and had closed off the cove, and later the entire Georgian Bay Trail. Hikers were told to head back by the Marr Lake Trail. We were having a drink at the archway when a park ranger came up to tell everyone to clear off. Curious, we stood up and looked over the cliff, where we could see a bright orange rescue boat and rescue workers at a stony beach. 

[We found out from the news the next day that two brothers had drowned at the beach.]

We headed back along towards the Marr Lake Trail, though this time we took the faster route through the forest instead of picking our way along the boulders on the beach. When we found a spot where the forest trail met the beach, we stopped for lunch and allowed Ryan down from the carrier to play. We spent about an hour on that very white, rocky beach and all of us were a little sun-burned after that. 

Ryan got quite proficient at scrambling over the boulders too.

It may looked like he hiked along with us, sturdy shoes and all, but we carried him ALL the way and only let him down to play at the Boulder Beach while we had lunch.

BBQ for dinner. A very summery thing to do in this part of the world. Best of all, no insects, least not till it get dark. As we were on the peninsula, we bought fresh whitefish. Very nice.  

After dinner, we went back to Singing Sands to catch another amazing sunset.

That's me, at the bit of raised sandy bank. The blur is Ryan being his usual kinetic self. 

ReNe: bruce peninsula trip (1/3)

Bruce Peninsula, 8-12 Sept 2011

15 Year Anniversary!

We've done a few road trips but I've been slow in updating. The best way is really to write about it right after the trip. Let the chores of daily life get in the way and let days stretch into weeks, and before you know it the many details that were so easy to remember during the trip elude you.

We drove up to Tobermory last week, from 8 Sept (Thurs) till 12 Sept (Mon). Tobermory is a little town located at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula, a strip of land that lies between the Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. Tobermory is the gateway to two national parks: Bruce Peninsula National Park and Fathom Five National Marine Park. The peninsula also contains part of the geological formation known as the Niagara Escarpment, and Tobermory marks the start of the Bruce Trail, an 885km trail that runs through southwestern Ontario. There's plenty of things to do on the Bruce Peninsula, from diving (Tobermory is the dive capital of Canada, with 22 shipwrecks), fishing, hiking, kayaking, to lighthouse crawling (there are 14 in the region), but what we went for was the hiking and scenery.

With a toddler, I much prefer accommodations with cooking facilities, preferably a kitchenette or at least a microwave and fridge. On this trip, I lucked out; booking a cabin at Peacock Villa with a kitchenette (fridge, microwave, two-burner plate and all the necessary kitchen utensils) and a BBQ outside, for the price a usual motel room! In fact the place also had motel rooms for about the same price or only very slightly cheaper; the catch was that the cabins had a minimum number of nights (ours was four), but that was perfectly fine by us. Our cabin (#10) was very nice, small and cozy and very clean. At $85 a night, it was a great price. I had waited until just after the peak season (which ends 5 Sept) to save money and also to avoid the crowds. The weather was perfect as well; sunny and 'air-conditioning temperatures', i.e. in the low twenties.

The drive up was not too long, about 3-4 hours north from Toronto, and we arrive there in the late afternoon. After a quick walk to the Little Tub Harbour to buy coffee, we headed to the Singing Sands beach to catch the sunset and to let Ryan play in the sand. Singing Sands is part of the Bruce Peninsula National Park and became one of our favourite places to catch the sunset and stars over the next few days because it is just a short drive from Tobermory. Singing Sands is also famous for its variety of plants including wildflowers and orchids, but everytime we went it was near sunset. Not only did we not walk the trail, we did not even see the bay by daylight, only the orangely light of dusk.

Little Tub Harbour, Tobermory

Singing Sands beach. The expense of fine sand (from parking lot to the water's edge) was amazingly long, and the damp sand was so firmly packed that it doesn't get into our clogs as we walked. The lake was very shallow and, if we didn't mind a sandy kid, great for Ryan. 

Amazing sunsets.

The next day (Friday), we decided to go on the glass-bottomed cruise to Flowerpot Island first, since the forecast was for the warmest weather that day. (We remembered from the whale-watch cruise how cold it could get out there on the water.) It was a glass-bottomed boat because before going to the island, the boat would bring us around to see two shipwrecks at the head of Big Tub Harbour. (No pictures of the shipwrecks though, or at least none that would do it justice.) The water was clear enough that we could see the shipwrecks clearly, both through the glass-bottom of the boat and even just through the water. In fact, aerial photos would clearly show the entire ship.

On the boat to Flowerpot Island.

Ryan behaved very well on the boat. At first he was very curious and liked watching the waves...

... but towards the end, lulled by the sound of the engines, he got sleepy. When we walked around to the back of the boat, he actually laid down but by then we were arriving at the island so he didn't get to sleep. 

The two flowerpots that gave the island its name. In the foreground is the 'Large Flowerpot', and the 'Small Flowerpot' is the background.

Just off Flowerpot Island, we transferred to a zodiac (a smaller boat) as the waters around the island were too shallow for the bigger boat. The island is named for the two shoreline rock pillars that are narrow at the bottom and wide at the top.

We left Little Tub harbour at 11:15am and reached the island around 12:30pm. Our pickup was to be at 2:30pm so we had barely two hours. We opted to do the loop trail through the forest first, since it was reputed to be more rugged and difficult. All along the trail we could see old growth cedars, ferns and moss. I had read that there were orchids as well but I suppose it might be too late for them. The trail wasn't that difficult and we arrived at the Lightstation in just half an hour, where we spent too much time. The lighthouse was built on Castle Bluff, the highest point on the island, in 1897. Four years later a keeper's home was built down on the shore. In 1969 the lighthouse was replaced with an automated steel tower, and the remaining buildings have been restored. The Lightstation museum was small but quite charming, offering a glimpse into how life had been like for the keeper and his family.

After that, it was a rush to see the Castle bluff, cave and the flowerpots. 

Map of Flowerpot Island. We went clockwise from Beachy Cove, where we were dropped off, up the Loop trail through the forest to the Lightstation and then down by trail along the shore. 

A pier at the start of the loop trail, just before it turns inland. 

The waters are amazingly clear, clearer than any we've ever seen. Even clearer than Pulau Redang (Malaysia), we think.

Shoreline at the Lightstation.

The water is quite cold, though swimmable. The park's warden claimed swimming in it would add five years to your life. 

We continue to be astonished by the clarity of the water. Just for reference, the yellow rocks are easily five metres underwater. The point where the water turns deep blue marks an underwater cliff, part of the Niagara Escarpment.

Part of the loop trail along the shoreline. Like we said, not difficult. 

The larger flowerpot, formed when the softer limestone below was eroded, leaving behind the harder dolomite top.

We took a breather at the end of the loop trail, just before we finish at Beachy Cove, to allow Ryan to play. (He arranged all those stones by himself.)

The zodiac boat that will transfer us back onto the bigger glass-bottomed boat. 

Sunset at the observation tower. And yes, those were Canadian geese in the distance.

We had some time in the late afternoon after the trip to the island so we dropped by the park's visitor center for a quick show and a walk to the observation tower.

Ryan enjoying TV. Even though we do download some programs for him, we don't have a TV at home, so he loves to watch the different programs when we travel. On this trip, he watched a lot of the Treehouse channel.