Wednesday, August 26, 2015 – McGregor Bay to Muriel Lake – 17.6 km
Our route on day nine took us through McGregor Bay, Baie Fine, The Pool, Artist Lake and Muriel Lake. The weather forecast for today was cloudy with rainy periods. We were prepared, once again, for rain during our travels. However, it held off and we had a nice travelling day! We really needed that! In the morning, we had to choose between two possible routes for the day. Both were potentially very tough!
Option one – paddle up Kirk Creek, against the current, negotiate seven short portages and a few beaver dam lift overs on the creek and then portage “The Pig” to get to Artist Lake. The Pig is the highest portage in the park. We would end by paddling across Artist Lake to the portage to Muriel Lake.
Option Two – paddle out into McGregor Bay, potentially fighting wind and waves, navigate around a bunch of islands to a shorter, less steep portage over the Blue Ridge and then paddle back in Baie Fine (hopefully with the wind at our backs) to another portage to Artist Lake. We would end by paddling across Artist Lake to the portage to Muriel Lake.
We chose the second option. It was the longer one, but it had far less arduous portaging. Georgian Bay looked calm from our camp-site, and there was only a slight west wind blowing. We left our site at about 9 am. It took us about an hour to paddle to the 5 km to the portage to Baie Fine. As we paddled, the wind started to stiffen a little, and the Bay became choppier, so we were glad when we arrived at the 905 metre portage to Baie Fine. The portage was fairly easy. It is located in a valley of the Blue Ridge; the elevation gain is only 17 metres, whereas “The Pig” has an elevation gain of 98 metres. As we did the portage, the wind really picked up on McGregor Bay. We were pleasantly surprised to find Baie Fine significantly calmer than McGregor Bay, It seemed odd, because they are both part of Georgian Bay. We stopped for lunch at one of the camp-sites, where Baie Fine narrows. It was nice to have a break. Baie Fine was gorgeous! It was quite different from being on small, inland lakes. The wide open expanse of the water and the tall cliffs of the Blue Ridge, were both impressive.
The sky was a dark, dull grey most of the day, but we were glad that the rain held off. After days of soaking rain, we were elated to have a cloudy day! We saw a few sail boats and a power boat on Baie Fine, but they kept their distance and posed no problem for us. Shortly after our lunch stop, we got to “The Pool.” That is where the boats had been going. The Pool is a deep, protected area of Georgian Bay, where sail boats and power boats can moor and enjoy calmer waters, compared to the open bay. We saw a couple of them moored, but we headed up a small creek to our 415 metre portage to Artist Lake. Artist Lake is a shallow lilypad filled lake. There are places where the mud reaches above the surface of the water. Charlotte had to be on the lookout for good channels for us to paddle through. We passed a group of people at the end of the portage from Three Narrows Lake – “The Pig” – that we had chosen to paddle around. They were all saying, “Never Again!” I think we made the right choice.
At the end of Artist Lake, we made a small navigational gaffe and portaged on the wrong side of a small waterfall. It ended up going to a small beaver pond, that we had to paddle across to get back to the correct portage. The map lists the portage as 35 metres, but it is really closer to 100 metres. After paddling a couple of hundred metres, in yet another beaver pond, we reached our last portage of the day, a 165 metre level, grassy path to Muriel Lake.
We chose the second of the two camp-sites, on the recommendation of some people we passed on Artist Lake. They were camped on O. S. A. Lake and were out for a day trip. They had eight people in their canoe! The site was steep, but wonderful! The view was great, there was lots of space, and the tent pads were flat.
Charlotte went to bed early, but I stayed up and tried to make the most of our last night in Killarney. I sat by our cozy fire listening to a loon’s call echo off the Killarney Ridge. The clouds parted, and the almost full moon came up and was beautifully reflected on the still surface of the lake. I drank the last drops of Scotch from my bottle.
Adventures, Wanderings and Musings 