Visited: September 2016
For the long weekend I went up to Bruce Peninsula with a former friend Lenore for a weekend adventure. Here is a recount of the fun couple days!
My former friend Lenore and I decided to do something for the Labour Day long weekend in Canada in September 2016. After quite a bit of back and forth we decided on a trip up to Bruce Peninsula with an end target of Tobemory the most northern part of the peninsula.
Day 1 - Saturday
Being last minute planners as it were, Lenore and I jumped in the car in the relatively early AM on Saturday to head up to towards Tobermory. Lenore's roommate Lara was going to join but backed out last minute. Lenore and I hadn't made a reservation anywhere to stay but brought a tent just in case we had to find a place to 'camp out' for the night.
First stop after we left was Guelph which is around 90 - 100km outside of Toronto depending on your starting point. Founded (errr... borrowed from the First Nations?) around 1820 by a Scotsman name John Galt, Guelph is a medium-sized city northwest of Toronto, with a well known university and about 130,000 residents. We stopped there primarily to go to the farmer's market where we bought a bunch of fruits and veggies. Unfortunately for Lenore (and I guess me too) there was a spider in the bag of grapes. I don't like spiders but as I found out Lenore doesn't like spiders even more and she freaked out at the thought of it escaping the bag!
Following the market we drove up to the Elora Gorge. You may ask what is the Elora Gorge. Well the answer is that it is a Gorge, in/near Elora on the Grand River. The Gorge is an excellent place to hike and seeing it was September the river was quite low, hence we were able to get back and forth to either side without major incident by hiking along fallen trees.
We hiked for about an hour, and honestly didn't get that far, it was more to see the Gorge and enjoy some warm sun.
Photos: Guelph parking location, Lenore doing a weird pose, Lenore trying to navigate a tree branch.
After Elora we visited a petting farm - one which I believe produces animals products but not animal meat. I am trying to find the name of it so if you are reading this and know the farm, message me please! It is about 15-30 minutes outside of Elora! Basically you can wander around on the property and see the animals - petting them or just generally admiring their fine form!
Photos of fine formed animals!
After another stop for food at a roadside market and then Owen Sound (which is worth a stop to see the sound) at the Bleeding Carrot super tasty restaurant, we ended up in Wiarton, a community of around 2,000 about 20 km northwest of Owen Sound. Wiarton is best known for Wiarton Willie a groundhog who on Groundhog Day (Feb 2) will reliably (or not) tell you with its shadow (how clever) if winter will persist longer or end soon. Specifically, if it sees its shadow due to it being a clear sunny day, it will go back in its hole knowing it will be cold for 6 more weeks. Otherwise if it is a cloudy day and it doesn't see its shadow then winter is almost over and it will arrange a party with its friends asap! This is all from an old Pennsylvanian Dutch superstition or so I've read.
Groundhog Day insiders claim an 80%+ successful predication rate by groundhogs - or maybe this is just Phil noted below. Others have claimed it's more in the range of 35% to 40%. I guess it depends on where you live and what you think the end of winter really feels like.
In the US Punxsutawney Phil has the most famous shadow, although there are other groundhogs throughout the US fulfilling duties faithfully and there are also quite a few in Canada including Ontario's very own (the original OVO) Wiarton Willie - who has a twitter account for his fake news!
While on the topic, let us not forget the amazing movie rendition of Groundhog Day staring none other than Bill Murray - who in my view should get an Oscar simply for being super amusing and a generally awesome actor.
Ok - that's enough of that topic, but summary is we went to Wiarton, saw Willie and then wheeled out on our way further north towards Tobermory still with no place to stay on one of the busiest weekends of the year!
Wiarton photos: Statue of Wille, Willie's pen and the inlet of Wiarton which on a map also looks like a sound, like Owen Sound, I don't know why it's not a sound unless because there are islands at the head of the inlet which make it look like a spooky inlet.
Ahem, so next we drove further northwest towards Tobermory (tucked nicely at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay) making a couple stops to see views, but nothing spectacular. Luckily we found a campsite that had one spot on it left. After we booked the spot we went into town to get some food, dinner and supplies, namely a tin foil crinkly sleeping bag which was partially a life saver as it somehow dropped from 25 degrees to 7 or 8 by the time we got settled for the night and I was freezing not having had proper clothes. Even with jeans and a sweatshirt and crinkly sleeping bag I was still cold. Lenore had her warm sleeping bag which she didn't share.. tsk tsk.
Day 2 - Flowerpot Island, cruise, shipwrecks and a sunset
I woke up early due to the cold, fortunately it warmed up quickly and by 8 or so I was feeling good for a relatively bad sleep! The previous evening we planned well enough to have booked a boat tour with a stop at Flowerpot Island. So we packed up, rushed to the boat departure point, grabbed some coffee and off we went!
First the boat took us almost straight to the island. The island which is about 6.5km from Tobermory is famous for its natural "flowerpot" rock pillars, caves, historic light-station and rare plants. We walked / hiked around the island for a few hours and it was actually really enjoyable - I highly recommend a visit!
Photos of: Lenore looking at a cenotaph, the Tobermory harbor, Lenore and I (yes I do exist), the boat full of tourists like us, and 2 photos of the approach to the island including one of the flowerpots!
On the island there was quite a bit to see. First off you can look at the flowerpots quite close up and even touch some of them if you so dare. There are a few hiking routes, a light-station (a house that used to have control of the lighthouse?), a lighthouse, caves, trees, a lot of no ice cream, flora, fauna, enough to amuse one for a few hours and amused we were.
More photos: Light-station, scarecrow, no ice cream, some posing and more crystal clear cold water!
On the way back from the island we were able to see a couple of shipwrecks in Big Tub Harbor; apparently there are 20+ around the area (seems like a good place for insurance claims ya?).
Shipwreck 1 - City of Grand Rapids - which caught fire and sank in Big Tub Harbor.
Shipwreck 2 - Sweepstakes - a schooner which was damaged and towed to Big Tub Harbor where it sank.
Many people dive to see these shipwrecks which sounds like a lot of fun to me although we didn't do that on this trip.
There are far better photos and videos you can find about these wrecks online, but here is a photo of the Sweepstakes wreck!
We left Tobermory mid afternoon after a bit more food and slowly headed back along the coast of Lake Huron making a couple more stops along the way. We ended up late afternoon in Sauble Beach a summer, spring, fall fun hangout spot.
We had some food and listened to some live music then headed down to the beach to take in the sunset and reflect on a busy, entertaining, random, not well planed but well executed weekend. Certainly a lovely end to the summer of 2016.
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