Crooked Bay (Six Mile Lake)

Friday, July 31, 2009

Highway 400 past Honey Harbor/Port Severn exit. Take Crooked Bay exit #168 and follow Crooked Bay Road about ½ mile east to the marina.

A 90-minute drive from Jane/Steeles.

Now the marina will charge you $10 to put in the canoe – and another $10 to take it out again, so the lass at the counter told us, but there is a public launch ramp just a couple of hundred yards SOUTH of the Marina, so guess what we did?

For those GPSers: 44°55'13.89"N; 79°45'50.95"W.

Here we are ready to launch. Fred is going to park the car. The bobcat loader is scooping gravel and loading it onto a barge (out of sight); we will be glad to escape the noise.

While Fred parks the car, I take a couple of photos. Late in the day we are going to appear around the point in the middle distance towards the north east.

But early in the day we are going to disappear around the point towards the south east.

I can explain everything …

The air is calm; the promise of thunderstorms seems false. The waters are calm, and the sound of the bobcat fades behind us.

I take a look towards the North East Passage. It doesn't help that I've just finished reading Pierre Berton's "Arctic Grail".

Through a narrow defile we see an expanse of open water ahead. We are entering the narrow arm marked to the south of the launch ramp.

Here the bed is shallow, sandy. The woods are inviting. What we took to be a muskrat is taking the woods up on the invitation, but Fred later said HE thought it was a squirrel.

Trees and scrub line the banks.

The calm water provides serene reflections.

Will I be serene if I run out of adjectives before the end of this essay?

Cottages can be seen on the far bank. We dread a flux of power boats, but were plagued by only three on this trip.

Through the gap, we see a calm bay to our right. It turned out we will lunch on the rocks visible ahead; ten minutes into the trip and we have to stop for lunch, like a couple of little schoolboys.

Here's a tip if ever you get lost whilst out canoing:

"Lakes always slope towards the south, because it's all downhill towards Lake Ontario"

Lilies speckle the head of the bay; I think it is trying to be a swamp.

Here is a better view of the rock ledges sloping down to the water. Or up out of the water if you believe that there's room in the glass for a rock this size.

Here's a candid shot of Fred, paddling vigorously with his new oiled paddle.

Lovely water weeds threaten to foul the propellers of power boats. Let's hear it for the water weeds. Yay!

Small clumps of wildflowers maintain their hold on life in little crevices.

So, here we are, beached the canoe, sitting on a rock ledge in the shade of a white pine tree, eating lunch, yakking(1).

Back to work! And to remind us of work, we pass a lovely fixer-upper on the side of the arm.

At the southern end of the arm we reach a beaver dam.

It is a lengthy dam. Here's a shot along the dam to the eastern end of it.

At this point we turned back to retrace our steps north. Or at least, we would have done had we been walking.

The eastern side of the arm was pretty well devoid of cottages. We learned later it is crown land.

There are any number of spots where one could leap out of the canoe and set up camp.

Fred asked me to take some photos of his new paddle in action, so here they are ….

What an impressive wake we leave behind us …

… a reflection of the raw POWER going into each stroke …

… thrusting us forwards through the water …

You are right! Fred's paddle doesn't go in very deep at all, does it?

Hmm! From whence the raw power?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch … we escape the arm and head away from our launch spot, out into Six Mile Lake.

Each time we look we see another vista stretching into the distance. This spot provides us with many avenues to explore. Perfect!

The clouds are building up in the north, and soon will come rushing down towards us.

Clouds to the south of us. Will we get thunder stormed upon?

Here's another spot for lunch (if you are keeping track, this will be our second lunch).

Many cottages are up for sale. This was one of the smallest we saw.

Cozy!

Back to work! The waves are choppy as the wind builds up.

We round another point. Will this lead us home, or will we find we are in a dead-end, and need to paddle back the way we came?

To the left is our launch spot – the free public ramp. To the right is the $20 marina.

$20

FREE!

A good day. We are both agreed.

Ninety minutes from Toronto, half a mile from Highway 400, free launch site, sandy beach, island-studded lake, ... all that was missing was the traditional ice-cream.

(1) Not to be confused with kayaking, which is a lot less intellectual.

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