Home via Parry Sound after a surprise morning sight

Unexpected sight cruising by our site at 8am

We hadn't been awake very long when we noticed this cruise ship slipping by, on its way to Parry Sound we assumed. We looked up the ship, the Viking Polaris. Here's a link to the ship and cruises: Viking Polaris. 

You'll see from the information it's considered a small cruiser, with "only" 378 guests and 256 crew. This is a newer Adventure cruise ship, and it offers several different tours, including the Great Lakes versions. The link shows tour prices and info. Be prepared for a bit of sticker shock at the prices. C'mon lottery win!

After packing up we headed in to Parry Sound, partly to see if the ship did stop there. Yes it did:

Anchored in the Sound

 

The ship is too large to dock right at the Parry Sound docks, so passengers are ferried back and forth via a couple of tenders, they look like they could double as lifeboats:

Heading over to the main town docks, we were able to see a tender close up:

Because the cruise is International (US and Canada) the dock is controlled access, similar to Charlottetown PEI but on a much smaller scale:

See the Security Guard at the left?  "Hi" security!

Just across from the cruise passenger dock is a company offering local air tours:

We briefly considered taking a flight but didn't try. Flights range from 25 minutes at $142 per person plus tax and tip, to an hour-long flight for $240 pp+. Pricey but appealing.

There are other attractions in the dock area too, like boat tours on the Island Queen which we took and enjoyed a few years ago:

Tour plane taxiing in

Then we cruised homeward on this beautiful fall day, with a few stops along the way. A short but very enjoyable trip.

Six Mile Lake to Killbear Prov Park

Big Chute Marine Railway

After a good sleep at our Six Mile Lake site, we decided to take a side trip on the way out to the highway. Just a few km east is the Big Chute Marina and Marine Railway. We had visited this once, years ago with my parents. 

The railway handles transporting boats, some fairly large. 

<Wiki Note link>

It works on an inclined plane to carry boats in individual cradles over a change of height of about 60 feet (18 m). It is the only marine railway (or canal inclined plane) of its kind in North America still in use, and is overseen by federally operated Parks Canada.

It moves pretty slowly, but is neat to see in operation. Here is a series of stills to give you a flavor:

It's in a beautiful setting

 

Boats waiting for a lift

The large carriage starts down for pickup

The carriage base goes underwater so the boats can drive right on

The trip up

Crossing the road at the top - like a RR crossing

Starting to descend at the high side

The carriage goes underwater here too, allowing the boats to drive off

The traffic goes both ways of course, much busier in the summer than it was today.

After a short stop at a Sobey's in Parry Sound we decided to head for Killbear Provincial Park for the night, another short drive today. We were a little apprehensive, as the web site says "all sites must be reserved" and we hadn't. It also said September bookings drop 50-60% from August peaks, so we figured that surely they'd have a site. As it turned out we had a large selection ($10 cheaper than Six Mile Lake per day), and no grief for not having a reservation. It would be different in the summer though.

We got a very nice site for 2 nights. We've never been to Killbear before. We used the GPS to route us to Killbear, but realized fairly quickly it was taking us off in the wrong direction, on Hwy 124 easterly towards Magnetawan. Correcting from that we headed north and west, arriving about 3pm this time. 

Killbear is a nice wooded park, quite large with several different camping areas, with hundreds of individual sites. Mostly the sites are pretty level and large, with many mature trees, including large oak trees.

Here is the site we had, #64 in the Kilcoursie section:

That's a walking path, not the driveway :))

 

One of the pleasant surprises was that the smaller washroom nearest us (as opposed to the larger central "comfort stations" with showers) was complete with flush toilets and a sink with running water and soap. Much nicer than the usual vault toilets.

You remember I mentioned the large oak trees? This is a picture looking up at the washroom roof, corrugated plastic. When the wind blows just right, any number of acorns can land on that roof with a loud CRACK, a real surprise if you're not expecting it. We had heard and seen acorns landing on nearby campers though, and even on our van (only one on the van so far though):

 

 

A little Fall trip in Ontario

We've been wanting to go for a local trip this month, and with a good-looking forecast decided this was the week. 

After a quick stop in Goderich to pick up a couple of things from the car (parked in the van storage spot), we headed north and east. The GPS took us on some good back roads we hadn't been on before, really pleasant. 

Along the way:

Lots of alpacas, a real variety of colours

The next field over, a bull surveys his realm

 

Stopping for fuel at a station near Severn Bridge, these red and white devices matched the PetroCan colours. They are a large bank of hi-speed Tesla EV chargers. Unfortunately today we were paying for diesel. Ugh $$. That sign was the gas price, diesel quite a bit more.

We decided on an early stop today, so headed in to Six Mile Lake Provincial Park for the night, all set up by 4pm. This is a nice park, although quite close to the 400 Highway traffic noise. Just a dull noise  though, that soon we didn't hear any more.

Fall is nice for early campfires

Six Mile Lake view, a short walk from our site

Cathie took this about 8:30 pm - lots of stars!

A good night, we didn't even hear traffic overnight from inside the van.