Monday, June 4

Sunset Bad River Anchorage

Bad River Anchorage

Fishermen historic "Point at the Barrel" - marking the harbor

Finally, the weather shaped up and we departed for Point du Baril.  This is the last resort area before entering into the "real" Georgian Bay wilderness.  The name comes from the days when fishermen placed a barrel on shore with a lantern on top to guide them into the harbor....... hence the name "Point at the Barrel".  This is an area of lovely, old cottages scattered among the pines and granite.  The granite represented an ever present danger as we wended our way through a series of very narrow passages.
The social center for this area is the historic 1906 Ojibway Hotel on Ojibway Island.  It is reputed that a veiled lady in white haunts the hotel.  Used today as a dining & athletic center it could easily pass for  "The Outing Club of the North".  Since "The Season", all 8 weeks of it, had not yet started, we were able to wonder through the property and buy a couple of items from the Ojibway Store.
We cruised a total of 84 miles, much of it through the rugged remote areas of Georgian Bay, until we reached the entrance to the French River.  Around 1610, somewhere in this vicinity, French explorer Samuel de Champlain emerged to discover the Great Lakes.  The guidebook got our attention with this question, "What mariner can resist a region named Bad River with Devil Door Rapids at its head?"  This we just had to see.
Bad River is the middle outlet of the French River and the anchorage is known for spectacular pink granite walls, great fishing & a path filled with blueberries.  You could spend days exploring the beautiful maze of channels ............ if only we had a motorized dingy.  We made the most of our kayaks - but left a great deal unexplored.  This spot is the Great Outdoors at its BEST!

Ojibway Hotel on Ojibway Island